r/AskFoodHistorians

When I was recently in France, our university dining hall offered a 4 course meal presented cafeteria style: two starters, a main course (which itself consisted of a starch, vegetable, and protein), and fruit/cheese/dessert. It was quick (lots of students had to be served quickly), tasty, and healthy.

In the U.S., the only cafeteria-style I know of is IKEA, which offers meals that are similarly quick, tasty, and healthy. Other cafeteria-style restaurants of my youth seem to have disappeared, although perhaps there are some I don't know about.

Why have cafeteria-style eateries disappeared? It seems like a solution to so many food service problems (by which I mean, food-consumption problems) in the U.S.

Edit: Several commenters have mentioned restaurants that offer buffets, including for example the hot bar at Whole Foods. I think buffets are quite different (fixed-price buffets encourage people to overeat, for one thing) but perhaps I am being narrow-minded.

Edit 2: I don't know what modern University cafeterias are like. I have the idea that they are more like food courts but perhaps I am wrong.

Edit 3 (most important): Thanks to everyone who has responded & opened my eyes. I realized that my "models" are a specific mix of quasi-automat (cold and room-temperature food served on a prepared plate that the diner served himself to) and cafeteria (hot food main dishes available in a serving line). Both examples are healthy and the portions are restricted.

This allows -- or requires, depending on your viewpoint -- the diner to have a meal that is close to restaurant style (specified portions, but also not pre-packaged) but quickly and with less labor involvement in serving. This is what I would like to see come back.

Rice noodles are a staple in the rice-heavy regions of southern China and mainland Southeast Asia—Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar—as well as maritime Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore (although it’s mostly southern Chinese immigrant dishes in those three).

Japan and Korea have also consumed rice heavily for centuries, yet neither developed a tradition of rice noodles. Some people might argue this is due to limited use of rice flour, but Korean rice cakes (tteok) are made from rice flour, showing the ingredient itself was clearly available.

I grew up in India, and my whole life I was warned not to eat too much of certain foods like almonds, eggs, mangoes, and a bunch of other random stuff because they are supposedly "heat-inducing" and will cause "body heat." No one could ever explain how.

I studied biochemistry, physiology, anatomy in college none of this shit ever popped up or was even eluded to.

I was just wondering does the concept of hot/cold nature of foods exist anywhere else too?

I'm in the USA. We have different meanings of the word "barbecue" by region.

My mom, from Illinois, added barbecue sauce to some pork, and it was barbecue pork.

In some places it involves a lot more than a sauce.

I'm just curious how this word became contentious. Thanks in advance!

From the former USSR to North Korea, from former Yugoslavia to modern-day Venezuela, all countries that have experienced communism have mayonnaise salads as an important dish, including for holiday meals. A clear pattern seems to immerge.

Some people in other countries, such as the Anglo-Saxon world, do like this dish, but it is never universally liked, to the point of being an important holiday dish, outside of places that experienced communism.

I would like to know the history of this and how mayonnaise became so important across different cultures and continents, that seemingly have only one thing in common.

i know spicy food has always been popular, but lately i’ve noticed way more people specifically chasing that electric numbing feeling from sichuan pepper instead of pure heat. honestly after trying real tingly snacks for the first time, i kind of understand why. the floral aroma + mouth buzz combination feels completely different from normal spicy food. also random thing i learned recently: coffee and citrus flavors somehow make the tingle stand out even more. curious if the numbing sensation itself historically played a big role in why sichuan pepper became so popular.

I came across ‘evaporated vinegar’ on a list of food to bring to the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. I had never heard of such a thing and I have been unable to find an answer while searching online. It must have been common place to be included in the list with no caveats, and yet I still can’t find what it is.

most of what I "know" comes from what I've seen in media, but from what I understand cooking was relegated to "women's work." issue is, what did bachelors do? I remember Barney Fife cooking chili in his room, but you can't survive on that.

I'm asking because I'm watching the *fantastic* documentary, "The Automat" (2021) and wondered if it's that's how men in the city survived, how did men in more rural areas? did they go to the same diner three times per day? I know prices aren't what they once were, but that would be prohibitively expensive, right?

I know that artichokes were eaten as far back as Ancient Greece and Rome, but I haven’t a clue how they actually were discovered and developed into a part of cuisine. They seem among the least likely of plants to experiment with, and the effort vs reward ratio in terms of nutrition can’t be that great. Are there any good theories?

What prompted this question: me and my dad are currently doing some family history research on his dad’s side of the family. We’ve found out that nearly all of his Irish ancestors came over around 1830 and were around that time all living in rural Pennsylvania near Altoona. He sent me something today, an article written 1882 about the lives of Irish canal workers in that area. What intrigued me most however was when he talked about some of the food they ate. He didn’t talk very extensively about the food, only mentioned a couple things, but he mentioned potatoes (obvious), poultry (obvious) and then mackerel. The mackerel really jumped out at me since they’re in rural inland Pennsylvania in 1830, but the guy who wrote it had grown up in the area and was writing from first hand knowledge, and he didn’t blink an eye at writing “mackerel” so surely there was some way to get it.

So that’s my question- how would these people procure mackerel in rural inland Pennsylvania in 1830? Was it salted? Cured in some way? Any answers are appreciated, thanks

Is ot coincidence American fast food has German city names?

Hamburger — There is a city in North Germany called Hamburg. And people from there call themselves — Hamburgers.

Hot Dogs' old name was Frankfurter.

There is a city in Western Germany called — Frankfurt. People from there call themselves — Frankfurters.

Is it coincidence?

As I understand it, traditional diets are pretty much healthy diets by default; if a population is sustained for a long time, maybe centuries at least, their diet is healthy.

I was just thinking tonight, some places have pretty much the same weather all year. Others go from hot summers to cold winters, and a season much drier than another, and then there are Arctic climates.

I would be interested in any insights as to how diets evolved differently in places with more even climates vs places with more seasonal changes

Thanks in advance!

thanks all

I'm having a costume party where everyone dresses from a different era (80s, caveman, togo, egyptian, the future, viking, etc). I want to have food that is inspired by different eras, but I'm struggling with the older eras. They can be food they actually ate back then, or decorated to look like it, or just inspired. Any ideas? We usually give a trophy to the guest who brings the most unusual food, but I'm not sure if this theme is too hard to do that.

What was the positive and negative effects of the agricultural revolution? how did the domesticating wheat affect our diet?

I'm researching Chinese food culture right now (unspecified time period) and I was wondering if they had anything like feudal Europe's communal ovens or like south/west Asian tandoors? Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm not too well read on topics like these at the moment.

How did we end up with 1 1/9 bushels being the standardized volume for so much wholesale produce in the US?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1t5n53j/did\_romans\_have\_pitted\_olives/

I’m a research fellow in food policy and insecurity getting ready to move to Letcher County in Eastern KY for 10 weeks. I’ll be there to see run a project with a partner organization of ours and collect data on food insecurity, access, and community health.

I’ve learned a lot about what food access is like now, but I would like to know more about the historic cooking practices of the region in order to better understand what and how we transitioned from to today’s reality. I’d love to hear your opinions on what foods were eaten throughout the year, to what degree families and small continuities were self-reliant on food, and when that started to change.

Please recommend books or relevant resources. Thank you.