Christopher Columbus was seeking a short-cut to the Indies.  One of the reasons was because the spices of the Indies were greatly valued.  Although Columbus landed in the New World by mistake, he did find a world of new foods.  Some of the new foods given to the world by the American Indians were corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash, chocolate, peanuts, avacodos, sweet and white potatoes, and pineapples.  The Native-Americans also taught the colonists how to catch and cook lobsters and wild turkeys.  The colonists, on the other hand, brought different seeds, cattle, and hogs to this New World.

When we think about American food, we normally break it down into regions since our land is so vast.  We have Southern food, New England food, Tex-Mex, food from our heartland, Alaskan foods, Amish and Mennonite cooking, California cuisine, Hawaiian cooking, Midwestern cooking, Native American cooking, Pacific-Northwest cooking, Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, Southwestern cooking, and a combination of all.  However, when we eat in America, we are not limited to our own native cuisine, as people in other countries are.  For example, in Italy, Italian food is the norm.  The same is basically true in Germany, France, Poland, Spain, the Caribbean, and just about every other country on earth.  However, since America is a melting pot, with people coming from around the world to settle here, we are really lucky to have a wide variety of international cuisines throughout our land.  This is called ethnic cuisine.

Diets differ around the world for geographic, economic, and religious reasons.  However, when people emigrate to other countries, these immigrants take their food as well as social customs and traditions with them.  They then try to keep those native dishes and traditions in their new land. Centuries old recipes are adapted in their new environment using ingredients found here.  Quite often when immigrants arrive in their new country, they settle among other recent immigrants and try to create a society and atmosphere similar to that in their homeland.  They do this so they will be among friends with similar backgrounds, language and customs.  They support and help each other to adapt to their new land. 

Let's explore two of the most popular ethnic cuisines in America.

Italian-American Cuisine

According to the journal Food Technology, which is published by the Institute of Food Technologists, Italian food is the most popular ethnic food in the United States, but Mexican food is gaining rapidly with a 10 percent increase of adults naming it their favorite.

During the late 1800's and early 1900's many poorer Italians relocated to America because of their homeland's starving economy and the dreams and promises of a better life. They brought their religion, customs, traditions, and foods with them. The flavors of Italy can be found all over America, but especially in Italian-American neighborhoods where you can experience the Italian language and culture, as well as the food. There are many "Little Italys" across the nation. The majority of Italian immigrants settled on the east coast.

Boston, Massachusetts: The North End
This section has numerous Italian-American restaurants and trattorias, cafe bars, shops and a wide selection of Italian food shops

New York, NY: Little Italy
Mulberry and Mott Streets make up the heart of this Italian section, known as "Little Italy," which is located right next to New York's Chinatown.  Southern Italians, particularly Neapolitans, Calabrians and Sicilians settled in this area which is full of cafes and espresso bars, restaurants and small specialty food stores. In these small shops you will find shop owners hanging their freshly-made mozzarella, rolling out their country loaves of bread, stuffing their sausages and rolling out home-made dough to make many shaped pastas.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: South Philly
People recognize this Italian section from the movie Rocky.  It has lots of Italian restaurants, trattorias and food stores, cafes and espresso bars. The heart of this area is the Ninth Street Italian Market where you can buy anything Italian -- including fresh produce, home-made and imported cheeses, and Italian chestnuts roasing on an open fire.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:  Bloomfield
It began as a mixture of many regions of Italy, but is now composed of Abruzze people. Typical Abruzze products and foods are sold. The area offers several Italian restaurants, cafes and a few Italian food shops.

St. Louis, Missouri: The Hill
This area has been said to resemble Rome, Italy. Many trattorias, food stores and restaurants almost make you feel as if you are in Italy.

San Francisco, California: North Beach
It is in the north section of town.  This Italian area is made up of 150,000 northern and southern Italians.  This area offers a huge variety of food shops, restaurants, trattorias. This Italian-American area borders San Francisco's Chinatown.

Italian-American cooking is mostly based on the foods of southern Italy, especially Sicily, Calabria, and Compania.   These regions are the homeland of early 20th-century Italian immigrants who came to our land of opportunity. Many Italian-American dishes that were developed, differ from the dishes served in Italy.  In Italy, meat was used in certain dishes, but since fish was more easily found on the West Coast and in New England, many dishes were created with that ingredient.    Another difference between Italian food and Italian-American food is the structure of the meal.  In Italy it is “appetizer-first course-second course.”  Italian-American's entire meal is what Italians would consider to be the first course only, since their meals are larger.

Many people think pizza is strictly an American creation, but it is not.  Pizza originated in Naples, Italy. However, the popular combination of spaghetti and meatballs, is a dish that orginated in America, not in Italy.

What makes ethnic foods in America different form those in the native land, it the availability of ingredients.  We see that in almost all ethnic cuisines. Many of the Chinese-American dishes and Italian-American dishes do not resemble the orginal.  

