Reply to S/O: What explains the Midwestern palate?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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). [/quote].

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.  [b]Please stop pretending that locally sources artichokes and freshly made pesto graced your table as you watched Electric Company[/b] [/quote]

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.  :roll: [/quote]

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