As my time in Washington draws to an end, I’m reflecting on the things I’ve enjoyed about living in the United States. One of the awesome things about life in America is the American breakfast and brunch. If I was to describe America and what makes it uniquely American, I would say that it’s the breakfast. Take for example the classic American diner. A place where you can get breakfast all day, and night, long. What makes breakfast for an American? Eggs. Bacon. Sausage. Biscuits…
Where have I had the best breakfasts in the Washington, DC, area? Hard to say. Here are a few places.
Bob and Edith’s Diner: Classic old school. Maybe not great food but it’s a greasy a spoon as one can find.
Table Talk: Same thing.
Matt and Tony’s: It’s fancier but I liked that I could order a giant breaded chicken breast as a side.
Classic with pancakes, eggs, and bacon.
Sidamo: An Ethiopian coffee shop. Their breakfast sandwich tastes homemade and they decorate the plate with a side of honey covered banana.
Good Company Doughnuts: Really good for meeting up with good company. Their espresso creme doughnut is so good that one French lady I spoke with told me that it was her second day in a row eating there.
Look at the espresso creme!
Another country that has a famous breakfast is Turkiye. More on that later.
Here is part three of the where I got to in my draft book about the history of America told through immigrant food. This is about three sisters.
For the next chapter in American history, we jump a century or so. After Columbus, there were other groups who attempted to conquer the “new land” of the Americas. Columbus had sailed for Spain.
Captain John Smith should get more play in American history as he made a lot of it. On May 14, 1607, he established Jamestown in Virginia. This was the first town of European settlers in the Americas to survive to this day. The earlier attempt at Roanoke failed in 1593. There had been attempts to settle in parts of the coast along what is Virginia today. The “Lost Colony” of Roanoke is a mystery. The 100 settlers left there probably were starving and assimilated with the natives who lived in the area. From 1492 to 1586, there were bloody battles between the natives who lived in America and the privateers/pirates/buckaneers who attempted to claim the land for their kings and queens. They were also looking for gold. When the rumor started that “Eldorado” or the land of gold existed, the race was on. But that is a story about South America. Maybe the subject of a different book.
Some of these explorers include Giovanni da Verrazzano who landed on the American coast in 1524 and in 1578, Queen Elizabeth I granted permission for Sir Humphrey Gilbert to conquer lands “unclaimed by Christian kingdoms.” When he died at sea, his charter was taken over by his brother and half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. There are lots of myths about Sir Walter Raleigh and it makes for imaginative films. Interestingly, he could not leave the queen’s side, so all his “conquering” was done through other men. Roanoke Colony was founded in 1685. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake, returned to England after visiting Roanoke. It was at this time that tobacco, maize, and potatoes to the English court.
But what were the Americans eating? The natives were eating the richness of the land they lived in. They ate mainly corn, beans, and squash. These three are called the “three sisters” but the natives also fished and hunted. The natives in the first encounters with the English were part of the larger Algonquian peoples.
The natives ate many foods that are rare today (porpoise, whale, seal, moose, beaver, and other animals that are still part of the native diet) but they also ate things that we non-natives also eat such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, nuts, scallops, mussels, clams, crabs, trout, bass, flounder, and cod.
The three sisters, maize, beans, and squash (gourds) were planted together and formed part of the mythology of several native cultures including the Seneca Nation.
The Iroquois and the Cherokee called corn, bean, and squash the three sisters’ because they nurture each other like family when planted together. These agriculturalists placed corn in small hills planting beans around them and interspersing squash throughout of the field. Beans naturally absorb nitrogen from the air and convert it to nitrates, fertilizing the soil for the corn and squash. In return, they are supported by winding around the corn stalks. The squash leaves provide ground cover between the corn and beans, preventing weeds from taking over the field. These three plants thrive together better than when they are planted alone.
These are not the food of immigrants. These are the foods of people who were already here. Of course, the immigrants took on the foods that the indigenous people taught them about, told in a dramatic story that is celebrated as Thanksgiving. The Puritans arrived famously on Plymouth Rock in 1620. Modern day America is based on a group who found England to be too lax. No wonder America is so puritanical. But I digress. These puritans are why Americans celebrates Thanksgiving (in Canada it is on the second Monday in October). Thanksgiving in the United States is a big deal. It’s the biggest holiday.
