There are several necessities that every person needs to survive; among these are things like air, water, shelter and food. Then there are the necessities of a college student. These include all of the above, but with one modification: a college student needs food, food and more food.
Whether you’re trying to push through your late night study session or you’re running to class because your series of five alarms didn’t go off, food can make all the stress of life temporarily go away as soon as you take that first bite.
With food so readily available on every corner of campus we can sometimes get caught in the “any food is good food” mentality. While your Chipotle burrito or Panda bowl might be tasty, is it really authentic?
In America we like to take the food of other cultures, put our own spin on it and then pass it off as the original. Talk about false advertising. I’m not saying Americanized food isn’t good, it’s just that it isn’t what you think it is.
This causes a problem when looking to understand or experience culture through food because Americanized food is not always an accurate representation of that culture. Often, food is presumed to be from one culture when in reality it is not.
Brett Adamo from Beppe & Gianni’s Trattoria knows of some foods that Americans commonly misconceive as Italian. “The use of garlic might be one. Italians don’t use as much garlic as everybody thinks, but you see Italian restaurants called ‘The Garlic Press,” Adamo said.
Unless you were of Italian heritage, or happened to talk to someone like Adamo, you would probably never know that garlic isn’t that prominent in Italian cooking. Some Americans think authentic Italian food is what we find in an Olive Garden take out bag, but if you look at Olive Garden’s menu, you find many items that are made with garlic, not to mention two of their five sauces literally have garlic in their name.
Adamo also offered a suggestion to distinguish between authentic restaurants and Americanized restaurants. “Look at the way our menu reads,” Adamo said. “You should see Italian names for things, as opposed to a place that might say pasta, we actually say garganelli.”
You know you’re used to Americanized Italian food when you have to look up garganelli because you have never heard of it. Don’t worry, I was in the same boat.
It is important to pay attention to the menu and note if the establishment is showing respect for the food by using the correct names and allowing the culture to speak through the menu.
The Americanization of food is similar to the idea of Spanglish. As a country, we have taken something and deemed only a portion of it acceptable and beautiful, then proceeded to throw the rest away and disregard the fact that we had no right to determine what was of value and what wasn’t.
Italian food serves as a good example, but it is not the only cuisine we may have been deceived by. This is a problem in most of the markets of food from other countries. There is more to Mexican food than just burritos and fortune cookies are not Chinese.
If you’re looking to find a window into another culture, food is a great place to start, but it is important to make sure you are getting an accurate representation of said culture. While Domino’s pizza might put your rumbling stomach at ease in the middle of an all nighter, why not try a pie from La Perla Pizzeria instead.
