Quintessential American Food

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....As for the West Coast? I'm with Abbie here. No idea whatsoever, but probably something to do with berries and weed/s!
And just maybe some magic mushrooms? ;-)

California can lay claim to the Cobb salad. 4meandthem said hot dogs, but even more American would be corn dogs. And then there are Buffalo Wings. Yup, you'll be busy googling this weekend! Have fun!
 
:LOL: You'll fit right in around here Lisa. Welcome.

California has a diverse reputation in the food department. The first thing that comes to mind is a cut of beef practically unknown to the rest of the country called Tri Tip. It's wonderful for what we call Santa Maria barbeque.
The southern part of the state has lots of influence from the flavors of Mexico, while the northern part of the state around San Francisco is well known for it's fabulous Pacific seafood, and cooking with California wine.

Thanks for the welcome Kayelle. :) I think I know somewhere in Cape Town that sells Tri Tip steak. San Francisco sounds a lot like Cape Town. We even have a Waterfront although I think the pacific seafood is more interesting than ours. We produce very good wines as well.
 
Hi, Lisa. That sounds like a fun project :) I have a few suggestions:

- meatloaf and mashed potatoes with brown gravy
- cioppino - fish stew from San Francisco, with crusty Italian bread
- chili and cornbread
- fried chicken with mashed potatoes and chicken gravy
- shrimp and grits - grits are similar to polenta and a similar dish was made by American colonists and by Native Americans before them.
- smoked pulled pork sandwich on a soft white bun with cole slaw on top and fries on the side
- a big ol' steak, grilled medium-rare, a baked potato with sour cream and chives and Caesar salad

Here's a site with more ideas and info about the different regions of the U.S.: American Regional Recipes - Exploring American Regional Recipes - Regional American Recipes

I don't necessarily agree with all of their suggestions, but some are good. Let us know what you decide to make.

Thanks GG, some interesting suggestions here. My son will love the pulled pork sandwich and I've heard of shrimp and grits. Seen it on the Food Network Channel on Triple D. I will definitely try that. Cioppino sounds like the sort of thing we will all like.
 
And just maybe some magic mushrooms? ;-)

California can lay claim to the Cobb salad. 4meandthem said hot dogs, but even more American would be corn dogs. And then there are Buffalo Wings. Yup, you'll be busy googling this weekend! Have fun!

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a recipe for corn dogs. They're a lot of fun. And buffalo wings are just plain delicious. Both very American.
 
The short list:
Apple Pie
Cherry Pie
Blueberry Pie
Peach Pie
Pecan Pie
Chocolate Pie
All native Berry Pies
Senate Bean Soup
Bake Beans
Bean Soup with ham hocks
Pinconing Cheese
Colby Cheese
Monterrey Jack Cheese
Maytag Blue Cheese
All things potato
All things tomato
Green bean caserole
Farmer's omelet
Corn on the cob
corn pudding
grits
Cream Corn
Corn salad
Farina
Great Lakes Native Fish
Eastern Brook Trout
Perch
Whitefish (a member of the salmonid family)
Ruffed Grouse
Sage Hen
Turkey
Woodcock
American Bison
Squirrel
Moose
Rocky Mountain Elk
New England Boiled Dinner
New England Clam Chowder
squash (all kinds)
Potato Chips
Tacos
Burritos
Enchiladas
Empenada
Tortilla
Tamales
Carne Asada
Chili Con Carne
Maple everything
Birch Beer
Root Beer
Cola soft-drinks
wintergreen
Walleye (pickeral for Canadians)
Burbot
BBQ pork spare ribs
BBQ steaks (any kind of meat)
BBQ roasts (any kind of meat)
Pulled Pork
Shredded Beef

Oh, I could go on. But this list just touches the surface of foods that are uniquely American. Even Chop Suey and Chow Mein were created in America by Asian immigrants.

Hope this gives you some ideas. And we haven't even touched American pastries, or baking in general.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Addie, you are gonna get tossed out of Boston for not putting Boston Baked Beans at the top of your list! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:

A relatively recent item is Buffalo chicken wings.

For me it is mainly foods that would be found on most farms in New York state prior to the depression.

Baked Beans
Smoked Bacon
Maple syrup
Apple pie
Homemade biscuits, cornbread, white yeast bread.
 
I noticed that most of the answers varied depending on the part of the country the poster was from, especially the southern foods. I am as American as they come, and I never heard of those foods growing up. I never heard of grits until I was in my 30's. Other than making them at home, the only place in our area that serves them is Cracker Barrel, and I've been there once. You also cannot order hominy, okra, greens, black eyed peas, corn bread, crawfish etc anywhere. As far as bar-b-que is concerned I guess that came from Texas because of the cattle ranchers. There was never anywhere to get bar-b-que until Smokey Bones came to town. There are steak houses that will serve you BBQ Ribs, but they are not considered bar-b-que places. The only reason I have even had the opportunity to try such foods is from hearing about it from others on internet forums. If I had followed in my mother's footsteps my diet would still consist of:

Mac and Cheese
Meatloaf
Beef Stew
Stuffed Peppers
Chili (no peppers in ours. just tomatoes with meat and beans.)
Roasted chicken
Potatoes, your choice was baked, mashed or homefries
Vegetables, your choice was green beans, corn, peas
Seasonings, your choice was salt or pepper or both
 
That would be the brownies, maybe?

