"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 12:27:47 -0700, Janet Bostwick
> > wrote:
>
>> you listed a lot of things that I had forgotten. I just took a quick
>> tour of my fridge, pantry and store room before writing my post. I was
>> trying to think of solely American/US products that reflect our food
>> interests. I, too, use the canned soup as an ingredient. Actually,
>> the tomato soup is my topping for meatloaf.
>
> The problem is that our "American" tastes are so broad - some of it
> reflects where our family originated from, but a lot of it reflects
> the immigrants who live in the immediate area and the cultures they
> identify with. We used to have and Italian enclave here but they've
> gone mainstream now - so the biggest ethnic groups that have an
> influence on my cooking are Mexican and several countries in Eastern
> Asia. If I lived in the East Bay, I'd be doing more Indian or North
> African cooking than I do now. I'd know people from that culture who
> would be able to show me techniques and answer stupid questions - plus
> it seems like there's an Indian food shop in every strip mall over
> there and it's almost as easy to find specifically Middle
> Eastern/North African over there too... so shopping for tools and
> ingredients would be a lot more convenient than it is here.

Agree. I just realized that I forgot to list olives and corn products like
tortillas or chips. I must have those.

Things that used to be common for me are no longer. Such as black eyed peas
and hominy. I do love those things but since I had to cut back on carbs and
since nobody else in the family likes them, instead of eating them weekly,
the black eyed peas are down to once or twice a year and the hominy perhaps
every two years. I do eat a lot of popcorn. I ate it daily growing up and
almost daily now. These were foods commonly eaten in the midwest. We also
ate lima beans often but again, nobody else likes them. And given that they
are one of the more expensive beans, I can do without them even though I
like them.

I tend to forget how popular seafood is here. Because we just never ate it.
We did have canned tuna and once in a while canned salmon patties. Then the
horrible Weight Watcher's year of white fish and scallops that my mom told
us were white fish. She overcooked everything so I probably never had any
of that properly prepared. But all around me are people who grew up eating
mostly fish and seafood and that's normal for them. We used to go clamming
and give the clams away. Or fishing and give the fish away. People
probably thought we were nuts! I did enjoy the clamming but not the
fishing.

Coffee is really big here too. Bigger than any other place I've lived.
Angela's gym class took a walking field trip last week. Where to?
Starbucks!