USA

USA a subject which is not amenable, in the area of food and cookery, to description in a short essay. It is a fine subject for a whole book, as Jones (1981) and Hooker (1981) have demonstrated, or even a whole Oxford Companion, as provided by Andrew Smith (2009). A broad canvas of the size which, say, Tintoretto liked to use and a fistful of broad brushes are suitable equipment, whereas a miniaturist’s panel the size of a small postage stamp is not. The trouble is that there are so many climates and ethnic elements to be dealt with. It is like a jigsaw puzzle which has too many pieces, so that there is no way you can put it together. Three pieces of the jigsaw, as it happens, are described under creole food, cajun food, and pennsylvania Dutch; but there are many others which could equally well claim a share of the spotlight.