Greek Curly Nachos

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

This is just one of the many multi-cultural food booths found at the Stanislaus County Fair in Turlock, California. The fair food booths serve as a great example of how cultures have become mish-mashed in the United States. We adopt specific foods and flavors from other cultures and make them as American as possible. This booth served curly fries, nachos and Greek gyros all out of the same trailer.
Think about how bland America's culinary choices would be if we had stopped all immigration to the country 200 years ago.

Downtown Mexico?

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

This looks like a booth that would be found somewhere in Mexico. But it's one of the many multi-cultural food booths at the Stanislaus County Fair in Turlock, California.

No donuts?

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

What, no donuts? Actually, I took this at the Stanislaus County Fair in Turlock, California, because of the popular menu item - Eggroll on-a-stick. What says American fair food more than food on a stick? It's really a take-off of the corn dog which is a hot dog on a stick, except Chinese style.

Italian-American Linguica

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

I had a friend admit to me recently that he had never heard of Linguica until he moved to California. He even pronounced it LIN-GOO-KA for the longest time. It's properly pronounced LIN-GWEE-SA. It's a spicy Portuguese sausage that is often used in sandwiches, rice pilaf and on pizza in California. I took this photo at the Stanislaus County Fair because the organization serving the Portuguese delicacy is an Italian-American-Catholic organization known as the Knights of Columbus. Yet another great example of how one American group adopted something from another culture.

Sweet Elotes Rostisados

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

I tend to put too much butter on my Elotes Rostisados. Seriously. Regardless of what language it's in, corn on the cob says nothing but American cuisine to me. Who cares if it's advertised in English or Spanish?

Mexican pizza dogs

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

The Stanislaus County fair offered Mexican food, pizza and corn dogs, all within a stretch of a few yards.

Cajun Italian Sausages

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

County fairs often have a hodge podge of food. This booth could have been named "Foods of the World" and been its own exhibit. Cajun corndogs, asian-fried vegetables, Italian sausage, Polish sausage and Buffalo burgers. Wonder if they also served Pepto Bismo?

Persian-American food

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

Some areas of the country get unique food because of the immigrant groups that have settled there. In the Northern San Joaquin Valley in California, it's the Assyrian population, an ethnic group from Iran and Turkey. The area has the second largest Assyrian population in the United States, next to Chicago. But the area also has the largest Assyrian organization in the United States, the Assyrian-American Civic Club. Here's their food booth at the Stanislaus County Fair in Turlock, California. Great food, though oddly enough their shish kabobs aren't served on a stick, instead they are served on a roll smothered in tomatoes, peppers and lots of persian spices. Talk about a teriyaki donut of sorts.

Another short update ...

Here's a link to my story about the town of Cortez, as published in The Modesto Bee several years ago. My sincere thanks to editor Dan Day and online vice president Eric Johnston for making the story available online.

Though the story says it was updated today, it was actually published March 21, 1999. Eric and Dan posted it today as a favor to me so you could read the story.

I promise, I will move on from this subject. I have a Mexican-pizzaria and at least two more teriyaki donut joints in my sites.

Follow up

Here's a link to a page that is devoted to some of the Japanese towns in California. The history of Cortez is overlooked though. Cortez is briefly mentioned under the heading of "Yomato Colony."
Enjoy.

Stockton Bukkyo Taiko Group

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

The Stockton Bukkyo Taiko Group performed over the weekend at the Cortez Obon Odori Buddhist Festival in Merced County, California. Though Taiko is strictly Japanese and Buddhism is firmly based in Asian culture, both have been widely adopted in the United States and made very American. The festival, though devoted to Japanese religion, served as a great example of how multiculture the United States is.
Small side story on Cortez - it was founded as a Japanese colony in the 1920s. But the folks adopted the name Cortez for their town because anti-Japanese sentiment was thick back then and they knew that many white-owned companies would not buy crops from the Yomato colony (the name of another Japanese town directly to the south). So they picked Cortez instead.
The town almost disappeared during World War II. Soldiers forced the townsfolks into a concentration, er, I mean internment, camp in Colorado. At the time, many banks would then call the loans of Japanese families once they learned that the family was in prison. That way, the banks could seize land that was nearly paid off and resell it again, thus destroying the Japanese families.
But in Cortez, something different happened. An attorney in the City of Merced (his name leaves me at the moment) sympathised with the Cortez families and was outraged at the actions of the government and the banks. So he visited the Cortez families in the camps in Colorado and became their attorney. He then leased their farms out to other area farmers and sued any banks that tried to seize their farms. Once the internment camps were dissolved, the Cortez families were able to return to their homes which had been maintained and paid for during their imprisonment. As a result, the area is still heavily influenced by the Japanese culture.

Japanese dancers

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

These are just some of the dancers who performed during the Cortez Obon Odori Buddhist Festival in Merced County, California over the weekend. The dancers came from a wide variety of backgrounds, from the blonde girl in the back to Japanese immigrants. I was surprised at how many non-Japanese people at the event were not only well-versed in Japanese culture, but had adopted parts of the Japanese culture as their own. It's yet another example of how other cultures have helped build the American tapestry.
But the cultural trade off apparently also works both ways. One of the dances and songs demonstrated at the festival was a "traditional" dance and tune about baseball.

Japanese Choir?

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

These are just some of the singers who performed during the Cortez Obon Odori Buddhist Festival in Merced County, California over the weekend. They are all singing in Japanese, yet I'm fairly certain that only one, maybe two, of the members is actually Japanese. Even though the event was held at a Japanese temple and every activity dealt with Japanese culture, it was incredibly multi-cultural. Once again, America has adopted parts of someone else's culture and made it its own.

The Fourth of July

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

The many syrups used to flavor ice at a "Hawaiian Ice Stand" set up at the 22nd annual Fourth of July celebration at the California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock, California. I love the fact that it's called "Hawaiian ice" because flavored ice treats are most distinctly Italian. Nearby, people there were people eating tacos, burritos and drinking German beer. There also was a "Mongolian barbecue stand" on one side and a popcorn stand on the other (possibly the most American food I saw all day, since popcorn is believed to have been invented by the American natives). At night, everyone oooohed and aaaaaahed to fireworks and their distinctly Chinese origins. All in the name of celebrating the greatness of America. Chew on that for a while.

More on the Fourth

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Originally uploaded by Inkyhack.

These are fireworks during the 22nd annual Fourth of July celebration at the California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock, California. Only in America can we drink German beer, eat Mexican tacos and burritos, snack on Italian ice treats and watch Chinese explosives all to celebrate the United States of America.