Next time, I may try to make a three sisters salad.
Continuing the history of American food… from last time…
“1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
In the port city of Genoa, as a young boy, Christopher Columbus, helped out at his father’s cheese stand. When Christopher was about 14 years old, he began an apprenticeship with a merchant family. This lead to his career at sea. He moved to Portugal as an adult and eventually convinced Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain to fund his search for a westward route to the Orient — source of the expensive spices, including pepper. Once Columbus saw gold, he wanted gold.
The three ships that Columbus captained were famously the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Actually, they were the Santa Clara, the actual name of the Pinta is unknown, and the Santa Maria. The Nina was the nickname given in honor of the owner, Juan Nino. The Santa Maria’s nickname was the “Gallega” as the boat was built in Galicia. And the Pinta actual means painted one or prostitute.
Whatever one thinks of Columbus, scholars consider his “discovery” of America to be the start of the modern era.
The massive exchange in flora and fauna is called the Columbian Exchange.
Today, we think of Genoa and think of pesto and pasta. More broadly, of Italy, we think of tomatoes and pasta. Here are some of the things that did not exist in Europe at the time: the tomato, the potato, maize/corn, vanilla, cacao, the turkey, and tobacco. And these are some of the things that went FROM the old world to the new world: citrus, apples, bananas, mango, onion, coffee, wheat, and rice. Can you imagine anywhere in the Americas without bananas, rice, and beans?
The United States was not a country at this point. Columbus claimed what he found for Spain. Columbus ate what sailors ate, from dried meats, fish, beans, hardtack (a dried bread), olive oil, wine, cheese, nuts, and it was noted that he was fond of figs. Often to purify foods, they would use vinegar. Columbus landed in what is modern day Caribbean. He noted in his log that the natives ate fish and “bread which tasted exactly as if it were made of chestnuts.” This is an interesting description because in the north of Italy where Columbus was from, they eat, even today, lots of chestnuts. They even make pasta from chestnuts. Chestnuts are easily found whereas wheat is not as easy a product. Perhaps the bread that Columbus had in Hispaniola was made of sweet potato and cassava, two of the mainstays of the Taino Indians who lived on Hispaniola, the island that is today Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This is where Columbus landed.
Columbus would be familiar with the texture of products made from chestnut and sweet potato bread would be similar in sweetness and texture. Today, most people think of the American sweet potato as a bright orange thing used for casserole or pie. It is associated with the South and the African American communities who descended from slavery. There are sweet potatoes that are not orange and do not have as sweet a flavor. The texture is also harder and less like pumpkin. Speaking of pumpkin pie, Jacques Pepin said that growing up in France, he only thought of pumpkin/gourd as a savory food ingredient but once he moved to America, he found out how great it was as a sweet ingredient.
New world foods for sale in Italy.
The Europeans were accustomed to eating carbohydrates in the form of gruel, pottage, pasta, or bread. Columbus was accustomed to a mediterranean diet. On his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus brought things he thought he could eat like wheat, rice, barley, oats, coffee, sugar cane, citrus, melons, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, beef cattle, and other agricultural animals like horses. (As an aside, when horses first arrived with the conquistadors in South America, the natives had never seen them before. If you find yourself in the cathedral in Cusco, Peru, take a look at the horses in the painting. They look look like llamas as the artists had never seen horses before so they painted them like llamas.)
Can you imagine American food without fried chicken and watermelon?
Columbus and his men enjoyed some of the new world foods immediately (such as a corn maize drink called atole which one can still find, or the more well known horchata) but others took many years to become common place foods in Europe. The most famous is the potato which was considered poisonous for many years.
So when America started as a country, it was not one. It was a few islands touched by Columbus and an unknown sphere claimed for the Spanish King and Queen. This map is from Wikipedia but it shows where Columbus may have set foot in Hispaniola and Cuba (Haiti/Dominican Republic and Cuba) but there was no United States yet.
