MY 1000th POST! As well as the thread for favourite type of food (ie. nationality)

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
That's not American cuisine - that's fast food crap.

Sooo....uh...what exactly would be considered American food then?

[Ornelírë Mistë]

Japanese and Indian cuisine are my favorites. I love eel sushi and spicy food. I should try Lebanese food, I've never had it.
I do not like sandwiches.

[jerseydevil]

I can't stand fried fish- it needs to be broiled. Steak and swordfish on the grill is good. though Steamed or boiled lobster is the best.

To me - breading and frying fish is just a way of destroying it - not to mention taking a healthy food and making it completely unhealthy. I love flounder broiled with just a bit of margarine and paprika. Then I make a white clam sauce (chopped clams, basil, oregano, A LOT of garlic, olivie oil) and either have linguini or rice as a side dish.

We used to get our fish right from the docks as the boats were unloading in Pt Pleasant. It's good to live on the ocean. You can't get much fresher than that.

[Salquënòrëwen]

Ew....fish. I stay away from ALL fish, whether it's in the lake, or on my plate....

I was just kidding about that American food thing, although fast food, I think, is all American.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Fish IS a lot better when it isn't fried beyond recognition. However, once in a while it's nice to have something disgustingly greasy...

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Eruviel Greenleaf
Sooo....uh...what exactly would be considered American food then?

Turkey is American, grilling and barbequing is American (fat drips out - so it's much healthier than boiling a piece of meat and having it sit in it's own fat). A lot of seafood is American - incuding boiled lobster. Blueberries originated in New Jersey as well as Cranburies (we used to go into the Pine Barrens and pick them wild)- so a lot of thing made with those are American. In New Jersey we have Blue Tipped Crabs which are very good (it takes work to eat them though).

The problem with defining American Cuisine is that we are a land of immigrants - our cuisine has been influenced from all over the world. Also - we have regional foods. In California you have new age foods (feta cheese is very popular on everything there - not to mention Wraps). Then you have the Tex-Mex States, the southern states with their cuisine, New Orleans has their own cuisine. The nothern Atlantic states have an abundance of seafood.

Everyone thinks American food is just McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken - which it is not.

Without the western hemisphere - a lot of what we think of Italian - wouldn't exist. The Tomato is from Peru and Equador - before that Italy didn't have any tomato based foods. It would be interesting to find out whether it was Italian immigrants who invented a lot of the tomato based foods in north America and then carried them back to Italy.

[Arien the Maia]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Without the western hemisphere - a lot of what we think of Italian - wouldn't exist. The Tomato is from Peru and Equador - before that Italy didn't have any tomato based foods. It would be interesting to find out whether it was Italian immigrants who invented a lot of the tomato based foods in north America and then carried them back to Italy.

I did not know that! I guess you learn something new everyday....and here's my one new thing!

[Coney]

Without the western hemisphere - a lot of what we think of Italian - wouldn't exist. The Tomato is from Peru and Equador - before that Italy didn't have any tomato based foods. It would be interesting to find out whether it was Italian immigrants who invented a lot of the tomato based foods in north America and then carried them back to Italy.

Indeed! The Pizza was invented by two Italian brothers living in New York!

And what about the American snacks......Popcorn (healthy if not drowned in butter and/or salt........pretzels (dunno if they are healthy or not, taste good tho') Chips (crisps) ........candy floss etc.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Thanks, JD My comment about American food was based on the fact that a lot of the cuisine is at least based on that of other countries.

Well, if blueberries are American, than that's my favorite

Oh, and the potato was also from the Americas...

I always thought it was really strange whenever tv shows and movies and such had tomatoes and stuff when whatever it was took place in Europe, pre-Columbus...

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Salquënòrëwen
Ew....fish. I stay away from ALL fish, whether it's in the lake, or on my plate....

I can't stand fresh water fish. Needs to be salt water. I've never likeed bass or anything like that. I don't like fishy fish I like mild tasting fish - like flounder and shark. They don't have a fishy taste. I also like clams (steamed or raw), oysters - only raw, squid, etc.

I was just kidding about that American food thing, although fast food, I think, is all American.

Well I wouldn't call fast food as being a cuisine. Fast food restaurants originated in America, but it's not a cuisine. Deep fried foods are popular in America - but as has been pointed out on the Iraq threads - French Fries were a Belgium food.

You can make a good hamburger on a grill and it'll taste a thousand times better than McDonalds or Burger King (which are just not so cheap places to go to eat). You can even make gourmet hamburgers - if you cook them yourself on the grill.

It costs about $5 for a person to eat at Burger King - I can make Linguini and Red Clam Sauce which will last me three days for that amount. Preparation time for spaghetti, baked ziti or Luingini with Red Clam sauce is 5 minutes (and no I don't use Ragu or jarred sauce). My uncle used to grow his own tomatoes, jar them and make his own sauce completely from scratch.

