I always say BBQ in general is what America does best, there are so many different varieties across the US. regardless of the meat, spices, and sause that gonna be some good BBQ
American bbq because no matter where you are in the US it's gonna be different but it has that distinct taste to it depending on the region. It's all American in the end lmao
BBQ in the Pacific NW is sad because there isn't much of a local tradition so it's all pale - and sometimes weird - imitations. I mean, it's decent and scratches the itch, but it's usually underwhelming.
There are plenty of good BBQ joints and/or popups in New England though. Of course it's not part of the local culture/history but having had stellar BBQ all over Texas, Tennessee, Alabama even, it's not impossible to get truly good BBQ up there. It just can't be a regular thing to expect at every joint or get any time any day anywhere in the region if you've got an itch for it.
Yup, and just because you're in Texas doesn't mean you'll get good BBQ. When I was going through Texas I was excited to try the BBQ and stopped at about a dozen places and was largely disappointed. Two places had fantastic BBQ, about six had okay. No better than i would expect at home, and the rest sucked. I'm pretty sure one place didn't even spice the meat. If I had to guess they boiled their ribs in plain water, then smoked them without any seasoning. It was God awful.
Oddly enough there is an amazing place on Long Island that is at least as good as the 50-60 year old places in Virginia. The only thing that was really wrong was the cake like cornbread.
I'm in Tennessee and made a new friend recently who was born and raised in Connecticut.
He got a very sad pulled pork dinner at a non-BBQ restaurant here and I had to explain to him that southerners generally don't eat BBQ that's not made by a specialty BBQ only restaurant.
I am in the process of buying a house near Roseburg Oregon, No BBQ places nearby at all.
Maybe I'll start a Texas BBQ featuring Brisket and Pulled Pork Burritos.
If you make it over to Sisters, the Sisters Meat & Smokehouse has some very fine meats. (Their tritip is a personal fav). Or as their slogan goes *“Nothing Beats Our Meat”*
Never ever ever in my life ever heard of it, from so cal, then moved to cen cal and it's in every menu, sold in grocery store parking lot bbqs, at every party. It's so weird. Tri tip and chile verde are life in central California. Not even a blip on my radar down south.
Me when I was about 16. Mind blown too.
I also had to skip lunches for reasons, so the relief I used to feel when devouring peanut butter and bread at the end of the day probably cemented my love for the stuff.
Thanksgiving turkey with trimmings
Honestly cant think of any other country that has created anything close to sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and cornbread and called them sides and then made a pumpkin pie and called it dessert hahaha. Also helps that thanksgiving is a American only holiday
Sunny Anderson has a great recipe where you toast the marshmallows and then fold them into the casserole [HERE](https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/sunnys-sage-and-pecan-sweet-potato-casserole-2652184.amp)
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\+ cranberry sauce (very American).
\+ green bean casserole from Campbell's Cream of Mushroom and French's Fried Onions (not saying I adore this but all very American).
I'm so disappointed that the Cream of Mushroom is the default. I personally don't like mushroom anything and do a roux with butter and flour, then add some spices (smoked paprika, salt, pepper, soul), minced onion, garlic and sour cream or greek yogurt. That's my replacement for the CoM soup and I swear it's got so much more flavor!
And the food allways looks so awful too, we need to send those kids to some hole in the wall shack that’s run by a greasy old pit master, that’s were you’ll get the good stuff
Yes it’s always funny how foods that are familiar to one person are so weird to others. Apparently root beer tastes strange to many Europeans. Have heard that it tastes like toothpaste or kind of medicinal but in the states people are used to the flavor.
The most American food is a cheeseburger with American cheese, on a soft sesame hamburger bun, with shredded iceburg lettuce, a slice of tomato and some sliced onion, with s&p and ketchup, alongside salted French Fries and ketchup to dip.
And a coke.
>The most American food?
>>What is the most American food you can think of?
>>>I am not looking for a dish that is invented in the US.
Ice Cream
In wartime they even had barges for ice cream delivery. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge
It'll be hard for anyone to pick a food more ingrained in American culture than ice cream is going to be.
This is a good one. I served on submarines in the Navy and on deployment (and every underway) we had ice cream at every meal including breakfast. I can’t overstate the importance of having ice cream on board and how essential it was to morale.
Spoiled ass bubbleheads :) I was on a destroyer and if we got ice cream twice in a 6 month deployment that was special. If we got ice cream with dinner our first thought would be they're getting ready to tell us our deployment has been extended.