Columbus made four trips to the new world but the exchange of products he started changed history forever. With the arrival of the Europeans, millions of native Americans died from diseases that they had never encountered before. Those first Indians met by Columbus, the Taino, also all died out. The Indians are called Indians because Columbus wanted to think he made it to India, the source of spices, or so he thought.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, who had sailed with Columbus, landed in Florida. St. Augustine in Florida is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited European settled place in America. Ponce de Leon was the first governor of Puerto Rico. He also discovered the Gulf Stream. According to myth, he was searching for the fountain of youth, but that is most likely a myth. Not much is known about what he ate but as he was part of the Columbian Exchange, I assume he ate what Columbus ate.
The foods of the Americas are integral to the modern foods of America from corn, French fries, ketchup, guacamole, but not apple pie. We will get to that in a few hundred years.
In 2023, I moved to Alexandria, Virginia, a historic old town across the river from Washington, DC, the US capital. As I scarfed Vietnamese pho, drunken Thai noodles, Korean barbecue, Taiwanese bubble tea, Russian blinis, Mennonite milk, Neapolitan pizza, mini crepes from Hue, Vietnam, hamburgers charred perfectly, Greek salads, Lao sausage, Spanish tapas, Peruvian rotisserie chicken, Salvadoran pupusas, Uyghar spaghetti, New England meatloaf, clotted cream from England, and dim sum from China… I realized how much I knew about the diverse foods that make up American food but how little I knew about American history. I decided to write a book about the history of America. Through immigrant foods. Then, I realized, this was too vast a topic to undertake in one book, plus I have other things to do in my life… so instead I decided to write about the foods of early American history — from 1492 to 1792. Then, I got to chapter three and realized that I was not going to get anywhere near finished in a year. So instead, I’ll post what I wrote on this blog.
Vietnamese food
Some would say that the history of the USA should go back to the land bridge from Siberia when the ancestors of the native Americans, indigenous people, first nations, walked to the Americas. Some might say that the Vikings should be included in a history of America. Leif Eriksson was the first white European to set foot on North America, around the year 1,000 CE. Five centuries before Columbus, who never set foot on North America. Leif did not influence American food history. Some say that a history of America should include the Pacific Islanders who canoed to Hawaii a thousand years ago. For this book about the melting pot of American foods, I will start with 1492. This is when the bounty of what Christopher Columbus found in the Americas entered the European lexicon and mouths. Why European? Victors write the history and the Europeans were the invaders of America for several centuries.
I will start somewhere easy as the United States of America is a young-ish country so we only need to go back to 1450 CE (current era or AD). The USA did not come into existence until 1775 but for ease of history, I will refer to it as the USA even from before 1775.
Next time, I’ll start at 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Christopher Columbus was not Italian. Italy didn’t exist as a country until a century after the United States became a country.
Taco Ssam surrounds the Pho and Grill place — they have a restaurant and take out on either side of the grill
Living in the DC area, I rarely go to a hole-in-the-wall. Even the famous ones are… famous. For example, Blue & White Carry Out in Alexandria is still a small “shack” but it is well known. And some say the prices are getting a bit too big for their britches.
Inside the grill. Lots of room.
Often, when invited to happy hours, the location is in DC, super crowded, and the appetizers cost $20. Recently, I went to a much less fancy happy hour. Actually there are two places, cantinas, in the Culmore strip mall. The one plays latin music at a slightly lower level. There were mostly guys enjoying a pail of 10 beers before going home… one guy was asleep on the table. But, no one bothered us.
Inside Taco Ssam.
The prices were good too. One place is called a grill and the other is a Korean taco chain (they have two locations). I’d go back. A the grill, they have pupusas from El Salvador and pho soup from Vietnam. No, it’s not like your Vietnamese grandma’s soup. But they figured that they could make a clear soup and their customers like it. America is a melting pot, remember?
Happy hour prices are a bit cheaper than the regular prices but not by much.
I’ll continue my search. Recently, I went to Table Talk, a local diner in Alexandria. It was really old school. But not a hole in the wall.
