American Food?

In the aftermath of the Fourth of July and the World Cup… I find myself asking: Why don’t Americans have a good cuisine??

I find it interesting that as Americans, much of our food is based on international cuisine. When I go out to eat, the conversation usually goes something like: “So what kind of food do you feel like?” “Mm, Italian? Mexican? Maybe Thai? …Etc” I hardly get a response from someone saying, “Oh, I really want American food.” (All right, Disclaimer here: I’m not talking Fast Food here…) And of course we have “American food”—Hello, Bar and Grill! But it is more unusual for it to come up as a nice dinner option.

I don’t mean to sound like I am Anti-American here. I’ll be honest, I am the first to complain when the food in America is not authentic to the country of origin and I just want the “real” stuff. On the other hand, I find it to be exactly what our nation’s about –the American melting pot. The country takes in countless of people and cultures, then melds them all together to create something that is not the original, but something unique and special.

International food in the States exemplifies our melted culture. The food here that we get, while it may not be that authentic dish you had in that tiny village. (but let’s be honest, you’re not going to find that anywhere except that little village) it holds the roots and the essence of that food but it has become something different—which is not to say it is bad by any means.

Walking along my street in Washington DC, I pass by countless Mexican-Salvadorian restaurants. My first thought was “oh come on… those cuisines are nothing alike, and really, isn’t it just typical American to assume that just because the two countries are both Latin American it means they are the same?” And you know, mixing those two cuisines, it is “typical American” but not necessarily with the negative connotation. Rather, it is what America is about, we take in cultures and melt them together, creating something that is unique and furthermore, it is unlikely to occur anywhere else in the world.

So, maybe we don’t necessarily have our own cuisine. Instead, we have everyone else’s cuisine and we have made it our own. And I suppose from there, we can all form our own opinions as to whether we think this to be positive or negative.


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