Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm only 2 months in but I craved orange crush for the first month and now i crave dynamite roll sushi with the orange eggs on top, and chicken mcnuggets with all the different sauces, fries with honey mustard sauce, and the chicken skin off of kfc. i craved the poutine from kfc for awhile, but from nowhere else.

rice krispie treats. still delicious!

@ Cassaendra. Thanks for the info. Seriously though I don't think we have dough in a can (maybe I'm just not looking hard enough in the supermarket). Also I think I confused myself, because what I know as a biscuit, I think you call a cookie......
Fair call on the vegemite thing - although I'll have to stand my ground and defend to the death one of my country's "cultural icons" ; )

@Vegemite: I'm sure you've seen a can or tube of dough some time in your life. Not sure if Pillsbury or van den Bergh products are available in your area, but that's their niche: unbaked dough.

Chow mein noodles are crunchy fried noodles. They can be found in a cannister, similar to potato crisps and french fried onions (ok, maybe that is funky). Because they can withstand some jostling, you'll typically see them in plastic bags. They just don't keep as well in plastic. I don't care for them, my husband loves them.

I'm sure there are a few people who find vegemite and marmite heinous, just like Velveeta. :P

@robincat: Chinese Chews/Haystacks
2 (12 oz. packages Semi-sweet choc chips
1 (12 oz. package butterscotch chips
1 large can Chow Mein noodles
Spanish peanuts,marshmallows,cashews,etc..

Melt all the chips together in a large pan over low heat,stirring constantly. Add
noodles and stir to coat. Add whatever else you may desire, stirring to coat.
Place on wax paper by spoonful and cool until set.
These are addictive !! Stacey.

there are variations of this above, but i feel like it has to be called a "hotdish" to truly capture its kitchy glory.....which is minnesotan for something akin to casserole and yet so much more in that it requires both tater tots and cream of mushroom soup. here's the one we had at least once a month growing up, which is something like glorified green bean casserole:
layer of ground beef
layer of canned green beans (french cut, if you want to be fancy:)
layer of tater tots
a can of cream of mushroom mixed with some milk to thin, poured over the whole pan
layer of durkee french fried onions
bake at 350 for about 40 min or until bubbly and delicious....
don't knock it until you try it!

Velveeta nachos! Made and consumed at least once a year.
http://nujoikitchendiary.blogspot.com/2008/02/super-nachosode-to-processed-food.html

WOW! Reading this thread has certainly showed me a side of american cuisine which, to be frank, is a little scary!!!
Is that congealed salad (even the name makes me shudder a little in horror) for real? Jelly, mayo, pineapple, cottage cheese, walnuts ALL BLENDED TOGETHER?? Does it look the same coming back up as it does going in? ;)

The only Australian kitsch dish I can think of to contribute is my Grandmother's cold rice salad with capsicum and peas which she made every Christmas because she (quite wrongly) thought that we all loved it.

when i was working as a therapist in a rehab unit, one of my patients wanted to make family recipe for a congealed salad that consisted of lime jello, cottage cheese, mayonaise, canned pineapple, and walnuts, all whirled together in the blender and then allowed to set. ordinarily, with the exception of the walnuts, i would never even consider consuming any of those things. i was surprised at how yummy it was -- in a trashy way, of course!

I make "Buick Skylark" cupcakes, in honor of my first car.

It was an '85 model, had a red interior and white exterior. The thing looked like a red velvet cake on wheels. Granted, the "Buick Skylark" cupcakes are red velvet cake frosted with buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Very nostalgic.

Mine has to be what my former sister in law affectionately calls "apple crapple"--it is extremely popular here in the deep south. Take a box of your favorite white or yellow cake mix, 2 cans of apple pie filling, 2 stix of real butter. Dump the pie filling into an 11 x 13 pyrex dish, sprinkle the cake mix over the top, melt the butter in the microwave and drizzle it over the cake mix then bake in a 375 degree oven until the crust is browned, bubbly and awesome looking. Best hot with gobs of vanilla ice cream-- or nuked up the next morning, covered in whipped cream...

Tuna noodle casserole. DH mentioned it the other day, in a sort of nostalgic way. Made with canned tuna, cream of mushroom soup, extra canned mushrooms, and frozen peas. Usually topped with some kind of cheese and baked. Oh, and I thought I was soooooo creative and fancy because I took mom's recipe, but then added canned water chestnuts as well. The crunch was sort of nice, actually.

And even weirder, I can remember eating this stuff cold for lunch once in a while. And I recall a couple times that DH made sandwiches out of it.

I think I'll have to make some again one of these days. In a way, I sort of hope I hate it, but I know I'll like it.