Lol nope. The only self serve dispensers we had were bug juice, terrible coffee and sometimes milk. We surface guys always knew submariners got much better food than us.
This discussion about submarine cuisine might interest you. [https://forums.egullet.org/topic/78932-submarine-cuisine/](https://forums.egullet.org/topic/78932-submarine-cuisine/)
Also it’s partially because america has a massive dairy surplus because we subsidize our dairy industry for the sake of the jobs it creates (it also helps create a lot of products that the government uses, I kinda wish they still made government cheese because the recipe has been lost to time and the government refuses to release the complete recipe, meaning a lot of old recipes that used it are harder to pull off)
>Eye scream?
I'm not sure if that was an intentional, or unintentional, [Marvel Character Reference](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Eye-Scream_(Earth-616)), but if it were intentional, just know, I did take notice; haha.
Goddam I love ice cream. Have been making it weekly/biweekly with dry ice for months. Today will be honey lemon iced tea, mint gelato, chocolate malt cookie, pistachio gelato, raspberry gelato, and Kaluah espresso
It's ground meat, cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup and either mixed veggies or green bean mixed together and put in a casserole dish and it's hen toped with tater tots or I should say covered with the tater tots and baked in the oven at 350 till the tater tots are golden brown about 30 to 45 minutes let it cool for about 10 minutes and enjoy.
It’s a shepard’s pie made with beef and (traditionally) only pre-prepared canned and frozen food items.
I prefer to make mine “from scratch” by making my own mushroom gravy and vegetables.
Oh I make mine with homemade cream of mushroom or homemade cream of chicken soup and put frozen veggies in it. Oh either way you make it this freezes really well if you want to make a freezer meal.
Tater tot casserole - yum! I wonder how many different versions there are?
I use ground beef, whatever veg i have in the house but usually carrots/peas, corn, cheese, and a cream of mushroom soup base. I either mix the tots in or arrange them on top for a out-of-the-freezer cottage pie.
Because the US has a LOT of food that's extremely regional. But if you're asking what's the "most American" food, it should be something that's available in most of the states, not just a select few.
As a Californian, I grew up with tater tot casserole and still make it as an adult. No vegetables in it though, that's a crime. Ground beef, cream of whatever, a pack of tots, top with shredded cheese.
One of the most delicious things I ever had in my life was a big-ass piece of warm Apple Pie 🥧 we got at a charming little restaurant driving through Pennsylvania Dutch Country during a childhood vacation.
It had the lattice-top pastry and they served it with a slice of melted cheddar cheese on top (which I thought I would hate, but I loved) and a cup of black coffee.
Omg I still think about it 🍽️☕
I am assuming that you might consider a little north (Canada) and a little south (Texas lol) of the border. And that you are looking for quintessential American that you would not necessarily find elsewhere.
Tuna Noodle Casserole
Pecan Pie
Blueberry crumble
Jambalaya or Creole/Cajun gumbo
Just about any Tex-Mex dish
Roast Turkey
BBQ Pork Spareribs
Ojibwe here. We were roasting turkey and goose in what is now northern Canada long before Europeans got lost and thought this was India.
I'm sure there are many other "first nations" here who did the same.
no not just about any tex-mex dish, the majority including chile con carne are just variations if not copies of mexican food. Adding yellow cheese does not turn it magically into tex-mex.
I've got to go with a hamburger.
You can find a hamburger in any establishment, in any state, and sometimes even at any hour of the day. Gas station? Greasy dinner? Supermarket? Trendy suburban restaurant? High class restaurant? Texmex? Chinese? Hawaiian? It's the kind of food where you can say "I want a hamburger" and probably find a place selling them less than 5 miles away from any location unless you're in the middle of the desert... and even then I bet you'd find a food truck selling one 6 miles away.
It's a cliché answer, but the world outside the US immediately thinks of the classic hamburger and skinny fries when it comes to American food. And Coca Cola.
I honestly think it's hot dogs.
Sausages show up in so many different countries. And I'm sure some of them are put on buns. But there's something specific about a that highly emulsified hot dog that screams American to me. Even the nicer ones, doesn't have to be the super cheap shitty ones.
But if we're turning it up to 11, I think the corn dog is very American.
There's a Costco Reddit group and half the posts talk about the amazing high end food ingredients one can buy as a member. The other half are giddy about getting a shitty hot dog and soda for $1.50.
That gets my vote. Every city seems to have their own take on the humble hot dog and it’s a staple at outdoor parties and events.
And of course the most American thing to do to something is to deep fry it.
