Fun fact: orange chicken was invented by Hawaiian Chinese guys who ran the Panda Express in Honolulu. They wanted to create a dish that reflected the sort of flavors that were popular at Chinese restaurants in Hawai’i. So it’s not an “American” concoction. It’s rooted in the culture of Chinese in Hawai’i, who were invited to live and work in Hawai’i back in the kingdom days.
2 North American 4 you has been created
Submitted 2 weeks ago by FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works to newcommunities@lemmy.world
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/d1f34d55-cc7f-4235-9769-f685c2913cf5.jpeg
Comments
FrChazzz@lemmus.org 2 weeks ago
GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Now do Chop Suey.
Absolute_Axoltl@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Wake up Grab a brush and put a little makeup
hector@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Pizza was invented in the US. By an italian immigrant, but it still counts.
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Is Hawaii not in the U.S.? Or was it not in the U.S. at the time?
FrChazzz@lemmus.org 2 weeks ago
Hawai’i is not located on the North American continent, so it doesn’t count as “American.” I often describe Hawai’i to people as “it might be the United States, but it isn’t America.” The Chinese and Japanese cultural influence here is quite strong (particularly on O’ahu, where I live) and has deeply established ties. Chinese were invited here by King Kamehameha I to harvest sandalwood. Japanese came at the invitation of King Kalakaua, who actually went to Japan and met with the Emperor Meiji to try and establish economic connections to temper the over-influence of American and European influences during his reign. So when one talks about, say, the cuisine of Hawai’i, one is dealing with a fairly unique culture–one that was later annexed into the United States. So, yes, Hawai’i had long been a state by the time Panda Express operated here (which was started in California by Chinese Americans), but the culinary influence that resulted in orange chicken was rooted in something that goes back a long way. If that makes sense.
Zephorah@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
Fusion, mostly. Latino coworker from Texas told me Burritos are neither Mexican nor American, but a beautiful Texas border food fusion. Anecdotal, but the guys son is a professional chef.
Greddan@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
All food is some kind of fusion. Humans have been cooking for hundreds of thousands of years, and very few communities have been truly isolated in human history. People going on about “true” this, and “authentic” that, just don’t know shit about cooking or culture.
naught101@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Migration and transplanting of cultures has massively increased in the last 100 years though… Shit changed a lot slower in the past.
klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 2 weeks ago
This. Personal favorite example: Tomatoes didn’t appear in Italian food less than a century before modern English started forming. They’re an American vegetable.
anomnom@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Cali has amazing not quite Mexican food too.
marine_mustang@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yeah, I mean when you have a European power colonize a native area, then the locals take over for a while before the noisy neighbor to the north re-colonizes it, then rebuilds on the labor of people that were already there (Surprise! You’re Americans now!), there’s going to be some back-and-forth culinary Frankensteining going on. For example; the California burrito.
malle_yeno@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
In this thread: Europeans being casually xenophobic about dishes immigrants bring to the Americas, thus proving this new community’s point.
Anyway while I’m on my European slander streak, let me tell you a story: One time i was staying in a hostel in Montreal and there was a French guy (like, a l’hexagon French, not Quebecois) there. He unironically said to me “A single tomato from France tastes better than this shit you call poutine.” That quote lives rent free in my head.
Also you wanna know why he was in Montreal? Cuz he couldn’t get a job in France. peak comedy
ChogChog@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Ahh, the humble French tomato… which originated from the Americas…
hector@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Italians have the world convinced they invented the tomato. People will get violently disagreeable absolutely convinced the Tomato originated with Italians.
okmko@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh damn, I did not know that tomato was a new world food, and from South America too (as opposed to Central and North).
The original cultivation of so many fruits and vegetables before the Columbia Exchange and then modern industrial agriculture is always really interesting.
The one that sticks in my head are kiwis - the modern kiwi is were cultivated from a plant from China, which is somehow a source of a lot of variants that we eat today.
vinceman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
The stereotypical smoking French person wouldn’t exist either.
p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Europeans being casually xenophobic about immigrants in The Americas and the dishes they bring from home, thus proving this new community’s point.
