I have some objections to their list, but I agree with the majority. My main complaints are fried okra and banana pudding, which I think are marginal dishes at best. BBQ is too broad to be a dish, it’s a category. They should have picked a single item like baby back ribs or brisket.
Gen Tso’s Chicken is an interesting one, as is Poke. I’m not sure either of them have yet passed the test of time.
No brainers: PB&J, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Apply Pie, Clam Chowder (but I’m biased, from Boston), Chili, Grits, Hamburger, and Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I read it, and I considered it a really crappy list (no offense to you Telemark) designed to be (like a LOT of CNN’s food based “articles”) clickbait and generate rage and shares.
It’s completely arbitrary, and it’s definitions of “American Food” are equally so.
I put 99% of all of CNN’s Food/Diet articles in the same category as their “CNN suggests” where they’re trying to sell you products, generally with links to Amazon. A barely concealed (wink wink nudge nudge) form of advertising (you share the link and it draws more clicks to CNN) as compared to god knows what sort of kickbacks with the CNN suggests.
Way too many of these dishes are still super-regional. I lived in SW Louisiana before Cajun food became a thing, and my wife worked in a factory that canned okra, and while I like fried okra just fine I wouldn’t call it a greatest American food. Gumbo neither, though we still make it. Poke is a fad, like blackened XYZ was.
Completely agree. No one actually likes okra. I like banana cream pie now and then but banana pudding is no where close to the top 20 of American food dishes.
I like both of these just fine, but in 95% of the country you wouldn’t even be able to get decent crawfish to make etouffee. No way it is a greatest American food in their sense.
We have differing definitions of “great.” For me, ubiquity or general availability is unnecessary. It can be a hyperregional dish, but as long as it is culinarily magnificent, it makes my “greatest American foods” list. Like I’d put a Philadephia Roast Pork sandwich on my list of great American contributions to the food scene. Or green chili made with Hatch chiles. Stuff like that.
I agree with pulykamell - hyper-regional is in no way a disqualifier for a list like this. It’s why I have an objection to “BBQ” being its own item, since “BBQ” isn’t American - nearly every culture has their own. But the editors didn’t want to just select one (burnt ends) to top the list, because you leave out so many other great singular dishes (even though burnt ends is the right answer).
Disagree. I’ve had plenty of crawfish in Louisiana and the gulf shores, and I’ve had equally good crawfish in the landlocked Midwest. Refrigeration and overnight transit make the argument for seafood purity fall apart pretty fast. Sourcing the ingredients isn’t the hard part anymore - it’s finding someone who knows what to do with them that is.
And you can have my ‘naner puddin’ when you pry it from my cold, dead, diabetic fingers. Please note that what they show in the picture is NOT banana pudding.
Poke is too trendy/too new. I have literally never heard of fry bread or mission burritos. If they’re going to call “BBQ” a food, they should have just said “burritos” - no idea if they are Am-Mex or just Mex though. Or just replace it with something like deep dish pizza or Philly Cheesesteak.
Yep. Okra is fantastic. Besides the American versions of it, I’ve had fantastic Indian preparations, where they’re called bhindi on the menu. When I’m at South Asian events (and I work a lot of them), the bhindi masala is the first thing I go for, if it’s available.
The point of many of these lists is not to pick the best twenty foods. But to pick one from many different regions so no one feels left out. A Canadian equivalent would probably include the perceived “most popular” dish from every province. Even if few frequently eat dulce, fiddleheads, fish ‘n brewis, cod tongue, Nanaimo bars or bannock.
