What is American food?

[Snip 13]

I dont subscribe to this sentiment but as you are all well aware there is a strand within European society that dislikes America.
The patisserie teacher I had in Paris(35 yrs ago was a genius and a very hard taskmaster) there were students from all over the world.
He asked us about the roots of our cuisine.
He then stated that the main building block for each country was its mineral wealth.
UK =coal = ovens= roasting and baking, you gave the world Roast beef.
Ireland=peat= slow open fire=stews and braising, you gave the world Irish stew.
China= wood=fast hot fie cooking= you gave the world the wok and stir fries.
Middle east=dried camel dung=slow cooking= you gave the world the tagine.
America you have everything, oil, wood, coal= you gave the world Mcdonalds

 

[Hoot]

Beats me, but they make the best cigars I've ever smoked.

Let me add my humble 2 cents. From my own personal experience, in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and even in the good ol' USA, there are excellent cigars being produced. Now that is not to say that Cuban cigars aren't good. They most certainly are! They are however extremely expensive and currently illegal for Americans. It may be that sometime down the road, they will be available in this country. Until that day comes, I find that other countries are producing comparable cigars at a very reasonable price. YMMV
With my luck.....the very day that the Cuban embargo is finally lifted, that will be the day that tobacco will be outlawed in this country.

 

[msmofet]

ich bin ein berliner, if you want to be a doughnut.

JFK?

 

[buckytom]

yup. jfk was trying to say that he was from berlin in spirit, but the literal translation actually meant that he was like a pastry from berlin, a berliner. it was understood what he meant, though. he should have just said ich bin berliner.

only an anal german teacher would have really balked at it.

but my point was even doughnuts aren't american. forget about bagels, too.

 

[justplainbill]

yup. jfk was trying to say that he was from berlin in spirit, but the literal translation actually meant that he was like a pastry from berlin, a berliner. it was understood what he meant, though. he should have just said ich bin berliner.

only an anal german teacher would have really balked at it.

but my point was even doughnuts aren't american. forget about bagels, too.

I do not believe Berliner doughnuts (Polish Paczki) have a bagel-like hole in them.
I could be mistaken, but I think the bagel shaped doughnuts are more common in the US than in Europe.

 

[buckytom]

yup, you're right. they're more like a jelly doughnut or a paczki.

you pronounce the polish ones more like punch key, right?

 

[Claire]

I haven't finished reading this line, but USA food is as diverse as the people who live here. Dad was in the Air Force, so American food meant, yes, hot dogs and burgers and fries and a roast on Sunday. But it also meant New England boiled dinner on Thursdays -- and also meant Suki-Yaki, Schnitzel, coq au van, and burritos and ....

Because many of my parents' friends were GI war brides, "American" food simply meant having food anytime you wanted to eat it. Something they didn't grow up with!

 

[justplainbill]

yup, you're right. they're more like a jelly doughnut or a paczki.

you pronounce the polish ones more like punch key, right?

Patchkey?

 

[Timothy]

I do not believe Berliner doughnuts (Polish Paczki) have a bagel-like hole in them.
I could be mistaken, but I think the bagel shaped doughnuts are more common in the US than in Europe.

Having lived in Berlin for 3 years, I can assure you that they have as much variety in the types of pastries in thier bakeries as any place on earth. You name it, it's there. OMG, and it's sooooo good.

Germans LOVE their baked goods! (Me too!)

Most of the "doughnuts" in Berlin were filled with any of a hundred things. "Cake" style pastries are more common than what we Americans think of as doughnuts. More logical to make and easier to prepare. Germans are big on logical thinking.

Btw, if you've never had a Berliner "Currywurst", it's an addictive treat that you'll miss for the remainder of your life. I must have eaten a thousand of them in that 3 years. I have a recipe for them. I'll hunt it down and post it.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Btw, if you've never had a Berliner "Currywurst", it's an addictive treat that you'll miss for the remainder of your life. I must have eaten a thousand of them in that 3 years. I have a recipe for them. I'll hunt it down and post it.

Please do... anything with "curry" and "wurst" in the name sounds too good to pass up!

 

[Timothy]

Please do... anything with "curry" and "wurst" in the name sounds too good to pass up!

