Food: American Classics

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American Classics
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

There are few things that are as synonymous with American society as are the noble hot dog and ice cream cone. As another saying says something about mom and apple pie, how is it that food comes into our vocabulary like that and how is it that when we think of a country, we think of a certain food?

Being Canadian, when I think of the United States, I think of baseball and naturally the food that comes to mind is the hot dog. The simple hot dog has had quite an interesting history. The hotdog that we envision today is usually made of pork or beef which is cured, cooked or smoked and encased within a tasty bun, but that was not always the case. With immigrant Germans came over to North America, the first wieners or frankfurters and though there is a question of who in North America served the first hotdog, the first one that was served on Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY was Charles Feltman in1867 (during the summer, no doubt!) From there, through the history of the US, we see hot dogs picking up popularity. During the Worlds Fair in Chicago, IL in 1893, people found that eating a sausage on a bun was an easy, convenient and inexpensive way to eat. The term hotdog, however, did not come about until 1901 or 1902. Stories put the naming of the hotdog during a Giants baseball game. Where ever the humble hot dog came from, it is definitely an American mainstay!

Popcorn has been around since before the white man appeared in North America. It has been unearthed in Mexico and has been a mainstay of both the North American and South American inhabitant. And after the white man came, the Indians introduced this yummy treat to the white man. It has been said that the colonists loved popcorn so much, that they put sugar on it and used it as a breakfast cereal! During the late 1880s, the popcorn pushcart could be seen practically on every street corner in the big cities and remained a popular snack until the depression years of the 1930s. Popcorn became one of the few luxuries that the struggling depression era family could afford that was until WW2, candy was scarce, sugar was heavily rationed, so again popcorn regained its popularity with the general public. The love affair with popcorn again however was temporary. Since the inception of television, movie theatres became inhabited less, therefore slowing sales of popcorn. It has only been lately, with Jiffy Pop and Orville Redenbacher that the sales have had an upswing effect again. But as long as there are movies, there will always be popcorn!

Coca Cola is one of the most well known symbols and drinks around the world. Annually, their company brings in millions of dollars and to think that all of this started out with one simple man with an idea.

Coca Cola is a carbonated drink that was discovered by John Pemberton in 1888 in Atlanta, GA (where the headquarters is even today). Originally to be sold in soda fountains, the concoction was subsequently bottled and the bottles. The basis of the drink was sold as a patent medicine (it contained trace amounts of cocaine) and started selling in bottles in 1916. Bottling the soda made it more available for the masses, so advertising was stepped up (I am sure we all remember at least one Coca Cola ad or item that we have seen in the past). By 1929, the bottle drink sales had overtaken the sales at the soda fountains and today is known almost all over the world.

Coca Cola, in their advertising during the first half of the twentieth century is credited with the invention of the look of the modern Santa Claus in his red suit and white hair and beard; Coke was the first ever sponsor of a modern day Olympics (the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928); has sponsored FIFA (since 1978) and supports several NASCAR drivers as well. Coke memorabilia has become quite popular with collectors and one of the most popular drinks in the world.

Bubble Gum
Gum has been around almost as long as civilization. The ancient Greeks chewed a concoction of mastiche, a resin from the mastic tree. North America Indians chewed a substance made from sap from the spruce trees and passed the habit to the new white settlers. As time passed, the settlers added beeswax to the sap of spruce trees. In 1848, a man by the name of John B. Curtis produced the first commercial chewing gum (it was still made from spruce sap). Changes were made to gum and in 1880, John Colgan invented a way for gum to taste better and last longer while being chewed. Gum was even sold eventually in vending machines (the first vending machine appeared in 1888 and located within the New York subway). The gum flavor was Tutti Fruitti and produced by Adams Chewing Gum Company.

A few years later, Frank Fleer produced the first type of bubble gum. In 1914, the first Wrigley Chewing Gum appeared on market shelves. Wrigley and Fleer were responsible for adding mint and fruit flavors to gum and in 1928, an employee of the Fleer Gum Company developed the current pink type of bubble gum that we know and love today.

These are but a few foods that Americans today enjoy on a daily basis and no doubt will continue to enjoy in years to come.

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