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I suggest that whether engaging in the life-altering process of assimilation or performing a temporary act of passing, the individual may work to change his or her identity in one of four ways. In the literature, the most common way is switching from an identity of ethnic Otherness to one of “Americanness.” Because “[m]ainstream Americans frequently use foodways … to categorize ethnic and regional character” (Brown and Mussell 3), many ethnic Americans—including Ralph Chang in the 1991 novel Typical American, also by Gish Jen—attempt to abstain from eating those foods that would work to identify them as ethnic Others in mainstream America. As Kalcik explains, because a “change in eating habits could thus be used to signal a change in status, usually from a less to a more desirable group” (44), an individual may consume “American” foods as a way of assuming an “American” identity free from the prejudice and discrimination that often results from an identity of ethnic Otherness. Although these individuals initially view this shift as desirable, most suffer emotional pain and regret as they attempt to sever ties to the cultures of their descent and thus undermine the complexities and realities of their cultural identities. Although they try to assimilate publicly by eating “American” foods, many engage in culinary acts of cultural preservation within their homes, where according to Roger Abrahams, “[e]thnic or regional identity can be acted out … by eating certain foods prepared in special ways” (20). These individuals attempt to pass as members of the dominant culture only because their private and primary identities of ethnicity do not infringe on their public and secondary identities of “Americanness.” As they work to dichotomize the private and public realms, however, many individuals—like Ralph in Typical American—suffer psychologically, remaining emotionally hungry in the cultural spaces that they inhabit.
Some assimilated Americans, however, privately and publicly attempt to revert to or assume identities of ethnicity, in part by consuming the appropriate “cultural emblems” both inside and outside of their homes. As Alan Beardsworth and Theresa Keil note, ethnic foods “can retain their potency among minority groups for several generations after their separation from the parent culture” (53). Similarly, Richard Raspa