No shit. Orange chicken was invented by a Chinese-American chef in Hawaii. Chicken alfredo was invented in the US by combining the Italian dish fettuccine al burro with cream and chicken. And breakfast tacos were an adaptation of a Mexican dish tacos de guisados, except Texans used eggs, instead of yesterday’s stewed leftovers. (Also, I’m not sure the OP and community admin even gets the point.)
American is not just a single culture, it’s a melting pot of a bunch of different cultures. Same goes for Canada, just with a different mix of dominant cultures. American food is a reflection of that, sometimes remixing the idea so much that it turns into something else. Cajun food wouldn’t exist without a mixture of French and American influences.
America may be constantly battling racism and xenophobia internally, but we recognize it for what it is: a shit behavior that should should be excised. European and Eastern cultures like Japan are so casually racist and xenophobic that they don’t even recognize it in themselves.
The Axis powers came to be out of a combination of elements, but xenophobia was the biggest one. Germany got their shit together in the end, after brutal period of being forcefully separated themselves, and a period of self-reflection. Italy and Japan? Yeah, not so much.
So, to the OP: I hope your new community isn’t yet another outlet to be racist.
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
America may be constantly battling racism and xenophobia internally, but we recognize it for what it is: a shit behavior that should should be excised. European and Eastern cultures like Japan are so casually racist and xenophobic that they don’t even recognize it in themselves.
The best way I’ve heard it described is that Americans consider racism something you do, while the rest of the world tends to view it as something you are.
To an American, if someone is a racist, it’s because they do racist things. So Americans are actually fairly good at recognizing and excising casual racism, because they recognize it as a behavior they can change. But this also means Americans are fairly quick to judge individual actions as racist, because they see it as something that should be improved upon in the future. To an American, a racist is racist because they have recognized their own racist behaviors and don’t see them as a problem.
Meanwhile, Europeans and Asians tend to think of racism as something you are. And that’s a big difference, because it makes them much less adept at identifying the more casual forms of racism. Because even if they’re casually racist, they’ll simply tell themselves “well I’m not a racist, therefore my actions weren’t racist.” Since that binary “is/is not a racist” flag hasn’t flipped in their brain, they’re able to tell themselves that their individual actions aren’t racist.
It’s like Europeans need to be at least 51% racist in order to be considered racist, so anything below that amount is excusable. Individual people will obviously have different thresholds for when that Boolean bit gets flipped from “not racist” to “racist”, but it still needs to hit that personal threshold before they’ll start calling out racism.
But that causes interesting culture shocks whenever Americans interact with Europeans or Asians. Europeans are quick to jump on the “all Americans are racist” bandwagon, and the American will tend to nod along and agree because they recognize that everyone has the potential to be racist. Then the American will see the Europeans do/say some of vile racist shit, and start to call it out. But then the European gets defensive and adamantly states that they’re not a racist, because they take the “hey that was pretty fucked up and racist, don’tcha think” as a personal “you are a racist” attack, instead of a “that individual action was racist, and you should examine why you did it” behavioral check.
And the American will be confused on why the European immediately jumped all the way to “why are you calling me a racist?” Because in their experience, the only people who immediately jump to that are the full blown reich-wing racists who don’t see their own racist actions as a problem. Labeling someone as a racist is a big deal for an American, because it means the person has refused to examine their own racist behaviors, or has done so and sees no problem with the racism. To an American, labeling someone a racist is basically the nuclear “I’ve exhausted all other possibilities, and can only conclude that they’re doing it on purpose” option.
So Americans will often walk away from the interactions thinking “holy fuck those Europeans were really fucking racist” simply because the Europeans refused to acknowledge that their own individual actions had the potential to be racist. Meanwhile, the Europeans will think that Americans are really fucking racist because Americans are quick to call it out amongst themselves.
hector@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Recognizing foods from other cultures is a very new phenomena, for us families, and in europe. Tacos were unheard of in a 1950 white household. In the uk the bbc did a joke piece showing Italians harvesting pasta off the pasta tree and most people that saw it believed it.
QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
POUTINE!!! THAT SHIT IS GASSSS!!!
Some people shouldn’t have opinions.
NostraDavid@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
“Poutine” makes it sound so fancy, even though it’s just Loaded Fries.
NostraDavid@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Cuz he couldn’t get a job in France. peak comedy
Must have been replaced by all the doctors and engineers that have been imported into France.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Hamburgers, meatloaf, gumbo, and all sorts of southern food is American.
neo2478@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Literary all of those dishes have origins outside of the US lol
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So does all human society, this is a stupid argument.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
You’re literally wrong. A hamburger as a sandwich is a US creation. So is gumbo. Literally do a 2 minute search about it before “thinking” you know what you’re talking about. Lol
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Dude, Hamburgers are literally named after the non-US city they originally came from…
But I have to admit that the refinement to its delicious present day form is an American achievement!Cort@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s a Hamburg steak. Not a hamburger, since there’s no bun
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Na, buddy. You’re wrong. The Hamburg thing is just about a mashed up piece of meat. Not the hamburger. Putting the meat in the bun to make a sandwich is 100% US like 125 years ago.
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
The original hamburger was more like a meatloaf. It was a hamburg steak, meant to be eaten with a fork and knife just like a modern meatloaf. The modern hamburger is 100% an American invention, because America was the place that first turned it into a sandwich.
Fredselfish@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Hamburger were invited in Athens Texas. Just go ask that city they advertise that it was a man from that town at the World Fair in the 1930’s.
GladiusB@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have to think of a lot of fish dishes too. Since we only have them here. I don’t think Walleye is from anywhere else. Maybe I’m wrong.
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Walleye isn’t a preparation, it’s an animal.
eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Alfredo pasta was invented in Italy.
The US invented its own dish and gave it the same name.
America has distinctive quick breads like southern biscuits and flapjacks, many desserts were invented by the Pennsylvania dutch (like doughnuts and approximately a billion cakes and pies), several excellent kinds of whiskey, a galaxy of unique bbqs, Cajun food, distinctive east and west coast deli styles, a distinctive style of fried chicken, chocolate chip cookies, deep dish pizza, french dip sandwiches…
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The one I love is German Chocolate Cake. Invented in either Pennsylvania, or New York, the prole’s last name was German.
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Especially funny as Pecans are a very American thing, they don’t even grow in Europe.
So probably a significant part of the US population thinks because of this cake that Germans bake Pecan based stuff, while most Germans (me included) haven’t seen a Pecan nut in their whole life. :-)
FireRetardant@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Same with the argument of “we need to deport them to preserve our culture”. America has always been mix up of cultures and has a vastly different culture from state to state and city to city. New york wouldn’t have been the world renowned city it is if it didn’t have its diversity.
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t think people really realize how much food has changed in the past few centuries. I was talking with this Pakistani dude and he was telling me about this traditional dish. Like half the ingredients were from the Columbian exchange.
The amount and variety of spices we have is just crazy in a historical context. For most humans for most of human history, meals consisted of grains in a pot, whatever veggies you could scrounge up (which looked very little like they do today), and a little meat if you were lucky.
GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Same with Italian food. Tomatoes were only introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
Leonardo da Vinci lived his whole life never knowing what a tomato was.
riccardo@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Same thing in Italy. We act like our traditional dishes are something we’ve been eating for centuries while almost all of them became a thing after WWII, during the economic boom, when a lot of people became able to afford a larger variety of ingredients, the cold chain became efficient, and we started to import recipes and food from foreign countries, and anyway the original and popular version of some classics was completely different from what we eat today and consider traditional. It is still true that many dishes are peculiar of our traditional cousine, but the way we act about it is just depressing. Pasta itself might be historically considered more of an us Italian america thing than an Italian thing
Dasus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well at least our Finnish national dish is still traditional. Take cubed beef and pork. Put them in water. Add salt. Put on heat for a sufficient amount of time.
That’s it.
Fancy modern versions have peppers and whatnot but traditionally it’s just salt.
