THE PA MELTING POT - Part 4 - How Ethnic Foods Survived Through Early Mobility - The Kiosk

The kiosk (from Turkish: köşk) was a small, separated garden pavilion open on some or all sides. Kiosks were common in Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward.  SEE PHOTOS OF KIOSKS BELOW. 

Since ancient times, street food vendors have sold foods from kiosks such as in ancient Greece where small fried fish were a street food. Street food was widely consumed by poor urban residents of ancient Rome whose tenement homes did not have ovens or hearths with chickpea soup being one of the common meals along with bread and grain paste. In ancient China, where street foods generally catered to the poor, wealthy residents would send servants to buy street foods and bring meals back for their masters to eat in their homes.

A traveling Italian from Florence reported in the late 1300s that in Cairo, Egyptians carried picnic cloths made of raw hide to spread on the streets and eat their meals of lamb kebabs, rice and fritters that they had purchased from street vendors. In Turkey many crossroads saw vendors selling “fragrant bites of hot meat” including chicken and lamb that had been spit roasted (kebabs).

Aztec marketplaces had vendors that sold beverages such as atolli (“a gruel made from maize dough”), almost 50 types of tamales (with ingredients that ranged from the meat of turkey, rabbit, gopher, frog, and fish to fruits, eggs, and maize flowers) and stews.

After Spanish colonization of Peru and importation of European food stocks like wheat, sugarcane and livestock, most commoners continued primarily to eat their traditional diets, but did add grilled beef hearts sold by street vendors. Some of Lima’s 19th century street vendors such as “Erasmo, the ‘negro’ sango vendor” and “Na Aguedita” (who wrapped herself in woven scarves and dished out foods from stone pots in Lima’s open streets) are still remembered today.

Street foods in Victorian London included tripe, pea soup, pea pods in butter, whelk (snails), prawns and jellied eels. During the American Colonial period, street vendors sold “pepper pot soup, oysters, roasted corn ears, fruit and sweets.”  Many women of African descent made their living selling street foods in early America with products ranging from fruit, cakes and nuts in Savannah, to coffee, biscuits, pralines and other sweets in New Orleans.

The wide-spread ethnicity of western Pennsylvania is truly displayed in The Strip District of Pittsburgh. In the 1900s, there were several street vendors who used immigrant workers to unload the delivery trucks which contained fish, meats, fruits, vegetables and other food items to put on display for sale.

The hungry immigrant workers and truck drivers needed to be fed. One business that morphed from a kiosk to a diner is Primanti’s founded by the Primanti brothers in 1933. The famous take-away sandwich (a meal all by itself) included choice of meat, cheese, tart and crunchy coleslaw and French fries on Italian bread, and was a perfect one-stop shop for the workers.

There are ethnic shops today in the district and The Pittsburgh Public Market continues the tradition of stands, cards, kiosks and the like fill with ethnic foods and goods.

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

THE MELTING POT: Part 3 – How Ethnic Foods Survived Through Early Mobility – The Versatile Kebab

THE MELTING POT:  SPECIAL COLUMN:  Ethnic Street Foods:  Part 3 – How Ethnic Foods Survived Through Early Mobility – The Versatile Kebab

A popular cross-culture food cart item which could be enjoyed by many immigrants (once carts had the facility to cook and/or keep warm and chill foods) from different Asian and African countries is the Kebab. (NOTE:  a kebab is a dish of pieces of beef, fish, chicken, goat, lamb and pork and/or vegetables roasted or grilled on a skewer or spit originating in the Middle East, later adopted in Central Asia and by the former Mongol and Ottoman Empires, before spreading worldwide.)  

From Turkey (where the kebab supposedly originated) you have the Orman Kebabi (roasted lamb), Coban Kebabi (a shepherd’s-style roast of meat), Hacci Osman Kebabi (Kebab on a revolving spit), Koyun Kebabi (a whole lamb roasted in a covered pit) and Kefenli Kebabi (a unique kind of roast meat cooked and wrapped in bread).  And the lengthy list goes on.

According to a 2010 study the following nationalities (population by first ancestry of those who reported) found that 47.15 % of the population of Allegheny County (with German and Polish leading) and 41.93 % of Fayette County (again, with the same leaders) said their ancestors were from countries that were very familiar with eating kebabs so the kebab was a viable alternative for the food cart that could keep them warm and/or cook them. 

