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I can put almost anything together, stir in curry powder, and serve it on Basmati rice, and my dinner guests will believe it is authentic South Asian.
You guests are just being polite. The first rule of thumb is to stir-fry the curry powder on medium heat for a minute, then add the onions and other ingredients, not the other way around.
Back to the OP's. Social status has no place in the realm of true knowledge. A rich man can boast of his exotic fanciful meals; he is being snooty, that's all. However, anyone can have a good knowledge of food (cuisine and culinary skills). After all, we are what we eat. Foods keep us alive, and healthy. So I believe, having a good knowledge of food (nutritional values and healing properties) is a good indicator of one's health consciousness. For example, sweet potatoes (with orange or purple flesh) are high in Vitamin A and beta-carotene, and a good source of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory nutrients, and blood sugar-regulating nutrients.
When I have guests, I'm feeding the hungry neighbors, not the snobs from the Country Club suburbs. They accept what they get and clean up their plates, and can't afford the luxury of being polite.
Foreign-cuisine restaurants are much more expensive to eat at, except for Mexican, Pizza and Chinese buffet. So one would need to have spent a lot of money in order to become conversant with those cuisines.
Also, the grocery store items necessary to make exotic meals also cost a lot more than the staples for home cooking.
Not necessarily. It depends when/where you eat and shop. Where I live, you can get a bowl of pho, eat at an Indian buffet, or get the Jamaican lunch special for less than what it costs to eat at some god-forsaken chain restaurant. Even when I went to NYC a couple of months ago, my bill for lunch in Koreatown was less than $8.
The store items - that all depends if you shop at an upscale grocery or an ethnic market. There are Asian and Indian groceries and a Turkish bakery all within 5-10 minutes of my house. And, I guess if you really need a $300 LeCreuset wok instead of a regular carbon steel wok for $19.99, yes it can get expensive. Certainly doesn't have to be, though.
The most germane observation surely came from uptown_urbanist, who is a resident of my state.
However, I'd like to correct something in his post: what he referred to "social capital" is probably better called "cultural capital", a concept that originated with my man, Pierre Bourdieu, and his unreadable Distinction. See Cultural capital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .
As far as big cities and small towns go, yes, you are far more likely to be acquainted with foods from other cultures if you live in a large city. Despite there being an Ethiopian restaurant in Worthington, pop. 12,764 (link: Queen Sheba Restaurant - Worthington, MN ) or a Jamaican eatery in Biwabik, pop. 969, there is a relative sparsity of ethnic options in small towns. Yet most Americans live in decent-sized cities or suburbs of them. I once drove from the Twin Cities suburb of White Bear Lake to St. Paul, a roughly 20-minute drive, to introduce my grandfather to the delights of Ethiopian cuisine (needless to say, I had left-overs from the gigantic platter we ordered). These suburbs and cities not only feature ethnic restaurants, but also ethnic markets. Both are often priced lower than their "standard" counterparts, so I do not think price is much of an issue, particularly when you are a 20-something with little responsibility. Many lower socio-economic status people of all ages smoke, after all.
And as far as French food goes, that is passe. The latest "food crazes" among the middle- and upper-middle classes have ranged from Thai to Ethiopian. Think about it: if you were to do a random poll asking the respondent if they know what pad thai is, who would you get more "yes" answers from, the working class or the upper middle class? How about pupusas (excluding, of course, Salvadorean laborers and housewives)?
As far as big cities and small towns go, yes, you are far more likely to be acquainted with foods from other cultures if you live in a large city. Despite there being an Ethiopian restaurant in Worthington, pop. 12,764 (link: Queen Sheba Restaurant - Worthington, MN ) or a Jamaican eatery in Biwabik, pop. 969, there is a relative sparsity of ethnic options in small towns. Yet most Americans live in decent-sized cities or suburbs of them. I once drove from the Twin Cities suburb of White Bear Lake to St. Paul, a roughly 20-minute drive, to introduce my grandfather to the delights of Ethiopian cuisine (needless to say, I had left-overs from the gigantic platter we ordered). These suburbs and cities not only feature ethnic restaurants, but also ethnic markets. Both are often priced lower than their "standard" counterparts, so I do not think price is much of an issue, particularly when you are a 20-something with little responsibility. Many lower socio-economic status people of all ages smoke, after all.
I agree with this. Whenever I leave the city, most places in the middle of no where within my own state generally have pizza or Chinese. That's about as "ethnic" as you get.
Do I think other factors play a role? Yes.
I do think social status does play a role. You will find plenty people in NYC who have never eaten at a French/Lebanese/Thai/Vietnamese/Ethiopian/Etc restaurant. And yes, many times these are people who are lower income---if they eat out, they eat McDonald's or Papa Johns because it's cheaper than eating at a restaurant. (Or at least, that's generally true and when it's not, it's perceived to be.) Often times, when you are in particular neighborhoods with certain enclaves, you will mostly see stores that offer cheaper food (Mexican/Chinese) to cater to the people in their neighborhood. You're not putting an expensive French restaurant in the middle of a high poverty area. If I go to mini-Chinatown, there are ONLY Asian-restaurants; most people in the area, especially newcomers who probably don't earn a lot of money, aren't running off to other restaurants.
Familiarity and, as someone mentioned, being "brave" I suppose is also a factor. I grew up sort of poor and we ate the same stuff week after week. My parents ate what their parents made and even in terms of take-out, we only ever ate Chinese/pizza/diner food because that's what they grew up having too. Now that I have my own money, I venture out as much as I can being a picky eater. ;-) Being a picky eater sucks but it's harder to branch out and eat new things when you try stuff and never like it. And I'm sure some of that has to do with being fed the same things my entire life.
Now I want food.
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The first rule of thumb is to stir-fry the curry powder on medium heat for a minute, then add the onions and other ingredients, not the other way around.
