# What foods are uniquely American? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128 "2015-12-22T21:53:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/61 "2015-12-23T03:07:52Z")
Southern Fried Chicken? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/62 "2015-12-23T04:16:45Z")
The OP asked about _uniquely_ American food which I think is a good phrasing. In other words, what foods would you not have much luck to find good examples of in any other country in the world? The best examples I can think of are true American BBQ in the various styles and Louisiana gumbo. Both take a whole lot of time, expense, select ingredients and experience to create. You may balk at BBQ because anyone can roast a cut of meat no matter where you are but I am talking about masters that do a long and slow roast over relatively low temperatures with special spice rubs and secret sauces to supplement the taste. It is not an easy thing to get right. Truly good gumbo is even harder. The ingredients for a big pot of seafood gumbo are incredibly easy to screw up right from the beginning and it is very expensive even if you succeed. The results are worth it however. It is rare to find people outside of the U.S. (mostly the Southern U.S.) that have the experience to do either of those well. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/63 "2015-12-23T05:26:16Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Gyros, invented in Chicago. Mass-produced gyros, maybe. But gyros in general, I doubt it (and I can’t find a source substantiating that. The best I could find is that Chicago might have been the first US city to serve gyros, but that it originated in Greece.) I would go with the humble hamburger myself. Despite having a pedigree that goes back to Hamburg steak and frikadellen and whatnot, the sandwiched version, especially served with cheese and all the condiments, is very American to me, and I’ve been amazed how many places through my travels around the world have screwed it up. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/64 "2015-12-23T05:38:08Z")
Bagels. Cream cheese. Blueberry muffins and corn muffins. Hash browns. Deli sandwiches with lots of meat. Sloppy Joes. Cupcakes with lots of icing. Meatball subs. Onion rings. Etc. In other words, American food to me is diner food, deli food and bar food, AKA the best food in the world. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/65 "2015-12-23T05:41:26Z")
Well, any Indian style of cooking. I nominate the clam bake. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/66 "2015-12-23T05:53:25Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > I don’t buy this one. Meat and peppers, the key ingredients, were both well known to the Aztecs, Mayans, et. al. I strongly fucking doubt it took the peculiar genius of white Texans to combine these things. Sure, there’s plenty of meat and peppers dishes out there, but what I think of as chili con carne is a distinctly Tex-Mex dish (with many other variations as it spread up through the States). I would argue for its inclusion as an American dish (specifically Tex-Mex), just as I would the hamburger, and certainly the corn dog. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/67 "2015-12-23T06:12:57Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Those include corn, chocolate, potatoes, tomatoes, bell pepper, chili pepper, vanilla, various beans, avocados, peanuts, pecans, **cashews** I’ll be damned. I always thought cashews were native to Asia. (The ones I’m eating right now are from Thailand.) Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/68 "2015-12-23T06:21:01Z")
The Ruben sandwich is “uniquely American,” isn’t it? What about the burger, fries, and milk shake combo? > [@jz78817](#): > > yeah, I think way too many people overestimate how old a lot of cultures’ “traditional” dishes are. Tomatoes are a New World vegetable, yet somehow they’re strongly associated with Italy. You’ll even find them in “traditional” Indian dishes like chana masala, for God’s sake. then there are some Vietnamese foods; bánh mì is about as “traditionally” Vietnamese as I am. That’s a good point. Turning to Japanese cuisine, there’s tonkatsu, which may have originated in the 19th century from Portuguese origins. And what’s more Japanese than ramen, which likely originated from Chinese lamian (拉麺). ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/69 "2015-12-23T07:23:38Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > However, you seem to be changing your argument from the previous post, which seemed to think tomatoes being a new world fruit was somehow important. I guess you did some background reading and found that tomatoes being used in Italy predated the US as a country. Yep, I was initially impressed by the tomato argument. But it seems it first came to Europe via the Spanish colonisation of central/south America and later introduced into north America via British/other colonisation. I guess its early success in Italy was in some measure due to climatic similarities. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/70 "2015-12-23T07:27:25Z")
