What's the Best American Food?
wait, peanut butter was really invited in the US?
Grilled Blackened Rib Eye Steak with garlic gorgonzola butter and deep fried onion rings
smoked Beef Brisket
pick n pull pork BBQ
banana splits
boston cream pie
sliders
Pittsburgh or Black n Blue NY Strip Steak
Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
Funny Bones
Prime Rib - rare.
NY Cheesecake (not the fluffy west coast kind).
MMMMmmm She Crab Soup! On Clearwater Beach there is a place called Frenchy's that does an amazing SCS.
Oooh! Great topic @spiegelb.
Fried Chicken
Barbequed ribs
Classic American style potato salad (potatoes, HB eggs, mayo, etc.)
Cole Slaw
Red velvet cake
Cherry pie
Biscuits and gravy
I think what is most American is the concept that we take our own local ingredients, everyone else's ingredients, other people's basic recipes, and then recombine it all in new and different ways.
Other cultures have traditional foods and traditional recipes that you just don't mess with. Our culture doesn't have those deep roots on this continent. So we're not so afraid to mess with the traditional recipes from other countries. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's just canned glop.
Yeah, peanut butter is definitely an American thing. Other places just don't "get it" when it comes to peanut butter sweets.
For a Northern California perspective I'd have to add sourdough bread, Dungeness crab and cioppino (even though it has Italian roots.) Oh, and sand dabs!
Jeez, we're like a garbage can. We take everyone's scraps, shake it up, and make it ours! Errr...must think more positively, we're a melting pot. :P
Wish we could take credit for beef jerky. :(
When I think of American foods I think of foods native to the new world: corn, blackberries, strawberries, tomatoes, turkey, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, peanuts, chocolate +vanilla (south/central america). And foods I missed when I lived abroad--cheetos, peanut butter cups, cheddar cheese, hot dogs (sausage is everywhere but sometimes you want a regular ol hotdog), barbeque... And then all the crazy things we americans have managed to do with the above, once we stopped thinking tomatoes were poisonous and whatnot.
I agree---this is a mouth-watering thread. My additions include:
frozen drinks and smoothies
BBQ'ed ribs
chocolate chunk cookies
smoked salmon, cream cheese, and red onion on a bagel
berry cobblers
hush puppies and all manner of fritters (my favorite being the conch fritter)
key lime pie
cornbread--especially with jalapenos and real corn kernels
she-crab soup
gumbo
jambalaya
cold pasta salads
coleslaw
Stop me, stop me, before I get upset the supermarkets are closed today!
@ Traveller: no, Americans don't do better than Belgian fries. I am a fan of McDonald's thin fries, and I like the large-chop fries steakhouses serve in the US, but pommes frites in Europe are simply fantastic (leave off the mayo, though, thanks).
Hot dogs, for sure. Especially in a baseball stadium.
Ice cream: I'm afraid the Italians have a lock on that.
Fried chicken: Americans own it. Unfortunately, Americans also do own the whole "fry anything for a laff" genre.
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