American Food Identity

American Food Identity 

Emily Madsen | Food & Communication  
Word Count: 1,491

As humans, we begin forming identity with food in early childhood all the way through our adult lives. The foods we are first introduced to makes an impact on our memories as well as our food identity. The food identity that we create for ourselves tells others a lot about us. Food identity is like a map. It changes and varies with culture, family, travel, and memories.  

Food shapes cultures and society, and this leads to the obsession over food each day. Americans especially obsess over the food they eat every day. Is it easy to make? Does it taste good? Can it be delivered? As Americans, we care more about food aesthetics and pleasing others and forget the real meaning of food identity- what it means to us and our culture. After exploring food identity in my communications class, I started to think about the U.S. and how we think of food identity, if we do at all. My question is: why do American's overlook food identity? We need to spend more time focusing on our "map" and how food impacts it.  

In Micheal Zhang's TED Talk on Food Identity he explained that food describes who we are, and where we are from. Zhang said that the best way to understand a culture is to observe the food that the people eat. He is from Shanghai, and is studying as an international student. He shared his typical breakfast, which contained soy-milk, along with fried tofu and rice. In his experience in the United States, he described the American breakfast which commonly has eggs, bacon, pancakes, etc. His experience has an international student has let him personally compare his food identity with the food identity that American's commonly have. 

Living in the United States, we are offered many different dining options each day. We have the opportunity to dine at all kinds of restaurants ranging from fast food to sit down restaurants. We also have the option to cook at our homes, or have food delivered to our homes. With all of these options, we have the ability to consume a meal in minutes. Our food identity is compromised here because we lose the value of what a cooked meal means to us. 

             The United States is often categorized under a title of the melting pot culture. This means that when people immigrate from other countries, the U.S. encourages these people to assimilate to the American culture. The immigrants bring their food traits and mix them in with the American ones. This often brings new cultures and restaurants into areas. The immigrants want to share their culture in their new home, so they open a restaurant featuring their food identities. Then, people who live in American are experiencing another culture of food, sometimes without even knowing it. This is another example of how Americans overlook their own food identity because they again have more choices in food.
The TV show, Bizarre Foods, staring Andrew Zimmern, shows the interpretation of trying new foods. He travels around and tries new foods. Here, he experiences new cultures, and adds them to his food identity. He is willing to try new things, and takes the experience in fully to understand how they affect him. This pop-culture example shows the awareness of food identity in the star, and shows Americans what they are missing without the knowledge of food identity. He is aware of his food identity because he has not overlooked the experiences and things he is offered each day. 

            Our country has "Americanized" almost every type of culture food. We have the option to eat at many different cultured restaurants that are located all throughout the world. We have such a variety of different cultures to eat that we forget what ours is. When you think of American food is it: pizza, pasta, or steak? Digging deep, we find that pizza originates from Italy as well as pasta. Steak originates from many European and Asian countries, as well as the Americas. Classic American food examples are: hamburgers, hot dogs, potato chips, macaroni and cheese, and meat loaf.  Each culture has it's own delicacies. We may be able to name a few of other cultures, but we aren't aware of our own. It is important for us to know our own food identity, and work into our food identity our own country along with others. 

I found a website online that published an article on food identity using popular food from the country to make the country's flag. The food chosen for the United State's flag used hot dogs for the stripes, and spray cheese for the stars, shown on the photo above. Other countries flags, for example the Italian flag contained their popular foods, basil, pasta, and tomatoes. This article not only made me realize that American's are stereotyped for eating unhealthy food, but also convenient food. The convenience of hot dogs and spray cheese doesn't compare to the Italian food. But, do we as Americans identify with hot dogs and spray cheese? We need to broaden our spectrum and see the truth behind this lesson. It is sad to me that the U.S. is being thought of like this in our food identity. 

Americans overlook food cultures. We create names for different countries foods using the name of the country or continent. Going to eat European food is different than going to eat German food, and different than eating Bavarian food. We overlook the origin of the food we are eating and source it under a broad spectrum. People find themselves surprised when they find out the origin of the food they are eating. This is a part of how we lose the detail of the food we eat. Being exposed to too much variety is why as Americans we are losing our own food identity.  

 A good example of over-categorizing a type of food is Asian food. A lot of people tend to consider all Asian food "Chinese food." Chinese food is a type of Asian food. But Asian food is not a type of Chinese food. Personally, I know a lot of people who broadly categorize all types of Asian food as Chinese. My friends in high school would invite me to go to a "Chinese restaurant" with them, only to find when we got there that it was actually a Korean buffet. These two cultures of food are very different. The style of cooking and the tastes are not the same. But, a lot of Chinese restaurants in the United States offer Korean food on their menu without telling the customer. The restaurants add other Asian dishes on their menu, but still claim to be a restaurant serving food from China.  The identity from the restaurant is lost because Americans overlook what it actually is and just categorize them. 

The friends I have in Germany never had experienced Mexican food before coming to visit the U.S. That culture of food was not one that had been brought to a restaurant near their home that they could have visited. They enjoyed trying the new food, and said that American's are lucky because they get to experience so many different foods, where they mostly just eat European food. In addition, they stated that American's are too used to being able to go out and have anything they want, and forget what they have themselves in their own culture. 

I also watched this YouTube video of two men comparing Mexican food in Germany and the U.S. It was interesting to me to see the variance in the food as it was displayed differently in each country. The two countries interrupted the culture food differently. The American Mexican restaurant was "Americanized." To hear their personal opinions on taste, quantity, and cost was interesting. This video shows the difference in the food, and how exciting it is to have a new culture restaurant come into the area to try out. I noticed in the video the identity they made with food, and the American man didn't seem to be that into it. As Americans, the food identity we take from this experience is travel, and trying new cultures of food where we can. 

        Food identity is often overlooked by Americans. We overlook it because we have so many different varieties of foods each day because of the melting pot culture. We can easily go and experience other cultures without even understanding the gratification of them, and what makes the food in the culture special. We also put generic names on cultures food because we look past them and not deep into them. Food identity has changed our way of thinking about food. We have gone from thinking of food for survival to thinking of it as an anthropocentric thing. Food identity explains who we are, where we are from, and what we have experienced.