I'll find it! I now have over 6 million files on my PC, so only God knows where I put it. I'll find it though! I'll drop you a PM when I've posted it.

The standard is to get a couple curry wurst and kartoffelsalat and pommes frites with mayo.

It took me awhile to get used to having a big glob of mayo on my fries, but it's actually quite good once you get used to it.

German potato salad is to kill for!

 

[Andy M.]

...Btw, if you've never had a Berliner "Currywurst"...

I'm confused. A Berliner seems to be a filled pastry while a currywurst is a sauced sausage.

I assume when you put the two terms together you are saying Berliner meaning a sausage in the Berlin style rather than a filled pastry/sauced sausage combo food of some kind.

 

[Timothy]

I'm confused. A Berliner seems to be a filled pastry while a currywurst is a sauced sausage.

I assume when you put the two terms together you are saying Berliner meaning a sausage in the Berlin style rather than a filled pastry/sauced sausage combo food of some kind.

A "Berliner" is someone who is from Berlin.

"Berliner Pastry" might be a more appropriate name for the desert.

"Berliner Currywurst" or just "Berlin Currywurst" is a well known phrase and will result in many bellies growling if said in public...

I've just posted the recipe:
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f49/berliner-currywurst-74046.html#post1033759

 

[Kathleen]

I would name my place "Vittles." It would be southern country cooking.

Breakfasts would be things like buttermilk pancakes (offered with seasonal fruits,) biscuits and gravy...or maybe fried apples, fresh eggs, seared ham on biscuits, etc.

Lunches would be things like red beans and rice, pimento cheese sandwiches, blts, seasonal soups and salads, beef and gravy on bread with mashed potatoes, etc.

Dinners would be things like chicken and dumplings, meatloaf, roasted turkey, fried catfish, etc.

Desserts would be cakes, pies, seasonal cobblers, puddings, sundaes, etc.

Basically, the menu would change through the week and through the seasons. Somethings would always be on the menu though! Pinto beans with cornbread, for example. Coca-cola products, sweet tea, etc. As for a take out menu, it would offer picnic type of fare, and be slightly different in that one could get an RC and moon pie for dessert.

 

[cara]

"Berliner Pastry" might be a more appropriate name for the desert.

In the Hannover Region they are called "Krapfen"

 

[Timothy]

In the Hannover Region they are called "Krapfen"

People all over the world love "Filled Pastries".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_(pastry)

I know I do! Too much!

I could *live* in any German Bakery. Of course if I did, I wouldn't be able to leave anyway, because they would never fit me out the door again!

 

[lavfiler]

A lot of food could qualify as American, from all the good evidence presented; a whole cornucopia.

Mike

 

[dcSaute]

if you want to serve American food, you'll need to write a cook book / develop a menu based on native American's recipes. native Americans occupied New England to Florida, west thru the Plains to the desert south-west and north from there to the Pacific north-west. may as well move right along into Canada and talk to those native peoples because the native Americans didn't diddle squat about a latitude parallel.

everybody else that is "American” today brought their "food dishes" with them.

this is the issue with a few billion internet questions that start off “I want to make an authentic (fillintheblank)”

dishes originate in an area - and have multiple thousand variations with a single generation.
add a couple hundred generations, a bit of human migration, and it is exceptionally difficult to identify a “dish” that is unique to one area/geography/population/nationality.

and then one has to adjust for the time frame in question. pretty much “everybody” thinks of pizza as Italian. tomatoes come from the new world - so pizza is Italian only if you date forward from the 15th century. limiting the discussion to “written documented recipes” doesn’t work either - there’s this problem with chocolate . . . .

 

[danbuter]

American foods:

Cheeseburgers!
Spaghetti with tomato and meat sauce.
Many take-out chinese dishes.
Jambalaya
Chili

 

[Nood]

Fast&easy snack : If u are board and hungry this is an easy way to do you need tuna , lettuce , mayonnaise , salt , cheese . First put the tuna in blender then add the mayonnaise and the salt and the lettuce cut it for pieces then add blend it for one minute then bring a bread any kind of it put the cheese first and finally ur mixture bring u a pepsi or juice and enjoy ur meal