Take a drive down Broadway in Sacramento, and you get just an inkling of the diverse cultures in our area. From Hong Kong Cafe to Sweet Fingers Jamaican restaurant, Hoa Viet to Kathmandu Kitchen Indian-Nepalese restaurant, and Pancho’s Mexican to Taste of Thai. That’s just the western end of this ethnic smorgasbord of eating choices! Venture a bit further down Stockton, Florin, or Folsom, and you’ll find all of the ingredients to make practically any cuisine you choose.
TIME magazine christened Sacramento “America’s Most Diverse City” in 2002, shortly after the latest census, because of our uniquely integrated population. Including the surrounding metro area and neighboring counties, we are perhaps the model for the future of the state, and even that of the country, where no one group is in the majority. But how did the Central Valley become so ethnically mixed and what effect has it had on the foods that we eat every day?
Some immigrants to California have been here so long that they predate the influx of white settlers from the East. California was once part of Mexico, for instance, and Filipino sailors arrived as early as 1587. And, of course, Native Americans were here before that. Since the mid-1800s, however, the lure of gold and the actual treasure of bountiful farmland has brought immigrants to California in droves, especially Chinese and Japanese citizens. And with them, they brought their foodways.
Statistics vary somewhat, but according to the State of California Department of Finance, Sacramento County is 16% Latino, 12% Asian and Pacific Islander, and more than 4% multi-ethnic. Mapinfo Corp reports that 35% of the national population of Asians and Pacific Islanders reside in Northern California. In Sutter County, 10% of the entire population is people of Punjab heritage. Meanwhile, in the Sacramento City Unified School District, almost one-third of the students speak English as their second language.
You can see the results of this multi-ethnicity not just in restaurants and markets, but in the plethora of food festivals held every year [see Foodie Events]. Some of them, like the Armenian Food Festival, have occurred for sixty years! These gatherings are fun, but also critical in reinforcing cultural identity through food traditions. For whenever you travel far from home, a familiar dish and flavor can bring comfort. When the other aspects of a culture are hard to recreate in a new place, food can be one of the easiest ways to spark the memory and satisfy homesickness. And even for those who have lived in the U.S. for generations, traditional foodways help keep a connection to the smaller community of heritage in the urban sprawl of modern life.
There are also interesting stories of connections made between immigrant groups who might not otherwise have met. According to Dr. Jasbir Kang of the Punjabi-American Heritage Society, when Punjabi men first arrived in California, they settled in the Yuba City area because “it looks like Punjab, the ‘Land of Five Rivers,’ and farming skills were historical in their culture.” Without many Punjabi women available and barred from marrying Caucasian women, many of these men married women of Mexican heritage. Davinder Deol, a local school principal, surmises that this might have been because of “the most similarities between Indian and Mexican spices.” Indeed, they both traditionally use cumin, coriander, and chiles for flavor. There wasn’t a particularly lasting connection between the two cultures, but a Mexican-Punjabi restaurant might be the next new fusion concept!
Of course, a lack of access to all of the ingredients traditional to a cuisine forces evolution. Dr. Kang and Mrs. Deol both noted that yogurt and other dairy are important sources of protein for many vegetarian Punjabs. While whole-fat buffalo milk was commonly used in India, lower fat pasteurized cow’s milk is the norm here. “Everything tastes a little different here,” Dr. Kang admits.
While many of the crops that grow well here are different from those that were grown in Punjab, many people brought seeds to California and began their own gardens. That’s the case with many other immigrants as well. There are large community gardens now that cater specifically to various ethnic groups, like Vietnamese—another traditional farming culture. Gradually, some of those “new” crops have found their way to grocery stores and farmer’s markets. On Sundays, at Broadway and 6th Street for instance, there is an Asian farmer’s market, where you can buy locally grown lemongrass, pomelos, herbs like Thai basil and coriander, and handmade tofu. The market survives because Asian community members continue to seek out the ingredients specific to their cuisines.
The Portuguese were also early settlers of this area, coming to California for mining and farming work, some living originally in the Pocket area, where there were Upper and Lower Lisbon Schools. Today, there are many dairy farmers of Portuguese heritage in the Central Valley. Marilia Wiget, of the Portuguese Historical and Cultural Society, counts eighteen different Portuguese “societies”—cultural meeting places—in the area. These societies hold regular food-centric events like the Crab Feed, Fish Dinner, and Heritage Dinner for the communities. The largest cultural event of the year is the Easter Holy Spirit Festival, when it is traditional to serve sopas, a meal of beef boiled with spices and ladled over French bread. In January or February, some people still hold a pig slaughter and make sausages such as linguiça. Ms. Wiget admits that many people just buy linguiça now though, the demand for which keeps a steady supply in meat markets of the area.
In fact, there are quite a few specialty meat markets in the Sacramento area: a halal butcher on Fulton, the American Poultry Company on Broadway (which actually specializes in whole poultry like ducks, for Asian customers), and Morants Old Fashioned Sausage Kitchen on Franklin Boulevard. They make their own sausages on-site, including the Portuguese linguiça, German knackwurst, and Mexican chorizo. More than many other metropolitan areas of this size, we seem to support an endless number of niche markets and specialty grocers.
Still, there are immigrants moving to the capital region. More recently many Hmong have arrived as refugees from Laos, settling in California as well as Wisconsin and Minnesota. They are a farming culture as well, joining the strong tradition of agriculture here. Similarly, in the late seventies and eighties, immigrants came from Cuba and Russia to settle here. As their numbers grow, with family and friends forming expatriate communities, their food traditions will help to keep them grounded in their cultures. There are already several markets catering to Russian tastes in the Carmichael area.
The best way to learn about another culture is to eat their food. So explore the many grocery stores, markets, restaurants, and food festivals that we’re so lucky to have nearby. Or learn more about your own ancestry by seeking out foods that your grandparents may have eaten. You may find that you’ll forge new connections through flavor and new memories through taste.