As we in the US are generally familiar with beef or lamb kebabs with onions and peppers or gyros, these are just the most common and generic.  There are hundreds of kebab variations which include sauces, side dishes and more.

There are many that we might not be familiar with such as Rajpooti Soolah (from India which  is wild boar, deer or partridge barbecue kebabs made with a special "Kachari" or wild melon sauce) OR  Souvlaki (from Greece which consists of small pieces of meat, potatoes and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer. It can be served on the skewer or as a pita sandwich with garnishes and sauces such as Tzatziki or on a dinner plate with fried potatoes) OR the Doner Kebab adaptation (from Malaysia which consists of meat after being cut from the spit,  is pan-fried with onions and a hot sauce and then placed into a pita bread pocket before being filled with condiments such as tomatoes, mayonnaise, onion, and lettuce) OR  kebab (from Azerbaijan where the meat for the Tika Kabab, for example,  is  prepared in onion and thyme gravy and wrapped in Lavash which is a soft, thin unleavened flatbread made in a special tandoor oven with sauces like pomegranate syrup and other condiments) OR a Testi Kebab (from Central Anatolia region of Turkey and the Mid-Western Black Sea region consisting of a mixture of meat and vegetables cooked in a clay pot or jug over fire. The pot is sealed with bread dough or foil and is broken upon serving) OR Burrah Kebab (from South Asia and is made of marinated goat meat and charcoal grilled) OR a Jujeh Kabab (from ancient Persia which is now Iran consists of pieces of chicken first marinated in minced onion, lemon juice & saffron and grilled over a fire and served with grilled tomato and pepper).

PUSHCART LINKS

http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/from-chuck-wagons-to-pushcarts-the-history-of-the-food-truck

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=poutine&oq=poutine&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2771j0j7

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.

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.

THE MELTING POT: PART 1 - How Ethnic Foods Survived Through Early Mobility

The Melting Pot: PART 1 - How Ethnic Foods Survived 

Through Early Mobility

Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2015 2:00 am - Uniontown (PA) Herald-Standard

PHOTOS BELOW NEWSPAPER COLUMN:

Europeans, Asians and other peoples traveled across Europe, and as they settled and moved, their foods were affected by where they lived, by who ruled them and by various other circumstances.

They came to the United States and brought their ethnic recipes with them. As German, Irish, Italian, Polish, English, French, Russian, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Ukrainian and other ethnic groups settled in southwestern Pennsylvania they assimilated into society as did their foods.

Previously and today, their foods live on not only in the home, church and other venues but most importantly on the streets through mobile dining.

Food carts come in two basic styles.

One allows the vendor to sit or stand inside and serve food through a window. Another uses all of the room inside the cart for storage and usually some type of grilling surface.

Food carts first appeared at the time of the early Greek and Roman civilizations, with traders converting old hand-carts, push-carts and smaller animal-drawn carts into mobile trading units.

Carts have 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 (southern factory work carts).

The use of these carts gained major ground with the coming of the railways. Mobile customers required food and drink to keep them warm within the early open carriages. Locomotives needed to stop regularly to take on coal and water, and allow their passengers to use the toilets, eat and drink. Few early trains had any form of buffet or dining car so the food carts were perfect.

When passengers did arrive at their destination or when they needed to switch trains or modes of transportation, some refreshment was required, particularly for poorer passengers who could not afford to stay in the railway-owned hotels.

The food carts expanded to concession stands also. Many countries still use these such as in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The first food cart items were ready-made foods.

A summary of ready-made foods, for example, from Germany might be Fleischkase (meatloaf) served with mustard in a roll, from Turkey Shawarma (Levantine Arab meat preparation, where lamb, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, or mixed meats are placed on a spit, and may be grilled for as long as a day), from Hungary a Retes (strudel), from Italy a Margherita pizza (the street version originated in Naples and is rectangular in shape with toppings of margherita, mushrooms, Italian sausage, ham and vegetables), from Poland a Rurki Z Kremem (similar to ice cream cones but filled with whipped cream), from Romania Covrigi (hot pretzels covered in sesame or poppy seeds) and from Slovakia Langos (fried flat bread loaves with garlic and salt or other condiments).

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.