Dining Guide / U.S. Cuisine

As the US is a melting pot of people with an independent history of just over 200 years, not much of an indigenous cuisine has been developed there. That doesn't mean that the US does not have good food. First-class restaurants in the US serve excellent steaks, an excellent Italian cuisine can be found, and at Fishermen's Wharf in San Francisco, seafood is prepared French style as good as in France herself. But the cooking is not American at these places - it is Italian, French, or originally British.

There are fewer genuine US dishes than genuine French, German, Italian, Polish, Greek, Chinese dishes, and this is reflected on the menus of first-class restaurants anywhere around the world and also in Thailand.

However, a classic US dish that has found recognition from gourmets is Boston clam chowder, a clam soup that also contains potatoes, onions, bacon, milk, and cream, and that is thickened with flour.

Another classic US dish is Caesar salad. It's a lettuce salad in a very tasty dressing of oil, vinegar, egg yolk, mustard, garlic, bacon bits, and Parmesan cheese, garnished with croutons (small cubes of crisp toast).

It is a funny happenstance that this delicious salad is extremely popular in the US and even in Thailand but hardly known in Europe. The reason is that the lettuce grown in Europe (kitchen name: butter lettuce) is not as firm as the species produced in the US (and Thailand); butter lettuce is just not suitable to make Caesar salad because it looses its crispness immediately when mixed with the strong Caesar dressing.

It's a common misconception that Caesar salad originates from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Its origin actually is very typical US tale as Caesar salad is a naturalized immigrant. The true story is that Caesar salad was born in the Mexican border city of Tijuana just below San Diego. There it was accidentally created by a cook who had run out of food but still had a hungry crowd in his restaurant. In his despair he just mixed all that he had left on his shelves and even threw the bread crumbs from former food preparations into the culinary bastard that came to be known as Caesar salad.

But Caesar salad and Boston clam chowder are two distinct single dishes and two dishes do not yet make a cuisine. A cuisine must have an underlying idea that is represented in many dishes - such as the Italian noodle craze or the French sauce philosophy. A Yankee cuisine living up to this judgment has surfaced just a few years ago - heavily aided by a chef of French origin, Paul Prudhomme.

From the beginning of the 80's, Mr Prudhomme has popularized a refined version of the old Louisiana cuisine, better known as Creole or Cajun cooking. "Creole" and "Cajun" means much the same. Both terms are designations for the descendants of French settlers in Louisiana.

Their cooking, however, is not just an offspring of French cuisine. It includes the technique of blackening meat and other food by frying it for a short time in an almost red-hot heavy cast-iron pan. Creole and Cajun cooking also is much spicier than French cuisine. The predominant spice is a slightly sweet red paprika that grows very well in the Southern Mississippi basin.

One of the Creole dishes that appeals to Asians (as it uses rice) is Jambalaya, a modified paella (see Spanish cuisine) that is typically served in a cast-iron skillet.

US cuisine isn't sufficiently discussed by focusing on the contributions it has made so far to international fine dining. The reason is that probably the most influential innovations to man's eating culture made by the US are not in preparing dishes but in efficiently running restaurants.

Serving speed is one such innovation, therefore self-service. Furthermore, dishes are standardized, not only in order to assure the customer that he knows what he is getting but also in order to prepare the food with a comparatively unskilled staff. If the chef doesn't have to pay attention to single orders, he can't get into rush hour trouble that would result in waiting time for the guest.

Several Yankee fast-food chains operate in Thailand; among them are McDonald's, Shakey's, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and there are local competitors who have successfully copied the Yankee fast-food style.