UNITED STATES
Use our resources to get some ideas about how native and immigrant cultures shape “American food.”
Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers’ Toolkit, including a link to today’s MapMaker Interactive map.
Painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, courtesy Library of Congress
Discussion Ideas
- Use the drop-down menu at the top left of the mouthwatering, beautifully written New York Times interactive to find your state. Do you think the recipe reflects your state or region? Why or why not?
- Consider the ingredients and method of preparation.
What would YOU consider your state dish?
Photograph by Sam Abell (left) and Matthieu Paley (right), National Geographic
Photographs by Mark Thiessen (left) and Andrew Evans (right), National Geographic
Photographs by Susan Seubert (left), National Geographic, and Katy Warner (right), courtesy Wikimedia. (CC-BY-SA-2.0)
- How has physical geography influenced the ingredients or preparation of your state dish?
- Consider climate, biodiversity, and even elevation. Some examples:
- From the NY Times Alabama recipe: “Restaurateur Lucy Buffett and her famous brother, Jimmy, grew up in Mobile, where seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is a key player in the culinary canon.”
- From the NY Times Indiana recipe: “Wild persimmons start to blush along the country roads of Indiana in late September, stealing the colors of sunset and weighing down their trees like Christmas balls.”
- From the NY Times North Carolina recipe: “North Carolina and sweet potatoes go way back. The relationship hinges on a history of abundance. ‘Sweet potatoes were plentiful, even among the poorest folks of any ethnicity,’ says one expert. ‘Enslaved Africans used sweet potatoes in place of yams and other West African root vegetables.'”
- From the NY Times Washington recipe: “Western Washington’s coastal rainy climate means there are evergreen forests and woodlands galore, which is a boon for avid mycologists, foragers and hunter-gatherers.”
- Consider climate, biodiversity, and even elevation. Some examples:
- How has human geography influenced the ingredients or preparation of your state dish?
- Consider immigration patterns, cultural traditions, and religious heritage. For an example, read our terrific article about Latinos, the newest wave of immigrants to the New Orleans, and how different immigrant groups have influenced the “Crescent City”‘s famous foodie scene! (And look forward to crawfish tacos on your next visit!) Some examples:
- From the NY Times Washington, D.C. recipe: “President Obama’s first state dinner at the White House, just before Thanksgiving in November 2009, honored Manmohan Singh, then the prime minister of India, and his wife, Gursharan Kaur. The chef for the dinner ‘flavored a very American pumpkin pie with a staple of Indian cuisine: garam masala.'”
- From the NY Times Nevada recipe: “Like many restaurant workers toiling in Las Vegas, Executive Chef Eric Klein spends Thanksgiving Day dishing out turkey and trimmings to vacationing high rollers. While the rest of the city combs shopping arcades for Black Friday deals, however, he’s making magic with the leftovers.”
- From the NY Times North Dakota recipe: “Lefse, thin potato-dough flatbreads like Scandinavian tortillas, or Oslo injera, can be found on holiday tables throughout the upper Midwest, wherever Norwegian families settled to farm.”
- From the NY Times Puerto Rico recipe: “What does mofongo mean to Puerto Rico? Well, what do biscuits mean to the South, or green chiles to the people of New Mexico? Mofongo, which in its most traditional form is a fried-and-mashed fusion of plantains, pork rinds, garlic and peppers, symbolizes the island’s soul food.”
- From the NY Times Rhode Island recipe: “Indian pudding was a compromise. A mass of cornmeal, milk and molasses, baked for hours, it was born of the Puritans’ nostalgia for British hasty pudding and their adaptation to the ground-corn porridges of their Native American neighbors.”
- Consider immigration patterns, cultural traditions, and religious heritage. For an example, read our terrific article about Latinos, the newest wave of immigrants to the New Orleans, and how different immigrant groups have influenced the “Crescent City”‘s famous foodie scene! (And look forward to crawfish tacos on your next visit!) Some examples:
- Skim the recipes in the NY Times interactive. What state cuisine are you most intrigued by? What dish are you most curious to try?
- For me, both are Hawaii: “Thanksgiving dinner in Hawaii may start with pineapple-Vienna-sausage skewers and lychees stuffed with cream cheese. Later there is turkey and ham, but also Spam fried rice and Filipino lumpia, maybe poke (sashimi salad), laulau (ti-leaf-wrapped meat or fish) and a Molokai sweet potato pie topped with haupia (coconut pudding). It is the crazy-quilt, all-embracing nature of the feast that makes it local-kine—that is, island-style.”
- How would you, your family, or your community “interpret” your state dish? Would you add a local specialty? Make it spicier? Prepare it according to kosher, halal, or vegan guidelines? Barbecue it instead of roast it?
- Extra credit! Read through our delicious spotlight on beignets, the official state doughnut of Louisiana. How did this tasty treat go from “scriblita to the Big Easy”? Why is this a “typical American migration story”? Can you map it using our MapMaker Interactive?
- Scriblita were a type of ancient Roman deep-fried doughnut.
- The Roman conquest of Gaul brought scriblita to what is now France. French bakers developed techniques that allowed dough to rise into a fluffy pastry.
- French settlers brought their pastry recipes with them to the New World of what is now the region of Acadia, Canada.
- The forced migration of thousands of Acadians from Canada to what is now Louisiana brought beignets to the Gulf Coast.
- New Orleans’ nickname is the “Big Easy.” Today, beignets are a symbol of New Orleans’ French Quarter!
- Over the centuries, millions of Americans have migrated to what is now the United States, bringing their recipes and cultures with them. The development of beignets, from ancient Rome to modern New Orleans, is a typically fascinating immigration tale.
- Scriblita were a type of ancient Roman deep-fried doughnut.
This week is Geography Awareness Week, celebrating the Geography of Food! This week, our Current Event Connection will focus on Food in the News, exploring food as a dynamic, diverse interconnection between health, politics, the environment, and business.
TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT
New York Times: The United States of Thanksgiving
Nat Geo: United States 1-Page Map
Nat Geo: Beignets map
Nat Geo: Multicultural Stew
Nat Geo: Beignets: From Scriblita to the Big Easy
Nat Geo: Geography Awareness Week
Nat Geo: Food Education resources
5 thoughts on “The United States of Thanksgiving”