How 'bout the kalua pig? ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/71 "2015-12-23T07:36:21Z")
The [Reuben](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_sandwich) is uniquely American apparently, as is the [Philly Cheesesteak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesesteak). I would also include Chinese food as in _American_ Chinese food. General Tso’s chicken, Almond chicken, sesame chicken, fried wontons, etc. All that deep fried delicious crap we invented. U-S-A! ---
**Author:** ![Torontonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@Torontonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torontonian)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/72 "2015-12-23T07:45:06Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Sorry, Chinese. Even the word is Chinese (I think we got it from the Cantonese version.) I thought ketchup came from Marinara sauce. Tomato is definitely american food, there was no tomato or potato before Americas discovery ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/73 "2015-12-23T07:53:03Z")
> [@Torontonian](#): > > I thought ketchup came from Marinara sauce. Tomato is definitely american food, there was no tomato or potato before Americas discovery Tomato ketchup seems like it has an American pedigree. Don’t know about it being derived from marinara, though, it’s quite different. The sauce “ketchup” itself goes back much farther, to the Chinese, but you wouldn’t recognize it as what you know generically as “ketchup” in the US. [Bit more in-depth history here](http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/02/248195661/ketchup-the-all-american-condiment-that-comes-from-asia). I’ll chalk up tomato ketchup as “American,” and acknowledge its pedigree that goes back to Chinese sauces. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/74 "2015-12-23T08:04:53Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > Fry bread No, decidedly UK there. > [@wolfman](#): > > You’d probably have to do item by item research to figure out if Minnesotans or Scots fried each one first. I think the whole one-ups-manship began when the Scots started frying snicker bars. Spoon bread. Its basically a cornmeal souffle. No, really, it’s God’s gift, if you get the seasoning exactly right. No salt and it’s inedible, too much and it tastes like dirty sneakers. The correct amount is about 7 grains per 6 ounces of spoon bread. Good luck! And honestly, I think our cultural sins would be better terms “Cultural Assignment” than “Cultural Appropriation.” What we do is not to grab something from another culture and call it “American.” What we do is to put some marinara sauce and cheese on a loaf of bread that fell and think to ourselves, “This would really sell better if I called it ‘Italian’” and so we do. Likewise spaghetti, and let’s not forget General Tso’s Chicken. ---
**Author:** ![Torontonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@Torontonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torontonian)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/75 "2015-12-23T08:09:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ll chalk up tomato ketchup as “American,” and acknowledge its pedigree that goes back to Chinese sauces. Internet says that Chinese predecessor of ketchup used mashed beans as base and not tomato paste and apple sauce mix ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/76 "2015-12-23T08:20:10Z")
After 75 posts, nobody has yet mentioned: TWINKIES !!! ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/77 "2015-12-23T08:47:13Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > yeah, I think way too many people overestimate how old a lot of cultures’ “traditional” dishes are. Tomatoes are a New World vegetable, yet somehow they’re strongly associated with Italy. You’ll even find them in “traditional” Indian dishes like chana masala, for God’s sake. then there are some Vietnamese foods; bánh mì is about as “traditionally” Vietnamese as I am. A classic example is the British ‘Ploughman’s Lunch’, which was created in the 1950s by the Cheese Bureau as a marketing thing to sell more cheese. You can split Brits into two distinct groups, those that know this and those that think it is a traditional spread eaten by farmers a couple of centuries ago. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/78 "2015-12-23T09:19:26Z")
Italian Hoagie Cracklin’ cornbread Ham hocks & beans Scrapple Biscuits & gravy ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/79 "2015-12-23T09:22:39Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > After 75 posts, nobody has yet mentioned: > > TWINKIES !!! This thread is about food. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128/80 "2015-12-23T09:53:14Z")
Boston Cream Pie Key Lime Pie Pumpkin Pie Shoofly Pie Pecan Pie Angel Food Cake Devils Food Cake Cobbler Corn Fritters Chocolate Brownies …I’ll take a piece of each for dessert, thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-are-uniquely-american/741128.md?page=5)