The Curious Origins of Your Favorite Foods

salty sweet chewy crunchy it's a delicious combination born from one of black America's most consequential cultural movements it was the 1930s the place was New York City it was the epicenter of black Americans movement into mainstream culture the Harlem Renaissance artists writers and thinkers we gather at venues and Harlem into the wee hours of the morning listening to touring big bands and jazz artists as the club stayed open later and later so did local restaurants to take in the hungry concert goers one such restaurant owner was Joseph T Wells founder of Wells supper club Wells became known for its southern inspired menu but Wells needed a hit to stay on top of the 2 a.m. restaurant business what could he do seeing an opportunity Wells realized that the fried chicken leftovers from dinner could be served with the freshly prepared waffles for breakfast creating a sweet and savory concoction unlike anything else the dish was a hit eventually word got out and chicken and waffles became a soul food staple from Atlanta to Los Angeles and though Wells closed in 1982 the dish lives on so when you think of the Harlem Renaissance take Duke Ellington jazz Plains and Hughes poetry and Joseph T Wells chicken and waffles this is a California roll and it was probably invented in Japan Oh California nope it was invented in Canada this is chef Tojo right hi mrs. Schaeffer Joe he holds make sushi one of the most popular foods in the US and Canada but to understand this we have to take a look back it was 1971 and sushi wasn't popular when it came to Japanese food people only liked a couple things just people eat eat tempura and also teriyaki turns out North Americans they did not like see me no no no way look terrible they said some people yeah do you know so Tojo did something crazy he wrapped the rice on the outside of the CV to hide it in Japan people they passing me well this is a wrong idea wrong idea but people like it and chef Tojo he did not stop there okay everybody eat cucumber avocado and cooked crab just I change this preparation just low so he rolled these preferred ingredients into one beautiful amazing cuisine changing roll I didn't quote Zhu California Lord we called inside uncle where it is it got the name California roll because it was so popular with people who came to his restaurant from a life and the roll made people think differently about sushi it was some sort of gateway roll people starting with California law oh this is very good then smoked salmon and tuna step by step they loved it chef Tojo's beginner roll was such a success Japan's Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries appointed him as the nation's goodwill ambassador for Japanese cuisine and now sushi is everywhere stickers on your notebook USB drives play-doh molds wooden toys sets everywhere maybe not all thanks to chef Tojo but definitely partly whether you're in it for the bottomless mimosas the decadent pancakes or the avocado toast brunch is hands down and the best part of the weekend while enjoying the finer things in life did you ever stop to think about how this glorious eating tradition began well it all started with a man a man with a hangover back in 1895 there was this guy named well guy and he was a writer living in England at that time sundays were a big deal an early post church meat heavy meals were all the rage but for those nursing a hangover and recovering from the previous night's debauchery those meals weren't always appetizing so guy proposed a compromise and penned a prolific essay appropriately named brunch a plea he envisioned a hybrid meal of sorts that was lighter than the typical meat spread and included a variety of pastries friends could gossip about the previous night's indiscretions while chasing their hangovers with some hair of the dog but the delicious British invention took what seems like forever 30 years to catch on in the States when it did Sunday morning never looked the same again so the next time you're enjoying a french toast chased by a Bloody Mary take a second to thank the hard drinking Englishmen by the name of God is this a sandwich how about this or this the answer is well it depends [Music] it's actually surprisingly complicated jurisdiction scheme that's Neil Fortin he's a professor of food law he wrote the book on it literally just what a sandwich is is actually defined by the government federally it's the USDA and the FDA defining something matters because it changes how it's inspected and regulated the hotdog is regulated by USDA but a hotdog on a bun is regulated by FDA a sandwich doesn't have actually a strict legal definition it's more of the common term that can lead to some heated arguments by sandwich purists according to the USDA the hotdog is not a sandwich but the dictionary says it is and so does the state of New York Mirek is pretty inclusive on the sandwich question hi I'm David Greco this is Mike's deli in the real Little Italy of the Bronx our list of sandwiches is at least fifty sandwiches we have the Bronx Tale the Michelangelo Sophie Lorraine the Raging Bull the Yankee big boy come on I'll make you one special that's a New York sandwich according to the state's Department of Taxation and Finance not only is a hotdog a sandwich but so is a burrito that's because a burrito counts as a rap which in New York is a sandwich okay so what about this it looks and acts like a sandwich it's an ice-cream sandwiches sandwiches I would say that ice cream sandwiches is a fanciful name rather than an actual use of the word sandwich in the traditional sense fanciful named delicious sandwich the USDA but what do they know however sandwiches define we know that there are all kinds of delicious food law is it's well simpler and much more complicated than it looks on the surface thanks Neil it's red and pricey it's a critter and a delicacy it's the creme de la creme of seafood but this beloved summertime favorite was once thought of as the poor man's food say what it is said that in the early 16th century as the first pilgrims began to settle in Bay Area's of America that the oceans overfloweth with lobster no literally they overfloweth imagine a shore with a lobster wall 2 feet tall as one would expect the settlers ate them up until like anything eaten 3 times a day they got sick of them eventually deeming them the cockroaches of the sea after that lobsters were used as fertilizer fish bait and ultimately prison food they were fed so often to inmates that there was even a law enacted to protect said inmates from cruel and unusual lobster punishment so then how did lobster become the succulent delicacy we all know and love fast forward to the mid 1800s canned food became a thing as did the railroad lobsters were canned and shipped to middle America at the same time middle Americans started travelling to New England for fresh lobster by the late 1880s prices began to surge and by World War two lobsters became the pricey specialty we've all grown to enjoy you

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 2,445,967

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, documentary, docs, great big reel, great big reel 204, food, food history, foodie, sushi, California roll, Canada, Japan, chicken and waffles, chicken, waffles, jazz age, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, lobster, lobster dinner, sandwich, debate, brunch, Flavors, Food & Drink, Weird & Fun Knowledge

Id: eLuaYepBuLs

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 13 2017