Every nation has some dishes that are associated with it. Sometimes this can be an entire culinary movement or perhaps a collection of ingredients and techniques. It gets a bit more complicated with massive, multicultural countries like, for example, the USA.
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Grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch on a cold winter day.
Biscuits and gravy, but not just any gravy. Sausage gravy.
There are a lot of great American foods, but I don’t think anything will ever be as quintessentially ‘American’ as a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, a side of french fries with ketchup, and a milkshake. This meal right here is the heart and soul of American cuisine.
Chocolate chip cookies. I live in the Netherlands now, and they have foods resembling chocolate chip cookies here, but they are mediocre at best. And they call them all ‘American cookies’ — which I think is hilarious. I once made chocolate chip cookies from scratch and gave some to our Italian neighbors. Watching their faces as they ate them for the first time was amazing. There’s nothing like that crispy edge, soft middle, and buttery, chocolaty deliciousness.
I was grocery shopping recently when a very nice German guy approached me for advice. He had friends coming to visit from his home country and he wanted to introduce them to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and could I advise him on the best ingredients? He already had some kind of b******t artisan bread from the bakery department in his cart. I told him to put that back, go to the bread aisle and get the crappy white Wonder Bread. Then there was discussion about the merits of Welch’s grape jelly vs. strawberry jam, and how most big brand peanut butter is optimal as opposed to the oily natural kind. Lastly he learned to use the term “PB & J.” He went away delighted, and it felt great to be a cultural ambassador!DukexNukemx007 replied:Cheap and mass-produced PB&J is an American staple, and eating one is part of the cultural experience of living in the US. From sea to shining sea, we all, at some point, ate a Walmart-tier PB&J.
Buffalo wings, s’mores, biscuits and gravy, grits, jambalaya, BBQ, apple pie, Chocolate chip cookies, Jerky, meatloaf, cornbread.
Cornbread.
Creole food like jambalaya and gumbo. This cuisine is arguably the most truly ‘American.’ Aside from a handful of cooking techniques taken from the French, the dishes are really unique.Cajundawg replied:Cajun and Creole cooking. It’s a derivative of French cooking, but it’s so far removed now that it’s a unique cuisine. You’re not getting boiled crawfish made properly anywhere outside of southern Louisiana.
Chicken fried steak.Yes I know some of you are going to say “what about German schnitzel?” … IT IS NOT THE SAME AND YOU KNOW IT.The size of a dinner plate and served with white gravy.
Tex-Mex - it’s not Mexican food but rather a Texas creation that extends even to fajitas and margaritas
Americanized Chinese food. Even while living in Asia, I would crave General Tso’s chicken and honey walnut shrimp because it’s just not the same abroad.AppHelper replied:Americanized Chinese food, and specifically East Coast Chinese food. Stuff like General Tso’s chicken, egg rolls, egg drop soup, oily, soy sauce–laden lo mein, beef and broccoli, and fortune cookies. Funny enough, this stuff doesn’t exist in Asia. I was so happy to see that an American Chinese restaurant opened in Shanghai, but it closed down.
Mac ‘n’ cheese. My non-American wife first thought it was called ‘mecan cheese,’ which she assumed was short for American cheese. She had never seen the word in writing before, and I’d often talk about how I missed my mom’s homemade mac.
Clam chowder — specifically, white chowda, and none of this red sauce shenanigans. And lobstah, of course. I know it’s a global food at this point, but the best lobster in the world is from New England (mostly Maine), and wow, is it good.
As someone not from the states I would k**l to try a peach cobbler or a pumpkin pie
Philly Cheesesteak
Was recently in Prague and a local guy told me that the most American food to him was a corndog and that is probably the right answer.
The Cuban sandwich - originated in Tampa Bay.
Truck stop/diner/greasy-spoon breakfast. Doesn’t matter what you order and if you’re somewhere in the mid-west- even better.Or, if you ever find yourself in a church basement in Minnesota after an event, you will know the authentic, All-American comfort of many kinds of salads with no lettuce, dessert bars, and hotdishes.These, and the sing-song accents of grammas and grampas, are what I missed the most living abroad.
Tater tots
Fried Chicken. It’s a combination of a Scottish cooking style where they fried unseasoned food in Lard and west African seasonings.
Barbecue.Pizza and burgers may be more commonly eaten here, but they’re really adaptations of food from Europe. Brisket, ribs, or pulled pork, slow cooked in a pit smoker and smothered in barbecue sauce, are more American in origin, and extraordinarily delicious.There are lots of regional variations too. Mostly a result of what resources were available (ie, it’s smoked with whatever wood is readily available in that region), but now they are a strong point of regional pride, and the topic of endless “which region has the best BBQ” debates. (I’m a fan of Memphis style, myself, but it’s all good.)
Louisiana boiled crawfish and crabs.
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Buffalo wings, which were invented and perfected in Buffalo, New York. This creation has no roots in any other countries.
Betty Crocker recipes. Betty defined the classic middle American dinner for decades. Think: chicken breasts topped with provolone slices, covered in cream of chicken soup, then covered with stuffing mix and butter and baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
fried oreo’s from the state fair. Pretty much anything deep fried at the state fair is American culture.
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Midwestern-style casserole, specifically one made with at least a can of Campbell’s cream of chicken, vegetable, or mushroom soup as a main ingredient.
Blueberry pie. Or anything with blueberries since they originated in North America.
S’mores. I’ve traveled the world, and no one knows what s’mores are besides Americans.
Fluffernutter sandwiches, which is peanut butter and fluff. Just make sure you get the real Marshmallow Fluff and not a knockoff.
Shrimp and Grits Nashville style Fried Chicken Texas BBQ Carolina BBQ Kansas City BBQ Memphis BBQ NY Style Pizza Po Boys Jambalaya/Gumbo Hotdish Ambrosia Salad Clam Chowder Manhatten Clam Stew (it is not a chowder) Conch Fritters Chicago style Brownies Chicago style Italian beef Philly style chopped steak and cheese (NJ and DE have pretty good ones too) Beef on Kimmelweck with creamy horseradish sauce Lobstah Rolls (Maine only, every other one sucks) Maryland crab cakes Tex-mex style everything Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Chicago style hot dogs Texas style corn dogs Bagels with Lox (smear optional but I never get one without it)
Fried chicken, smoked meat barbecue, soul food, Cajun and creole food
Soul food
Pecan pieBiscuits and gravySubmarine sandwichesCorn pieScrappleDeep dish pizza
I think, as a non American, Italian-American and Tex-Mex are two that are found all over the US and now the world. Spaghetti meat sauce, non bechamel lasagna, deli style pizza: chili con carne, loaded nachos, etc.Other dishes that may be more regional just aren’t found everywhere even in the US.
Hotdogs
Grilled CheeseEspecially with Kraft American Singles
Breakfast Cereal (especially the sugary kind) seems very American to me.
General Tso’s Chicken.
The fried pork tenderloin sandwich.
Carolina Sauce replaced the actual blood in my body years ago and I’m still kickin.
Apple pie
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