I would assume that you could mesh the two terms together (Mexican and Native American) because the similarity of their diet and ancestory. We pretty much only call it Mexican food because of the country, not because of the uniqueness in the diet?
That’s a WAG but it makes sense to me.
BTW, a pork stew, aka Green Chile, with a side of warm tortillas and refried beans sounds really good right now.
And a side note…there is a restaurant here in my city called Navajo Hogans…it’s “Mexican Food.” Big old sign with a chief on it outside. It’s pretty good and every time I have been there I an excellent meal. (so, I guess the Chief took in an Austrailian wife and started selling food and drink.)
There were Native Americans that didn’t eat any of those, except possibly turkey (I don’t think it was native to the northwest, but I could be wrong).
I once looked into the diet of the northwest coast peoples. While they hunted deer and wapiti (elk), their main protein source was salmon and other fish. Fresh in season, dried otherwise. They didn’t salt the dried fish, but flavored them with various berries such as salal and Oregon grape. Even with the flavoring, I don’t think anyone would characterize dried fish as a gustatory delight.
In terms of plants, the two main staples were camas and wappato. Camas is a type of lily bulb that needs to be baked for a couple days before eating. The baking breaks down a tasteless starch named inulin and makes it taste good. Wappato is a rhizome tuber that grows in shallow pools. It can be eaten immediately and is reportedly very tasty. It has a long shelflife (months) and can be harvested throughout most of the year.
Well we do still eat salmon and the other fish, but they never domesticated the plants and they aren’t eaten much anymore, not even by the members of the tribes. I’ve been wondering why salal isn’t grown for food or perhaps wine. The berries are delicious. I understand that it’s mainly grown as a decorative plant.
As my username shows, I used to live out your way, Kamandi.
The only place in the Seattle area I can think of with Native American-themed food is Tillicum Village. A boat ride from the waterfront would take you out to a longhouse on Blake Island, where you’d stuff yourself will salmon baked the traditional way and then watch some spectacular native dancing. If the place is still open, it’s well worth making the excursion.
The first Sami restaurant in Oslo, to the best of my knowledge, only opened its doors last year. I haven’t been there yet… but I’ve been told the food is good but the menu is a bit repetitive. They stick to things ethnic Norwegians would recognize, which means lots of reindeer and fish dishes, plus a bit of whatever game is in season. Mind you, I loves me some reindeer
Of course, ethnic Norwegian food is also surprisingly hard to find in this town…
</hijack>
I guess they had a few problems back in the old days that meant ‘cuisine’ wasn’t really within their compass.
Firstly, I believe many of the native tribes migrated seasonally – that would probably exclude (what we would understand to be) conventional farming. So, livestock and crops wouldn’t figure too much – they’d rely on what they could gather and hunt locally. This probably means there is a tribal tradition rather than a ‘Native American’ tradition.
Then. they had no trade. So the rich range of spices we later included in cooking weren’t available nor were many herbs.
Also, I believe they spent so much time hunting the damn animals that, by the end, they’d eat just about anything. No reason to believe they’d be too fussy anyway as they wouldn’t have any frame of reference by which to gauge what was on offer.
You could also throw in very limited ‘kitchenware’ – probably a couple of pots, very basic utensils – a knife, and the fact that elaborate cooking meant gathering more and more firewood.
With all of that to do, I think I’d probably settle for a large chunk of meat turned on a spit with something that looked vaguely green from the local woods.
I imagine the answer also has something to do with the fact that they usually ate to survive rather than as a pleasant culinary experience - a necessary function rather than a pleasure.
I have heard rumours that bison farming is a fast-growing industry in Canada (along with elk farming).
(In my experience, deer is nowhere near as tasty as moose. Anybody know where I can get some good moose meat?)
So, why is there no chain of “Chief Cherokee’s Powwow Restaurants - Free Fry Bread With Every Meal” dotting this great entrepeneurial land of ours?
Their cultures and diets are too varied to distill down to a single “Native American” cuisine. That hasn’t stopped Chinese or Italian themed restos.
They were either migratory, shoved off their native land by Europeans, or too busy hunting to come up with a tasty cuisine in the first place. Nonsense. Various tribes have been here for tens of thousands of years. Has all that culture been lost?
(Let’s see if a newbie can get this right…) Hi, Opal!