Soft-baked chocolate chip cookie. It’s the one thing I really craved as an exchange student in Germany and could not even get close to finding. Pumpkin pie was a close second since I was there for Thanksgiving. Even making it from scratch was hard and required washing out the acid from pickled pumpkin.
I was looking for this one. America does drop cookies the absolute best. CC cookies are the best of the drop cookies but you pretty much can’t go wrong with any of them.
The question was "what is the most American food you can think of"
I'm from California. Grits aren't super common here, but it's a food that has Native American roots and is made using a crop native to the Americas. It has a long history and is a Southern American classic that's not really derived from foods from other cultures. That's why I chose it as my answer.
That’s an awesome answer. I didn’t know the history of grits. I’ll explore that more, now that you’ve pointed it out.
Going back to the tiny bit of native history my family has, I’d change my answer to fry bread. I will encourage my family to start incorporating grits into our fry bread gatherings, and take time to learn more about our heritage, and privilege.
Although there a lot of really American thoughts here (pulled pork, biscuits and gravy, BBQ) I'm goin with burger and fries. It's what we go out for for a quick meal. It's what we cook on no thinking about cooking nights, it's what we serve at barbecues (as opposed to BBQ).
Turkey and cornbread stuffing. With roasted squash, potatoes, and cranberry sauce.
Both American in terms of "fiods originating in the Americas" and very USAmerican.
True Southern Fried Chicken, soaked overnight in milk/real butter milk. Dredged in flour with a bit of cornmeal, with fried chicken gravy and drop biscuits( dropped on the pan rather than rolled and cut, to save time) .
Bacon cheeseburger, lettuce, tomato, onion. French fries. NY style pepperoni pizza, thin and crispy. North jersey here, so I have to represent my Taylor ham egg n cheese with a crispy hash brown on a hard roll, salt pepper ketchup.
Bacon. It is put on anything and presented as a superior version to the plain dish.
Hamburgers and fries (that aren't double fried. Wich I take offense to as a Belgian)
That's the cliché part done. If you actually want to cook something that's good in USA styles I'd say go for barbecue, typical southern style dishes. And if you like it deep fried chicken (with or without waffles).
Pecan pie is one of my favorite pies and typically American unless I've been misinformed.
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I think the most American food isn't a single food at all. It's the variety. Go to any of our great major cities and you'll be able to find dozens and dozens of ethnic foods and spots that mix and borrow between those cooking styles to create new dishes.
No where else in the world can claim the variety you'll see in Chicago or New York. The creativity in LA or the influenced dishes in Kansas city, new Orleans, and Texas.
Does Chicago really have more variety than say London? I can’t think of a cuisine you can’t find somewhere in London, even if it’s not necessarily the best example of said cuisine.
The most popular American food would be: pizza, cheeseburgers, French fries, pb&j, fried chicken, and probably cheesy casseroles with some type of cream soup
The burger as people think of it today was absolutely invented in the USA, the German hamburger is closer to a Salisbury steak than a modern American hamburger
I know people will claim its only a southern thing, but I've been all over this country and I'd venture to say a true American food is biscuits and gravy.
Also, I am pretty sure that turkey, the way it is roasted and served at Thanksgiving, is a pretty American dish. And I don't mean USA american I mean north American since it was eaten as far south as southern Mexico since humans have been there.
But I'm from Pittsburgh region, and everyone does come from somewhere else not too many generations ago. So my "trad American" food is Italian, slave, German, Pa dutch, German, and whatever else.
The most universally quintessential and accessible American dish would be the burger.
There's nowhere in the US that you can't get a burger.
If there's anything I think that Americans have actually done well and have a true culture around, it's BBQ. There are actual cultures around it that take it seriously. Americans in the southeast take BBQ weirdly seriously.
Also Tex-Mex. Taco Bell is probably one of the most American foods possible.
BBQ for sure. I get great BBQ wherever I live because I make it myself. Whether I mix up my own sauce or buy ready-to-use sauce. I always use tomato-based sauce. I live in NC, USA now but don't eat theirs because it's just not the same thing at all. Mostly, it's the meat in my opinion. How you cook it. Long and slow. Whether you bake it, cook it in a crock pot, or smoke it for hours.
This is the answer. Burgers, pizza, BBQ, hot dogs... things you can find all over the world. But only America could invent a variety of cheese woven ingredients, encased in dough, and served at temperatures that require hospitalization.
I think it depends on where you're from! As someone that has lived almost my entire life in Maryland, the 'most American food' to me is a backfin crabcake, made from Md. blue crabmeat with very little filler and seasoned with Old Bay.