If you want a small town feel, a historic old European city feel, and still be near a big city, then you will understand why Old Town Alexandria keeps getting voted as one of the best small towns in America. It is really cute. It has free busses and a free trolley from the subway stop. Also, it is on a subway line that connects to two airports.
I just like how quaint it is (oh, and I love the dairy sold at the farmers market — the market is from 1753 and is the oldest continuous farmers market in America. It is every Saturday from 7-noon). Several of the blocks in the heart of the waterfront area have been made pedestrian only. Many restaurants line these blocks and it is a pleasant place to eat, socialize, and people watch. The boardwalk/quay is nicely made and there are both toilets, drinking fountains, and benches all within easy reach.
If you visit, try going during the day and visit the Torpedo Factory, an old factory turned into artist studios and shops. There are also many tours of Old Town, covering history, food, and ghost.
The streets are tree lined and a few still have the original cobblestones. This is an old city so you may need to walk arm in arm on the uneven sidewalks.
Just as I wrote about official paid holidays in America, I will now go over some other unofficial “big days” in America.
Chinese New Year, changes depending on the moon but between January 20-February 20. This year, the year of the dragon, it is February 10, 2024. The Chinese calendar is a 12-year cycle. Chinese New Year is also celebrated by the Koreans, Vietnamese, and other Asians. In the United States, it involves lion dances, fireworks, parades, boat races, giving of red envelopes, and lanterns. It is a religious festival celebrating the beginning of spring. It is a 15-day festival in China. In the United States, the first Chinese immigrants arrived in San Francisco in the 19th century. In 2022, California made the Chinese lunar new year an official state holiday. The largest chinatowns in the US are in New York City but the first Chinese New Year celebrated in the United States was in San Francisco in 1851. For tourists to the USA, it is fun to enjoy Chinese American culture during this time.
Super Bowl, February 11, 2024 (second Sunday in February). This is season LVIII in Roman/Latin numerals (58 in Arabic numbers). Held on the second Sunday in February from now on (in the past it was on a Sunday in January-February). The Super Bowl is the final game of the American National Football League (NFL). It has been called the Super Bowl since 1969. It is the most watched television event in the United States. The cost of the commercials is a eye popping million or more per minute/30 seconds. The food consumption on Super Bowl Sunday, or Super Sunday, is second only to Thanksgiving. Barbecue wings, chips, dips, snack foods, and food decorated to look like a football are popular foods for the event. It is a day to join a viewing party.
Mardi Gras (almost only in New Orleans) is the carnival celebration leading up to Lent in the Christian calendar. This year it falls on February 13, 2024. Carnival starts after Three Kings (which is the 12th day after Christmas) and culminates in festivities including “fat food” on Shrove Tuesday or in French “mardi gras” (fat Tuesday). This is the day before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins and Catholics start 40 days of fasting. This event is biggest in the United States in New Orleans, Louisiana, where it has been celebrated since 1833. The celebrations involve floats, costumes, and baring of chests in exchange for beads. And of course, lots of drinking.
Valentine’s Day, February 14 every year. Saint Valentine is a Catholic saint who was martyred in 273 CE (AD). During the middle ages, the notion of “courtly love” arose and the British may have continued this tradition through the centuries. There is a book from 1797 assisting young men with writing their “Valentine.” The British were the first to celebrate romantic Valentine’s cards in the 18th century. The reduction in postal rates and the ease of printing due to the industrial revolution may have contributed to this. In the United States, first mass-produced Valentines were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland of Massachusetts. According to the American Greeting Card association, 190 million Valentine’s cards are sent each year, half of them to romantic partners. For the tourist in America, this day means that it may be hard to find a dinner reservation that day.
