Maybe not if your guests are German. They have that back home.
I am mildly amused that you picked a German food as your pick for a quintessential “American” food. I once had Bratwurst served to me on a Lufthansa flight, and I suspect they put it on the menu because they consider it a quintessential German food (albeit they served it with a side of sauerkraut and potatoes).
Menu A) Brisket, pulled pork, corn on the cob, collards, hush puppies, banana pudding or pecan pie.
Menu B) Ceviche, fish tacos, elote, flan
In other words, Southern California.
But do they have brats from Gene’s Sausage Shop in Chicago?
I would introduce them to my dad’s family creole cusine.
Red Beans and Rice with cornbread and sweet tea.
It starts with slicing Savoie’s Andouille Sausage and browning in oil. I use mild sausage but it’s also sold in a hot blend.
I’ve always used my dad’s favorite spice mix. Dad bought all the ingredients when he visited relatives in Lafayette. I get everything needed from the CajunGrocer dot com.
Funny you say that, I actually do have a friend coming in from overseas and he’s going to be here for Thanksgiving.
BBQ Ribs (I prefer beef, but I suspect pork would be more on point)
Corn on the Cob
Potato Salad
Green Salad
Apple Pie a la mode
Of for a more regional approach:
Raw Oysters for a starter
Steamers (steamed clams)
Lobster
Corn and Potatoes
Ice Cream
At our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, you never know who is going to show up. I suspect that if you walked up and knocked at the door, you would be invited in to dinner.
We had a couple of college baseball players from New York City came over one Thanksgiving. There was another from Canada.
My niece’s fiance was a baseball player and so he invited those baseball players over who didn’t have any place to go.
There was a long table (a couple of tables pushed together, actually) with room for all the adults with the food served family style in which you take what you want from a plate and pass it on clockwise. The kids had heir own table. Those two players from New York sat down facing each other in the very middle of the table.
Neither of the two understood family style dining. Not once did either of those two pass anything on. When the food got to them, they took what they wanted and left the dish where it was. When the rest of us wanted anything, we had to get up, walk over to them, get the dish, and return to our seat.
That one Thanksgiving Dinner changed the way we eat our full family dinners. Now all the food stays in the kitchen and we have to line up like in a buffet line.
As far as I’m concerned, those two from New York City were foreign visitors.
As for actual foreign visitors for Thanksgiving, we have also had high school students from Japan, Russia, New Zealand, Brazil, and probably a few more that I don’t remember. My younger brother’s wife often placed foreign exchange students in the area.
One of my favorites was a farm hand we had from Mexico under the Brasero Program named Raymundo. That was maybe 60 years ago and I remember him well – he was a really nice guy. I do remember him looking kind of uncomfortable to see so much food on the table.
My local hot dog stand (Top Dog, been there since 1966) always carried a variety of sausages, each had a foreign origin except the one they called the “classic New York style all-beef dog.” Bratwurst has been around, even here in the USA, for a long time, I’m sure those waves of German immigrants made sure of that.
I’m in the St. Louis area, so it would have to be BBQ pork steaks. Corn on the cob would be a good go with.
We had a family from England visit us one Fall, over 10 years ago. We asked what type of meal they wanted, and they said that they’d heard good things about American brunches. So we had pancakes and waffles with maple syrup, bacon and sausage, eggs Benedict/eggs Royale (substitute smoked salmon for Canadian bacon), bagels, lox, avocado toast, pumpkin muffins, and cheesecake with strawberries and blueberries. They were impressed.
I love food porn like Babette’s Feast, or one of the foodies youtube vids where they d all this fancy Mich Star level dining. Will frequently watch food shows as background/get vague ideas [hm, deep fried lasagne … maybe =) ]
Being in Canada, I know what I wouldn’t prepare: poutine. The poutine lobby (there isn’t one, but sometimes it seems as if there is) has worked hard to convince the world that Canada thrives on poutine, but in reality, most of us go weeks, months, years, without touching the stuff. It’s a heart attack on a plate and is as common as dirt; if you absolutely must have it, there’s a Tim Hortons serving it down the street.
Nor would maple syrup be on the table.
Our regular cuisine is not much different from that of the United States, but I’d put a Canadian spin on it. A charcuterie platter as hors d’oeuvres, featuring Ontario and Quebec cold cuts and cheeses. Then, Alberta beef for steaks, fresh veggies from Ontario, a baked Prince Edward Island potato, all washed down with a wine from British Columbia. Chapman’s ice cream for dessert, with Nanaimo bars and butter tarts, and Ontario icewine.
I would probably do a classic British Sunday roast of prime rib of beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, cauliflower cheese, honey glazed carrots, saute’d greens, home made beef gravy and horseradish sauce. Followed by sticky toffee pudding with ice cream.
Or if I’m getting proper fancy, I might tackle a Beef Wellington.
My friend from Brazil had seen a lot of American television which she watched to improve her English. She asked me if I knew how to make pumpkin pie, because she had seen all sorts of foods, but pumpkin pie was the one she really wanted to try.
So my answer would be a Thanksgiving meal with turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, biscuits, homemade cranberry sauce, and both pecan and pumpkin pie.
For summer, it would be pulled pork on potato rolls, baked peans, corn-on-the-cob, peach cobbler and homemade ice cream.
And somehow I would also make a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, old-fashioned chocolate fudge (not with marshmallow), and Nanaimo bars. Of all the baked goods I have brought into the office, those are, by far, the most popular.
That was mean to leave us hanging like that 
.
For those, like me, who aren’t weren’t familiar with Nanaimo bars, this seems to be a representative standard recipe: Nanaimo Bars Recipe - allrecipes. (Sorry there’s no preview; their website isn’t nice that way.)
And here’s an enhanced version I’m going to try, no matter how dietarily inappropriate it may be:
ETA: Today I learned the Canadians may have a bigger sweet tooth than even the legendarily sugar-besotted USAians. Behold this other new addition to my knowledge base and a true wonder of Canadian cuisine:
I was the second person to mention them.
Nanaimo has the recipe:
Two years ago I bought some in Victoria, which may be the first time I’ve had commercial Nanaimo bars since I was a teenager. Making Nanaimo bars is a Christmas tradition for me, and is the reason I normally have a can of Bird’s Custard Powder in the pantry,
My parents often make salmon for out-of-town visitors, and serve it with proper west coast sourdough bread, with blackberry pie for dessert.
If I’m cooking, homemade mac & cheese.
If we’re going out, Detroit style pizza.
mmm
If I was feeling ambitious, I’d throw down with a good old fashioned BBQ, with all sides made from scratch:
I used to make my own BBQ sauces from scratch too, but there’s so many quality varieties of commercially available sauces I don’t bother anymore. So I buy around 3 store-bought varieties:
Brunch is a great idea! My daughter helps put on a big one the morning after Thanksgiving.
Mmm, REAL maple syrup. I have it on cereal or oatmeal almost every day. I’d do shots of it if it were healthier.
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned biscuits & gravy. There’s a whole YouTube cottage industry of non-US Anglophones (British, Australian, New Zealand, etc.) acting confused by biscuits & gravy because, to them a “biscuit” is a manufactured cookie, like an Oreo, and “gravy” is a specific type of brown gravy meant to be poured on meat. So they’re all like “hurr durr Americans pour beef gravy on Oreos ZWTF?” Then they make actual biscuits & gravy and are in Heaven.
So yeah, biscuits & gravy. It will simultaneously confuse and delight them.