American here (Italian-American, if that's my "native cuisine"). I'm married to a Vietnamese guy.

We make a big range of foods. Not sure what you mean by "American" food, but I don't think we eat it often.

That said, it's way WAY easier to get good Vietnamese ingredients around here than it is to get good Italian ingredients.

I shop 80% at the Korean Grocery (lotte to be exact). The ingredients are not really the issue, but the access to fresh herbs and vegetables. For one, I cannot believe what Americans hardly cook with fresh herbs..they use those sad dried herbs for $6 a bottle-blech! Also, Americans selection of fresh vegetables is pretty bad...you all have maybe 5 vegetables you use in any sort of quantity, which are broccoli, green beans, carrots (poor little sad ones shaped like mini-turds), bell peppers (boring!), and Lettuce. Americans much have some pretty serious colon issues hardly eating any vegetables.

So, yes, I cook 90% of my ethnic food at home-though I'm a naturalized citizen, been here since I was 5. I like a good American burger from time to time or sometimes cook a whole Turkey. I like Thanksgiving food, but eating that daily would kill you.

Anonymous wrote:

OP here and this is sort of what I meant... Obviously I am aware of ethnic aisles at mainstream stores but I know they cannot possibly carry lots of what someone would be used to getting in their home country. So my question was, do you find a way to get your home ingredients or make due with grocery store options, or just forgo cooking a lot of your favorite dishes due to being unable to authentically recreate them here.

I don't understand this question.
The DC metro area is filled with ethnic grocery stores, not just the aisles in regular grocery stores. I have been to individual stores specializing in Indian, Ethiopian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Russian, Iranian and Latin American cuisines, to name a few. They all sell foods imported from the respective countries. I have no problem cooking my authentic native foods here. Anything I cannot find at these stores can be purchased online.
I certainly dont have to 'make do' because I can't find 'authentic' ingredients here.

Can't even find good black bread.Some things can be bought from a Russian store in Rockville though.
We just do without and eat like crazy when we go back home.

Rodmans.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the more "mainstream" grocery stores sell "ethnic" foods. Even the Safeway sells Queso Fresco.

Not for us, we go to the nearest African store to buy things that one can't find in the "ethnic" aisle at Safeway and the like. We buy igname, attieke, special types of beans, favorite brand of evaporated milk, super ripe plaintains, sugar cubes etc

OP here and this is sort of what I meant... Obviously I am aware of ethnic aisles at mainstream stores but I know they cannot possibly carry lots of what someone would be used to getting in their home country. So my question was, do you find a way to get your home ingredients or make due with grocery store options, or just forgo cooking a lot of your favorite dishes due to being unable to authentically recreate them here.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to Amazon and Wegmans I get to serve my native cuisine quite often. I can get most of the right beans, condiments, sauces, even desserts. The most difficult thing to find is the proper sort of banger for toad-in-the-hole, but I get by

I left England to get away from toad-in-the-hole. No way would I try to recreate it here.

Egyptian. American spouse. We eat about 80% Egyptian food.

Thanks to Amazon and Wegmans I get to serve my native cuisine quite often. I can get most of the right beans, condiments, sauces, even desserts. The most difficult thing to find is the proper sort of banger for toad-in-the-hole, but I get by

Anonymous wrote:Even the more "mainstream" grocery stores sell "ethnic" foods. Even the Safeway sells Queso Fresco.

Not for us, we go to the nearest African store to buy things that one can't find in the "ethnic" aisle at Safeway and the like. We buy igname, attieke, special types of beans, favorite brand of evaporated milk, super ripe plaintains, sugar cubes etc

Even the more "mainstream" grocery stores sell "ethnic" foods. Even the Safeway sells Queso Fresco.

Agree with 17:34.
We too have two different cuisines at home, and can readily find all we need here in the DC metro area. In addition, I enjoy browsing in different ethnic grocery stores. What we cook regularly is a mix of all these cuisines.

Grits?

I think the ingredients for many "native cuisines" are readily available in specialty stores at least in big metro areas like this one. My husband and I have two different "native cuisines" and we can find most things needed for those cuisines - sometimes the quality is not as good as "back home" but generally you can pretty much recreate the cuisine of home.

If you're not American, what is your native cuisine? And when you cook at home, do you mostly cook those foods or more "American" dishes since the ingredients for those are more readily available in stores?