Southern Fried Chicken?
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.
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.
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.
Well, any Indian style of cooking. I nominate the clam bake.
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.
I’ll be damned. I always thought cashews were native to Asia. (The ones I’m eating right now are from Thailand.) Ignorance fought.
The Ruben sandwich is “uniquely American,” isn’t it?
What about the burger, fries, and milk shake combo?
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).
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.
How 'bout the kalua pig?
The Reuben is uniquely American apparently, as is the Philly 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!
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. I’ll chalk up tomato ketchup as “American,” and acknowledge its pedigree that goes back to Chinese sauces.
No, decidedly UK there.
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.
Internet says that Chinese predecessor of ketchup used mashed beans as base and not tomato paste and apple sauce mix
After 75 posts, nobody has yet mentioned:
TWINKIES !!!
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.
Italian Hoagie
Cracklin’ cornbread
Ham hocks & beans
Scrapple
Biscuits & gravy
This thread is about food.
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.