Yep, yep. Some countries have more cohesive cuisines that could be lumped into a generic national cuisine, but I still think, like you, that for most, a lot of the specialities identified with those countries are quite regional. For example, since you brought up German food, spaetzle are quintessentially “German cuisine” right? But they are usually recognized as a specialty of Swabia. Why can’t grits and cornbread then be just as much “American cuisine”?
Maize is the staple starch throughout a lot of Africa. Central America too, I should think.
I’m afraid my sensibilities are tainted by theGallery of Regrettable Food, and that’s all I think of when I think “American Cuisine”. Watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives has done little to disabuse me of this notion.
They did (and still do) – I was the market research manager on grits at Quaker for several years. Though, as we all learned in “My Cousin Vinny”: “no self-respecting Southerner eats instant grits.” 
And, yes, you can find grits fairly easily in Chicago, but I suspect that that’s at least in part due to the influx of African-Americans from the southern U.S., particularly during the first half of the 20th century. Having grown up in northern Wisconsin, grits were still an alien foodstuff there, and you rarely, if ever, saw them.
Yark. That is a marvelous collection of hideous food which he’s pulled together.
Ideally, I think the best way to clear up any confusion would be to recognize spaetzle as Swabian, rather than to lump grits and cornbread under the too-general “American” label.
See, stuff like that–to me, at least–is mostly Midwest regional food–stuff you’d see at church pot lucks and similar. I suppose it’s probably seen in other parts of the US, too, but I suspect it’s mostly linked to the Midwest.
I think “American cuisine” should include everything from hot dogs and hamburgers to catfish and hushpuppies to crawfish etoufee to Buffalo chicken wings to New Mexican green chili, to tri-tip barbecue, etc. If you just include the stuff that is ubiquitous throughout all 50 states, your just going to end up with fairly generic foods like hamburgers and pizza (which are both still subject to regional interpretations, especially the latter).
OK, Lileks aside, I think when I think “American Food” I think of three things: Hamburgers, hot dogs and KFC.
I’m actually kind of surprised that fried chicken is thought of as distinctly American. Or is it specifically KFC?
Have you ever been to America? A quick search of Cape Town restaurants returned Hooters as The American Restaurant.
When discussing any country’s “cuisine”–beyond fast food–most people actually look at the cooking found in the different regions of the country. Even for countries smaller than ours. In fact, hamburgers & hot dogs are not exactly the same all over the country. KFC is–but we mostly prefer Popeye’s here. Or Frenchy’s!
I would agree with Hamburgers, Fried Chicken and Barbecue.
Green and red gelatin dessert filled with cabbage and carrots!
I think the simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich is uniquely American.
What do you mean by “Northerner”? I think you’re projecting your background to too far a swath of the US.
I grew up in Ohio, all my ancestors have been in Ohio since before the Civil War (that is, no Southern transplants). And cornbread was a common item, a pan baked probably once a week. And this was not the greasy, sweetened cornbread that some restaurants serve, but a plain quickbread that went well with any meat.
The US is a big place, and, while it may be a melting pot, the fondue within is not evenly mixed. Talking about a “US cuisine” is more like talking about “European cuisine” than about that of any one particular European nation. For perspective, consider Greece and Louisiana–they’re about the same size, and each has its own distinct cuisine, but one is a country, while the other is just a small part of the US culinary map.
Nonsense. All you have to do is rename it Polenta and you people gobble it up.
To show how regional that is, I doubt if any restaurant in my county has grits and cornbread on any menu. Hamburgers are far more common.
There are thousands of Italian restaurants in this country featuring items that you’d never find in certain areas of Italy.
Shipwrecked (that brewpub up in Egg Harbor) has cornbread muffins, and there’s a barbecue place in that town, too, that has corn bread. Googling tells me it’s Casey’s. Don’t know about grits, though. Does your local supermarket not routinely carry cornbread? It’s not like cornbread is ubiquitous in Chicago on restaurant menus, but you can find it, and every supermarket will have cornbread mix (if you don’t feel like making it from scratch.) Even my wife from Buffalo bakes cornbread from time to time.
But, yeah, American food is regional, but American cuisine that does not include “corn bread” is ludicrous.
So does the White Lace Inn, according to google.
True, yuppie grits. Oh, and I meant hominy type as the gross one, sorry.
I sit corrected. Shipwrecked blows my theory. I didn’t think we were talking about grocery stores, but restaurants. I’m pretty sure you can get many, many foods in grocery stores that aren’t common in local restaurants.
Casey’s might carry cornbread, but I stopped going there when I didn’t like their BBQ. I was thinking more about grits, though – I think they are pretty rare in Northern Wisconsin. A hashbrown sandwich is more typical for breakfast.