Home of the bland- Americans and spicy food

In My Humble Opinion
21

sven, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I tend to eat and cook on the “plain” side (but I wouldn’t say bland) primarily because it is cheap. I learned to cook from my parents, primarily my dad, and when I was a kid we didn’t have much. When I was growing up I think the only spice I remember seeing in the cabinet was paprika. We weren’t picky eaters as kids - our choices were just limited.

In defense of the “bland,” though - have you ever had REAL Mexican food? I mean, food made by genuine, actual, salt-of-the-earth-type Mexicans for everyday consumption? My husband tells me all the time that my chili - which I freely admit is the “gringo-est” chili ever made - has more flavors than his father’s. And my father-in-law WAS Mexican. All I am saying is: you want bland, then you eat pinto beans with 2/3 of your meals every week.

I will agree with you about parents who only feed their kids McNuggets and hot dogs, to a point. This is a problem - but I empathize with these parents. It is hard enough for my husband and I to find the time to make a proper meal just for the two of us. And with all the other stuff that goes along with having kids - sports practice, homework, etc. - it is sometimes hard to find time to cook anything. Unfortunately a lot of parents end up feeding their kids whatever they will eat, just so they eat SOMETHING.

22

Well, I’m from smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-America (Chicago), and we get quite a variety of food here. My mom certainly didn’t avoid seasoning her food, although admittedly it was with tame things like oregano, basil, and garlic for the most part. She did branch out over time; I’ll never forget her discovery of turmeric. She didn’t understand that it should be used in combination with other spices, so we were eating chicken dyed an alarming shade of radioactive yellow for a while there. She’s learned a lot over the past years, though, and can now make a quite respectably zingy chili, although she still thinks some of the more unusual stuff I cook is too spicy.

My much younger half-brother, in Queens, was raised largely by a wonderful babysitter (a Guyanan of Indian descent). He still waxes nostalgic for her rotis and curries and such, and will eat absolutely anything. He’s 14 now, and chicken nuggets pretty much always bored him to tears.

On the other hand, my college roomate, a Salvadoran-American, is now living in semi-rural Kent, England, with her English husband. You wanna see bland food? Go to semi-rural England. Her poor kids are being deprived of any element of their Central American heritage, as she is breast-feeding the youngest, and apparently in England the medical establishment is quite Nazi-like about what nursing mothers should eat. Currently she has been told not to eat dairy, peanuts, or anything spicy, and to go easy on the onions and garlic. That, combined with the lack of available variety in the area where she lives, the fact that she is a vegetarian, and her irritable bowel syndrome, basically has left her with bland grain products, unseasoned green vegetables, and the occasional legume. Somehow hundreds of millions of babies and small children around the world eat chili peppers throughout their developmental years, but the “Health Visitors” (U.K. term which seems to be the equivalent of a visiting pediatric practical nurse) have my poor friend thinking that her kids will be taken away if she eats a piece of feta or something.

23

Tamerlane, this utterly surprises me. Rochester, N.Y. is home to Country-Sweet Chicken and Ribs, Sal’s Birdland, and the departed Smitty’s, all incredibly spicy food of nuclear proportions. Whenever I get back there I have to pick up some jars of the hot sauce, which is unlike anything I’ve encountered elsewhere.
American food is not uniformly bland. Others have noted Californian and Cajun cuisine. I note Rochester’s, and toss in Finger Lakes-region “spiedies”. If you go to pizza chains, you can typically get hot pizza toppings. Every chinese and Thai restaurant has spicy offerings.

Believe it or not, it used to be worse. Look at James Lileks book The Gallery of Regrettable Food (formerly at www.lileks.com) and you can read how dull and lifeless the food in the vintage 19302-1970s cookbooks were. My favorite is the “Deviled Onions”, made with onions and Heinz ketchup (it was a Heinz giveaway recipe book). The “devilish” part was “a few grains pepper”.

24

They tell nursing mothers not to eat dairy in the UK? Isn’t that a recipe for massive epidemic of calcium deficiency?

Funnily enough, I never liked “kid food” as a kid – I’ve always thought most processed meat products (bologna, hot dogs, chicken nuggets) are disgusting. On the other hand, I absolutely loved artichokes, olives, Atomic Fireballs, and any kind of seafood imaginable. I have fond memories of the time BrotherPorpentine and I (then three and seven) utterly shocked a waitress at a seafood restaurant by ordering frog’s legs and mussels in garlic butter. We didn’t know we were only supposed to like fish sticks. I was well into my elementary school years before I realized my tastes weren’t “normal.”

25

I completely agree that if kids are exposed to more varieties of (and even levels of spicy) foods at an early age they can be less picky – note I didn’t say will be less picky. In a family of extremely picky relatives, my parents had me eating mushrooms, blue cheese, steamed crabs, Chinese food, burritos (REAL burritos, not Taco Hell), frogs legs (mistaken for chicken wings at a wedding reception), kielbasa and sauerkraut, and other things before I was even 5 years old. Because of that, there was narely a food I wouldn’t at least try to determine if I liked it or not and then getting spaghetti-os at a friend’s house became more common than having it at my own house.

