Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 87

Supermarket Ethnidty

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3. Richard Alba has traced the way the eating of ethnic foods tends to dissipate
as
as each generation moves further away from Its In
immigrant
‘
heritage. Families of
mixed heritage are even less likely to eat ethnic food. He also observes that
ethnic fare for the younger generations tends to become "diluted and
Americanized in taste^ (93).
4. In her discussion of the symbolic functions of ethnic food, Susan Kalcik
asserts that '^Americans must eat the foods of all their ethnic groups,
Americanizing them in some ways, because by this act we perform the sense of
our national identity" (61).
5. Sociologist Stephen Steinberg reports on a series of interviews conducted
with delicatessen owners whose pastrami was considered to come closest to
Old World authenticity: "Owners of delicatessens were most enlightening about
the changing public tastes to which they feel they must adapt. Among the most
frequent complaints are that pastrami is too spicy and corned beef to salty (as a
result, seasonings are toned down in the direction of blandness), or too fatty
(resulting in dry lean meat with little flavor) or that sandwiches are not neat
enough (oy which is meant that strips of meat hang over bread edges, or that
slices are not wide, thin and uniform." (65)
6. T.J. Jackson Lears has characterized the way advertisers promote their
product by playing up its alleged naturalness: ^The advertizer defined the
^natural* as good, implied that modern life was full of artificial imitations, and
promised s^vation tnrough his product" (23). This is the essential formula of
much of contemporary supermarket ethnic foods.
7. As Werner Sollors has observed in a somewhat different context,
'"...authenticity* is achieved not by some purist, archival, or preservationist
attitude toward a fixed past but by a remarl^ble openness toward the ability of
a specific idiom to interact with 'outside* signals and incorporate them" (xv).
8. In his fascinating description of the growth of ethnic fast food, Warren
Belasco asserts that the "corporate response to the ethnic revival highlights
what some culture analysts call the hegemonic process-the subtle way m wnich
dominant forces within a society are ^ l e to withstand, absorb and incorporate
insurgent strivings** (3). Belasco explains how manufacturers cashed in on the
"alternative'* aura and touristic appeal of ethnic eating-without actually
varying from standard American tastes.
9. John Fiske has argued that consumers of popular culture use "popular
discrimination" to dSerm ine the usefulness and relevance of a particular
product of consumer culture. For Fiske popular culture is not merely the
'^consumption of images, but.. .a productive process'* (142). Although, consumers
of mass-marketed ethnic food are not in a position to revolutionize the dominant
culture*s value system-which includes a denigrating, romantic vision of ethnic
groups-they are not bound by those values when they purchase the product.
To. One of my favorite quick meals is an Idaho potato topped with Rosarita
Zesty Salsa Low-Fat Refried Beans and smothered with spiced Italian peppers.

Works Cited

Alba, Richard. Ethnic Identity. New Haven: Yale UP, 1990.
Belasco, Warren J. "Ethnic Fast Foods: The Corporate Melting Pot." Food and
Foodways. 2 (March 1993): 1-30.
Fiske, John. Understanding Popular Culture. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
Cans, Herbert. *'SymbolicPthnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and Cultures
in America. Ethnic and Racial Studies 2 (1970) 1-20.