Fmstrat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Partner (UK) and I (US) talk about this a lot. I felt this way, but she pointed out to me that the US is astonishingly good at taking dishes from other countries and putting a spin on them, such as changes in texture or combinations. Once I started to pay attention I agreed.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We fry it, add fat, carbs, and/or add sugar.
Done.
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
It’s also about fusing different cuisines together, to make something new. America is the big melting pot, and that means you end up getting flavor palettes that otherwise wouldn’t have been brought together.
Traditional Mexican food isn’t anywhere near as spicy or as cheesy as Tex-mex, for instance. That’s because Texans took the traditional Mexican cuisine, combined it with American peppers and English+North American aged orange cheeses, and created Tex-mex. Tex-mex also tends to rely on flour instead of corn, because Mexico had red/yellow/white maize (and later, modern yellow corn) while American settlers had wheat.
And then California Mexican food is an entirely different third type of food.
Hell, my favorite local pizza joint sells a chicken tikka masala pizza that is fucking wonderful. We have a really big North Indian population in my area, so lots of the local restaurants have veggie options (India is largely vegetarian) and/or Indian spice blends incorporated into some of their menu items.
Fmstrat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Only two of those four are unhealthy.
But also, I know a fellow southerner when I see one.
thorhop@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Isn’t chicken Parmesan technically a New York dish?
zen@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
TIL the chicken parmie is from NY
thorhop@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Do you throw some shrimp on the parmie?
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help myself.
VibeSurgeon@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Mexico has breakfast tacos at home, they’re called Tacos de Canasta
apftwb@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
American food is whatever I eat in America 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Xanthrax@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
My favorite will always be wartime foods. Shit on a shingle and spam on rice ar fucking amazing.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
What about post wartime foods? After WWII in Japan there was a hotel that had a ton of surplus ketchup, so one chef decided that putting it on pasta wouldn’t be a crime against humanity. Despite the fact that he was wrong, it still persists as a popular dish to this day.
Machinist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s unholy and should be cleansed with fire and chanting.
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Peasant food, because peasants knew how to feed a family with cheap hearty ingredients, which keep you full. Whenever you imagine a cozy “I’m ready for a nap after eating” meal, it is almost always peasant food that you’re imagining.
okmko@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Seriously. I love Korean army stew.
some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Beans on toast is prime 🤌 Toast with butter and marmite. Glug of Worcestershire. Grate some parmesan. Cracked pepper.
It especially hits on a cold snowy day
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I hope this is just american whining about cultural appropriation again. Food evolved based on which culture cook it and that country’s flavour, and chance is, some of your favorite food that you think is originated from one place is actually a fusion of another food. As a chinese that isn’t originated from china(and not from the west), the chinese food i loved the most is actually just fusion made using local ingredients for local tastebud, not because some people decided to ruin someone else culture.
lobut@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I recommend watching this video from Jennifer Lee: youtu.be/U6MhV5Rn63M
It talks about the history of Chinese food in America it’s great. Echoes some of the flavours you’ve experienced with some fun context.
angband@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What about pumkin pie?
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Native American: I am a joke to you?
Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Italia is missing out on Chicago Style Pan Pizza and Italian Beef sandwiches. Thank you Italian immigrants for adapting and creating the delicious food.
ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Chicago Style Pan Pizza
That’s a casserole.
Italian Beef sandwiches
That’s a sandwich with beef in a panini.
Please don’t misuse European countries names as adjectives, that’s offensive.
Nangijala@feddit.dk 2 weeks ago
American food is corn syrup.
Tattorack@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
*Temu versions of our food.
Just like their knock-off version of rugby.
_stranger_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Um, people eat tacos for breakfast all over Mexico.
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Mmm, acorn bread and beaver cheese.
urandom@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You guys milk beavers?
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Meanwhile the fr*nch sold our pörkölt as “goulash”, which comes from gulyásleves instead, but it’s a stew, not a soup. At least this didn’t cause issues here, until some morons thought it would be a good idea to copy the English kitchen, so they started to make “minimalist” interpretations of our food, to make it “tastier” and more “high class”. Results: boullions are not replaced with soup but with tap water (please, at least use boullions for any goulash dderivative!), cumin and celery being left out, and the end result is just cheap meat flavored with paprika and salt. “But at least Gordon Ramsey would be proud of me!”
