NEWS: Food Coma: What The Fuck Is Ethnic Food?

CULTURE: Food Coma: What The Fuck Is Ethnic Food?

The idea of ethnic food has always been confusing to me. Isn’t all food ethnic food? Or is no food ethnic food? My answer: shut up and eat.

One could argue, and by one I mean me, that all food is just that, food. One man’s fried chicken and collard greens are another man’s live baby squid in broth, both seemingly exotic and normal to the respective cultures at the same time. So what the hell? What is ethnic? I understand the definition of the word and I understand the cultural histories of food and why people eat what they eat, and where that food comes, from but I don’t understand why the dominant culture of a country gets to label all other foods different from their own as ethnic. I call bullshit. I’m pulling the racial card. Get Al Sharpton on the phone! Revolt!! Viva La Revolucion!!!

When you think of good’ol American down-home cookin’ what do you think of? Hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, and apple pie probably come to mind, yes? Let’s take a closer look at these American (and by American I mean white) foods.

The hamburger comes from Hamburg, Germany where it was a form of pounded beef that eventually made its way to the states during the massive immigration from Europe in the late 1800’s. It took on the form that we all know and love as a piece of meat between two pieces of bread on our shores but without the original from Germany, no golden arches.

The hot dog, a.k.a. Frankfurter or Wiener, is far older than the hamburger, and it’s not from America. Squanto wasn’t eating a Dodger Dog ™ when he met the Pilgrims. The hot dog dates back hundreds of years to those never met an animal they wouldn’t eat Germans who named the sausage after their city of Frankfurt where they say it originated. The Austrians lay claim to the hot dog as well having named it after Wien, which is the German name for Vienna. You know what else the Austrians gave us? Hitler. They try to lay claim to everything.

Fried chicken. Yes, even southern fried chicken (which most Americans consider to be an ethnic food already) is from somewhere else. Whether it came from the West Africans that were brought here as slaves or the Scottish (who fry everything) that settled in the south, it wasn’t here before them.

And lastly the mother of all American dishes, apple pie is of course, not American at all. The English and Dutch have been baking these delicious fuckers for hundreds of years, and the French and Germans had their own versions as well (tarte tatin and strudel).

So my friends, what is ethnic food? Everything you knew as non-ethnic is ethnic. Here’s my closing argument. Feel free to use this in court.

Unless you live on the Pocahontas diet of buffalo, fish, maize, fruit etc, everything you eat is ethnic food. It’s OK, don’t worry, it’s safe. There’s nothing to fear. Differences are to be celebrated! You can come down from your ivory tower or out of your trailer and try something new. Get a little crazy and eat some Ethiopian food with your fingers, or really go nuts and have some sashimi. Indian food is really good too, and throw away your ‘I don’t know why I hate them I just do prejudice’ of the French and eat like the kings of old.

Shut up and eat.

Cheers,

Scott

P.S. Something else I have to include here, even though it’s a bit of a tangent, is a pet-peeve of mine regarding ethnic food. I hate it when I hear people say that they would never feed their babies ethnic cuisines. “I wouldn’t feed my baby Chinese/Japanese/Indian/Italian food, ewww.” What do Chinese babies eat, etc, etc…? I can only hope Chinese moms say they would never feed their babies a hamburger. Oh wait that’s German.

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Scott Ian is Suicide Girls’ monthly Food Coma columnist. Click HERE for more of his musing on sustenance and libations. He plays guitar for revolutionary metal band Anthrax and also for Pearl.

Not being american maybe I haven't got the chance to ponder from this angle the whole ethnic food concept, but from my travelling experience I can see it having a meaning for the USA as much as it has, for example in Italy or Germany. Yes we all know that the United States have been formed by european colonies and most of the cultural heritage comes from there too but it is also true that all these influences have become interlocked through the decades becoming something entirely different. That includes food since, despite the ingredients come from specific european traditions, the recipes are born out of experimentation and the use of local resources unknown to the european contintent. Like the mentioned Hot Dog, sure the sausage is of german origin, but the whole concept is purely american and you won't find the classic New York Hot Dog in any german classic recipe book, you won't even get close to it. So I guess the term Ethnic Food for the US can be applied to all those cuisines of foreign origin that have appeared much later and therefor haven't been assimilated in the north american culinary culture, and that can include for example asian food. That's just my impression about the term, but I agree with your shut up and eat statement. In the end it's all food and if it's good for you, fuck tags!

Shut your pie hole you pinko commie.

Next you'll be telling me Jesus wasn't an American.

Don't forget the North American cold water lobster !

This is a country founded by immigrants. Everything is "ethnic."

that was coherent. and i couldnt agree more.

i think you have nailed down those people in the United States particularly, who expect everyone to conform to an "Anglo-normative" and demand Anglo-conformity.

Awsome. This is full of win!!!

Once again, I fucking LOVE these articles, and concur completely.

Shut up and eat! Food is good, and good food is even better.

I'm pretty sure "ethnic food" is anything you wouldn't find on a North Eastern WASP family's dinner table. So pretty much whatever you like except white bread and slsiced turkey.

What the fuck are Twinkies then?

shiro wot is not only one of my favorite foods... it also happens to be ethiopian, fun to eat and just plain delicious. and yet when i have made it for people they have just out right refused to eat it.

so what you're saying is that were i do go to McDonald's or Burger King, what i'd actually be ordering is Mongolian ass meat sandwich?

ok, yeah, i can see that.

As far as I can tell, ethnic food = anything you didn't grow up eating.

Which pretty much allows for, well, anything.

Blah I cant stomach french food. But all else has my stamp of agreement. I really hate the term "ethnic."

Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide actually uses his oft-repeated quote that "All food is ethnic food" as the blog's tagline.

It's an excellent guide to DC-area cuisine.

All I know, is I'm currently cooking up some Kilbasa. *sighs* Not the way my Mom makes it, sadly, but Kilbasa all the same. Anywhere else in the country, that would be considered 'ethnic' too; back home, its just what we eat a lot of

Would that be the #4 combo?

would you like to SuperSize that ?

I like to eat American food served by ethnic people.

Like that time I had a hamburger in Canada.

That is what I was thinking. We are the hodgepodge bastard children of the world.

I dont' think you can make the argument that hot dogs, hamburgers, fried chicken, and apple pie are not American food.

Even though they came from somewhere else, American culture absorbed them and made them our own. In their "native" countries they exist in a form nothing like they do in America. They remain the same only in name.

I don't see any problem with calling food "ethnic." Yes, "ethnic" means different than the prevailing culture of the country you're in. We have lots of different cultures in America, but by and large it's still a country of WASP and the decedents of former slaves.

There is an "american culture," for better or for worse.

i got yer ethnic food right here :





Viva Italia !!!!

collard greens, muh dude. With hamhocks or bacon in it, to taste


YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM lol