S/O: What explains the Midwestern palate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you never been to the Midwest? People there eat all kinds of food, including "spicy" or "exotic" food native to other countries.

There are plenty of restaurants too.

This is fairly recent in most non urban metro parts of the Midwest. Anyone age 40+ would have had much more limited options unless in a major city.

I’m from a small town, and while there wasn’t a huge variety within my actual town limits, the general, drive-able area actually had a lot in the late 70s/early 80s. A Greek restaurant, BBQ, an Amish restaurant, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, and a New York style pizza parlor (family owned, not a chain). I’m not saying it was as much as a city, but even the Marsh chain of grocery stores was carrying sushi before I moved out of the Midwest. The grocery stores when I visit home are fully stocked with the same few aisles of “ethnic foods” as you would find most places out here, with entire separate Latino markets. It’s stupid to generalize “the Midwest,” even.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you never been to the Midwest? People there eat all kinds of food, including "spicy" or "exotic" food native to other countries.

There are plenty of restaurants too.

This is fairly recent in most non urban metro parts of the Midwest. Anyone age 40+ would have had much more limited options unless in a major city.

Yep. My parents moved to a Big 10 college town in 1977, and told me they had to drive 30 minutes to a larger town to go to a Chinese restaurant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Michigan. We ate a lot of food that had no taste. Very little seasoning was used. Generally nothing beyond salt and pepper. Every dinner had an iceberg lettuce salad with bottled dressing; canned vegetables (usually green beans, corn, or peas) and/or a starch (usually fried potatoes or boiled new potatoes); and a meat -- meatloaf, cubed steak, steak on the grill, ground beef cooked in a pan with onions, chicken pieces tossed in flour w/ deminimis salt and pepper. Once in a while we veered off and had tacos (with hard corn shells from a "kit") or spaghetti with bottled sauce and garlic bread from the frozen foods section of the store. My entire family wouldn't eat fish because it tastes "fishy." They were disgusted when a hibachi restaurant came to town and I ordered some sushi. Potlucks meant a 7 layer salad (iceberg lettuce, peas, red onion, bacon bits, shredded cheese, and all of this sealed with a layer of mayo). I don't know why this is how we ate, but the midwestern palate is definitely a thing; fwiw my family were many generations removed from immigration (most of my ancestors are Scots, English, Irish, or, to a lesser extent, German).

.

I could have written this word for word. I’d add hot dog night with rippled potato chips and canned beans with fried onions sprinkled on top.

I am from Nebraska and I grew up in the 60s and 70s. But here’s the thing my relatives who also grew up eating that and still live in Nebraska are very adventuresome eaters now in their 40s and 50s because life has changed and globalization, you know? it would’ve been a big ask to expect my parents to feed us South Indian food and sushi in 1973 in Nebraska but my family certainly eats that now.

This is why I am sort of irritated when ultra sophisticated people on DCUM from worldly places like Paramus New Jersey and Merion PA mock the Midwestern palate of 1955. You were eating that, too, if you were Euro-American. Even in LA. Please stop pretending that locally sources artichokes and freshly made pesto graced your table as you watched Electric Company

Haha! My mother (in the Midwest) tried to get me to eat pesto as a child. I apparently refused everything but tuna sandwiches and Cheerios.

[Anonymous]

Grew up in CA. Lived in Iowa for a couple of years in the 1980s. There was very, very little choice in fresh vegetables is what I recall. They grow few, and the same, crops on huge farms. Soybeans, corn, wheat. So tons of corn for sale in summer
Not like western/PNW farms with lots of variety. Also seemed to be little interest in dining, gourmet food, vegetarian food, little to no ethnic dining. Nothing like a place to get a slice of pizza. Traditionally no Italian/Jewish influences like on east coast. Also lived on east coast in the same decade: more interest in fresh fish, dining as something social to do. Midwest more beer drinking; east coast, cocktails.

[Anonymous]

I imagine the summers in the Midwest are great for harvesting root veggies and pickling and fermenting cabbages etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to point out, especially to the fool who thought the copy/paste from reddit had any merit to it, that what people like to mock as "bland midwestern" was pretty much the same across the entire United States until fairly recently. And actually still is. And plenty of people up and down the East Coast eat the same casseroles and meat and potato diet.

It's popular for certain people to mock the midwest probably because they get a self-righteous thrill mocking "white bread" people. But, of course, they're only ignorant and childish and, when you get down to it, outright stupid.