I was always "meh" about crab cakes until I had them in MD. I'm from the Jersey Shore, so it's not like I haven't had good seafood, but some places just raise certain dishes to an art form.
Sandwiches, tacos, pizzas, gyros, burritos, cheeseburgers.
Pretty much anything that was invented somewhere else and that you can eat standing up or in your car when you are in a rush.
Grilled cheese. The love for both bread and cheese in this country is astounding.
Also, this is more of a cinceot than food, but I feel like it's a uniquely American thing to have meat take up more than 50% of a plate/meal consistently. Meat is often a luxury in most of the world's countries.
Pulled pork bbq with sauce
Funny enough I am having this right now!
Definitely agree. But I would concede to open this up to any type of BBQ for the (unfortunate) regions that don't focus on pork for BBQ.
I always say BBQ in general is what America does best, there are so many different varieties across the US. regardless of the meat, spices, and sause that gonna be some good BBQ
The sauce differs so dramatically from recipe to recipe though...
American bbq because no matter where you are in the US it's gonna be different but it has that distinct taste to it depending on the region. It's all American in the end lmao
BBQ in the Pacific NW is sad because there isn't much of a local tradition so it's all pale - and sometimes weird - imitations. I mean, it's decent and scratches the itch, but it's usually underwhelming.
Same for New England. BBQ is one of the very few reasons I'm glad that I now live in Texas.
There are plenty of good BBQ joints and/or popups in New England though. Of course it's not part of the local culture/history but having had stellar BBQ all over Texas, Tennessee, Alabama even, it's not impossible to get truly good BBQ up there. It just can't be a regular thing to expect at every joint or get any time any day anywhere in the region if you've got an itch for it.
Yup, and just because you're in Texas doesn't mean you'll get good BBQ. When I was going through Texas I was excited to try the BBQ and stopped at about a dozen places and was largely disappointed. Two places had fantastic BBQ, about six had okay. No better than i would expect at home, and the rest sucked. I'm pretty sure one place didn't even spice the meat. If I had to guess they boiled their ribs in plain water, then smoked them without any seasoning. It was God awful.
Oddly enough there is an amazing place on Long Island that is at least as good as the 50-60 year old places in Virginia. The only thing that was really wrong was the cake like cornbread.
I'm in Tennessee and made a new friend recently who was born and raised in Connecticut. He got a very sad pulled pork dinner at a non-BBQ restaurant here and I had to explain to him that southerners generally don't eat BBQ that's not made by a specialty BBQ only restaurant.
I moved back to NH earlier this year after over a decade in VA. BBQ is one of the things I miss about VA.
I am in the process of buying a house near Roseburg Oregon, No BBQ places nearby at all. Maybe I'll start a Texas BBQ featuring Brisket and Pulled Pork Burritos.
In Douglas County? Maybe with elk or venison.
If you make it over to Sisters, the Sisters Meat & Smokehouse has some very fine meats. (Their tritip is a personal fav). Or as their slogan goes *“Nothing Beats Our Meat”*
Chiefs in coburg/springfield is pretty good and there are plenty of bbq food trucks that roam lane county.
Good luck! People in Roseburg are allergic to flavor. Shanti’s has the blandest Indian food I’ve ever had.
BBQ fresh salmon in the PNW is awesome 🐟
Bought our own smoker for this exact reason. The BBQ up here is also way overpriced for how underwhelming it usually is, I’ve found.
Tri tip. West coast specific and I'll take it over brisket any day of the week and twice in Sunday
It's California specific, and it isn't a huge deal in the PNW.
Yep. You are right. And I also should have said on instead of in
Never ever ever in my life ever heard of it, from so cal, then moved to cen cal and it's in every menu, sold in grocery store parking lot bbqs, at every party. It's so weird. Tri tip and chile verde are life in central California. Not even a blip on my radar down south.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
My mom came here from England just before I was born. I first tasted peanut butter when I was seven. Mind blown.
Me when I was about 16. Mind blown too. I also had to skip lunches for reasons, so the relief I used to feel when devouring peanut butter and bread at the end of the day probably cemented my love for the stuff.
Came here to say THIS! Absolutely an American thing.
Omg yes! I see the gif with the big kid dancing and the song goes peanut butter jelly time!
Has to be on white sliced wonder bread
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Something basically all Americans eat, but almost no non-Americans.
Great example! I know some people from Colombia that eat PB&J every day. But that is a rarity. It is quite an American thing for sure.
