Often when people categorize foods as “American”, they include foods that have been part of American history since its beginning. Foods such as oatmeal, cornflake cereal, and apple pie are just some foods that fit into such a category. When I think of foods that are “American” I don’t think of foods that were made specifically in America, but foods that make America what it is today. Foods of Early America include bland foods while the food that people recognize as American today is high in saturated fats and salts.
We cannot categorize American foods by restricting ourselves to solely the part of our history from which we became. Without including what our country has become today, we neglect all that has happened to us to have led us to this path. We can own our mashed potatoes, but we must also own up to our crispy potato chips. We can have our PB&Js without having to feel shameful about our McChicken®. We can be proud of both our hot dog carts as well as our relatively new Halal food carts.
As Gabaccia says in his article, “With immigrants, Americans, and ethnic foods regularly crossing over ethnic boundaries by the turn of the twentieth century, the confrontation of values represented by America’s many cultures of eating seemed inevitable.” Over time, there’s no stopping our style of food from getting further diffused. Our tiny portion of the world is a melting pot, a cultural mosaic, and its own ethnic fruit salad. In my eyes, anything that Americans are well known for using can be classified as “American”. Gabaccia even goes as far as to say, “The United States [has] become an independent nation without creating national cuisine that [matches] its sense of cuisine.” This has us questioning whether it is the food we eat that makes us who we are, or whether it is who we are that determines that food that we choose to eat.
If I had to choose one food I’ve seen come across often in my time here, I would have to say ketchup. Sure, it is a commodity more than it is a food – but it is something that comes up time and time again. Sure, it originated from somewhere in South Asia, but it’s grown to become a real household item in America. The commodity has made it to the point where it’s become mainstream to say that ‘Americans put ketchup on everything’. Heinz ketchup is seen in all grocery stores in America and its status as a mass produced and wildly commercialized product give it the modern “American”-vibe. That’s what I think makes something “American” – its ability to appeal to the American audience.
___________________________________________________________________________________
I’ve grown up wondering why the cotton-threaded chillies and limes always invaded the top of every doorway. Whenever I would enter any one of the many bazaars decorated with colorful fruits and vegetables in Jackson Heights, I would reconcile with those hanging pierced objects and could never wrap its significance around my head. The arrangement often consists of a bright green/yellow lime or lemon, followed by several crisp green/yellow chili peppers. When I walked into Raja Sweets to conduct my interview that Saturday, I was met with this exact object. I couldn’t stand not knowing why this weird ornament hung around me throughout my neighborhood all my years.
I was surprised to find out that this little item that followed me everywhere had more significance to it than I had originally expected. In fact, the item had a scientific, religious, aesthetic, and spiritual significance to it.
When asked about the peculiar object, Raj Chandra stared at me and gave me a look that screamed “Are you serious?” It seemed as if he thought that I, a South Asian long-term member of Jackson Heights, should already have known what that object was. When he finally got off his shift, Raj explained to me that the lemon and green chili tied to a cotton thread became a ‘thing’ because it kept away Alakshmi (or Jyestha), the Hindu goddess of poverty and misery. Alakshmi is known to like things that are sour, hot, and pungent. So, shopkeepers tie lemons and 7 green chilies with a cotton string and attach it to the doorways of their shops so to attract Alakshmi. Once Alakshmi gets to eat her favorite food, her hungry is satisfied and she loses her urge to enter the shop and case her evil eye upon it.
In a way, this combination of lemons and chillies were believed to ward off evil both in the store and out in real life. Raj mentioned that he would go off in the roads for adventures in his homeland and how he would always make sure to carry a lemon and a few chillies along with some water. Mixing water with the lemon would refresh him in no way regular water could. The chili was brought along in case of danger on the road – danger such as snakes. If a snake had bit him, he would know whether the bite had been poisonous if eating a chili would make his tongue not ‘burn’.
It’s stories like this that helped Raj and his family make the choice of putting this ornament up and it told me a lot about the city I grew up in a well.