LOL!

I have seen a few mentions of mac n'cheese. As a Brit by birth who grew up with mac n'cheese once a week at home and also as a regular school dish, I always thought of it as British. But I am happy to be corrected?

Someone mentioned burgers, which I had completely overlooked. That surely has to be one of the most well known and most borrowed of all American dishes.
 
LOL!

I have seen a few mentions of mac n'cheese. As a Brit by birth who grew up with mac n'cheese once a week at home and also as a regular school dish, I always thought of it as British. But I am happy to be corrected?

Someone mentioned burgers, which I had completely overlooked. That surely has to be one of the most well known and most borrowed of all American dishes.


Since my mother was of British decent, that was probably why she made it, plus the fact that it was cheap.

To me, hot dogs and hamburgers are a snack, not a meal. For some reason I can eat meatloaf but a hamburger is a last resort, only if nothing else is available.
 
LOL!

I have seen a few mentions of mac n'cheese. As a Brit by birth who grew up with mac n'cheese once a week at home and also as a regular school dish, I always thought of it as British. But I am happy to be corrected?

Someone mentioned burgers, which I had completely overlooked. That surely has to be one of the most well known and most borrowed of all American dishes.
:whistlingYankee Doodle went to town a-riding on a pony, stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.......

I think we may have stolen it from England about the time we grabbed our country from King George III. The historian's say that Thomas Jefferson brought macaroni and cheese to the United States after having it in Paris. The first record of him serving it was at a state dinner in 1802, he called it macaroni pie. The first record of a published recipe, in the United States, was in 1824 a cooking book called "The Virginia Housewife" by Mary Randolph. Then the folks at Kraft got a hold of it and the rest is history! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
 
I have seen a few mentions of mac n'cheese. As a Brit by birth who grew up with mac n'cheese once a week at home and also as a regular school dish, I always thought of it as British. But I am happy to be corrected?
I'm with you. I've never considered mac & cheese to be an American dish, either. American folklore says that Thomas Jefferson brought it back from Paris, but that just sounds like folklore to me. Pasta with cheese sauce is a pretty common theme in Italy, and I'd be willing to bet that's where its origins are.

But no matter. There are a lot of regional American variations, and there's even a good sized contingent of people who think the product in the blue and yellow box is the only one worth eating. My daughter is one such adherent to the box, having grown up on the stuff while attending day care. For years, I've tried to serve her "from scratch" M&C, and to this day she just turns up her nose at it. That's fine. It saves me money, I suppose. :rolleyes:
 
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I think the same as CarolPa said----- the U.S. is a very large country and made up of many different cultures who immigrated here from long ago, or even recently, bringing their food with them.

I was born and raised in Missouri. Because of that I would have never been exposed to most of the food that others have said was an example of U.S. food ----- until I moved to near San Francisco when I was about 20.

San Francisco is a culinary melting pot within the larger culinary melting pot of the U.S. so I got exposed to a lot of different cuisines in one fairly small city but that's not what everyone can or wants to do.

I think it would be hard to list dishes that are common to the entire U.S.
 
Collard greens are a New Year's tradition. I'm making a batch today. The pot liquor is heavenly. Serve with cornbread.

I'm looking forward to this batch as I ran across a recipe that uses beer as the braising liquid.

I love the way beer braising pork turns the liquid into the most incredible broth, so I'm thinking the collard greens will be out of this world.
 
I'm with you. I've never considered mac & cheese to be an American dish, either. American folklore says that Thomas Jefferson brought it back from Paris, but that just sounds like folklore to me. Pasta with cheese sauce is a pretty common theme in Italy, and I'd be willing to bet that's where its origins are.

It did originate in Italy, but it also could have made its way to the U.S. via France, courtesy of Caterina de'Medici of the famous Medici family of Florence. She married the French king in the 16th century and brought Italian cooks and cooking techniques with her.

From http://www.annamariavolpi.com/caterina_de_medici.html

When she moved to France, a crowd of friends, servants, and waiters accompanied her. The Florentine cooks who went with her brought the secrets of Italian cooking to France, including peas, beans, artichokes, duck in orange (canard a l’orange), and carabaccia (onion soup). The pastry makers, as Jean Orieux (a biographer of Caterina) wrote, especially demonstrated their innovative genius with sorbets and ice creams, marmalades, fruits in syrup, pastry making, and pasta.

But the Monticello library says he probably wasn't the first to bring it here, but helped to popularize it. Since it's been around that long, I'd call it an American dish, although it's not exclusively American.

http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/macaroni
 
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When I think of American cuisine, fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans and biscuits come to mind.

Sorry, I should have said southern American.......LOL
 
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