A friend, Rachel, who is a mom to 2 little girls was commenting on this situation recently, and whose girls I must add will try ANYTHING and usually like it. At a recent dinner party the 4-year old and 8-year old tried veal saltimbocca, fontina cheese, asparagus, and mesclun salad. Anyway, another mom-friend of hers complained that her 2 boys wouldn’t eat anything but chicken nuggets, and asked how she got her girls to eat so many different things. Rachel told her not to go to McDonalds for any reason, or buy any more chicken nuggets under any circumstances. After a few mildly stressful days at the other mom’s home, the kids relaxed and began eating anything the mom gave them – even vegetables. A miracle? No. Just showing kids that chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese aren’t the only foods in the world, and certainly not the BEST foods in the world, even by their standards.

26

I’m not sure whether her dairy restrictions apply to all dairy, or just unpasteurized dairy (like feta and many other cheeses). They live two locks away from sheep grazing, so this is an issue for them; the only grocery store within walking distance is a small farmstand, and my friend is home with the kids and doesn’t drive. Plus the dairy restriction may be in part due to her digestive problems and/or the nursing baby’s severe eczema, not applied across the board to nursing moms. Sucks to be her, though.

27

Just a sign that maybe I had a sheltered and unusual childhood, but I cannot fathom kids not eating vegetables. As a matter of fact, I cannot even fathom even giving kids stuff like chicken nuggets in the first place…

(Overheard in a Japanese supermarket recently: … yes salmon roe is on special this week. It’s great for your health but the best thing is that children love it! )

28

Yeah, even sven, I’m kind of surprised that you are writing this from California in the 2000’s, as I also associate bland food (and people talking about removing spices) with the Midwest of the past. I bet that the recipes you found were very old…probably the type from church cookbooks and the like (and the cookbooks James Lileks sampled. shudder)

My husband doesn’t like hot, spicy things because his childhood was filled with the “Midwestern bland” that his mom cooked. The way I cook is much more updated, with a lot more spices and vegetables, and he likes it now, especially if it’s not too hot or doesn’t contain vinegar. (Here’s how bad it was for him…his mother never used red bell peppers because she thought they were spicy! I assume she had never tasted one.) I also once overheard his mom explain to Japanese visitors that the Johnsonville bratwurst were “spicy sausages”! I like bratwurst, but I would never warn someone that they were spicy.

But, yes, we in the Midwest, who come from German, Irish, English, and Scandinavian stock, come from some pretty bland food traditions. It’s getting better, though, as people are exposed to different food traditions. My family of origin loves Mexican food, for example, and my husband is starting to like it, too. Heck, I’ve even seen spicy green bean casserole at some family picnics. It does have a warning label, but, people eat it, too!

My kid likes a lot of different food, but she doesn’t like things too spicy, it’s true. And, her favorite food is macaroni and cheese, and she would eat that every day if I let her. But, she doesn’t insist upon it, so I don’t see anything wrong with that. Something about mac and cheese appeals to kids, I guess.

29

You think “How bad could it be?” And it’s worse. The American midwest does the same horrible thing to “mexican” food.

I’m a picky eater. (BTW, it wasn’t lack of exposure that did that. I can’t think of foods that I didn’t have growing up. My parents exposed us to everything. I just didn’t like most of it.) It isn’t that I don’t like hot or spicy food. There are many spices that I like - some of them burn, but I like the flavors.
There are also many, many spices and combinations of spices that just don’t taste good to me. It isn’t that I like bland, it’s that I don’t like that particular spice, which is incomprehensible to the hot = good crowd who just pour on spice after spice after spice to get it hotter. It seems that to them, spices don’t have flavor, they just have heat. To me, they taste like something and it’s not all good.

I also, when others are cooking, tend to eat bland because I think it’s way easier to mess up spices than it is to mess up bland.

30

I agree with you that when people think of the Midwest in terms of food, most people think casseroles and meat & potatoes. However, as far as I am aware, not everyone cooks that way. It’s true that exported American food is often somewhat bland; however, the vast majority of families that I know often cook very spicy food. I rarely make anything that doesn’t have some sort of kick to it. In fact, I don’t really like casseroles that often because they are frequently bland, and if I’m going to eat as much fat as is usually in a casserole, I’d rather spend those grams on something I’d really enjoy, like homemade Indian food or Chinese. Also, many restaurants in my area make pretty spicy food. You just have to know where to go and what to ask for.

One other thing: I don’t necessarily think that mild food = bland food. Many herbs and spices can be used to make food tasty but not necessarily burn-your-mouth hot. For example, adding curry powder to turkey burgers can make them taste fabulous without burning your mouth (although they’re much better with chipotle mayo). Or adding some cumin, coriander and a homemade masala can make plain old quinoa or barley some of the most wonderful dishes ever! It’s all about creativity. It’s true that some Americans (and people from any country - I rarely hear about France’s spicy food) aren’t all that inventive with spices. However, America is home to people from so many different ethnic backgrounds that I hardly think that “American food,” particularly that food made at home, can be put all into the same compartment.

