Is there anything that can merit the title "American food"? I mean real gourmet cuisine, not the mass-produced fast-food burgers (though that's not to say that the humble burger isn't a great culinary invention.)
While we mull over this, let me share my experiences of an art history trip to Italy with students and staff from the Art Institute of Chicago one summer.
It wasn't just the breath-taking abundance of art and architecture wherever we cast our eyes, but also the perfectly brewed espresso, the mouth-watering fresh seafood, the mellow vino, and the never-ending pastas.
And to be honest, I could eat those pastas every single day.
While most of our Asian group members were immersed in this Roman food heaven, the American kids started to complain and murmur about their longing for "American Food".
The Asians on the trip were shocked and confused: First of all, are they really missing the fries and burgers while having the world's best food within daily reach? If not, isn't bread and pasta what you have in the US as well? So what are they complaining about?
And in the end, if those things were not what they meant by "American Food" ... then what exactly is "American food?"
I was too busy blissing out on pasta to find the answers. It wasn't until I came back and shared the story with friend from Cordon Bleu, that the mystery was finally clear up: Mexican food! That's what they were craving! To be specific — Tex-Mex food.
What is Tex-Mex?
Back in the pioneering days, Anglo settlers marched ever-westward into what is now called Texas, where they encountered Mexican culture and cuisine.
The popularity of Mexican food grew as more incomers settled in Texas. This culinary cultural exchange went the other way too, with gringo elements such as wheat flour, cheddar cheese, canned vegetables, black beans, and cumin finding popularity south of the border.
It's not as fancy as French and Italian, not as exotic as Chinese or Japanese, which are all well-accepted foreign cuisines in the US. But Tex-mex food is so down to earth, ubiquitous and so damned tasty that it should be on the pantheon of American food.
Chili's, Taco Bell, Chipotle ... we don't call these "Mexican restaurants". (Even though people still call Panda Express "Chinese", when in fact it should be identified as "American Chinese fast food" — an invention in its homeland of the United States.)
Many of the so-called Mexican food: hardshell tacos, burritos and nachos, are all Tex-Mex inventions. Identifying them as Mexican is as accurate as calling General Tsao's chicken (a popular dish in American-Chinese restaurants) as Chinese.
And talking of China, I'm surprised that Mexican food hasn't found more popularity yet in China, as the two nations have more in common than most of us had ever realized.
For starters there's common heritage, as the many of the ancestors of Native Americans crossed a land bridge over the Bering Strait from Asia thousands of years ago.
Then there's cooking. Mexicans and Asians both love to spice up their dishes. In a traditional "Mole" (pronounced "mo-lay") sauce, Mexicans use up to 20 different spices and herbs to create this complex-flavored gravy, which usually pairs with rice. In fact, a rather similar arrangement to curry rice in Asia.
Indeed, the chili pepper was brought to Europe from Mexico in the late 15th century and found a new home in China some 100 years later.
