Corned Beef and what????

I'm mostly Irish, mostly being about two-thirds. My paternal grandfather came from Ireland. My paternal grandmother was Irish-Welsh. My maternal grandfather was a mix of German-Irish. My maternal grandmother was German.
So given this, I always found it odd as I grew up that the only person in my family who actually liked corned beef and cabbage was my mother. My father never ate it. Neither did his mother and father. Yet, it was so Irish. Personally I can't stand the stuff.
To be honest, it never seemed like Irish food to me.
So about 10 years ago, I had a chance to sit down and talk to the woman who was the Irish consulate for the United States assigned to San Francisco. I asked her if there was a lot of corned beef and cabbage in Ireland. She told me she had never heard of corned beef until she came to the United States. Also, she couldn't stand the stuff.
WHAT????, I said.
"We usually eat ham on St. Patrick's Day," she told me. "The more traditional meal is to make a lunch of bacon sandwiches, put it in a picnic basket and go watch a local soccer game."
This intrigued me. How could someone from Ireland never have heard of corned beef?
So I did some research.
Turns out the cabbage part is the only Irish part of the meal. Cabbage, which can grow in cooler weather, became a staple of the poor as a basis for soup. It was a great way to stretch a budget. So the Irish immigrants who came over to the United States in the late 1800s brought that with them.
Anyone who knows immigration history knows that the Irish neighborhoods quickly integrated with the Jewish and German neighborhoods. This little fact would cause a small problem for Uncle Sam by World War II. Some politicians wanted to also put German immigrants into concentration camps along with the Japanese but it was quickly pointed out that it would be too hard to distinguish the Germans from the Irish, as they all lived in the same areas.
I digress.
The Germans, specifically the Jewish German families that were forced out of Germany due to the growing antisemitism in Germany and Prussia, brought there own budget-stretching meal, which was corned beef.
Well, the Irish quickly learned that ham was (and still is) very expensive in the United States and was virtually impossible to buy for St. Patrick's Day. So they adopted corned beef from their neighbors.
As the Irish then started to move west from New York, they took the recipe with them, spreading it to other Irish enclaves in Boston, Chicago and so on.
In essence, the Irish appropriated a Jewish-German meal and made it their own. As a result, millions of Americans will eat corned beef and cabbage today, thinking that it's as Irish as Dublin.
The ultimate culture-clash, in my opinion.
Possibly the first teriyaki donut?

*I recently told this story to a co-worker and she all but accused me of making it up. So I found two Web pages last night that support this. They are here and here.

No photos yet but ....

No photos yet. Still waiting to get a new camera so I can photograph some of my culture clashes.
But while we are all waiting, I got into a long discussion today with a co-worker about another culture clash - the tendency of Americans to get tattoos made up of Japanese and Chinese characters. Talk about a collision.
A co-worker next to me has one on her wrist. I asked her recently what she thinks it says. She said "it says friend in Japanese." Then I challenged her. "How do you know?" She claims she and a bunch of her friends all got the same tattoo and they all match, therefore it must say "friend."
But really, how do you know unless you actually read and speak Japanese or Chinese?
So on that note, I found another Web site today that deals with those same issues with that type of culture clash. I bring you, hanzismatter.com.

Mexican Ice Cream

So, this is a great culture clash, one that's seen all over Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico. These are Hispanic vendors of frozen fruit treats. They are similar to the Otter Pops that most American kids grew up with, except they are shaped like large popsicles. It's a culture clash because the fruit snacks are very popular in Mexico, but they are sold using traditional American ice-cream push cars, similar to the ones I used to see as a kid in Chicago.




As you can see, they are very popular. In the front is a cardboard box. It's filled with puffed wheat chips that he also is selling, according to Poe, the photographer.



And here he is again, still selling.

I know some people who really frown on this enterprise, but I personally applaud it and think it's brilliant for several reasons. First off, most traditional "Mr. GoodHumor" Ice Cream trucks are a thing of the past. Corporate America didn't see a big enough profit in door-to-door (or neighborhood to neighborhood sales as it were) so they ditched that great piece of Americana so they could sell in grocery stores. As a result, there are many independent ice cream trucks out there, but I swear just about every few weeks, one gets busted in my current town for selling meth and heroin out the back. These carts, on the other hand, are pretty cool. I can't recall any of these sellers being arrested. They always seem to be really nice. And it's great that they have the spirit and the will to do this for a living.

I have to personally thank my friend "Poe" for taking these photos in her Texas neighborhood. Her name links to her Xanga blog. Not sure if you need an account to read her blog, but accounts are free there so it's worth it.

Who would want a teriyaki donut?

For years I've been fascinated by teriyaki donut shops. There used to be one about a mile from my apartment and I would walk past it almost every day, but it's no longer there. However there are a couple other teriyaki donut shops that have popped up nearby.
I've seen them in other cities as well, including Oakland, San Francisco and Sacramento.
I've never actually been in one - I'm not much of a donut lover - but I see these stores as a strange subset of our culture. It could be cultural clash, the collision between Japanese and American culture that creates a situation where a family can make both teriyaki rice bowl meals and donuts under the same roof and be succesful.
I don't understand it, but I respect it.
I see it as akin to the taco truck, another cultural collision. Taco trucks are unique to the West. They are a combination of the old sandwich trucks that are still commonly seen in Chicago and New York that visit construction sites. The philosophy there is "These workers can't go far for lunch, so bring the lunch spot to them."
Out in the West, it was originally the same principle. Agriculture workers had no where to go for lunch since they were often in the middle of nowhere, so to speak. So lunch went to them. Since most ag workers in the West are Hispanic, the food was changed from sandwiches to tacos and burritos.
Except the clash has gotten more severe. As the ag employment economy continues to shrink, many of the traditional ag employees are getting jobs in cities where they can go somewhere to eat. So the taco trucks have followed them there. It's not unusual to see a taco truck permanently placed in a parking lot like a restaurant. They have awnings, furniture, music piped outside for their diners. Some of them are just absolutely fascinating.
I see it as cultural art, sort of like a violin or a tribal shield. It's built for practical reasons, but decorated to carry its ethnic brand.
But I digress.
I'm hoping to use this blog space to post pictures of any shopt that shows a clash of cultures, such as teriyaki donut shops. Maybe by looking at them, we can figure out the cultural clash and get insight into our ever-evolving culture. For example, one shop that I will photograph this year for this project is a local Hof Brau near my workplace that specializes in Chinese food. No kidding.
I'll also post pictures of some cool-looking regular donut shops I've seen, as well as ornate taco trucks.
I'm hoping submissions from readers also will be entered.

On a side note: as I was discussing this project with my teen-aged daughter (who gave it a hearty thumbs up), I was prompted to Google the term teriyaki donuts. Imagine my surprise to learn that I'm not the only one fascinated by teriyaki donut shops. Quentin Tarantino also likes them. In "Pulp Fiction," just before Marcellus is run down by Butch, he is seen walking out of a donut shop called "Teriyaki Donut" with a box of a dozen glazed.
Also, in his film "Jackie Brown," in the food court scene in the mall, a restaurant in the background is named "Teriyaki Donut." Jackie Brown is eating food from that restaurant.

And there it is.