31

Let me clarify…

I grew up on shake’n’bake pork chops and fish sticks. My was very poor and pretty much ate the cheapest stuff they could find. I don’t remember much of what that was like. As a student, I somehow joined the bourgoise and now I havn’t shopped at a non-specialty grocery store or eaten at a chain restaruant for years. Last night I cooked garlic mashed potato and rosemary grilled vegetable enchiladas. But I know I’m not living in the “real world”, because somebody has to buy all that velveeta.

I was looking on www.allrecipes.com to find a good mashed potato recipe to work off of, and thats where I came across all these recipes that warn about pepperjack cheese. It’s not just hot-spicy, either. I once looked at twenty side dish recipes in a row that did not use any seasoning outside of salt and pepper. Thats pretty unthinkable to me, but it dawns on me that that is a lot of what I grew up on (and what my family still eats).

32

WRONG!

Thank you for playing, please try again. Have you ever heard older people say how things tasted so much better when they were young? That’s because things did taste better. Children have twice the taste bud density on their palates than adults. It makes them more sensitive to poisonous and spoiled foods. This has helped to preserve the species.

Notice how very few children like blue cheese or Limburger? Ever see a kid scarf down chile peppers or Tabasco sauce? This is why.

While I ceretainly concur that many children are fed an overly narrow diet of Pringles, M[sup]c[/sup]Nuggets, hot dogs, burgers, French fries and pizza, it is not necessarily their own fault. Adults who do not have adventurous tastes or any skill in the kitchen are more often the cause of this.

33

I spent two years cooking at an “American” restaurant, and let me say this: Not all American food is bland. Sure, we served pot roast that was pretty tasteless, but we also did BBQ pork that was heavenly. Even something typically thought of as bland, like spinach, can be made to taste good (just don’t cook it until it’s dead).

It’s also pretty hard to say what’s “American” food any more. The restaurant I cooked at did mainstream dishes, but we also did some specials that were pretty out there.

I think that it’s not American food that’s bland, so much as it is some regional cooking. Traditionally, people cooked with whatever was available locally, and in some regions that wasn’t a wide selection. Also, it’s easy to cook bland food, which is why many people eat bland things. If you work all day, the last thing you want to do is spend more time making up a menu and hunting down what might be exotic ingredients.

However, as more people are exposed to a variety of cuisines, and as it becomes easier to purchase formerly rare foodstuffs, the trend towards more flavorful cooking grows. As an example, we didn’t have many takers at the restaurant when we started doing East Indian and Thai specials on Tuesdays. After a few months, we were sold out before we even finished cooking that night’s special. We even had people come in and request certain things that they had tried at home and liked.

There will always be Americans that eat bland food, and there will always be places it’s impossible to get a good taco (or any other cuisine perceived as “ethnic”), but there’s also a lot of really good food out there.

34

Try http://www.epicurious.com. It has more of what you are looking for. Like 6 different recipes for horseradish mashed potatoes.

35

I second the epicurious recommendation – their site is fantastic for food snobs. in fact, pardon me while I go over there and figure out what to make for dinner tonight.

Daniel
who adored blue cheese as a kid

36

Might just be her. A lovely person, but with a down-right bizarrely restricted diet ( some for health reasons, admittedly ). She doesn’t eat pizza or standard Americanized Chinese for godsakes.

Thinking about it, it must just be her - Who doesn’t eat pizza :D?

  • Tamerlane
37

I think “American food” does tend to be bland, and I’ll even define what I think of as “American food” - diner food. The dishes I would expect an “American restaurant” in a foreign country to serve. Steak, pork chops, roast beef, pot roast, mashed or baked potatos, etc. Of course, that has nothing to do with most Americans preferring bland food- Thai (or Indian or Chinese or Italian, etc) dishes don’t suddenly become American dishes because those cuisines are popular in America.

38

Many American children. Do you think kids in Latin America or South or Southeast Asia eat chicken nuggets, or have Mom make them separate food from what the rest of the family is eating? My aforementioned Salvadoran college roomie ate chili peppers, etc. from early childhood, and I can’t imagine a small child being able to demand a different diet than everyone else in that culture.

Oddly enough, she is now the one with an extremely picky English-born 2-year-old who will only eat bland things that are breaded and frozen, or so she thinks. My gut feling on it, though, having seen how she treats him at mealtime, is that his pickiness would rapidly disappear if she didn’t cater to it.

39

But I think a lot of Americans do see all of those cuisines as being “American”. I know as a kid I was eating salsa before I was eating chicken nuggets. Tex-Mex is more a part of my identity as an American than pot roast will ever be (Robb Walsh wrote a good six part history about Tex-Mex). Spring rolls and lemongrass “fajitas” have always had firm spots in my American cuisine, but I can’t remember the last time I ate a baked potato.

Now that my 80 year old grandmother serves spring rolls along with the Thanksgiving turkey, then I think it’s safe to say that American cuisine is more than just beef and potatoes.

40

I was born and raised in Indiana. I grew up in the 1970s in Indiana on spicy spaghetti, spicier chili, tacos, burritos, hot peanut sauce chicken, in addition to burgers, pot roast, and turkey sandwiches.

Anybody who says that American food is automatically bland is just showing off his abysmal ignorance of American food.