An American Delicacy

I am lucky enough to live in a little community with many international members, and one thing that comes up reasonably often is food. I come from a food household (we've all experienced my father's cooking, yes?) but, even if I didn't, I think there is something undeniable about the link between "home" and "food," especially if "home" is another country from where you currently are. I am never more aware of being across an ocean you all then when I crave a good cheeseburger or run out of Reese's Puffs.

The funny thing is, its really hard to pinpoint any food as "American." Besides home cooking, my absolute FAVORITE thing to eat the moment I get back to the US of A is Chinese food. Red's favorite American cuisine is Mexican. We steal from so many other cultures, its difficult to pinpoint something that is uniquely ours. Which is why, when people ask me what the American specialty is, I always say the same thing. Processed.

Case in point, here is a picture my father took of the food my English brethren asked me to bring to them:

Mmmm. Delicious. And completely artificial.

And illuminating. Last night, I brought the Twinkies into work. One of my managers had requested one to try, because she had never had one and "had always been curious." Distributing them amongst my English co-workers was a fascinating adventure in cultural exchange. People tended to fall into three categories: those who had experienced a Twinkie in some kind of past life and knew what they were getting into, those who had never heard of a Twinkie and so had to have concept explained to them, and, finally, those who had never tried a Twinkie but knew of its existence. This last category seemed to have the strongest reaction, and usually included in their expression of excitement some version of the phrase "like in the movies!" The Twinkie newbies were universally in favor of the snack, and one even described it as "gorgeous" (my favorite British expression of food approval). Gorgeous! Twinkies! The mind boggles. 

But at least I have a new answer to the question, "What is American food?" 

"Twinkies."