The Melting Pot: PART 2 - How Ethnic Foods Survived Through Early Mobility

Posted: Thursday, April 30, 2015 2:00 am - Uniontown (PA) Herald-Standard

THE MELTING POT: SPECIAL COLUMN: Ethnic Street Foods: Part 2 - How Ethnic Foods Survived Through Early Mobility

In the last column we learned about the many ethnic foods found in outside venues such as food carts and how these venues kept ethnic foods alive and well.  The precursor to the food carts (that are mainly located in one place) were the old hand-carts, push-carts and smaller animal-drawn carts from early Greek and Roman times.  These food venues had no way of heating or chilling foods so prepared foods were sold.  Carts had the distinct advantage of being able to be moved should a location not be productive in sales, as well as transporting goods to/from storage to the place chosen from which to trade. There were chuck wagons (in the west) and dope wagons (in the south - southern factory work carts were called this because Coca Cola was thought in the early 1900’s to contain cocaine!).  Garment workers, construction men, delivery boys and urban dwellers relied upon the carts for cheap and filling nourishment (meat pies such as Fatayer (middle Eastern meat pie), fresh fruits and varied sandwiches such as a Lahmacun or a Turkish pizza) in the middle of busy days.

The types of foods sold by the push-carts varied:  fruits, vegetables, prepared foods, like potato pancakes, oysters on the half-shell, or pickles. Fruit carts often sold pre-sliced fruit as snacks and often were open later to catch people coming home from work. In the summers, they functioned as a dessert cart of sorts for people lolling outdoors in nice weather. But mostly carts tended to specialize in a particular food type and were often stationed in the same place every week and they offered a basic and necessary service: providing ingredients for meals to their customers at relatively cheap prices.

Ethnic foods that were served on carts (that didn’t need to bechilled or served warm but rather were served at room temperature) were, for example, from Italy:  Minestrone (garden vegetable soup) served with Formaggio (cheese) and Crostini de pane (crusty bread), Vitello e Salsiccia Pane Panini (veal and sausage loaf sandwich), and Sandwich Fritti Pepe (fried pepper sandwich).  From Spain comes Basque Pan del Cuidador (Basque sheepherder’s bread), and Gazpacho (soup made of raw vegetables servedcold or at room temperature, usually with a tomato base and from LatinCountries and SE Asia Empanadas (fried stuffed breads or pastries) .  From Russia and Poland come pirozshki aka perogies (individual-sized baked or fried buns stuffed with a variety of fillings).  

Popular foods from Greece would be pita bread with hummus or wedges of Spanakopita (rich phyllo pie dough baked and stuffed with spinach, onions, cheeses and herbs).  African-Americans could buy cooked greens, black-eyed peas and corn bread for lunch.  An Irishman might eat a Ceapaire Mairteola Corned (corned beef sandwich made with slices of corn beef and buttered rye bread) and pickles. A Swede might eat marinated tomatoes on Buttercrust Brod (bread).  Desserts might include German Kürbis Brot (pumpkin bread), Greek Baklava and Greek Kserotizna (deep fried honey drizzled twists).

NOTE:  Little known fact:  During the early 1900s, the hamburger was thought to be polluted, unsafe to eat, and food for the poor. Street carts, not restaurants, typically served them.

For recipes from 1700s to 1960s and modern day links, visit

www.ThePAMeltingPot.com.  Christine Willard, a native of western Pennsylvania, researches and blogs about the food unique to western Pennsylvania. She currently resides in North Carolina.