The PA Melting Pot: southwestern PA

Showing posts with label southwestern PA. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

The PA Melting Pot: Part 7-2 SOUTH CENTRAL EUROPE...

The PA Melting Pot: Part 7-2 SOUTH CENTRAL EUROPE...: A look at the evolution of food in southwestern Pa Czechoslovakians and Slovakians...

Friday, August 14, 2020

The PA Melting Pot: THE PA MELTING POT: 5 - 3: SOUTHERN EUROPEANS : Ar...

The PA Melting Pot: THE PA MELTING POT: 5 - 3 SOUTHERN EUROPEANS : Ar...: The Melting Pot: A look at the evolution of food in Southwestern Pa . Part 5 - 3 Eastern Europeans: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia ...

Friday, July 1, 2016

THE PA MELTING POT 9-4B SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA: Italian Immigration 1880-1924 – Introduction and LINK to Abruzzo/Molise foods

Southwestern Pennsylvania: Italian Immigration

1880-1924 – Introduction

Of the nearly four million Italians who entered America and Pittsburgh, Pa. between 1880 and 1920, the vast majority emigrated from the poor agricultural regions of the South, the provinces of Abruzzo, Campania, Apulia, Basilicata (Lucania), Calabria, and the island of Sicily.
As the Italian population in Pittsburgh grew, Little Italy's began to develop around the city. In 1870, the U.S. Census reported 784 Italian-born residents in our state. By 1890, the population had grown to 2,794, and in 1900, the Italian population had exploded with more than 66,000 people of Italian descent living in Pennsylvania.

Such Italian neighborhoods included:

The Lower Hill District - this region is just outside downtown Pittsburgh and is the source of much of the more recent Italian development.

East Liberty - this neighborhood was originally settled by German immigrants, but by the mid 1900's it was Pittsburgh's most popular Little Italy. In this development, particularly around Larimer Avenue, Italian-owned businesses were prominent.

Bloomfield - this was a highly populated Italian community where many immigrants from Abruzzo/Molise, Italy settled.

Oakland - this community also contained a dense population from Abruzzo/Molise who settled in a ravine known as Panther Hollow.

The North Side- many Sicilians located in the Manchester section of the North Side.

Italian communities outside of the city included:

McKees Rocks, Mount Washington, Sewickley, Coraopolis, Aliquippa, Braddock, and McKeesport.

Italian communities in Pittsburgh had an intellectual, political, and financial influence on the city's growth.

Why did they come?

Italy during the 1900's was extremely overcrowded. Many Italians left Italy to escape from the low wages and high taxes they were experiencing in their homeland. However, most of the immigrants came from rural areas of Italy and had a low level of education. Of the 655,888 Italians that immigrated to the U.S. between 1890 and 1900, two-thirds were men. Most of these immigrants found only unskilled work in cities like Pittsburgh.

These Italians were willing to work long, hard hours and because of this, rivalries developed between ethnicities in urban and industrial areas where such work was needed. Nevertheless, Italians viewed the United States as an opportunity to start fresh and develop a new life.

And with them they brought their regional foods.

LINK TO THE PA MELTING POT PART IV - 9 - 4 A

ABRUZZO & MOLISE

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

THE PA MELTING POT: 9-4 - SOUTHERN EUROPE: PUGLIA - R E P O S T E D WITH CHANGES and VIDEOS AND RECIPE LINKS

The Melting Pot: Southern Europe – 9-4 Puglia

Western Pennsylvania is comprised of 13 to 16 percent Italian-Americans. We do know that many Italians came from southern Italy such as the regions of Calabria, Campania, (Apulia) Puglia, Abruzzi, Molise, Basilicata and Sicily after a bloody war with Sardinia and a depression which followed. The immigrants came to PA and Philadelphia among others areas of the eastern US.

Puglia is the thin strip of land bordered by the Adriatic, the Ionian and Mediterranean seas and often called Italy’s heel. Much of Puglia's cuisine or “cucina povera" made use of whatever was at hand or picked from the garden or even the hedgerow! A classic example of Puglian signature dish is orecchiette con le cime di rapa (pasta cooked with turnip greens). Freshness of ingredients is all-important and people cooked with locally produced durum wheat, tomatoes, artichokes, fava beans, courgettes (zucchini), beans, finocchio (Florence fennel is a selection with a swollen, bulb-like stem base that is used as a vegetable and in the anise family), peppers, onions, seafood and lamb.

Bread and pasta are mainstays of the cuisine: BREADS: Taralli (seasoned with fennel and white wine then boiled & then baked until golden, Friselle (a dried bread generally eaten with fresh tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and thyme), Focaccia al Pomodoro (thick crusted dough with tomato sauce and thyme), Pane Laterza (long loaf with a firm crust and soft center), Pane con le Olive (whole wheat loaves made with olives), Pane col Seme di Finocchio (bread with fennel seeds), Pizza Rustica with Prosciutto Cotto (like a focaccia but made with cheese and ham baked inside of it), Ciambella (rusty on the outside, soft on the inside), Pane Casareccio (a bit denser than a ciambella, crust is thicker & made with white flour) and Pagnotta Foggiana (similar to ciabatta). Pizza, stuffed focaccia, calzoni and panzerotti are made daily.

PASTA: The traditional pasta dishes are primarily made at home. Orechiette are probably the most well-known type of Apulian pasta and is served with broccoli rape or Bari-style ragù (a rich veal sauce), Pasticcio di Maccheroni (oven-baked pasta dish made for special occasions) and Ciambotta (pasta dish made with a rich fish sauce).

