The Language of Food

When it comes to global cuisine, America is a veritable smorgasbord. We’ve adopted many culinary staples from all over the world and made them our own, yet many have decidedly international roots. Here’s a taste:

Tacos. This traditional Mexican dish, beloved both as fast food and as a fine dining specialty, predates the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. The word "taco" is used in Mexico to describe a tortilla wrapped around some form of filling. Its use is generic, like one would say "sandwich" in the United States. While most people consider the taco a Mexican staple, it’s actually an invention of the indigenous people living in the Valley of Mexico. Much like the American Indians brought the first Thanksgiving meal to the Pilgrims, Latin American Indians provided the first taco feast to the Spanish conquistadors.

Hot Dogs. Commonly identified as an American food, hot dogs trace their origin back to German roots. Johann Georg Lahner, a butcher in the Bavarian city of Coburg, invented the "Dachshund", or "little dog", sausage, which took the German world by storm. The city of Frankfurt created its own variant of the "little dog" and called it a "frankfurter." In America, where German immigrants introduced the hot dog to the masses, Antonoine Feuchtwanger dropped his "little dogs" on split buns to keep people from burning their hands while eating them. He called them "red hots."

Sushi. How a meal consisting of raw fish, rice and seaweed pressed into a paper-like wrap became an American staple still baffles some food experts. The word "sushi" literally means "it’s sour" in Japanese, coming from an archaic word tense. Since sushi-as-food is so common, they no longer use the word to mean anything else. Most people think sushi was invented by the Japanese, seeking a small, nutrient-rich source of food on a resource-starved island. Actually, sushi was adopted by Japan in the 8th century after the mainland Chinese had been using this method to prepare food for 400 years.

Beer. There’s nothing more American than an ice-cold beer and a football game, right? In reality, you could have asked the ancient Egyptians or Mesopotamians for a mug. Beer or ale is one of the world’s oldest beverages, independently invented and adopted by numerous cultures. The mountains of Iran are home to the oldest known evidence of beer-making—some 5,500 years ago! Almost every culture throughout history treasured a foamy swig of beer, with many—including the Germans and Japanese—claiming it as their own. The only major power in history to not live and breathe beer as its beverage of choice was the Romans (who preferred wine sweetened with lead).

Margarine. Since Americans have so fully embraced artificial colors, flavors and processed food, it might surprise you to learn that margarine—both the word and the substance—comes from a country known for its love of fresh and natural cuisine: France. Napoleon III sent his chemists looking for a butter substitute for the French army and the lower classes in the late 1860s. The result was "oleomargarine," which basically means edible oils. It may also surprise you to learn that margarine, so commonly used in the United States, was heavily taxed and stigmatized until after World War I.

Croissants. Most people think they know where the delightfully flaky pastry comes from. While it’s true that the French popularized croissants, German speakers in Vienna think the croissant belongs to them, believing it to be one of many "Viennoisserie," or "Vienna-style items," adopted by the French. The Viennese believe the croissant originated from the invasion of their city by the Turks in 1683. This "commemorative pastry" was called "hornchen" by the Viennese. However, it was the French, with their love of complex textures in foods, who popularized the croissant and spread it all over the world. We use the Old French word for "crescent" when we ask for a croissant. Today, croissants are hugely popular in Europe, North America and all throughout Latin America.

Pickles. In the United States, the pickled cucumber has spread from the deli counters of New York City to nearly every sandwich, burger and picnic around. But people have been eating pickles for at least 4,400 years. The Greeks thought pickles helped heal illness, while the Romans fed pickles to their vast armies, both for health and because pickles could travel over long distances and not go bad. Since pickles are a nearly universal food, it’s hard to track down the origin of the name. Some historians point to Scotland, while others advocate the Old Dutch word for "brine," or "pekel." In fact, it’s not only the process of using a solution of vinegar and spices to preserve a variety of foods that’s cross-cultural. The word "pickle" has been used to describe this process everywhere. No matter how you spell it (peklle, pykyl, pyccle or pigell), it’s still the same pickle.

Pasta. If you went back 4,000 years and requested a bowl of pasta in Italy (using your Italian, of course), you would most likely be met with a confused look. Pasta was introduced to Europe by Arab traders who picked up the dish from their trading with the Chinese, who had been preparing a millet-based variant of pasta for much of their 7,000-year history. Most of the words we use to describe pasta come from the Italians and their Greco-Roman cultural heritage, including "lasagna," which comes from the Greek "laganon," meaning "broad noodle."

Coffee. Americans love their cup of Joe. From the unadorned cup of basic black, to frozen confections more resembling ice cream than coffee, this mixture of beans, water and caffeine keeps the United States buzzing along. The Europeans discovered the benefits of coffee around the 1600s, with the British Empire helping to spread the elixir all over the world. (Perhaps "the sun never set on the British Empire" because nobody ever slept.) But it was the Ethiopians (where the beans were first grown) and the Arab traders in the 11th century who really brought coffee to the masses. While the Arabs called this drink "qahwa," the word "coffee" comes into English from a variety of European sources for the same drink, like "cafe" (French), "caffe" (Italian), "koffie" (Dutch) and "kaffee" (German). Most likely, they picked up the word from Turkish traders who straddled the European and Arab worlds. They called it "kahve." There’s also ample evidence that "coffee" is simply a variant of Kaffa, the Ethiopian region where the beans were originally cultivated.

This article is brought to you by Rosetta Stone, the world's leading language learning software company.

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