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I mean if an immigrant gets US Citizenship, whatever food they make from then on is technically, by definition “American Food”.
I mean like you can’t be calling food made by while people “American food” then if a non-white person makes it is not “American”??? Be consistent lmao.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Isn’t that just all the news communities, even global news?
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
When you bring "your"food across our borders, it becomes “our” food
TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
RBWells@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I just had what I think is such an American fry up for breakfast:
Tater tots, soft scrambled eggs, refried beans, sliced avocado and onion, sharp cheddar, and chipotle salsa.
Cuban sandwich is American - the bread is Cuban (I asked several people from Cuba) and while we have made some foods worse (fast food Chinese) some are better too - there is great Italian American food, certainly, and fusion stuff that is amazing. And fried chicken can be so good. I think we are aquisitive as fuck, both the language (we will take your word and make it part of English) and with foods. For better and worse.
otter@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Looks great!
If you end up pinning any related communities in the sidebar, there is also !ehbuddyhoser@sh.itjust.works
Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I’m sure someone has tried it, but it would be interesting if a Chinese American whose family has been running a Chinese restaurant in the US for a century opened up a location in Hong Kong.
I wonder if the locals would snub it, or find it kitchy and charming.
Darkness343@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
God damn, finally one of those 2 something for you channels on lemmy! They were funny
verdi@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 2 weeks ago
1The problem with usanian interpretations is, for the most part, they bastardise the dish. It’s not more intricate or nutricious, they just add more sugar or fat. Case in point, deep dish…
Also, hamburgers are german, not usanian.
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Last panel gets it wrong, though.
Rest of the world totally thinks that there is such a thing as original American food:
Namely high-caloric, hyper-processed junk containing no nutrients but much too much fat, fructose sirup and carcinogenic substances.
That, and watery beer.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 2 weeks ago
There is also the American national dish of cereal (frequently meaning lumps of coloured sugar mixed with lumps of different-coloured sugar).
chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I dont eant to hear anybody shit on our cereal while this abomination is still a thing:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagelslag
Dudes be eating sprinkles for breakfast and shit on our cereal? Gtfo.
hector@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Cereal was made by old man kellog to feed to his insane asylum inmates at his battle creek, mi sanitorium, as a low protein food that would lessen the masturbation of the inmates.
He put mittens on some they could not get off so they did not whack it at night.
bluesheep@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
But only if the colors are so vibrant you’d start to believe that you’d been drugged
klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 2 weeks ago
AFAIK, jambalaya, and gumbo are both USAmerican foods.
There’s also whatever the fuck the Midwest is doing, but but we don’t talk about them.
mossy_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
also barbecue and grilling culture is huge out here. not always fond of the US but damn I love a good cookout
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
l don’t dispute that (and also that they are probably great - had neither so far, as they are largely unknown here).
It’s just that nobody outside of the States thinks of these when they hear “US food”.
Schmoo@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Also burgoo and hot brown, not only uniquely American but uniquely Kentuckian. Each state and territory has their own signature dishes like any other country.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
The watery beer thing hasn’t been true in 30 years, and generally US beats the entire world for beer these days. Asian beer sucks in general, and Europe can usually only do a couple different styles well.
hraegsvelmir@ani.social 2 weeks ago
It seems like it’s just become almost a figure of speech without any meaning these days. The amount of Irish guys I know who will talk about American beer being piss that will then clock out for the day and post up in the pub to suck down Coors Light all night is unreal.
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Comment was not about what is, but what the rest of the world thinks it to be.
And that is not fancy West Coast craft beer or so, but Bud Light and Coors, I am afraid…
NostraDavid@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I had bread that tasted like a cake, and the Pop-Tarts made my teeth jump out of my mouth due to the amount of sugar they were able to concentrate in it. Can’t recommend.
Both 100% American.
The people were very nice though, so that was something.