I like how he can list all these neat little factoids about India but fail to even understand what the word Curry even means. This doesn't really even account for the Anglo interpretation of what this word has become or even the history of what even is a "curry." Just smooth brain shit all around, well done Gene 👍 https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1429802465055096842
As an American with full Mexican ancestry I'm more confused as to why Mexico has an enormous, wide ranging food culture that still exists today with a myriad of signature dishes and regional variations that are immediately recognizeable whereas checks notes
the USA has
It seems sometimes like there was an emergent regional culture ages ago but I have to wonder if the settler colonial mindset is inherently sterilizing or something. I've seen it in the attitudes around the white people I've known growing up back in my de facto segregated hometown, a lot of them seem to absolutely fucking terrified of anything "foreign", to the point where you have grown ass women screaming at you for speaking Spanish as a child.
This place is weird, like I saw an ad for a tiki bar or something the other day and I made the connection between a post I saw talking about how stuff like tiki is just an outgrowth of colonialism and how they only seem to be able to enjoy a foreign culture at a distance: see the litany of Taco Bells and Chipotles dotting the landscape (which is itself an artifact of capitalism commodifying culture itself, but I still think there is a connection to be made ...)
I mean barbeque is pretty diverse but it's by no means a white food.
Probably the most unique food type we have here but it came about from black slaves for the most part.
Yeah, I disagree with the Mexcan comrade. America has unique, good tasting food. Cajun, Tex-Mex, Mid-Atlantic seafood, I can't think of anything else but I'm sure it exists.
That's the thing though, Tex-Mex came from Mexicans and United Statesians mingling when the latter wasn't busy abusing/genociding the former, Cajun (IIRC) is the confluence of multiple cultures including that of African Americans
It's not that we don't, but when I see rants like the one in the article I have to assume that a lot of these guys would have been perfectly fine with none of those groups existing or ever coming anywhere close to the country.
I just rage because I see white dudes from the midwest talking about how much they love tacos while talking/implying about how Mexican Americans should GTFO and uninstall America
you either want the benefits of being a melting pot or you don't, and if you don't enjoy your lack of 11 special herbs and spices
Trust me, I understand you completely and the sentiment extends to libs who 'appreciate the food'. I went to eat at an Indian restaurant the other day, it was full to the brim with white people. Literally 3 tables away from me some patrons were throwing racial slurs about me (they though I was black). I was getting racially abused as an Indian, for being black, in an Indian restaurant. brainworms shit lmao If it were up to America, there'd be nothing but boiled potato and dry turkey being served for 3 meals a day.
Oh yeah I agree with your post, just wanted to throw out a defense of BBQ. Otherwise you're on the money.
Chains are the way to really make money in the restaurant business. They're probably what flattened out a lot of regional culinary differences in the U.S.
Might have to do with the fact that the natives of the US were largely displaced and replaced by Europeans, whereas Mexico retained a lot more indigenous influence. Colonization is inherently sterilizing in the sense that there is a leveling of cultural differences between colonizing peoples that necessarily leads to less diversity than the cultures of populations that have been settled in an area for a relatively much longer period of time. It's only with time, distance, and relative lack of communication and population movement that colonizing/conquering cultures can develop similar diversity to what existed beforehand. You see similar phenomena with the diversity of language (which is heavily intertwined with culture) and biology - diaspora populations tend to be more homogeneous than long settled ones.
It helps that some Mexican political leaders, political movements and even Presidents in some capacity embraced aspects of Indigenous culture and identity as a means to create a Mexican identity separate from Spain's and France's cultural nexus.