What Gabbacia defines as American food is very different to my definition of American food. Granted, we are both defining American food in different time periods and it’s safe to say that American food has changed in this time. Gabbacia defines American food as nutritional food native to America and not food of the immigrants. For example, spicy foods and coffee were food that immigrants ate a lot so they were considered to be unhealthy and not American food, but food prepared or found regionally were considered American (such as baked beans, cod fish, and brown bread). My definition of American food, on the other hand, is food that belongs to a different culture, but is not something that culture would eat regularly.
When I went away on vacation, all the food places (whether it was a fast food place or a restaurant) all served the same food. Most of the fast food places there even had the same exact menu. After eating the same food for the entirety of the vacation, I missed the variety of American food. Even though when we go to eat we say, “Let’s get Chinese food” or, “Let’s go grab some Spanish food food from Chipotle” these foods are not actually Chinese food or Spanish food but American food. The reason is because although these foods incorporate a foreign culture (Chinese food and Spanish food), it is not the food you would eat if you went away to China or Latin America or Spain, and so it is defined as American food. Another example of this is pizza. The pizza that we ate in the school cafeteria every Friday growing up is very different from the pizza you would eat in Italy. Being able to have a variety and eat whatever kind of food you want is something we take for granted and in my opinion a key component of American food. In summary, my definition of American food would be food that incorporates elements of another culture but does not mimic it entirely.