[Bombadillo]

Congratulations FF!

The best food is chili, then all else Mexican.
Then Polish food is the second best, if you don't mind severe stomach and intestinal problems the day after eating it.
And then, peaches.

I can't stand any type of seafood though, which is kind of odd because I live in NJ and I like to fish and crab.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Eruviel Greenleaf
Thanks, JD My comment about American food was based on the fact that a lot of the cuisine is at least based on that of other countries.

I'm just always surprised how many people only think that American food is McDonalds and Burger King - when it's not.

I had bought this book for a friend in Italy (she didn't think Americans even ate fish)..Saveur Cooks Authentic American A lot of the book is Americanised immigrant recipes. But it has the history of a lot of the foods and ingredients. They talk about how lobsters were so abundant they were used as fertiliser during colonial times and were considered a poor man's food until 1900.

Here are some other books...
Cajun Cuisine: Authentic Cajun Recipes from Louisiana's Bayou Country
Born to Grill: An American Celebration
Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie : Three Generations of Recipes and Stories from Summers on the Coast of Maine
The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Clam Shacks, Lobster Pounds & Chowder Houses
The Cuisine of California
The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Grilling

Those books should give people a sampling of TRUE American cuisine.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Lobster...anything with blueberries in it...I think I'm moving to Maine

To be more specific than American, I like New England food. It would be strange, I think to lump all "American" cuisine into one group, as there's so much diversity.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Eruviel Greenleaf
Lobster...anything with blueberries in it...I think I'm moving to Maine

New Jersey has both - and blueberries originated here

To be more specific than American, I like New England food. It would be strange, I think to lump all "American" cuisine into one group, as there's so much diversity.

I agree - when I usually refer to American Cuisine - I split it up into regions.

This is a snippet of a conversation I had with my friend in Italy...

Germana -
I can tell what comes to my mind when someone asks "what is American Food?". Just like a sort of freudian association... (don't hate me) McDonalds, Homer Simpsons'barbeques and Donald Duck's pancakes. And permanently filled up ketchup bottles. My idea of "American" was built up by putting together info coming from Walt Disney and Happy Days, and most recently The Fresh Prince, The Simpsons, E.R. and Friends.

Me -
I think the only thing that Europeans know (or anyone around the world for that matter) is from experiences of McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chickens that seem to open up all over the place. The midwest is far more into fast food than any place I've been in the US..... It's really hard to pin point what is American Food - because there is such a regional make up to the cuisine. If you go down south you can get Aligator, if you go to New Orleans - then it's Gumbo, if you go to California they use a lot of Feta Cheese and are more into salads, go to Texas and it's barbeques and beef and pork, up here a lot of seafood - especially when you go more northern into New England area (Connecticut to Maine

Germana -
Now that's something I couldn't imagine: Americans eating lots of fish. Don't know why, but I've always figured you guys eating meat, vegetables and everything but fish. You know, to eat some real good seafood in Italy you need go to a city like Brindisi or Pisa, close to the sea, and there you can have fresh fish. In cities like Milano you can get fresh fish too, but they're not as good as we are in cooking it and you pay for it at least three times what you pay here. That's why I can't imagine people eating seafood in all New Jersey or California or wherever...almost every US state is even bigger than Italy!

Me -
When I lived in Bricktown (on the shore) we used to go to the docks and get the fish from the markets there. The type of fish I like is flounder and stuff like that. When I lived with my parents - we used to have shark and swordfish - even in Indiana (about 900 miles from the coast of NJ). I love calamari - just as long as it's cooked right. There is a really good seafood place in Cape May that I go to when I take people down there. It's right on the docks - so they get their fish right from the boats.

Are most European's views of American cuisine simialar to Germana's. What do people outside the US consider as American food?

[Lady of Rohan]

I like all the crappy greasy fat food that is disgustingly bad for you (surprised I'm not fat yet..... I suppose its just lurking round the corner But my parents don't let me eat that kind of food very often ). I also like Candian chinese food (not the REAL Chinesse food).

[Sminty_Smeagol]

Im not experienced with food of other nationalities... although I like Mexican food and some chinese is cooliosis.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
New Jersey has both - and blueberries originated here

Better yet, I'll move to Cape Cod. Lobster, blueberries, the ocean for lots of SAILING! And simply Not New Jersey

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Eruviel Greenleaf
Better yet, I'll move to Cape Cod. Lobster, blueberries, the ocean for lots of SAILING! And simply Not New Jersey

That's fine - we have more of that than Massachusettes though. We have a longer shore line - plus we have the barrier islands - so we have a lot of bays. Cape Cod is nothing compared to Cape May.

[Cirdan]

Originally posted by Eruviel Greenleaf
Sooo....uh...what exactly would be considered American food then?

Too much of everything

[Lizra]

Super size, with cheese on it!