In the 60s and early 70s, [before Julia Child, Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet), Joyce Chen, etc, etc…] American cooking was fairly staid and unimaginative. Back then, Chef Boyardi pasta kits were considered ethnic and La Choy was downright exotic!!
My mother, an immigrant and professional with a graduate education in several fields, taught an adult ed course in “International cooking” and the dishes she taught would be considered ordinary today, yet they were too exotic to serve at home routinely. Today, she’s stunned at the variety of dishes that I routinely cook, which she never dreamt of, much less learned. [Part of that shock is because I’m a male doctor, and would never cook at all in the Old Country. Part of it is that I’'m just a nut, and even my friends are surprised by my dishes]
in the late 70s/80s, we began to see more variety in our supermarket: seasonal fruits and vegetables were now flown in from around the globe; formerly ethnic ingredients became mainstream; the canned goods section expanded its variety; and you never knew what might turn up in the freezer case.
In the past several years, however, it seem to me that the trends have been reversing. True, our fresh produce sections are still unthinkably diverse by 1970’s standards, but new product introductions are few and far between. What few there are are not nearly as distinctive; they’re mostly convenience foods, or distressingly conventional items that trade genuinely new flavors for fat. mouth feel and factory food priduction techniques. The canned goods aisle has shrunk to half an aisle. Only one of the major loca chains has any variety in frozen veggies: instead of more veggies, they have the same 8-10 in a variety of different premixed combos… The spice section has dropeed to a fraction of its former size. There aren’t even nearly as many Campbell’s soups as there once were.
Or so it seems to me, based on my experience routinely shopping in two states, in urban, health and rural stores. Is it this way everywhere?
Look, I’m not complaining. Specialty stores are everywhere and I can buy things on the web today that I couldn’t get at all at the height of the diversity phase, whether it’s old favorite regional junk foods, exotic spices, or genuine international brands sold overseas.
I was just wondering if this was a local phenomenon or a national trend.