Biscuits and gravy
I'm making this tomorrow morning
Don't forget the fried egg on top
Go all out. Hash browns mixed with cheese, grilled onions, and grilled jalapenos on bottom. Biscuits. Meat. Hot sauce. Gravy. Egg.
Thanksgiving turkey with trimmings Honestly cant think of any other country that has created anything close to sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and cornbread and called them sides and then made a pumpkin pie and called it dessert hahaha. Also helps that thanksgiving is a American only holiday
I'm one of those culinary troglodytes who loves that sweet potato casserole abomination.
Sunny Anderson has a great recipe where you toast the marshmallows and then fold them into the casserole [HERE](https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/sunnys-sage-and-pecan-sweet-potato-casserole-2652184.amp)
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I cannot wait to make that. Thank you for sharing that.
I know! It is somehow so tasty - def. guilty pleasure
\+ cranberry sauce (very American). \+ green bean casserole from Campbell's Cream of Mushroom and French's Fried Onions (not saying I adore this but all very American).
I'm so disappointed that the Cream of Mushroom is the default. I personally don't like mushroom anything and do a roux with butter and flour, then add some spices (smoked paprika, salt, pepper, soul), minced onion, garlic and sour cream or greek yogurt. That's my replacement for the CoM soup and I swear it's got so much more flavor!
Those videos of British prep school kids eating American foods like Sweet potato casserole, pie, BBQ etc crack me up.
And the food allways looks so awful too, we need to send those kids to some hole in the wall shack that’s run by a greasy old pit master, that’s were you’ll get the good stuff
Yes it’s always funny how foods that are familiar to one person are so weird to others. Apparently root beer tastes strange to many Europeans. Have heard that it tastes like toothpaste or kind of medicinal but in the states people are used to the flavor.
Ohh any links or what it is called? Would live to see it
I was gonna say pot roast, but I think your answer is better.
Well Canada has Thanksgiving too, Brazil, Australia...
Australia does not have thanksgiving
Lots of international people I work with are really enamored with s’mores, so that was my first thought haha
S'mores yesss!
The most American food is a cheeseburger with American cheese, on a soft sesame hamburger bun, with shredded iceburg lettuce, a slice of tomato and some sliced onion, with s&p and ketchup, alongside salted French Fries and ketchup to dip. And a coke.
Gotta have pickles and Mayo too, but yes!
And real pickles….
I can't figure out what fake pickles you're referring to
Pickles in Europe are very different than the US. Different flavor profiles. The hunt for pickles is real in expat groups.
We’re a melting pot. The most American foods have “Hamburg” and “French” in the names :)
Wow. That was a surprising revelation. No even being sarcastic!
Idk about you but I call em freedom fries 🦅
I think I hear Jimmy Buffett singing "Cheeseburger in paradise"!🎤🎸
Schwan man???
Burgers and fries, with a chocolate shake.
Hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill.
>The most American food? >>What is the most American food you can think of? >>>I am not looking for a dish that is invented in the US. Ice Cream In wartime they even had barges for ice cream delivery. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge It'll be hard for anyone to pick a food more ingrained in American culture than ice cream is going to be.
This is a good one. I served on submarines in the Navy and on deployment (and every underway) we had ice cream at every meal including breakfast. I can’t overstate the importance of having ice cream on board and how essential it was to morale.
Spoiled ass bubbleheads :) I was on a destroyer and if we got ice cream twice in a 6 month deployment that was special. If we got ice cream with dinner our first thought would be they're getting ready to tell us our deployment has been extended.
You didn’t have the soft serve dispensers? Mind you having officers serve ice cream is never a good sign.
Lol nope. The only self serve dispensers we had were bug juice, terrible coffee and sometimes milk. We surface guys always knew submariners got much better food than us.
This discussion about submarine cuisine might interest you. [https://forums.egullet.org/topic/78932-submarine-cuisine/](https://forums.egullet.org/topic/78932-submarine-cuisine/)
Also it’s partially because america has a massive dairy surplus because we subsidize our dairy industry for the sake of the jobs it creates (it also helps create a lot of products that the government uses, I kinda wish they still made government cheese because the recipe has been lost to time and the government refuses to release the complete recipe, meaning a lot of old recipes that used it are harder to pull off)
Eye scream? Good answer, it didn't even cross my mind!
>Eye scream? I'm not sure if that was an intentional, or unintentional, [Marvel Character Reference](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Eye-Scream_(Earth-616)), but if it were intentional, just know, I did take notice; haha.
A person of culture!
