China → American neighborhoods
Chinese-American
From Cantonese immigrant kitchens and chop-suey houses to takeout favorites and a world of regional cooking.
Sesqua Heritage
America's food story. Our neighborhood tables.
History lives in a Chinatown bakery, a North End kitchen, a Southie family dinner and a New York deli. Follow the people and places behind the food, then explore what ended up on our plates.
Start here · A journey through American food history
America, one neighborhood at a time
American food history begins long before the United States. Indigenous nations had—and still have—their own foodways. Colonization, the forced migration of enslaved Africans, immigration, trade and working life all shaped the table. A neighborhood restaurant is one chapter in that larger story. Let's follow the people, places and meals.
- San Francisco: Chinatown and Gold Mountain
- Boston: Chinatown, the North End and Southie
- New York: food across the hallway
- Wagons heading west: what could travel?
- The railroad connects the networks
- Mexico and Texas: food across a changing border
Follow the family food stories
Recipes changed with local ingredients, budgets, working lives and neighbors. Home cooking, restaurant favorites and supermarket meals all belong in the story. Later arrivals keep adding new chapters, from Vietnamese and South Asian kitchens to Caribbean, Middle Eastern and African food traditions.
Italy → American family tables
Italian-American
Regional roots meet neighborhood markets, Sunday sauce, pizza and the American supermarket.
Ireland → Boston and beyond
Irish-American
Oats, potatoes and home cooking meet immigration, corned beef and the foods later generations grew up with.
Northeastern United States
New England
Indigenous foodways, coastal kitchens, beans, brown bread and the changing neighborhood table.
Poland → American industrial neighborhoods
Polish-American
Pierogi, neighborhood kitchens and the recipes families carry forward.
Germany → American farms, cities and the Midwest
German-American
Explore family tables, sauerbraten and potato pancakes. A new story is taking shape.
A starting point for exploring food history. Every region, generation and family has its own version of the story.