So back to food-related posts....last week was just a little too busy for me to focus on that stuff as much, with a total of some 46 hours spent at and around school, plus the visit to I Tatti, plus attempting to buy a bicycle, plus needing to deal with life in general, etc, etc, and so I got a little overwhelmed. But now we're back on track a bit! Just as a warning, I step up on my soapbox here for quite a bit--its long.
***
This is a prototype of a conversation I've had a few times here:
Italian: No wonder you came to Italy to learn about cooking! Goodness knows there's more to food than hot dogs and hamburgers. Don't get me wrong, I like hot dogs and hamburgers a lot, but American food just isn't as good as Italian or French food.
Me: Well there's lots of great food in the States! And American food isn't just hot dogs and hamburgers.
Italian: Well then what is American food?
Me: Uhhh......
I usually get stuck at this point. I've been thinking a lot about the subject in the past few days, trying to develop a pithy explanation of what American food is all about. What are some quintessential American dishes? The South definitely has their own style of cuisine, with a lot of great, rich food, and I think I could explain that well, but that isn't all of American food. Even within regions of the South there are different styles: cajun, creole, tex-mex, etc. But I wouldn't use any of those foods to describe what American food is.
Regional variation is definitely an important part of a national cuisine. Here in Italy everyone makes pasta, but the southerners do it with different shapes, doughs, and sauces than the northerners do. Each region has its own style of what is essentially fruitcake to be eaten at Christmas, and yet while there are these regional variations, there is an underlying base style of food which everyone adheres to.
The only thing I can think of which follows this line of thought in American food is BBQ. Almost every part of the US does barbecue, but everyone does it in a slightly different way. However I don't think that as a style of cooking it defines our national cuisine in the same way that pasta does Italian food (or mustard for the French!).
Of course there is the argument that America is the big melting pot, and that everyone brought their own cuisine in to the country, and so every household does different food. I suppose this is true, but I also think that the country has been around long enough that despite this a national cuisine could emerge. Or perhaps the States are too big for that to happen. Italy is just slightly bigger than Arizona, and ranks 71st in terms of square footage, just behind Oman. Their population is just under 60 million and shrinking, and so obviously we're talking about a very different situation (CIA factbook). If you asked the residents of Arizona how they define the food of their state, you would get a much more specific answer, and while it might lack some of the variety that Italian food has, they only have 6.5 million people, so we'll let that be their excuse.
Yet despite all of this I feel that there is more to American food than what immigrants have brought in from the old country, and that can be found across the entire country. The difficulty is that its a very simple kind of food, and I would define it almost entirely by how it is ingredient-driven. While we are seeing restaurants pop up everywhere describing themselves as serving "New American" (which I think is actually just a derivative of Californian cuisine as passed down by Alice Waters, Thomas Keller, etc), I think this kind of food is also getting onto the dinner table, at least in the households where people are cooking dinner.
My proof is going to be through the food network. While there has been a lot of discussion lately on whether the food network is actually teaching anyone to cook, a quick glance at their website shows the trends that I think define a lot of American cooking. They have a tab for "in season", which features pumpkins, apples, potatoes, and squash; the first tab listed is "quick and easy", which also is focused mostly on fall ingredients, with things like butternut squash mac & cheese and pear and fennel salad. These kinds of dishes don't belong to another culture's cuisine, and even the ones that can be traced elsewhere culturally seem to have little twists that make them somehow American. Using the "quick meals" tab, I selected that I want a beef dinner that can be made in less than 45 minutes, to which it supplied quite a few options. The "lime marinated flank steak with herb salad" has a title which makes me think that it will be based on Mexican or central American flavors, because of the limes, but looking over the ingredient list the marinade also includes balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The herb salad mixes basil, cilantro, parsley, and tarragon. I could find everything for this recipe here except the cilantro and maybe the tarragon. I haven't seen them anywhere since arriving, and the limes would have to be considered an import item because they aren't really common in the cuisine here. So here we go, a dish offered up on TV by some guy named Danny Boome who has a show, and people cook it. But how do you define a cuisine like this?
The best explanation I can come up with is ingredient-driven. While that makes sense in an American context, the only problem with it is that in large parts of the world (here included), food is always ingredient-driven. It is hard to find bad produce here. I haven't seen things around that aren't in season somewhere in the country, and it was considered unusual that the supermarket had to import their lemons from Spain. That's about 500 miles, which is just a little further than Chicago to Nashville. However in the States ingredient-driven means a little more than just in season or local (though they're getting to be more and more synonymous), but it means keeping things simple to let the ingredients shine. Nothing about that steak is particularly flashy, the flavors aren't masking anything, and I imagine all the ingredients balance pretty nicely so nothing is overwhelmed. In Italian cuisine, a ragù is made with so many different ingredients that there is often no way to know all that went in there (think about the beef in dolce e forte I featured a few weeks ago). These are definitely two distinct approaches to food.