Natives wouldn’t allow their culture to be exploited in such a crass and commercial way. Are you kidding? Why would they be any different than anyone else?
Native cuisine has already been submerged into our culture. Good point. But that doesn’t stop someone from opening a tacky theme resto.
Mexican cuisine is representative of all Native cuisine. Nope. Do Mexicans eat seal?
My guess is that other minorty-themed restaurants (Italian, Chinese, etc) developed out of the various minority “ghettos” (not used in the perjorative sense - please do not flame) of large cities. For example, many cities have a “Chinatown”, formed originally by immigrant workers. This has obvious advantages for the immigrant - familiar culture, language, and places to eat. One day, a yuppie of no particular ancestry (YONPA) wanders into Chinatown looking for cultural diversity. Sees odd-looking restaurant. Being an adventurous sort, he eats there. “Yum!”, YONPA says. “I’ll bet all my friends would love this stuff. But they’d never come all the way to Chinatown because they’re not as adventurous as me. I’ll open a restaurant in my neighborhood and serve this stuff. But not before I change it all to make it safe for the less adventurous.”
Alternate story: immigrant entrepeneur, seeing the success of restaurants in his local area, expands the operation into neighborhoods not dominated by his own culture. A few years later, 3000 Taco Bells and one annoying chiuahua.
The trouble with applying this model to Native Americans (apart from Mexicans): no concentrations of Natives in cities. They’ve all been pushed onto reservations or assimilated into non-Native culture.
Actually, I had always heard (not a reassuringingly well-documented way to start a sentence, I know) that American Chinese food is so different from the food in China itself b/c the people who started cooking it in this country were the male laborers (railroad builders, etc.,–i.e., not master chefs or even housewives w/cooking experience) and that they were just cooking what they were able to cook and what they sort of vaguely remembered home cooking to be like.
I agree with most of your post, but this last part doesn’t seem quite accurate to me. Having lived in 5 different cities across the Canadian West, I can vouch for the fact that natives have not all been pushed onto reservations or assimilated. Not even close. I think you’re right about the assimilation playing a big part in the lack of a particular type of food that can be labelled as Native North American. Having dated a Canadian Indian and eaten in his family’s home, I can say that most of the food this family eats is what everyone else eats, with the occasional wild game thrown in. I would be curious to hear from some Canadian natives about why there doesn’t seem to be a “Native North American Cuisine”.
Having grown up in Utah I remember several Native American themed eateries. All were south western cuisine, Navajo etc. I can think of several reasons why you can find them in the West while you might have a difficult time finding them in say New Jersey.
1- Population Distribution. A quick look at the 1990 Census map showing American Indians (their term), shows them to make up a significan portion in only a small number of counties in the US. Mostly in the west and almost exclusively in rural areas http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/americanindian.jpg
compare this to http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/asian.jpg
and http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/asian.jpg
Therefore you would expect whatever restaurants do exist to be concentrated in and around the 4 corners area, Oklahoma, and the Dakotas. And unlike asian and hispanic restaurants there would be virtually none in major metro areas such as San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. As in comparison a much smaller concentration exists of Native Americans in Metor areas.
2- Population Mass. Annother look this time at 2000 Census data reveals the following:
75.1% White persons
12.3% Black or African American persons
0.9% American Indian and Alaska Native persons
3.6% Asian persons, percent, 2000 (a) 3.6%
0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
5.5% Persons reporting some other race
2.4% Persons reporting two or more races
12.5% Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
So one might expect a lot fewer restaurants based on population alone.
3- Hi Opal, from annother relative newcomer.
4- Previous Aculturation. As several people have mentioned a lot of “American” foods are actually largely derivitive from native cultures. Including but not limited to corn, potatoes, turkey, cranberries, salmon etc. Very few restaurants are going to be able to open a Native American restraunt themed in Ohio serving food you can find in every diner.
5- Familiarity vs Exoticness. Those few native restraunts that do exist either fill a niche based on either their proximity to known styles, the many Navajo Taco stands. Or they accentuate how exotic they are, such as a wild game themed restraunt. For the former they are just too normal to make a huge penetration most people will go to Taco Bell rather than Navajo Taco Bell. The other tends to have a much higher expense, venison and buffalo are generally several times more expensive than beef. So they tend toward pricier and more upscale, such as The Fort Restraunt just southwest of Denver.
