The American Way of Eating - Essay Example

The American way of eating Cuisine is an integral part of the s culture. As Mintz mentions, “Food is much more than a mere means of subsistence. It is filled with cultural, psychological, emotional, and even religious significance. It defines shared identities and embodies religious and group traditions” (Mintz).The United States of America is multinational country, thus it is understandable why American cuisine is not original and is composed of the culinary traditions of other countries, the citizens of which moved to the USA. English, Indian, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Slavic cuisines formed American international cookery. The restaurants of this or that national cuisine can be met in America on every street corner. Fast-food restaurants and slot machines became favorite catering services for Americans with their fast tempo of life (Keller Brown & Mussel 45). It is essential to mention that in different regions of this big country the peculiarities of cookery can be different. It depends both on the climate of this or that region and on the influence of the ethnic group dominating in the region. Thus, North-East of the country tends to the culinary traditions of Great Britain and some other countries of Western Europe, while Southern states are influenced by the African and Mediterranean cuisine (chicken in fat, beef schnitzel, cornmeal pastry, crabs dishes). Southwestern and western states are famous for their Mexican culinary traditions: fajitas, tacos, burritos, chili con carne and other spicy dishes. The dishes of Middle West were strongly influenced by Italian cuisine. Food preferences in America serve as some distinctive feature. “Food also has assumed a heightened political significance. The decision to adopt a vegetarian diet or to eat only natural foods has become a conscious way to express resistance to corporate foods. At the same time, the decision to eat particular foods has become a conscious way to assert ones ethnic identity” (Mintz). The discovery of America provided the opportunity for different cuisines to mix and share the recipes, thus it is a very interesting moment in the history of food. Till XIX century, English traditions dominated in American cuisine. Meat was included in almost all the dishes and adult men consumed much alcohol. The main changes came from Germany and caused the popularity of such alcoholic beverage as beer and such dished as marinated meat, wursts and sour flavors. Industrialization also brought many changes. At the beginning of XX century food became the subject of controversy as American tried to Americanize immigrant by changing their food preferences. The second half of the XX century brought new waves of immigrants, who brought their own cuisine to the United States. Now we state that American cuisine is composed of many different cuisines (Sherrie 54). The main products used by Americans are meat (usually beef), sea products (very seldom fish) and poultry (chicken, turkey). As garnish they use vegetables, first of all legumes, maize, asparagus, cauliflower, potatoes, sometimes rice. Cereals and macaroni are used very seldom. First dishes are usually light broth or potage, but they are used seldom. Bread is also not popular (Coe, 24). The characteristic feature of national cuisine is the use of culinary traditions of native inhabitants. It is reflected in the popularity of dishes with haricot, pumpkin, famous maple syrup, nuts, sweet potato. Food (both meat and vegetables) is usually rather tasteless, but it is served with many kinds of condiment, which are added to food to smb.’s taste. They are garlic powder, nutmeg, origanum, cinnamon, ginger, peanut oil, etc. Americans like salads very much. Very often they consume leaves of green lettuce with different sauces. In the restaurants salad is usually included in payment for the main dish. Fast-food is a famous and very important element of American people nutrition. It includes popular burgers, sandwiches, fried potatoes etc. proposed by such companies as McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC. It is essential that fast food is the reason why many European countries do not want America to influence their cuisine, because such food is considered to be unhealthy. For breakfast Americans usually have oatmeal or rice porridge, roasted eggs, corn flakes, muesli or rolls. For lunch they use salads and any kinds of sandwiches. Supper is the most solid and plentiful meal. Here we can see the dishes, which Americans call national. It is roasted or baked chicken, roasted beef, stuffed turkey, pig rips. Meat loafs, baked beans, apple-pies, blini with syrup. There is no American who can imagine a good meal without stakes and roasted beef. However, it is essential to mention that in American menu there is always a great choice of dishes for vegetarians. In American kitchen there are many deserts. It is different fruit with caramel and whipped cream, muffins, cookies with chocolate, different kinds of doughnuts, cheesecakes, puddings. Banana bread, pumpkin cakes are also very popular. Americans consume a great variety of beverages. Juices made of different fruits and vegetables are very popular as well as milk cocktails. They usually drink cold tea with ice without sugar, but with lemon or milk. Carbonated water is very popular, first of all it is Coca-cola, which became international beverage (Watson, 13). Almost all Americans drink coffee very often, though it differs much from European coffee and can’t be called a real coffee. Speaking about alcohol beverages, there are many perfect vines and kinds of whiskey produced in the country as well as tasty beer (Budweiser, Miller, Philadelphia’s Yuengling, Purple Haze, Fat Tire, etc.) and rum. Alcoholic cocktails are very popular. The majority of alcoholic beverages are consumed with ice, so it is always present on the table. American cuisine and the formation of food preferences of Americans depend on two important factors: American way of life and many waves of migration. Thus, American people usually consume fast-food and their national cuisine includes European, Asian, African and Mexican dishes, thus it really can’t be called original. However, if to look at other countries, it is possible to see that globalization also change their cuisine a lot, thus unoriginal cuisine is natural for our modern world. Works Cited Keller Brown, Linda and Mussel,Kay, eds., Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States: The Performance of Group Identity, Univ Tennessee Press, 1984; Sherrie A. Inness,ed., Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, the University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000; Coe,Andrew, Chop Suey: A Cutural History of Chinese Food in the United States,  Oxford University Press, USA, 2009; Watson,James L., Golden Arches East. Stanford University Press, 1997 Food in America By Steven Mintz. digitalhistory.uh.edu. Web May 14, 2014 Read More