There are as many kinds of food ide

There are as many kinds of food identification as there are the same in fashion,
speech, music, manners and the like. The obvious ones are ethnic, religious
and class identifications. Ethnic food preferences only become identity
markers in the presence of gustatory “foreigners,” such as when one goes
abroad, or when the foreigners visit the home shores. The insecure will cling
desperately to home food habits: English housewives on the continent even
break open tea bags to make a “proper” cup of tea (the taste is identical).
Popular songs attest to the food difficulties of interethnic marriages’ “bangers
and mash vs. macaroni.” When various ethnic groups are forcibly thrown
together, there is both an intensifying of food identity and a growing
mishmash. The American melting pot is almost literally that: the food
preferences of dozens of nations are put side by side, and there cannot help but
be overlap and mixing. The most startling example is the popularity of the
Chinese kosher restaurant, and it is not uncommon to find a restaurant
advertising itself as “Chinese-Italian-American” along with the proud boast
“All Our Wines Are Chilled.” The ubiquitous “diner” with its vast menu
served twenty-four hours a day is a microcosm of the melting pot, having
Greek salad, Italian pasta, German rye bread, Polish kielbasi, Chinese chow