THE FOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE FOOD TYPICALLY IDENTIFIED TODAY AS "ITALIAN" FOOD was not always so. To the Italian immigrants it was adapt / adjust or starve. They were no longer in their native land growing vegetables and raising animals for food. Most were in big city areas in the tenements in ("not so nice") sections of town. Staple items such as flour, eggs, were used to make bread and pastas. These were simple foods but filled the belly. Peddlers were the source of most food items for the Italian immigrants, who based their nightly meals on what these peddlers had to sell. Many a "classic" Italian American meal was created from the peddler's special of the day such as garlic,peppers, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, cheeses. They were relatively cheap items and bulky so they would feed large numbers of people. Leftovers, if there were any, became the base for the next night's meal if possible. As more Italian immigrants arrived, they created small business for their community in the form of import goods from Italy such as olive oils, meats, cheeses, and wine that was too difficult or impossible to make in the new land. It brought a sense of "home" to the immigrants in their new land.

Dishes that today we have come to love such as "spaghetti and meatballs", pasta in garlic and oil,chicken cacciatore, pasta fagiole (pasta and beans),dandelion and escarole greens, were all dishes that the "peasants" ate to survive. One has to laugh today how the once ridiculed "garlic eaters" meals of sustenance, have become the national menu items in popular "chain" restaurants (whom we cannot mention by name...but you surely know them).