I agree. When people describe the "midwest" as OP has, they mean it as an insult and have no idea they are describing multiple states with different foods, nationalities represented, etc. Ignorant OP wants to put hundreds of thousands of people in a box and stereotype just like people stereotype "the blacks" as though they are all the same. ops premise seems to be that the FMV is some sort of food mecca. It is not.News flash OP..when I moved to DC 25 years ago, DC had fewer Michelin star restaurants than my Midwest city I came ftom. Now, apart from expensive fine dining, DC has nothing to write home about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grew up in CA. Lived in Iowa for a couple of years in the 1980s. There was very, very little choice in fresh vegetables is what I recall. They grow few, and the same, crops on huge farms. Soybeans, corn, wheat. So tons of corn for sale in summer
Not like western/PNW farms with lots of variety. Also seemed to be little interest in dining, gourmet food, vegetarian food, little to no ethnic dining. Nothing like a place to get a slice of pizza. Traditionally no Italian/Jewish influences like on east coast. Also lived on east coast in the same decade: more interest in fresh fish, dining as something social to do. Midwest more beer drinking; east coast, cocktails.

Your memory is faulty or limited then. My husband's family is from Iowa and he grew up on garden grown tomatoes, squash, green beans, cucumbers, etc and plenty of fresh corn all summer long. It's too bad your family didn't figure out how to garden like so many others did. Gardening was a hobby. And of course grocery stores had produce departments even way back in the 1980s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grew up in CA. Lived in Iowa for a couple of years in the 1980s. There was very, very little choice in fresh vegetables is what I recall. They grow few, and the same, crops on huge farms. Soybeans, corn, wheat. So tons of corn for sale in summer
Not like western/PNW farms with lots of variety. Also seemed to be little interest in dining, gourmet food, vegetarian food, little to no ethnic dining. Nothing like a place to get a slice of pizza. Traditionally no Italian/Jewish influences like on east coast. Also lived on east coast in the same decade: more interest in fresh fish, dining as something social to do. Midwest more beer drinking; east coast, cocktails.

Your memory is faulty or limited then. My husband's family is from Iowa and he grew up on garden grown tomatoes, squash, green beans, cucumbers, etc and plenty of fresh corn all summer long. It's too bad your family didn't figure out how to garden like so many others did. Gardening was a hobby. And of course grocery stores had produce departments even way back in the 1980s.

I know Gen-X person in Iowa who grew up on a farm similar to your husband’s family but they won’t eat any fresh vegetables. The irony is that they is studying to be a healthcare professional, which is super weird to me because I would have thought there would have been some nutrition classes, but I guess not.

[Anonymous]

Don’t people garden and can there? Isn’t the Midwest more rural in overall. Sure there are cities…but more small towns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean…what explains Marylanders eating crabs?

I'm originally from CA. I love MD crabs with old bay. What are you talking about?

Outside the college towns and larger metro areas in the midwest, I doubt there's much variety.

My spouse is from the UK, and when they were growing up, they ate the typical meat and two veg dinners. Not much use of spices back then. Of course, today is very different. Curry is the national food now in the UK.

My spouse said that back in the day (like 40 years ago?), a lot of non city people also thought putting garlic in your food was kind of weird. When spouse's mom started getting more adventurous with cooking, spouse would take that for lunch, and their friends would find it weird. Obviously, times have changed there, but I think their past with different spices is why the UK used to be known as "where taste buds go to die". Again, not like that today.

I imagine that is how it is anywhere outside of college towns and large metro areas. People just aren't used to different ethnic foods. As much as my ILs have eaten curry, Chinese and Thai food, they still had some food issues with other ethnic type foods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grew up in CA. Lived in Iowa for a couple of years in the 1980s. There was very, very little choice in fresh vegetables is what I recall. They grow few, and the same, crops on huge farms. Soybeans, corn, wheat. So tons of corn for sale in summer
Not like western/PNW farms with lots of variety. Also seemed to be little interest in dining, gourmet food, vegetarian food, little to no ethnic dining. Nothing like a place to get a slice of pizza. Traditionally no Italian/Jewish influences like on east coast. Also lived on east coast in the same decade: more interest in fresh fish, dining as something social to do. Midwest more beer drinking; east coast, cocktails.