Saint Patrick’s, March 17 every year. March 17 is the death day in 461 CE (AD) of Saint Patrick. Saint Patrick is the national saint of Ireland. The large Irish diaspora in the United States made this day a celebration. In the United States, it is associated with wearing green and shamrocks (three leaf clover), festivals, singing, dancing, parades, and celebrating being Irish. This was a bigger celebration in America than in Ireland until the end of the 20th century. Now, Saint Paddy’s day is associated with drinking heavily, wearing green, and gathering in bars or pubs. Saint Patrick’s day is now celebration of being Irish, and it has been since 1600, long before there was a United States. The first official celebration was in 1771. Today, many buildings are lit green for the day and famously the Chicago river is dyed green for the day. The White House fountain has been dyed green every year since 2009. As a tourist, it can be fun to join in the fun. Wear green so you do not get pinched.
Cinco de Mayo, May 5 every year. This is a bigger celebration in the United States than in Mexico. May 5, 1862 is the date of the Battle of Pueblo in Mexico’s war with France. In the United States Cinco de Mayo began as a celebration of Mexican-American heritage. It began in 1862 in Columbia, California. The day became popular as a marketing idea in the 1980s and the Cinco de Mayo beer sales equal the beer sales on Super Bowl Sunday. As a tourist in America, this is just another reason to enjoy chips and salsa. America loves their own version of Mexican, Tex-Mex, and this day is just another day when lots of burritos and tacos are consumed.
Mother’s Day in the United States is the second Sunday in May. It was started by Anna Jarvis in 1907 after her mother died in 1905. She tried to have it made into an official holiday which it is in some places, such as her native West Virginia. Anna Jarvis did not want the holiday to become commercialized and she had started it as a day to hold special prayers for mothers. The official Mother’s Day Shrine is in West Virginia. In England, Mothering Sunday is in March. In England, the idea is that you celebrate the church who mothered you. But that is lost in the commercialization of current times. In other countries, International Women’s Day is celebrated rather than mother’s day. Today, mother’s day means that one cannot get a brunch reservation on that weekend. Also, many children will make and serve their mother’s breakfast in bed.
Father’s Day, third Sunday of June. Founded in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd when she learned that Mother’s Day had been established. Sonora Smart helped her father raise her younger siblings after her mother died giving birth to her sixth child. For tourists, this means that it can be hard to find a lunch reservation on that weekend or that children may be making breakfast for their fathers. It is less of a celebration than Mother’s Day.
Turnips and pumpkin squash.
Halloween, October 31 every year. Traditionally it was a religious holiday marking the beginning of the celebration of the dead and spirits. November 1 is “all saints” and has been for 1,200 years. Wearing masks and costumes grew out of disguising oneself against vengeful spirits. The famous pumpkin was originally a turnip/swede/rutabaga. The Halloween tradition was brought to the American South by Anglicans colonists. The Puritans of New England opposed it. With the mass migration of Scottish and Irish peoples in the 19th century, Halloween became an American tradition. The tradition of trick or treating came from the British isles where children would take a scooped out turnip and ask for candy or food. The adults would sing away the evil spirits. Once this traditional got to America, the pumpkin which grows larger than a turnip became the new symbol. The Halloween tradition has now been exported back out to the rest of the world. Americans spend $12 billion on Halloween or which $3 billion is on house decorations alone.
Enormous pumpkins in Lima. The numbers indicate weight in kilos.Pumpkin decorating is a fun pastime in the fall in the United States.
Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving. Now it seems to have spread to other commercial days, like Cyber Monday. America is about shopping, shopping, and more shopping.
While there are official holidays in the United States, there is no mandatory vacation time. These are the federal (national government) holidays (paid days off) from the US government site, OPM:
Monday, January 01
New Year’s Day (since 1870)
Monday, January 15
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (observed since 1986 but only by all states since 2000)
Monday, February 19 *
Washington’s Birthday (since 1879 on February 22 but became the third Monday from 1968)
Monday, May 27
Memorial Day (since 1888 as Decoration Day)
Wednesday, June 19
Juneteenth National Independence Day (since 2021)
Thursday, July 04
Independence Day (since 1870)
Monday, September 02
Labor Day (since 1894)
Monday, October 14
Columbus Day (since 1968)
Monday, November 11
Veterans Day (since 1938 as Armistice Day to commemorate the cessation of fighting on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month)
Thursday, November 28
Thanksgiving Day (since 1941)
Wednesday, December 25
Christmas Day (since 1870)
*This holiday is designated as “Washington’s Birthday” in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.
