Immigrants add spice to Super Bowl parties

Here is another way immigrants have added to our culture. They keep some of theirs and combine it with what was here. DP

By LAUREL FANTAUZZO, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Modbee.com: When Ludy Ongkeko arrived in the United States from the Philippines four decades ago, she was baffled by the hoopla over football at the University of Southern California, where she was a doctoral student.
So she bought a player's manual, studied the rules and watched a game on television.

Forty Super Bowl parties later, football is as integral a part of Ongkeko's life as the foods of her homeland — lumpia (Filipino egg rolls), pancit (stir-fried noodles), mechado (beef stew) and steamed rice — are to the game day bashes she hosts.

"We have friends, we're there howling, and, of course, these are the dishes I'm prone to prepare," said Ongkeko, who recently retired to Reno.

For generations, immigrants have flavored American traditions by blending them with their own cultures and cuisines. So it's only fitting that Super Bowl parties — by some accounts nearly as all-American as the Fourth of July — get similar treatment.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.