Your memory is faulty or limited then. My husband's family is from Iowa and he grew up on garden grown tomatoes, squash, green beans, cucumbers, etc and plenty of fresh corn all summer long. It's too bad your family didn't figure out how to garden like so many others did. Gardening was a hobby. And of course grocery stores had produce departments even way back in the 1980s.

I know Gen-X person in Iowa who grew up on a farm similar to your husband’s family but they won’t eat any fresh vegetables. The irony is that they is studying to be a healthcare professional, which is super weird to me because I would have thought there would have been some nutrition classes, but I guess not.

And plenty of kids exposed to a variety of fruits and vegetables won't eat them either. There's usually some anxiety or other issue at play, not just lack of exposure. Health care professionals aren't all paragons of health and nutrition, even when they know better.

[Anonymous]

Answering OP, I think it’s the influence of lots of dairy.

In a lot of cuisines or dishes Spice =/= creamy

Yes, some cultures combine the two. But mainly, you see sour cream or cheese calming down or acting opposite the spice.

Northern/Midwest is dairy land. Heavy availability of cheese, creamy canned products, sour cream, cream cheese made the entire culture go in the anti-spice direction. If there is spice, it’s tempered with dairy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grew up in CA. Lived in Iowa for a couple of years in the 1980s. There was very, very little choice in fresh vegetables is what I recall. They grow few, and the same, crops on huge farms. Soybeans, corn, wheat. So tons of corn for sale in summer
Not like western/PNW farms with lots of variety. Also seemed to be little interest in dining, gourmet food, vegetarian food, little to no ethnic dining. Nothing like a place to get a slice of pizza. Traditionally no Italian/Jewish influences like on east coast. Also lived on east coast in the same decade: more interest in fresh fish, dining as something social to do. Midwest more beer drinking; east coast, cocktails.

Your memory is faulty or limited then. My husband's family is from Iowa and he grew up on garden grown tomatoes, squash, green beans, cucumbers, etc and plenty of fresh corn all summer long. It's too bad your family didn't figure out how to garden like so many others did. Gardening was a hobby. And of course grocery stores had produce departments even way back in the 1980s.

I know Gen-X person in Iowa who grew up on a farm similar to your husband’s family but they won’t eat any fresh vegetables. The irony is that they is studying to be a healthcare professional, which is super weird to me because I would have thought there would have been some nutrition classes, but I guess not.

And plenty of kids exposed to a variety of fruits and vegetables won't eat them either. There's usually some anxiety or other issue at play, not just lack of exposure. Health care professionals aren't all paragons of health and nutrition, even when they know better.

Anxiety over vegetables? For real?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you never been to the Midwest? People there eat all kinds of food, including "spicy" or "exotic" food native to other countries.

There are plenty of restaurants too.

This is fairly recent in most non urban metro parts of the Midwest. Anyone age 40+ would have had much more limited options unless in a major city.

I’m from a small town, and while there wasn’t a huge variety within my actual town limits, the general, drive-able area actually had a lot in the late 70s/early 80s. A Greek restaurant, BBQ, an Amish restaurant, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, and a New York style pizza parlor (family owned, not a chain). I’m not saying it was as much as a city, but even the Marsh chain of grocery stores was carrying sushi before I moved out of the Midwest. The grocery stores when I visit home are fully stocked with the same few aisles of “ethnic foods” as you would find most places out here, with entire separate Latino markets. It’s stupid to generalize “the Midwest,” even.

Well, my hometown in Kansas had one Mexican restaurant, and one Chinese restaurant. No place had sushi, ever. This was in the 1980s and 1990s.

Your experience may not be shared by many OP. Several of my old friends had never even tried Chinese food, because their parents weren't interested.

[Anonymous]

Good question. I have no idea. I'm from a small midwestern city. I like all kinds of foods and cook food from various different cultures at home. But I have noticed that if I'm cooking a basic meal, I mean a meat, starch, and veg dinner, my food is blander than my east coast friends. I also like to make casseroles. I have to purposefully spice it up with a sauce or something if I'm having a DC friend over for dinner.
I think maybe it's just that you cook like you learned growing up. Even in my midwestern hometown we have lots of immigrants and within a half hour drive, you can go to restaurants from all over the world. I'd venture to say that even among my friends back home who go out and eat more flavorful things, they still come home and cook casseroles or basic seasoned dishes.