it's amazing how cuisines evolve and solidify into what defines a country or region. Like dishes themselves, there's this vast array of ingredients that go into making up a particular way of cooking. It could be outside forces or internal ones, ones from immigrants mixed with the indigenous recipes. All in all it, this is what defines a country and its' food.
The best example of this is American cuisine. Our most famous foods are taken from different countries. The phrase as "American as apple pie" is really a misnomer. Apple pie came over with the English settlers in the 1600s. A better phrase would be "as American as popcorn" or "as American as squash" because corn and squash have grown here for millenniums. The country's favorite meal - burger and fries is originally German and French. Hamburger comes from the name of a German port city Hamburg where chopped meat patties had always been served and French fries come from the French julienned way of cooking potatoes. Along the way we've also made Naples pizza our own as well as China's egg rolls and fortune cookies. The USA really doesn't have a cuisine strictly its own, It's a melting pot , just like it's people.
The US isn't the only country who had been influenced by outside forces. Italy's pasta came from Marco Polo's trips to Asia. He supposedly was the one who introduced the long noodles into Italian cuisine although there had been forms of pasta since pre-Roman times. Tomatoes from the New World also played a definitive part in shaping the Republic's cuisine as did corn. The cuisines of England and Holland were given a shot in the arms thanks to the influx of spices from the East Indies. Curries soon made their way onto tables in London and Amsterdam. What may come as the biggest surprise of all to foodies is French cuisine. It comes from Northern Italy when Catherine de Medici married into the French noble house. She brought her favorite dishes which were quickly adopted by French chefs.
It's amazing how cuisine is influenced by all sorts of forces. it could be as simple as immigrants introducing their beloved foods of their homelands to a a trader showing off his spoils from another land. Yet this is what makes all the worlds cuisines as great as they are.
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I can not agree with you more. As a chef and lecturer preparing a lecture on the spice route of western europe it is clear that nothing is new under the sun. America is a prime example. The US has managed to take flavours and techniques from all over the world and make it their own. One thing though... as American as Popcorn? the Ethiopians have been serving popcorn with their ancient and traditional coffee ceremony for ever... and we all know the best coffee comes from Ethiopia.. just ask Starbucks.
I applaude the US in creating a culinary diaspora unique and interesting in its own right, regardless of the origin of the dish.
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