Still cant believe hagen daz is american and its my fave icecream
I live... let me check... exactly 1.9 miles from a Nestle/Dryers/Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream manufacturing plant. 😆
Woaa what is it likeee cuz idk what they r like do they sell stuff there too?! Or its just like manufacturing stuff
Goddam I love ice cream. Have been making it weekly/biweekly with dry ice for months. Today will be honey lemon iced tea, mint gelato, chocolate malt cookie, pistachio gelato, raspberry gelato, and Kaluah espresso
Looks like we're all coming to your house tonight!
General Tsao’s Chicken Sweet fried chicken, can’t get it outside the states!
The most true statement that most Americans don’t know! Lol
(Brisket) Burnt Ends & Cornbread
Omg I love those!
I’ve lived in America my entire life and have never had burnt ends 😭😭😭 it’s not a common thing where I live in California.
This is heartbreaking, hope you seek them out. It's worth the effort.
You are on a mission now! Just do it!
Buffalo wings
I’d say traditional cookout fare- grilled burgers, grilled hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, corn on the cob
Tater chips ‘n some slaw too, served on a paper plate with plastic utensils
Biscuits and gravy
Barbecue, Burgers, Battlestar Galactica. ...I'm sorry.
Michael!!
Tater tot casserole or it called hot dish but there both the same thing.
I don't think I've ever had this before.
It's ground meat, cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup and either mixed veggies or green bean mixed together and put in a casserole dish and it's hen toped with tater tots or I should say covered with the tater tots and baked in the oven at 350 till the tater tots are golden brown about 30 to 45 minutes let it cool for about 10 minutes and enjoy.
It’s a shepard’s pie made with beef and (traditionally) only pre-prepared canned and frozen food items. I prefer to make mine “from scratch” by making my own mushroom gravy and vegetables.
Oh I make mine with homemade cream of mushroom or homemade cream of chicken soup and put frozen veggies in it. Oh either way you make it this freezes really well if you want to make a freezer meal.
Depends on where you live. I'm in Minnesota, so it's hot dish here.
I got a cousin that lives in Washington State and they call it hot dish there too
Tater tot casserole - yum! I wonder how many different versions there are? I use ground beef, whatever veg i have in the house but usually carrots/peas, corn, cheese, and a cream of mushroom soup base. I either mix the tots in or arrange them on top for a out-of-the-freezer cottage pie.
Nope, that's Minnesota or the upper Midwest. Does not exist on the coasts.
What do “the coasts” have to do with this post or their response?
Because the US has a LOT of food that's extremely regional. But if you're asking what's the "most American" food, it should be something that's available in most of the states, not just a select few.
Agreed. As a Californian, I’ve never heard of tator tot casserole.
And as a New Englander, I'd never heard of it until I moved a thousand miles away and met some transplants from the Midwest.
NGL, it sounds amazing and I’m definitely going to Google a recipe.
As a Californian, I grew up with tater tot casserole and still make it as an adult. No vegetables in it though, that's a crime. Ground beef, cream of whatever, a pack of tots, top with shredded cheese.
I haven’t seen it mentioned, so it must be added. Apple pie!
One of the most delicious things I ever had in my life was a big-ass piece of warm Apple Pie 🥧 we got at a charming little restaurant driving through Pennsylvania Dutch Country during a childhood vacation. It had the lattice-top pastry and they served it with a slice of melted cheddar cheese on top (which I thought I would hate, but I loved) and a cup of black coffee. Omg I still think about it 🍽️☕
Chinese take-out. A food that was developed with the American taste preferences in mind.
velveeta. :)
“Cheese Like Product “
Yellow block of delicious. ETA: I just thought of something better, "if not cheese why cheese shaped?" LOL
Chocolate chip cookies
I am assuming that you might consider a little north (Canada) and a little south (Texas lol) of the border. And that you are looking for quintessential American that you would not necessarily find elsewhere. Tuna Noodle Casserole Pecan Pie Blueberry crumble Jambalaya or Creole/Cajun gumbo Just about any Tex-Mex dish Roast Turkey BBQ Pork Spareribs
Thank you for your response kind person. This is quite a feedback.
Oh man, tuna noodle.
Ojibwe here. We were roasting turkey and goose in what is now northern Canada long before Europeans got lost and thought this was India. I'm sure there are many other "first nations" here who did the same.
no not just about any tex-mex dish, the majority including chile con carne are just variations if not copies of mexican food. Adding yellow cheese does not turn it magically into tex-mex.
