American cuisine

I did a 4 month roadtrip last year and I absolutely loved American food.

Texas- the smoked brisket, BBQ and carne asada!! oh and buccees food
California-the best chimichanga and tacos of my life
PNW-I really loved the seafood and jellies but they were too expensive (the huckleberry). Also had homemade meatloaf at a diner and chicken fried steak! I also tried some clam chowder that was fn good.
Montana-Tried bison and elk burger!
New England-OMG that lobster roll was amazing, but too expensive. Whoppie pies were good. Cider donoughts were overrated though (from that popular place).
Nashville- Hot chicken. OMG. I don't know what to say here... I still have dreams of that amazing chicken lol.
****The South-****I spent most of my budget here, but I couldn't get enough of soul food and cajun/creole dishes. Loved the alligator too. Will come back for more I promise

I couldn't try more but hoping to do another roadtrip soon to other States. I found some food here just as impressive as the foods I tried in my trip to Peru soon after.

I also tried fast food chains along the way (like Zaxbys, Culvers, and others) but I don't count that as part of the cuisines even though they were pretty good. I also went in to Mcdonald's once just for the restroom and was shocked at the quantity of foreign tourists ordering food from there. Is there a reason Maccas attracts foreigners, especially Europeans so much? haha

Hello there. I am from Germany. And as is for most Europeans, all I know about the USA is from TV and the news.

I reject the common European belief that US-American culture is Guns, McDonalds and the Kardashians.

When I travel abroad, I usually spend a lot of time in the restaurants, that are rarely frequented by tourists or in those that the locals recommend. I believe that food is one of the most important cultural aspects.

Would anyone care to share a few recepies that are genuine North American? What do American moms and dads prepare for their children when they come home from school, what does a typical Southern family eat on Sunday? Anyone willing to share Granny's recipie with a stranger from Germany?

I have American meassurements here, so don't worry about conversion to metric.

I would appreciate everything. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Sweet Meals, Desserts, Drinks... whatever there is you say that is something typical American. I want to recreate and try.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Thank you all for participating and giving me recipes. I can't answer everyone unfortunately. My wife already threatened action if I don't put away my smartphone ;). I will try out those delicacies over the course of the next few weeks. Thank you all, again.

EDIT: I'm overwhelmed. Thank you all for your input. It will take weeks until I have sorted all the suggestions. I will try them over the next weeks. The American BBQs will be difficult due to infrastructure in my home. But in summer I will try to get a setup. I'm looking forward to my culinary journey through the US!

a. a cheeseburger basically with bacon instead of cheese, way less letucce and something called pickle sauce, which is basically if you blended a jar of dill pickles with a jar of mayo.

b. a cup fried bucket, which is a large cup embedded with a sheet of baking paper filled with fried chicken wings or legs, ok with that, but there is also an appetizer cup bucket which consists of 3 deep fried onion rings, 3 deep fried shrimps and 3 deep fried cocktail sausages.

c. a pizza sandwich, most american style pizza places have a sandwich option which you make the sandwich of your choice using ingredients you would use for a pizza and then they put it in the wooden oven so you can burn the roof of your mouth for sure.

d. 80% beef - 20% pork minced meat, that is common here so local stores use that. Is that ok or totally wrong ? Same mix for village style sausages ? Is that anything close to American or complete fabrication ?

e. ginseng flavored energy drinks, its some kind of ginger i believe.

Elaboration : Pickle sauce found the ingredients, they dont write the ingredients percentage but they are in an order of most to least, mayo, pickles, mustard, vinegear, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, citric acid. I imagine they are using sunflower oil mayo, which is the norm here if you want to get specific. We dont have many specialized burger places here, its usually a gyro shop that will have . Only one kind, thats it. Its a pretty good deal because it comes in a box which would be normally used for pork chops, and in one side you get the burger and on the other fries, you get the fries for almost free. Very filling. Note the burger picture is the one the store uses for advertizement, usually isnt as pretty especially when delivered at home, and if you want cheese is extra charge.

, the pizza place would make their own bread, its closer to a breadstick type bread, pretty hefty and then you get charged by the number of ingredients, lets say you get the garlicy tomato sauce with sausage and cheese, that would be a 3 ingredient sandwich, my broke ass in college would be like 2 sandwiches with double charge meatballs and then i would add things to them at home. Note the picture is very realistic, if not looks kinda bad, i think the person in the picture ordered a bianca or a white sauce one which is not common.

