History Channel The Food that built America

You would think they'd start off with some of the earliest restaurants which would be Chinese...and not Chinese-Chinese but American Chinese.

As owners who opened up restaurants say during the Gold Rush, changed the food for American palates as they didn't think Americans would eat Chicken feet, etc.

Ergo Chop Suey is born.

Our Chinese food is so American that when we exported the fortune cookie to China they advertised it as the "famous American Fortune Cookie."

I think the beginning of mass restaurants in America has origins in places like S.F. and the Gold Rush and a way for Chinese immigrants to make money (besides laundry services) was to feed the Miners.

Before the late 19th century, restaurants weren't much of a thing in America...you ate at home. I think the Chinese say thousands of Miners with no wives who couldn't feed themselves and thrived on giving them a new food.

Very interesting series. Amazing how Reece's started out. The Baby Ruth story was pretty funny.

I need to watch this. Interesting concept. My parents are nearing 70 and they both talk about how pizza wasn't really a thing like it is now when they were kids back in the 50s/60s. Which I find interesting since Pizza is such a stable of American food now. Same with McDonalds, they were saying how everyone wanted mcdonalds when it started getting big like people go crazy over Chick Fila now.