As American As . . . Tacos?

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

Sunday morning crossword puzzle, Fourth of July edition. Four down, two across. Clue: “As American as…” If you were born in this country, or maybe even if you weren’t, the answer to that line (apple pie) should almost be ingrained in one’s true blue American blood. But when you think about it, what does that mean exactly, “As American as apple pie?” And was apple pie even American to start with?

It turns out that neither apples, nor their pie mutation, are originally of this continent. But I suppose that is the beauty of being an American: most of us, like the beloved all-American apple pie, aren't really from here either.

Trying to decide what to make for this Fourth of July cookout almost always leads to barbecuing, and there is nothing wrong with that. If one tries to get thematically creative, you usually get hung up on being red, white and blue. And outside of a dish made of Jell-O and Cool Whip, there are not many directions you can take that kind of cooking. Which takes me back to apple pie and what it would mean to cook a feast of “American” food.

The phrase “as American as…” has come to represent something typically American. But it might help to know where exactly apple pie came from. References to apples baked with spices in a pastry shell can first be found in Britain’s Middle Ages in the writings of Chaucer. The pilgrims then brought apples to the Americas in the 1600s, where the trees were cultivated until the United States, with a little help from Johnny Appleseed, became the world’s largest producer of apples.

If an American food like apple pie becomes typically American through its introduction to these shores by immigrants and its integration into the culture to an extent that it expands beyond its original heritage, then I can think of a few other American foods that might end that phrase just as well.

'As American as… tacos!' I grew up in Southern California, for instance, where tacos brought to us by Mexican immigrants have become a dietary staple on the level of bread and butter. Truly, when there is a national fast food chain called “Taco Bell” and one can find versions of tacos from Pensacola to Portland, I give it only another two hundred years before we are ending our typically American phrase with a nod to this crispy shelled sandwich of sorts.

'As American as… pizza!' The Italians may have brought pizza to the States in the 19th Century, but the proliferation of pizza joints today is as American as it comes: Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Chicago deep-dish, and New York thin-crust. The passion for pizza and its regional influences makes it as thoroughly an all-American pie as any apple variety I have met.

If it has taken has taken nearly 100 years for tacos, and nearly 150 for pizza, to go mainstream enough to be an all-American typical food, then just think what could happen in the next 100 years. 'As American as … sushi?' 'As American as… Frappuccinos?' A Fourth of July feast of sushi and Frappuccinos may still be a few decades away, but in the meantime maybe I’ll celebrate the Fourth with some All-American Tacos, topped off with some apple pie, both of which are just as American as any citizen of this Union I have yet to meet.

Serves/Makes: 6

• 2 ears corn
• vegetable oil, as needed
• 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1/2 medium onion, finely diced
• 1/2 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 limes, juiced
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 pound boneless, skinless, chicken tenders
• black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 6 ounces grated jack cheese
• 1/2 small cabbage, cored and finely shredded
• 8 small flour tortillas (more if needed)