As for the cup I think the thought behind it is, americans eat fried chicken out of buckets, but we also need to be able to sell a personal size bucket, which is a cup.

With so much cheese being given out in the 80s, did this cause Americans to have the cheese-centric diet we have today? Did this have any effect on American staples such as cheeseburgers, pizza, and macaroni and cheese becoming more popular?

When people think of American cuisine it's always hamburgers and BBQ. Nothing wrong with that, but out of all regional cuisine the Louisiana crawfish boil is probably second only to southern BBQ (up for debate but I'm biased) and it deserves a larger place in the conversation on American cuisine.

Americans (I'm too late for Canada, sorry!), while thinking about what to put on the Thanksgiving table, consider some of the plants and animals that have been all but erased from American culinary history. Even if you'd prefer to ignore the legend of wholesome Pilgrim and Indian cooperation, we can still maintain the best part of the Thanksgiving tradition--bringing your family or friends together through the celebration of indigenous foods.

On my trips to East Asia it seemed like every night market or area with street vendors had some stands selling grilled squid skewers, grilled cuttlefish, takoyaki, etc. It made me wonder, why aren't those types of sea creatures used as much in American dishes?

I have no problem finding cephalopod dishes in coastal Italian or Asian restaurants here in the states, but it seems much more uncommon in New American style restaurants or steakhouses. Perhaps that's just my own personal experience, I don't know.

People tend to immediately gravitate towards burgers, hot dogs, fries, greasy/fatty foods when they think of American cuisine. I don’t understand that stereotype. Sure we love our burgers and hot dogs, but there’s so much more to it that I think many people don’t know of. First of all, we’re a melting pot, which is beautiful. Cultures from all over the world have left their mark on this country and because of this we have plenty of dishes that deserve the light of day when American cuisine is brought up.

Here’s a few I’d like to list:

1. Jambalaya

2. Gumbo

3. Tex-Mex

4. American BBQ

5. Cajun dishes

6. Creole dishes

7. Philly Cheesesteak

8. Chicago’s deep dish pizza

9. NYC-style Pizza

10. NYC Chopped cheese

11. Boston’s Lobster rolls

12. Sloppy Joe Sandwich

13. Pulled pork BBQ sandwich

14. Soul food (Don’t tell me this is just a mix of foods put together. It’s still a popular combination dish that originated in the south. The same argument can be made for many dishes around the world that combine multiple foods together)

15. Spaghetti and meatballs (Yes it’s American. Italians from Italy do not eat spaghetti with meatballs; they may have meat mixed in their sauce but not with meatballs; this combination originated here)

16. American alfredo

17. American tacos

18. American Chinese

19. Southern chicken-fried Steak

20. Shrimp and grits

21. Funeral potatoes

22. Peach cobbler

23. Pizookie

I’ll leave it at that in order to spare this post from becoming any longer.

Some are well known, others aren’t. But that is the same case for every cuisine. Just because some dishes aren’t popular, it doesn’t change the fact that the USA has it’s own cuisine inspired by cultures worldwide.

Another point I’d like to make clear, some of these originated in America while other dishes (ex: jambalaya) are twists; that still doesn’t disqualify them. A lot of countries have their own twists of a dish that you see everywhere in other cultures (ex: paella).

Some cultures even have dishes that they’re not aware of their origin (ex: the Dominican kipes, which was introduced by the Lebanese [kibbeh). At the end of the day, kipes are still Dominican regardless. So the point I’m trying to make is that we all have dishes that are inspired by others in some ways; The USA is no different and deserves more recognition when it comes to its’ cuisine.

Edit: Updated the list.

Also, some of these dishes are fatty, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. American cuisine is usually ONLY regarded as fatty foods, which is NOT always the case at all. It has some greasy/fattiness to some dishes (as do other cultures btw, it’s called comfort food), but not all the time. Please focus on changing my view that America has a proper cuisine which is underrated, not that "all" foods are “fatty”.

Does this exist? I've been to restaurants in Seattle and Minneapolis and a food truck in Chicago. NYC usually has more and better of everything when it comes to food in my experience, but I couldn't find much and thought maybe locals had some leads?.

Hey everyone!

My husband and I were discussing what we would like to cook for my sister's husband. He is from Switzerland, and has not been to the United States before.

We live in the American south and are pretty handy in the kitchen, so we were wondering what your picks are for dishes to prepare for someone on their first time visiting the USA?

Other than fried Oreos, obviously.