POPULAR FORMAGGI (CHEESES): Burrata (cow’s milk mozzarella with an oozing cream filling), Caciocavallo Podolico (herby milk from Podolic cows makes a strong cheese aged for 3 years), Canestrato Pugliese (hard cheese with cow’s milk) and Canestrato Pugliese (sheep’s milk hard cheese).

SALUMI (different sausages): Salsiccia Leccese (pork, veal, lemon peel and spices), Capocollo (whole neck muscle dry cured salume sliced thin) and Soppressata (salami produced with pork, lard, salt, pepper, spices and sometimes garlic).

DESSERTS: Zeppelo (doughnuts topped with powdered sugar and filled with custard, jelly, cannoli-style pastry cream or a butter-and-honey mixture) and Cartel late (rose shaped pastry fried and dipped in Vin Santo wine or fig juice).

VINO (wines): The Salento peninsula features red grapes such as Primitive (like California Zinfandel), Negroamaro and Malvasia Nero. Rosso blends are blended sometimes with international varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, or as single varietals. There are also some excellent Salento rosato wines. Whites (biancos) tend to come from from Verdeca, Francavilla and international varietals such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

http://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/puglia/traditional-foods-from-italy

Bari video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImO1g0_AKx0&list=UUjPz2R5Nl5DKZfca9pb4DGg

http://awaitingtable.com/

http://www.cookingwithnonna.com/italian-cuisine/category/puglia1.html

http://www.rusticocooking.com/puglia.htm

http://www.cookingwithnonna.com/italian-cuisine/category/puglia1.html

http://www.thethinkingtraveller.com/thinkpuglia/guide-to-puglia/puglia-and-its-

food/puglian-recipes.aspx

http://www.charmingitaly.com/article/top-5-puglian-recipes

https://culinariaitalia.wordpress.com/category/recipe/regions/puglia-regions-recipe/

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/20/puglian-recipes-yotam-ottolenghi-olive-oil

http://www.deliciousitaly.com/puglia/puglia-recipes

http://www.academiabarilla.com/the-italian-food-academy/puglia-1/default.aspx

http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/2014/9/17/5-puglian-wines-to-try-right-now

VIDEO: Making Cavatelli

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkIF_LF1-Tw

VIDEO: Wines of Puglia

https://vimeo.com/67453714

VIDEO on Lecce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyKfuBG5NFE

VIDEO 2 on Lecce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-l0r-pJWvA

VIDEO 3 on Lecce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzFxbDCvSI

VIDEO on Salento

https://vimeo.com/73371702

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

THE PA MELTING POT - Special HALLOWEEN Post: Column, photos, links and videos!!

Below is the column I authored for the Herald-Standard newspaper which will appear on 10 30 2014. Below the column are photos and links referring to this column/blog.

The Melting Pot: A look at the evolution of food in Southwestern PA – SPECIAL HALLOWEEN COLUMN

Halloween originated as a pagan festival in parts of Northern Europe and is a time when magic is most potent and spirits can make contact with the physical world. Immigrants from Scotland and Ireland brought the holiday to the United States.

Halloween commercialization began the US in the 1900’s when postcards and die-cut paper decorations were produced. Halloween costumes appeared around the 1930,s and the custom of 'trick-or-treat' appeared in the 1950's.

Modern day Halloween is more popular today with the youth in the countries below because of the influence and commercialization by the US. In this column Halloween customs of the top seven ethnic groups in western PA will be addressed.

GERMANY

Süßes Oder Saures (trick or treating) is very popular. Germans seems to indulge much more in scary dress-ups than their American counterparts, even for kids when it comes to Halloween. By mid-October, you’ll see some carved out pumpkins on peoples’ doorsteps in the streets of Germany and Austria, though not as much as in North America. Kürbis (pumpkin) and jack-o'lantern decorations are very popular.

IRISH/SCOTCH-IRISH

In the old days children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes. Guising (Scottish trick or treat) occurred when children disguised in costumes went from door to door for food and coins and then the custom became known as Trick no a choireail (Irish trick or treat). In Scotland in 1895 masqueraders would carry lanterns made out of scooped out turnips & visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish and the custom of saying "trick or treat" has recently become common.

ITALY

These days among the younger generations Halloween has become more popular than Italy's very own Carnevale. Like the Germans and Americans Italians get crazy about dressing up and playing tricks on their friends. Dolcetto o scherzetto” (trick or treat) is also popular. During the night of All Dead, the souls of the departed come back from beyond the graves in a long line, walking around the streets of the towns. That is why we carve a pumpkin and place it on the window with a candle inside it to use as a lantern.

POLAND/CROATIA/UKRAINE

Pennsylvania is fourth in the US with Polish-American population with estimated figures of a million and 9% in Pittsburgh. Today, Pennsylvania's Croatian population of nearly a quarter million is the largest in the country and they even have their own consulate in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has the nation’s fifth largest Ukrainian community. These three countries are a large population contingent in western Pa. However, they don’t celebrate Halloween per se but All Saints’ Day (Hallowmas - a Christian feast in honor of all the saints) and All Souls’ Day (a day of prayer for the dead, particularly but not exclusively one's relatives). The annual celebration is now held on 2 November and is associated with All Saints' Day (1 November) and its vigil, Hallowe'en (31 October) which is a combined Catholic custom.

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. Her blog can be found at www.ThePAMeltingPot.com.

German photos