I am definitely still not satisfied with this as an explanation, not only because it doesn't quite do justice to American food, but because saying that another cuisine doesn't focus on ingredients to let them shine is also wrong. The bistecca fiorentina (Florentine Steak) that they serve here is nothing more than a whole lot of beef with salt and pepper cooked very briefly on the grill. Straightforward and simple, it is nothing but the one ingredient.
However I feel like as someone who wants to cook so-called "American" food, I do need to be able to define what it is to a certain extent. Fusion and multicultural make it sound like it is just a remix of some other foods, which also happens to imply that it is inferior, which I don't believe it is. I want to find a definition, a way of explaining to people what American food actually consists of. And perhaps if its successful, maybe one day the stereotypical American dish won't be a hot dog!
Me: “That’s great to hear – if you wait a moment, I’ll get him out of the back.”
(I return with the cook.)
Me: “This is ****, and he is our head cook.”
Attendee: *looking behind the head cook* “No, seriously – where’s the cook? I need to talk with her.”
Cook: “Ma’am, I am the cook. How can I help you?”
Attendee: *looking askance* “You are NOT the cook. You cannot BE the cook. The food here is so wonderful, so full of love – it MUST be cooked by a woman.”
Cook: “All right, you caught us. The real cook has her day off today. We’ll thank her when she gets back tomorrow.”
Attendee: “Yes, you will.” *muttering as she walks away* “Men who cook…sheesh.”
****
I went out again on Saturday. This time I didn't have to be dressed up by someone else, but took the initiative into my own hands and bought a shiny top.
Again I went over to Fernanda's house for dinner and to get dressed. This time was much less chaotic, as not only did I get there all by myself (I even remembered the street!) but it was apparent that my Italian has improved because I was able to follow a lot more that was happening linguistically speaking. Hooray for tangible improvements!
Just like last time some old guy with a car picked us up (it was a mercedes). The club ended up being really close to my house (for once, something nearby me!) and I was the only one who had ever heard of the street, so I was the one giving directions, ironically. Of course I thought it was a different street than it actually was, which meant that my directions ended up being wrong, but it was okay because this being Italy, when we got to the door it was still closed. Things start very late here.
While waiting for the club to open we ran into the people we were supposed to meet (three men--are we sensing a theme here?). They were very cordial and we started having a great conversation about South Park, Florentine offal sandwiches (yum!), and Obama (everyone wants to talk about Obama here).
Even though we were in Italy, Halloween was still an event. It seemed like guys liked to wear the pointed hats, while women were dressed up mostly in angel and devil costumes, though I saw some other outfits on occasion. However it was definitely a very small majority of people who had dressed up for the event. I considered the fact that I had put on eyeliner costume enough.
At the club we had gotten a table reserved, which meant that we had to pay a lot more. However Fernanda explained that that was what the guys were for. She was very adamant about that part, and even when it came time to leave and they were short a little bit, she made it seem like us ladies were not supposed to contribute. I contributed anyway.
Just like last time, the music started out really fun (the Black Eyed Peas song is really really popular right now, hence the title. Also some song that I have started to identify as the "Ba da dah dah dah" song, because those are the majority of the lyrics, but its such a great melody that everyone sings along, and it suits drunken voices rather well. It may or may not be in Spanish. If I discover what it is, I'll let you know) and as the night went on the melodies went away and the music became very repetitive and rather boring. Its really sort of odd that the music gets so much work every night, though it seems like other people don't mind the degeneration and actually seem to like it. Philistines. In this picture is Maya, Fernanda, and me, in that order. Maya is Fernanda's roommate. 
Of the guys we were with, one I hardly talked to, one talked to me too much and too obnoxiously, and one asked me for translations of the lyrics of many songs. The one who was obnoxious was not just obnoxious in speech, but as the night went on he was obnoxious in conduct as well. It is not appropriate to grab someone's head in your hands when dancing, and never should you shove a hand in someone's face. I started faking being tired so that he could stop harassing me. If he wasn't Fernanda's friend I would have been much more rude. Here's your mug shot for anyone who ever finds themselves in a Florentine club. Note the closeness of him shoving into me.
I think these experiences are really anthropological in many ways. While I enjoy going out for about an hour, after that hour I'm really ready to leave as I'm hot, tired, and usually the music has taken a turn for the worse. But its interesting to watch everything happening, and to attempt conversations with people, at least until your throat gets sore from shouting. I'm definitely a prop for the girls when we go out, their american friend to use as a shield from ex boyfriends (as Maya did), or as an excuse to take a ridiculous number of photos of herself (as Fernanda did). But I honestly do enjoy myself, even if I don't enjoy everything about the experience. And this time I got to go home to sleep in my own bed!
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