Chinese-American Cuisine

In 1849 large numbers of Chinese immigrants came to the United States after gold was discovered in California.  By 1882 the US government began putting a limit on Asian immigration because of pressure from native-born Americans who feared the immigrants would take their jobs away from them.  It was not until 1965 that all restrictions on Asian immigration were lifted.

Many Chinese settled in San Francisco and even today San Francisco's Chinatown is the largest outside of China.  Although Asian-Americans are second only to Hispanic-Americans as the fastest growing minority group in America, they still only make up less than 4% of America's population.  Chinese-Americans are  the largest Asian group in America with more than 2 million people of the total Asian-American population of 10 million.  For such small numbers, Chinese-Americans have influenced many areas of American culture.

Asian food was introduced in America in the mid-19th century when the Chinese immigrants from Canton settled in California at first for the Gold Rush, and then as workers for the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.  However, it was only eaten by the Chinese community, and then in some California homes where the Chinese were hired as cooks in middle-class families. It was not until the 1920's that cosmopolitan Americans began eating this "exotic" food. The early Chinese restaurants were willing right from the beginning to change their ingredients to suit American tastes.  They even had two menus - one for those born in China and another for Native Americans. They thought Americans would not want to eat duck feet and bird's nest soup.  Chinese cooks quickly learned how to adjust their dishes to please the American taste, and soon their restaurants began to be known as Chinese-American restaurants, not just Chinese.

In the area of food, Chinese food is one of the most popular foods among Americans.  Chow mein and other Chinese foods are familiar to most Americans. Chow mein literally means fried noodles and food historians say this dish did come to America with the first Chinese immigrants.  Chow mein consists of steamed vegetables topped with chicken, beef, or seafood and served with fried noodles. This is an authentic Chinese dish (chao mian), but in China the noodles are soft and fresh and then pan-fried, not like the crispy, and some people say greasy noodles, served in America with Chow mein.  Chow mein caught on in America not only because it is tasty, but because it is inexpensive. Vegetables with very little meat or seafood are used to make it. Chop Suey, on the other hand, may or may not be authentically Chinese. There are opposite opinions about whether or not it is authentic.  According to Food of China by E. N. Anderson, which was published by Yale University in 1988, a Cantonese dish called tsap seui which means "miscellaneous scraps" is made up of left-over vegetables stir-fried together with noodles sometimes added.

"Going for Chinese" became a very common American expression and when Americans began moving to the suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese restaurants followed – especially in suburban shopping malls.  Even more important to the success of the Chinese-American restaurants is the willingness to serve food at any hour and pack it up quickly to deliver at prices no other ethnic group could match.

Egg rolls date back to ancient China and the Chinese immigrants ate them in the mid-19th century.  The general population in America, however, probably never heard of them until about 50 years ago.

Dim sum is another Chinese favorite. In Chinese, dim sum means "bite-size morsels that will bring delight to the heart." 

The Chinese fortune cookie with its predicitions have become a part of American life.  The history of the fortune cookie began with the moon cake that the Chinese used to bake and exchange on special occasions.  In the 13th and 14th centuries the Mongols occupied China.  When the Chinese planned an uprising against them, they wanted to let everyone know the date and plans of the uprising, but didn't know how to spread the word. They came up with the idea of hiding the plans in the Moon Cakes.  When the Chinese came to America in 1849 and began working on building the railroad, they worked very long hours for very little pay and didn't have too many pleasures.  They didn't have Moon Cakes to exchange.  They only had biscuits, so they put happy messages inside their biscuits to exchange.  The fortune cookie was born! It is a strictly American invention.  Fortune cookies did not exist in China until America tourists began asking for them and restaurants in China began serving them.  Up until 1964, fortune cookies were made by hand, but now they are made by an automated process because the demand is so high.  All Americans love the idea of eating a cookie and looking into the future at the same time.

Even though Americans eat out now more than ever, many Americans have developed an interest in food and cooking (even if only to read about it or watch food shows on TV).  Many "gourmet" cooks have woks in their kitchen.  Some even have special stoves to accommodate its shape.  However, woks are inventions of necessity because in the past not much fuel existed and foods had to be cooked quickly. The curve of the wok permits maximum cooking surface with little fuel necessary. This partially explains why foods which are to be cooked in a wok are chopped into small, thin slices. They cook faster this way. The wok is also a versatile kitchen tool since it can be used to boil, sautee, stir-fry (such as lo mein), deep-fry (such as egg rolls), and steam (such as dumplings). According to the food historians, woks have been around for about two thousand years.

Americans really must love Chinese food.  There are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King combined!

While 75 percent of American adults eat dinner at home, only 33 percent are preparing it themselves. The majority are eating restaurant take-out, most of the time Chinese or Italian.

Even though the food industry has tried to make everything the same, the multiethnic diet of Americans is another way of seeing the individual character of Americans.  Americans like to be unique. We may be a nation of e pluribus unum (one out of many), but we still keep certain important things from our native land. This contributes to the enrichment of this great land.  The popularity of ethnic foods is a Social Studies lesson in everyday life:  We all have something to contribute; we can all make our nation better, and most importantly, people from various religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds can not only get along, but can actually thrive together!