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The Evolution of Ethnic Foods in America

Abhayvir Singh

Reflection 1 of 5

“Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literature”

Authors: Fred L. Gardaphé and Wenying Xu

Gardaphé and Xu introduce a not unlikely, but commonly unnoticed marker of the immigrant experience: food. Past literary works that mention immigrant cuisines are analyzed in order to form a connection between food and assimilation. Literary works going as far back as 1897 and going up to the 1940s reveal that immigrant food was considered not only un-American but “filthy” and “not elegant” (6). The roots of these unsavory comments lie in the concept of nativism, which then leads to “demands for assimilation and inculcation of ethnic inferiority” (6).

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Culture Through Food

Stefan Nikolic

Reflection 1

Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures by: Fred L. Gardaphé and Wenying Xu

The article “Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures” by authors Fred L. Gardaphé and Wenying Xu speaks of the relationship between food, and people’s expression of their culture. This is evident when they state, “In the United States, relationships between food and ethnicity bear historical, social, cultural, economic, political, and psychological significance” (5). The authors provide a variety of sub-claims and support them with evidence from other scholastic articles. The authors offer various credible sources from different writers and time periods to help back up their main claim.

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Story of American Food Culture

Sam Gosda

Response 1 of 5: Introduction: Food in Multi-ethnic Literatures

Food is arguably the biggest center of culture, society, and community. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner in America have always been times to gather and connect with those around you.  Author of “Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures”,  Wenying Zu, argues that meals are also a way to connect to one’s ethnic past. She supports this thought with many references to other authors and their works. Together they form a picture of the American immigrant experience through food from being forced to assimilate to even the meals of America to pushing back to keep the foods of their homeland. While Zu is wordy at times, the amount of evidence she accumulates in indisputable.  Continue reading “Story of American Food Culture”

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Diversity through Food

Allison Wu

Reflection 1 of 5

97 Orchard Street: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement

Diversity through Food

Jane Zeigelman’s book, 97 Orchard Street: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement, tells the story of how different families from different cultures use food from their origins to shape their lives in NYC. Their use of native food in their new environment ultimately forms the diversity that NYC has today. Continue reading “Diversity through Food”

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Food as Culture: Assimilation or Pride?

(Response 1 of 5) Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures

by Anna

In the introduction of Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures, authors Fred L. Gardaphe and Wenying Xu establish the concept of “…food as a cultural sign that participates in the representations of race, ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, and exile.” (10) They note that throughout the history of the United States, food has been used as a tool to encourage and enforce assimilation, and that foods from immigrant cultures signified “ethnic inferiority.” (9) However, they also cite writers who view food as a way of expressing pride in their culture and identity.

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The Relationship Between Food and Culture

Rachel Swed

Reflection 1

Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures by: Fred L. Gardaphé and Wenying Xu

(Written in Winter, 2007)

The Relationship Between Food and Culture

In the article, “Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literature,”  Fred L. Gardaphé and Wenying Xu write about the relationships between food, ethnic literatures, and cultures. They also centralize the multiple meanings of food in many ethnic traditions. The authors discuss these topics by reviewing a range of scholarship on the connection between food and culture. For example, one text that was cited from the article gave great insight in how food was an indicator of ethnic inferiority and superiority. Donna Gabaccia noted America’s efforts in assimilating immigrants to American diet as “the Home Economics Section of New York’s Department of Welfare recommended that immigrants should eat the old colonial creoles: for breakfast, hominy grits with milk and sugar, bread with butter, and milk and coffee” (9). This particular article also integrates ideas about how in the past, people from different cultures or places would not eat or even touch the food of another country. They would refer to it as “poison” and even throw out perfectly edible food. However, as the authors stated, “food [is] a cultural sign that participates in the representations of race, ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, and exile” (10). Food plays a significant role in shaping individual identities because it’s able to shape one’s cultural background and personal beliefs. It retains an immense amount of ethnic history and roots and serves as an important reminder of tradition and identity formation. Continue reading “The Relationship Between Food and Culture”

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NYT asks in 1990: “Immigrant Celebration: Is the Experience Still Relevant?”

What was Ellis Island anyway? Among the proudest parts of the newly restored island is a long copper wall on which some 200,000 names of former immigrants – from Agnes Aabrahamson to Ferra Zyziak – are inscribed. Passage through Ellis Island was not required for inclusion on the wall; all that was needed was a donation in the immigrant’s name. Still, the wall is in one sense a physical symbol of the melting pot, with its vast mixture of national origins, its English, Swedish, Polish, Jewish, Italian, Greek and other names. But black Americans or Asian-Americans visiting the wall would probably find few names directly relevant to them.

The wall is evidence that Ellis Island belonged to a specific time in American history. It was the time of the huge influx of European, white immigration that took place in the first half of this century. And it was a time when the new arrivals accepted as a matter of course the need to adapt to a culture and a language that was not their own, to take on a new identity as part of achieving the American dream.

Source: Richard Bernstein, The New York Times (September 11, 1990)

Great discussion in class today about the article and issues of assimilation, New York, and the relevance of the question posed by Bernstein in 1990 to our class in 2018. You can click the link above for the article or check the shared class folder.