If the holiday is on a Saturday, then the holiday is on the Friday before and if the holiday is on Sunday, then the holiday is observed on the Monday following. Oddly for the past many years, most holidays on the weekend have been on Sundays. The only holidays that do not change date are New Year’s, Juneteenth, July 4, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The others are considered “floating.”
In some countries like Italy or Peru, a “bridge” weekend would be when people take the day off between the holiday and the weekend. I think in the US, it is called a long weekend. For example, I can predict that because July 4 falls on a Thursday, many people will take vacation on Friday, July 5 to make a long weekend, just as many do on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
There are two holidays for the armed forces, Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Memorial Day is for those who died in while serving in the armed forces and Veterans is for those who served in the armed forces. As of 2018, there 18 million veterans in the United States, seven percent of the adult population.
These are the country-wide official government holidays but some states have their own holidays as well. Every four years, Inauguration day is a federal holiday when the new president is sworn in.
The only days when almost everything is closed (for half a day sometimes) are Thanksgiving and Christmas day. On those days, the airports are open and Chinese restaurants are especially busy. For many Americans who work for the private sector, they have to choose between certain days off such as Columbus Day.
Ronald Reagan National Airport
For many, Memorial Day and Labor Day mark the beginning and ending of summer. In some states, outdoor pools may be only open during this season. And some people only where white slacks during this season. Or is it white shoes?
Washington, DC, is the capital of the US but also home to almost three quarters of a million people. The architecture is varied and increasingly high rise. Driving around DC, I realize how much I do not know about the architecture or history of DC. For a guide to the basic styles of homes in DC, check out this link.
Every country takes the food of their immigrants and makes it their own. In Italy, it’s “Italianized” and mild. In America, it is supersized. But, as the US is a country of many immigrants, the food melds and blends seamlessly across menus.
Half a banh mi sandwich.
Case in point, I recently went to Pho-Cue in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a hipster vibe-y place that could easily be in Oakland, California, or London, England. The staff have tattoos and shaved manbuns. The food is a mix of Vietnamese food, pan-Asian food, and American barbecue.
A pork belly steamed bun, bao, sandwich.
The barbecue was too strong for the pho soup but I like that they tried. The banh mi sandwiches were gigonormous.
Smothered fries topped with jalapenos.
The best thing were the pork belly “chips” — because why not take a fatty pork belly and deep fry it? It’s almost the American way.
Pork belly chips.
After living in Rome, it was nice to get both pho and barbecue of high caliber.
One of the wonders of living in Rome is the amount of Roman ruins everywhere. It seems so commonplace that I have become immune to it.
Not only in the city of Rome which is a living open museum of ancient Rome, but also outside Rome. Any drive outside Rome is a constant journey through time.
Roman bridge or viaduct outside Rome.
In thew few years that I have lived in Rome, I have never gotten over how old things are. I remain impressed.
When thinking of Canadian food, it’s hard to describe all the foods of the various first nations and immigrant groups that make up modern day Canada. Here are a few to try (some have similar counterparts “down south” in the USA).
Poutine: French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy.
The Caesar: that drink that I had fling with for a week.
Nanaimo bar: a fudge-like bar.
Bannock and Beaver tail: fried dough, a dish common in some first nations. When the dough is shaped like a beaver tail, then it’s called a beaver tail. (Timbits: donut holes from Tim Hortons, Canada’s mainstream coffee chain.)
Peameal bacon: Canadian bacon (which is ham, really. Well, the Canadians do have a history of preserving the loin by rolling in pea flour, hence the name).
Game and fish, smoked and dried: from salmon jerky to whale blubber.
Butter tarts: much like a pecan pie but with no pecans.
Montreal style bagel: a chewy, yeasty, smaller, free-form bagel.
Nova Scotia lobster roll: like a New England “lobstah” roll.
Butter tarts: much like a pecan pie but with no pecans.
Nova Scotia lobster roll: like a New England “lobstah” roll.