Inspired by this thread
If I went to China (or any other foreign country) to open an authentic American restaurant, what would I cook? I mean, what do you think people would expect to see on an American menu?
I’m thinking I would serve fried chicken, meat loaf, macaroni and cheese, lots of salads, maybe casseroles…you know, housewifey comfort food. Or would people expect just hamburgers and french fries, the great American meal. Any other thoughts?
People would certainly expect hamburgers (real hamburgers, not the McDonald’s sort of thing). French fries as well, but only as a side dish; French fries as a principal meal is something closely associated with Belgium.
People would also expect steaks, and especially rare and medium. Any sort of grilled and barbecue food is also internationally associated with the U.S., although the U.S. shares this with South America.
I personally tend to associate baked potatos with American cuisine, but I don’t know whether this is a personal experience of myself (baked potato was among the first things I ate when I first visited the U.S.) of a general conception.
You could also serve salads; I think the nationality of salads is not as much determined by the vegetables themselves but by the dressing, and in this regards jogurt and Thousand Islands dressing is associated with America.
Corn and pumpkin pie.
Every kind of fries, including steak, crinkle cut, curly q, waffle, chili, chili cheese, shoestring, home, lamb, and calf.
Every kind of barbecue, all of 'em mediocre but one, because you can only appreciate one.
Hamburgers the size of a baby’s head.
Steaks the size of the whole baby. If you finish it in an hour, it’s free.
17 varieties of lawnmower beer with old once-regional labels like Rolling Rock, Leinenkugel’s, and Stroh’s. You can order a tasting flight, and if you can tell any one apart from the others, it’s free. (Leinie’s Honey Bunny Berry Etc. excluded.)
Snicker-bar cheesecake (note no final s to get around trademark issues).
Any dessert served in a potato skin for 50c extra!
Just look at the menu at Applebee’s. It’s pretty much your standardized American fare. Burgers, Fries, Steaks, Milkshakes, salads and fried appitizers that go down good with a beer. Sounds good, think I’ll go there right now. 
I’d suggest a diner with a typical diner menu, including breakfast all day.
In Arrested Development, the American restaurant in Wee Britain was called Fat Ammy’s. They served donuts and hamburgers, along with enough potato chips that their to-go bags were the size of large shopping bags.
Me, I’d focus on regions. One Tex-Mex dish (I’d go with fajitas), Philly Cheesesteaks, New York pizza and Chicago pizza and hot dogs. Of course there would be hamburgers, there would be New York cheesecake for dessert. It would be awful.
Or maybe the Black eyed pea restaurants.
Meatloaf is in there for sure.
The Caesar Salad (named for a chef, not an emperor) is an American-born food.
The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is probably rare outside the US.
American style pizza is nothing like the original in Italy, so it qualifies.
The Philadelphia Cheese Steak sandwich.
Coleslaw as a part of a sandwich.
In one pie.
How about Donutburgers? Two great tastes that Donut taste great together! :dubious:
I’ve eaten at an Chinese-run American restaurant.
They served a lot of poorly made dishes you’d get here. Their Pork Chops were good, though. My wife had the worst steak of her life there. They had tiny bottle of beer(in China, beer is in 650 ml bottles usually).
The french fries were ok.
Everything was spelled wrong on the menu, but that’s to be expected.
The following have been mentioned in this thread and yet I’ve never heard of any of them.
Lived in the US my whole life. Wonders never cease.
Ditto. Never heard of lots the above. I guess it just goes to show you that this is a great huge fricking place.
How about soul food? Southern style stuff…collard greens, grits, fried pork chops, smoked ham. Does anyone outside of the US recognize those foods as American?
I agree. More specifically, a Greek-owned, South Jersey diner. Plus Jim’s Steaks style cheese steaks…and Italian Hoagies from the Main Line…and TastyKakes…
'scuse me…I’ve gotta get some lunch.
I guess it depends on whether you want to serve (1) “real” American food–items that originated here, (2) food that the world thinks of when it thinks of American food, or (3) the stuff that Americans really like to eat…
For #1, corn on the cob, the fry bread the Plains Indians made, buffalo burgers, Texas-style chili, pumpkin pie, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, alligator gumbo, avocado salad, hominy grits, Buffalo chicken wings, and breaded jalapeño poppers come to mind.
For #2, I’ll go along with Si Amigo and just grab an Applebee’s menu.
For #3, I think it’s a hopeless task. We have no common food we all like. I realized that when trying to pick a restaurant where I could get a 16-ounce T-bone steak and my friend could get a bowl of organic nuts and twigs–or where I could get a pint of craft-brewed porter and my brother could get a Coors lite.
It was invented by a chef who was born in Italy, lived in the US (San Diego) but was working at a restaurant in Tijuana at the time of its creation. Does that qualify it as an American invention? Doubtful…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong-style_western_cuisine
Wikipedia has this article about American restaurants in Hong Kong; sounds rather terrible to me, but I guess they’d probably say the same about our “Chinese” food. I’ve read other places about those restaurants; one thing another article emphasized (though I can’t remember where that article was, sorry) was the ubiquity of Ovaltine at such places.
My first thought! Other veggies indigenous to the North American continent, whatever they are. Cranberries? Peaches? Pecans?
Cooking styles would have to include the Cajun and Soul Food varieties of Southern cuisine. Even some “White Trash” cooking.
Various stews and gumbos, too. Like Burgoo, Brunswick Stew, Camp Stew.
I can’t imagine such a place without several styles of Barbecue, from the Tennessee variety through the Texas variety.
So an immigrant from Southern Europe invented a dish in Mexico then brought it to the US? Doesn’t get more American than that without apple pie and a baseball game, my friend.