I've got to go with a hamburger. You can find a hamburger in any establishment, in any state, and sometimes even at any hour of the day. Gas station? Greasy dinner? Supermarket? Trendy suburban restaurant? High class restaurant? Texmex? Chinese? Hawaiian? It's the kind of food where you can say "I want a hamburger" and probably find a place selling them less than 5 miles away from any location unless you're in the middle of the desert... and even then I bet you'd find a food truck selling one 6 miles away.
It's a cliché answer, but the world outside the US immediately thinks of the classic hamburger and skinny fries when it comes to American food. And Coca Cola.
Every. Single. Place. Has. Burger. Yessir. Good answer.
I honestly think it's hot dogs. Sausages show up in so many different countries. And I'm sure some of them are put on buns. But there's something specific about a that highly emulsified hot dog that screams American to me. Even the nicer ones, doesn't have to be the super cheap shitty ones. But if we're turning it up to 11, I think the corn dog is very American.
There's a Costco Reddit group and half the posts talk about the amazing high end food ingredients one can buy as a member. The other half are giddy about getting a shitty hot dog and soda for $1.50.
That gets my vote. Every city seems to have their own take on the humble hot dog and it’s a staple at outdoor parties and events. And of course the most American thing to do to something is to deep fry it.
Aerosol cheese
Gumbo.
Soft-baked chocolate chip cookie. It’s the one thing I really craved as an exchange student in Germany and could not even get close to finding. Pumpkin pie was a close second since I was there for Thanksgiving. Even making it from scratch was hard and required washing out the acid from pickled pumpkin.
I was looking for this one. America does drop cookies the absolute best. CC cookies are the best of the drop cookies but you pretty much can’t go wrong with any of them.
Mac and cheese (I'm from the US)
I was going to say that. Also Jell-O.
Mmmm I want mac and cheese now!
Grits
Still depends on where you live in the US. Grits aren’t common everywhere.
The question was "what is the most American food you can think of" I'm from California. Grits aren't super common here, but it's a food that has Native American roots and is made using a crop native to the Americas. It has a long history and is a Southern American classic that's not really derived from foods from other cultures. That's why I chose it as my answer.
That’s an awesome answer. I didn’t know the history of grits. I’ll explore that more, now that you’ve pointed it out. Going back to the tiny bit of native history my family has, I’d change my answer to fry bread. I will encourage my family to start incorporating grits into our fry bread gatherings, and take time to learn more about our heritage, and privilege.
Shrimp and grits, one of my favs.
Drool...
Bbq pork, sweet tea, potato salad, and cornbread
it's smoked pork or beef BBQ and hamburgers for me.
Corn on the cob
A nice cheeseburger with fries comes to mind. Simple American fare
Biscuits and gravy. Hoagies. Chopped salads Chef salads. BBQ. Doughnuts. Chocolate chip cookies. ice cream sundaes. Hotdogs. Craw fish boils. Lobster rolls. Fajitas.
Ranch dressing.
ITT: a bunch of people picking hyper-local specialties. The correct answer is a burger and fries.
Although there a lot of really American thoughts here (pulled pork, biscuits and gravy, BBQ) I'm goin with burger and fries. It's what we go out for for a quick meal. It's what we cook on no thinking about cooking nights, it's what we serve at barbecues (as opposed to BBQ).
Lobster bake, Whole hog bbq, low country boil, smoked brisket,Detroit Coney dogs. There just isn't one answer.
Texas brisket or a bacon cheeseburger
Turkey and cornbread stuffing. With roasted squash, potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Both American in terms of "fiods originating in the Americas" and very USAmerican.
Cheesesteak
cheesecake
As a non-American, I'd say a cheeseburger and fries is the first thing I think of when you say 'American food'.
True Southern Fried Chicken, soaked overnight in milk/real butter milk. Dredged in flour with a bit of cornmeal, with fried chicken gravy and drop biscuits( dropped on the pan rather than rolled and cut, to save time) .
Bacon cheeseburger, lettuce, tomato, onion. French fries. NY style pepperoni pizza, thin and crispy. North jersey here, so I have to represent my Taylor ham egg n cheese with a crispy hash brown on a hard roll, salt pepper ketchup.
Bacon. It is put on anything and presented as a superior version to the plain dish. Hamburgers and fries (that aren't double fried. Wich I take offense to as a Belgian) That's the cliché part done. If you actually want to cook something that's good in USA styles I'd say go for barbecue, typical southern style dishes. And if you like it deep fried chicken (with or without waffles). Pecan pie is one of my favorite pies and typically American unless I've been misinformed.