Having grown up in Utah I remember several Native American themed eateries. All were south western cuisine, Navajo etc. I can think of several reasons why you can find them in the West while you might have a difficult time finding them in say New Jersey.
1- Population Distribution. A quick look at the 1990 Census map showing American Indians (their term), shows them to make up a significan portion in only a small number of counties in the US. Mostly in the west and almost exclusively in rural areas http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/americanindian.jpg
compare this to http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/asian.jpg
and http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/asian.jpg
Therefore you would expect whatever restaurants do exist to be concentrated in and around the 4 corners area, Oklahoma, and the Dakotas. And unlike asian and hispanic restaurants there would be virtually none in major metro areas such as San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. As in comparison a much smaller concentration exists of Native Americans in Metor areas.
2- Population Mass. Annother look this time at 2000 Census data reveals the following:
75.1% White persons
12.3% Black or African American persons
0.9% American Indian and Alaska Native persons
3.6% Asian persons, percent, 2000 (a) 3.6%
0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
5.5% Persons reporting some other race
2.4% Persons reporting two or more races
12.5% Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
So one might expect a lot fewer restaurants based on population alone.
3- Hi Opal, from annother relative newcomer.
4- Previous Aculturation. As several people have mentioned a lot of “American” foods are actually largely derivitive from native cultures. Including but not limited to corn, potatoes, turkey, cranberries, salmon etc. Very few restaurants are going to be able to open a Native American restraunt themed in Ohio serving food you can find in every diner.
5- Familiarity vs Exoticness. Those few native restraunts that do exist either fill a niche based on either their proximity to known styles, the many Navajo Taco stands. Or they accentuate how exotic they are, such as a wild game themed restraunt. For the former they are just too normal to make a huge penetration most people will go to Taco Bell rather than Navajo Taco Bell. The other tends to have a much higher expense, venison and buffalo are generally several times more expensive than beef. So they tend toward pricier and more upscale, such as The Fort Restraunt just southwest of Denver.
Thank you, Bartman, and everyone. Your efforts to respond to my question are most appreciated. This kind of discourse is what makes the web and the SDMB great.
Now I’ve got to get to Calgary and check out Chief Chiniki’s. And Alki: I’d already planned to visit Tilicum Village when the weather gets better.
Uhmmm…smoked dry salmon the way the Gwich’in people in Dawson City do it is DELICIOUS, and I don’t even like fish.
Oh, and London_Calling, as a matter of fact there were quite extensive trade networks, and herbs and spices were used. Just not the ones you may be used to. Sorrel, goosefoot, fireweed, sassafrass, hickory, and juniper are a few examples.
Believe you me, they enjoyed their food. Descriptions of potlatches recorded by early whites definitely says that. Enjoy it if you have enough and the leisure to do so, otherwise it’s back to scrounging fuel for the body.
Eh, the Yukon’s big problem in doing exactly that restaurant idea is that those pesky feds have some sort of regulations about how you get the meat you feed the public. One elk farm, and no abbatoir for 2000 miles. Not cost-effective. AFAIK, nobody’s farming moose, muskox, or caribou yet, which would give the restaurant a consistent supply of meat. Also no farms for Canada geese, swans, ptarmigan, or grouse.
As to the natives themselves - most of the ones I know don’t eat much country food unless they’re out on the land. Much easier (and much more cool) to eat like your typical city folk. I had friends in school that felt embarrassed to be bringing dry meat and bannock for lunch. Unfortunately, city folk diet is REALLY REALLY bad for native metabolisms, there is speculation that it is a good part of the reason why the instances of diabetes and obesity are spiralling out of control.
Featherlou, come visit me. I got a nice big moose roast and some ribs in the freezer, waiting for the right occasion.
But it’s probably recently dried, right? It still has lots of the oils that give it the flavor. Try one that was dried 5 or 6 months ago and stored in the rafters of the house. It’s now hard as a rock because most of the oils have evaporated. (It has to be soaked for a while to make it edible.)
Salmon runs are usually short (a week or two at most) and the fish they caught might have to last several months until the next run.
[Yukon hijack]
[homer simpson] moose roast…ahhh(saliva dripping)[/homer simpson]
My fiance and I are seriously discussing going north for our honeymoon next summer - how’s the end of August around there? And how about Snow Goose farms? That might help alleviate the Snow Goose problem :)[/Yukon hijack]
