An interesting discussion the other evening provided a great deal of
support for a theory which I've not seen previously advanced in this
group....

Immigrants settling in areas of the US often represented small localized
segments of larger ethnic groups, with the "Norwegians" in a particular
county all originating in the same small community/area in Norway (or as in
my home town, with about 80% of the pre1960 Mexican American families
originating from a small area of a single Mexican state).

Therefore, many dishes which have been popularized as ethnic (in a broader
sense) are as much community, area or even family origined (and of course
subject to vastly altered results because of the need to substitute
different ingredients in search of traditional foods).

Comment....

TMO