Evolution of Food in America
|
Growing up, extended family was never a big deal in my household. Sure, I along with my three sibling knew our grandmother, would sometimes see and aunt or uncle, and a cousin would slip in a few times, but the idea of an extended family was foreign. Even with an Irish ancestry we would never engulf ourselves in cultural Irish foods. Our family would simply eat a meal that everyone would enjoy, and throw out a meal, from our family dinner night planner, if the taste was not satisfactory to a single person. Due to this behavior food was disconnected from any cultural background what-so-ever; and became an item of personal preference over any kind of metaphoric or cultural relevance. Not untill I grew a bit older did I realize that people ate food that they connected cultural significance to. When staying at a friend’s house for dinner one night, the realization that the food on the table was not the typical pizza, pasta, or tacos that were commonly found on my table. Instead a dish called, "blood sausage" took their place. After my initial shock of such a name, or even the concept of making blood sausage, disappeared my friends Mom explained the origin and its connection to their family. This realization seemed some how weird, but made sense. After all, I knew people held ancestral ties with more reverence than my family did. It was after this experience that I began to see food as something more than an energy source. My next experience with my understanding of food came with no singular event. As I got to the age where I could meet up with friends and go eat, more importantly eat at anyplace and anything that we wanted to, the idea that food was a connection to culture faded. We never ate at a place because it severed food that one or more of us connected with on a cultural or ancestral level. We never ate at a place that caused us to think about our beginnings. We ate food that we enjoyed, whether expensive or cheap, it only depended on what our taste buds told us. Tastiness, that was the only judge, and the only judge we ever needed. In looking back at these experiences, both the singular event of eating blood sausage and the accumulative events of eating with friends, I realized that food has evolved in America. Not in a way of how we present or make the food, but in why we eat the food. America is a melting point of many cultures from all over the world, and is shown in its diversity of food. At first, I would grant it, that food in America was a connection to one's past. Whether that past is in Ireland, or Spain, or France, but now those lands are of places that ancestors came from, where great grandfathers have came out of, but seems to have less connection to the modern individual. Cultures are being blended, slowly losing thier distinctive touch over the years. Traditional Spanish food gets taken apart and added to more traditional Texan food creating texmex. Family dinner tables are about building relationships with in the family, and in some cases close friends, but no longer to remember about a land that they came from. In today’s world, third generation or later immigrants seem to see themselves more as Americans and less of being French, Spanish,or European. This cultural experience is the key mutation in the evolution of food in America, the Shift of cultural identity, from that of the Grandfather's culture to that of their own. Food is now used as an expression of one's self. Given, that expression could be the individual’s connection to their ancestor lands. However, I see that the food reminds the individual more of their father, who might have cooked the food to remind him of his father, who might have cooked the food to remind him of his, who actually came from the distant land. In this scenario, it is the connection to the father or grandfather that the food represents when the individual prepares the meal, Not the homeland. Food can show a relationship to ones shyness (not trying new food). Food can show a relationship to one's exploration (when someone tries new food). Food can show relationships, characteristics, and insights of a person well before you meet them. At the same time miss reading food can give you a falsehood about a person. After all some people eat just for taste. In my experience, food does show a lot about a person, but I only really notice after I begin to know the person after awhile. |