Sigh... dumb thread
>>48
Okay, just because a food uses an ingredient of American Origin doesn't necesarily make it an american food. For example: yes, nabchae kimchi uses a lot of red pepper, but kimchi is a korean invention and is predominately korean food, kimchi eaters are in the definate minority in America, so why call kimchi american if it is not really a food of american Identity ?
Really there is NO purely American Food, America is a country of immigrants and interacting cultures. "Our" food is not invented rather, it evolves, culturally, kind of like any Sushi that has Cheese or Avacado, quite unique to America, but definateley not a purely american invention.
Now you may say "what about apple pie ?" or "what about [fill in the blank food that is commonly considered american without an obvious history ] ?" Chances are that it evolved in some way from british food. You think Apple Pie is American ? HA ! Apple Pie has been eaten in England for hundreds of years, it was brought over to America by the early British colonist.
To add insult to injury to your desire to find a national Identity in your food, what ever your national Identity may be, there is no such thing as [fill in the blank name of a country] Food!! All recipies are the result of cultural evolultion, there is no such thing as a revolutionary food invention, recipies are formed from years of modification by people all over the world all of the time, even in the most stereotypically Traditional countries of the world. In japan for example, meat (but not fish ) was illegal from the early 1600s to about 1867, and even then meat (though not fish) based recipies were very rare in japan, Now adays you will see the japanes eating Pork Ramen, Curries, Tonkatsu, potato croquets, and all sorts of foods foreign in Orign. And this kind of thing is happening all over the world all the time.