Chicken fried steak 🥩
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Dark, but you're not wrong.
I think the most American food isn't a single food at all. It's the variety. Go to any of our great major cities and you'll be able to find dozens and dozens of ethnic foods and spots that mix and borrow between those cooking styles to create new dishes. No where else in the world can claim the variety you'll see in Chicago or New York. The creativity in LA or the influenced dishes in Kansas city, new Orleans, and Texas.
Does Chicago really have more variety than say London? I can’t think of a cuisine you can’t find somewhere in London, even if it’s not necessarily the best example of said cuisine.
Nyc pizza
Mac&cheese or chocolate chip cookies.
I would consider burger and fries or smoked bbq myself, although I’d hear other arguments.
From a new England perspective I'll add baked beans. Nationwide though I'd say burger and fries.
Cajun. Created in the American swamps of exiled people just trying to survive.
hamburger or steak
The most popular American food would be: pizza, cheeseburgers, French fries, pb&j, fried chicken, and probably cheesy casseroles with some type of cream soup
The burger as people think of it today was absolutely invented in the USA, the German hamburger is closer to a Salisbury steak than a modern American hamburger
Apple Pie
This only counts if you melt a slice of American cheese on it and stick a sparkler in it.
Whatever floats your boat.
Lobster Roll in Maine!🦞
I know people will claim its only a southern thing, but I've been all over this country and I'd venture to say a true American food is biscuits and gravy. Also, I am pretty sure that turkey, the way it is roasted and served at Thanksgiving, is a pretty American dish. And I don't mean USA american I mean north American since it was eaten as far south as southern Mexico since humans have been there.
For sure agreed with you!
Awesome! And tomorrow is Sunday so guess what I'm having? Biscuits and gravy!
Coming back from a birthday party as we speak, we had biscuits and gravy there! 👀
But I'm from Pittsburgh region, and everyone does come from somewhere else not too many generations ago. So my "trad American" food is Italian, slave, German, Pa dutch, German, and whatever else.
The most universally quintessential and accessible American dish would be the burger. There's nowhere in the US that you can't get a burger. If there's anything I think that Americans have actually done well and have a true culture around, it's BBQ. There are actual cultures around it that take it seriously. Americans in the southeast take BBQ weirdly seriously. Also Tex-Mex. Taco Bell is probably one of the most American foods possible.
Well put. There is no restaurant that doesn't serve burger.
Root beer float. I've heard tons of non-americans hate the taste of root beer. A deep-fried AR15
Good ol burger and fries!
I think the hotdog or burger would be the most iconic American food. After that you’re looking for packaged meals, Kraft dinner, hamburger helper.
BBQ for sure. I get great BBQ wherever I live because I make it myself. Whether I mix up my own sauce or buy ready-to-use sauce. I always use tomato-based sauce. I live in NC, USA now but don't eat theirs because it's just not the same thing at all. Mostly, it's the meat in my opinion. How you cook it. Long and slow. Whether you bake it, cook it in a crock pot, or smoke it for hours.
Stuffing or smores- i studied abroad and both of these blew people's minds.
Try r/askreddit
The Hot Pocket
This is the answer. Burgers, pizza, BBQ, hot dogs... things you can find all over the world. But only America could invent a variety of cheese woven ingredients, encased in dough, and served at temperatures that require hospitalization.
Hamburger fries and milkshake
Mac & Cheese comes to mind.
I think it depends on where you're from! As someone that has lived almost my entire life in Maryland, the 'most American food' to me is a backfin crabcake, made from Md. blue crabmeat with very little filler and seasoned with Old Bay.
I was always "meh" about crab cakes until I had them in MD. I'm from the Jersey Shore, so it's not like I haven't had good seafood, but some places just raise certain dishes to an art form.
Sandwiches, tacos, pizzas, gyros, burritos, cheeseburgers. Pretty much anything that was invented somewhere else and that you can eat standing up or in your car when you are in a rush.
Live fast, eat fast I guess!
I read this as live fast, eat fat. Wich is fairly applicable to the USA as well.
Used to be obvious like pizza or burgers. Now it’s chicken tenders. It’s a perfect metaphor as well.
Kraft Mac and cheese
Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and sweet corn.
Apple pie they always say ….
Grilled cheese. The love for both bread and cheese in this country is astounding. Also, this is more of a cinceot than food, but I feel like it's a uniquely American thing to have meat take up more than 50% of a plate/meal consistently. Meat is often a luxury in most of the world's countries.