# Multi-ethnic foods **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007 "2010-03-19T14:01:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/1 "2010-03-19T14:01:57Z")
The mention of “corned beef” evokes two different associations: Jewish Delis and Irish-Americans on St. Patrick’s Day. What other foods are associated with multiple ethnic cuisines? ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/2 "2010-03-19T14:08:40Z")
Rice ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/3 "2010-03-19T14:10:01Z")
If it happens, the same food may have different names because it’s coming from different linguistic groups, e.g.: - [Döner kebab](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B6ner_kebab) – from the Turkic language Turkish - [Gyros](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyros) – from the Indo-European language Greek - [Shawarma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawarma) – from the Semitic language Arabic (They may have diverse languages and cultures in that region, but they share a lot of cuisine). ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/4 "2010-03-19T14:10:50Z")
Cumin is all up in Mexican food, and it’s also all up in Indian food. Which is weird. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/5 "2010-03-19T14:21:19Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Cumin is all up in Mexican food, and it’s also all up in Indian food. Which is weird. Why is that weird? Various spice routes existed in Asia (which includes India), and connected to Europe. Europeans explorers (Columbus, De Gama, Cortez - to name a few) visited Mexico. Guess what they brought with them? Spice. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/6 "2010-03-19T15:04:50Z")
Curry? I mean I know “curry” really refers to a blend of spices but my two favorite dishes are Indian curry and Thai curry and they taste nothing alike. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/7 "2010-03-19T15:36:55Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Cumin is all up in Mexican food, and it’s also all up in Indian food. Which is weird. What I’m curious about is that cumin is not really used in Mexico much, but is a defining feature of Tex-Mex cuisine. I’m wondering if anyone knows the history of why such heavy use of the spice developed in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/8 "2010-03-19T15:51:32Z")
pies? meat vs fruit. dumplings? southern vs far eastern tea? souther sweet tea vs earl grey vs oolong ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/9 "2010-03-19T15:54:10Z")
[BBQ Spaghetti](http://soulfusionkitchen.blogspot.com/2009/02/bbq-spaghetti.html) ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/10 "2010-03-19T17:14:10Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > dumplings? southern vs far eastern What are “southern dumplings”? Do you mean like those little noodle balls in chicken soup? I have trouble thinking of those as dumplings, to me that only means the Chinese (or Asian) style of “stuff wrapped in a thin sheet of dough into a crescent shape and then steamed/boiled/fried”. I was surprised to find out not too long ago (possibly on the SDMB) that cilantro is heavily used in Asian and Mexican cuisines in very different ways. Mainly because I knew the term in Chinese (“xiang cai”, or “fragrant vegetable”, aka “Chinese parsley” in English) and had no idea that was EXACTLY the same thing as cilantro. In fact looking it up on Wikipedia, it seems it’s also “coriander”, which I didn’t know was the same thing until _just now_. I think of coriander as a ground up plant-fruit spice (like peppercorns) heavily featured in Indian food, and had no idea it was the fruit of the same plant as cilantro/Chinese Parsley. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/11 "2010-03-19T17:28:16Z")
apple dumplings, chicken and dumplings, pierogis, ravioli, gyoza are all dumplings to me. i don’t see why the chinese get to monopolize the word for “stuff wrapped in a thin sheet of dough, [folded] into a crescent shape, and steam/boiled/fried”. \*i am in fact chinese, and do love the chinese dumplings the best out of the many variations. oh, and as for “barbeque” … to some it means a cookout, others pulled pork, or the sauce on the pork, and still others grilled foods in general. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/12 "2010-03-19T18:24:18Z")
How about southern fried pies and Mexican empanadas? BBQ spaghetti is a Memphis staple. I think the widespread use of flatbreads is interesting–tortillas, pitas, naan, etc. And weinerschnitzel/chicken fried steak/milanesa—I guess those all come from the German influence on Texas & Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/13 "2010-03-20T01:38:07Z")
For me, but probably not most Americans, a “Thai” satay. It’s both Thai and Malay. Anything with peanut sauce was borrowed from Malaysia; it was not Thai originally. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/14 "2010-03-20T01:47:34Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Curry? > > I mean I know “curry” really refers to a blend of spices but my two favorite dishes are Indian curry and Thai curry and they taste nothing alike. And [Japanese curry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_curry) is not very close to either of those. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/15 "2010-03-20T02:09:28Z")
Baklava is both a Greek and an Afghani dessert. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/16 "2010-03-20T02:33:40Z")
I always think of Lox and Bagels as being Jewish food, though it’s probably more associated with NYC than Jews ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/17 "2010-03-20T02:40:56Z")
Noodles. Is there anything as ubiquitous as noodles? ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/18 "2010-03-20T03:28:18Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > What I’m curious about is that cumin is not really used in Mexico much, but is a defining feature of Tex-Mex cuisine. I’m wondering if anyone knows the history of why such heavy use of the spice developed in Texas. Well, I’ve only lived a stone’s throw from the Mexican border for about a year, but my sweetie grew up here, he’s only 3rd generation American \ and…they use cumin all the time. His mom has a cumin SHELF, with various types that she got from this or that relative, ground different ways…yeah. Mexicans use cumin. A LOT. Oh, and we’re nowhere near Texas. The Mexican cuisine here varies not one whit from 100 miles past the border into Mexico. Tex-Mex may indeed use lots of cumin, but so do Mexicans, I promise. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/19 "2010-03-20T03:35:54Z")
Smoked salmon is a good one. The cold-smoked type shows up in Jewish, Scandinavian, Scottish and Russian food in my experience, but I’ve also had a Native American version that’s sugar-cured and then hot-smoked (my friend called it “Indian Candy”, but I have no idea whether this is the common name for it). There’s also Scandinavian gravlax, which is cured with salt and herbs instead of smoked, but has a similar sort of texture. > [@bmoak](#): > > Baklava is both a Greek and an Afghani dessert. Baklava is found almost everywhere in the Mediterranean and Middle East, due to the influence of the former Ottoman Empire. I’ve seen Turkish, Persian and Lebanese versions as well, and I’m sure that’s just a small sampling. ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007/20 "2010-03-20T04:19:44Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Well, I’ve only lived a stone’s throw from the Mexican border for about a year, but my sweetie grew up here, he’s only 3rd generation American \ and…they use cumin all the time. His mom has a cumin SHELF, with various types that she got from this or that relative, ground different ways…yeah. Mexicans use cumin. A LOT. > > Oh, and we’re nowhere near Texas. The Mexican cuisine here varies not one whit from 100 miles past the border into Mexico. > Tex-Mex may indeed use lots of cumin, but so do Mexicans, I promise. I am Mexican and cumin is used very little and only for a few dishes in Central México. De veras. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multi-ethnic-foods/533007.md?page=2)