Sameness in diversity food and globalization in modern America
"Americans of the 1960s, accustomed to frozen dinners and soupy casseroles, would have trouble navigating the grocery aisles and restaurant menus of today. There, they would find once-exotic ingredients-like mangoes, hot sauces, kale, kimchi, and coconut milk-that have become standard in contem...
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| Author / Creator: | |
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| Other Authors / Creators: | Helstosky, Carol; writer of foreword. |
| Format: | eBook Electronic |
| Language: | English |
| Imprint: | Oakland, California University of California Press [2020] |
| Series: | California studies in food and culture ;
72. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Click here for full text at JSTOR |
| Summary: | "Americans of the 1960s, accustomed to frozen dinners and soupy casseroles, would have trouble navigating the grocery aisles and restaurant menus of today. There, they would find once-exotic ingredients-like mangoes, hot sauces, kale, kimchi, and coconut milk-that have become standard in contemporary Americans' diets. Laresh Jayasanker explains how food choices have expanded, even as food companies have consolidated. These changes reflect other transformations in transportation, suburbanization, immigration, and global production. Drawing on menus, cookbooks, trade publications, interviews, and company records, Jayasanker explores Americans' changing eating habits to illuminate the impacts of globalization and immigration on American culture"-- Americans of the 1960s would have trouble navigating the grocery aisles and restaurant menus of today. Once-exotic ingredients--like mangoes, hot sauces, kale, kimchi, and coconut milk--have become standard in the contemporary American diet. Laresh Jayasanker explains how food choices have expanded since the 1960s: immigrants have created demand for produce and other foods from their homelands; grocers and food processors have sought to market new foods; and transportation improvements have enabled food companies to bring those foods from afar. Yet, even as choices within stores have exploded, supermarket chains have consolidated. Throughout the food industry, fewer companies manage production and distribution, controlling what American consumers can access. Mining a wealth of menus, cookbooks, trade publications, interviews, and company records, Jayasanker explores Americans' changing eating habits to shed light on the impact of immigration and globalization on American culture. |
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| Item Description: | Print version record |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xiv, 269 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 0520975286 9780520975286 |
| Author Notes: | Laresh Jayasanker (1972-2018) was Associate Professor of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver and the author of numerous articles on food in US history. |