Every nation has some dishes that are associated with it. Sometimes this can be an entire culinary movement or perhaps a collection of ingredients and techniques. It gets a bit more complicated with massive, multicultural countries like, for example, the USA.
Someone asked Americans “What do you consider to be a cultural food of the United States?” and people shared their best examples. From humble PB&Js to multilayered casseroles, netizens covered the entire range. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorite examples, and be sure to share your own thoughts in the comments section below.
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Grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch on a cold winter day.
Biscuits and gravy, but not just any gravy. Sausage gravy.
There are a lot of great American foods, but I don't think anything will ever be as quintessentially 'American' as a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, a side of french fries with ketchup, and a milkshake. This meal right here is the heart and soul of American cuisine.
In my part of the US if you order a cheeseburger "all the way," it comes with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, and dill pickles (although I got one once where the cook was Mexican, and it came with jalalpenos also). I've been places where they served them with ketchup, and they didn't even have mayo. That's just wrong.
Chocolate chip cookies. I live in the Netherlands now, and they have foods resembling chocolate chip cookies here, but they are mediocre at best. And they call them all 'American cookies' — which I think is hilarious. I once made chocolate chip cookies from scratch and gave some to our Italian neighbors. Watching their faces as they ate them for the first time was amazing. There's nothing like that crispy edge, soft middle, and buttery, chocolaty deliciousness.
The USA are fierce contenders against mainland Western Europe for the greatest breakfasts in the world. You people are visionaries when it comes to breakfast. Like, chicken and waffles? Who the f**k thought of that? You did, that's who, you beautiful bastards. It shouldn't work, but by god, it does. And steak and eggs? Who the f**k eats steak in the morning? THIS GUY, THAT'S WHO. I LIKE YOUR STYLE, AMERICA.
I was grocery shopping recently when a very nice German guy approached me for advice. He had friends coming to visit from his home country and he wanted to introduce them to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and could I advise him on the best ingredients? He already had some kind of b******t artisan bread from the bakery department in his cart. I told him to put that back, go to the bread aisle and get the crappy white Wonder Bread. Then there was discussion about the merits of Welch’s grape jelly vs. strawberry jam, and how most big brand peanut butter is optimal as opposed to the oily natural kind. Lastly he learned to use the term “PB & J.” He went away delighted, and it felt great to be a cultural ambassador!
DukexNukemx007 replied:
Cheap and mass-produced PB&J is an American staple, and eating one is part of the cultural experience of living in the US. From sea to shining sea, we all, at some point, ate a Walmart-tier PB&J.
While in Paris, France we introduced a British guy to peanut butter. We'd find him in the kitchen eating big spoonfuls.
Buffalo wings, s'mores, biscuits and gravy, grits, jambalaya, BBQ, apple pie, Chocolate chip cookies, Jerky, meatloaf, cornbread.
Oh my god so many things. Popcorn, peanut butter and jelly, turkey, Caesar salad, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, soda, breakfast cereal, sure.
But also pizza, lasagna, French fries, hamburgers, tacos, nachos, jambalaya, fried chicken, barbecue, apple pie, egg foo young, sweet and sour chicken, pancakes, omelettes, hot dogs, doughnuts, bourbon whiskey, bagels, grits, clam bakes and fish poke.
“Hold up”, you say, “most of that second list is bastardized versions of other countries’ cultural foods, and I’m not really sure about all the stuff in the first list either. You even included some indigenous peoples’ dishes!”
Exactly. **The hallmark of American cuisine is borrowing, adapting, and combining stuff from cultures around the world to make our own unique food landscape.** You claim chicken adobo as your unique national dish? That’s great, Americans are gonna put it on a pizza.
And let’s be clear: every country does this. Italy didn’t invent noodles, or tomato sauce. Vindaloo is borrowed from Portugal, massaman curry isn’t originally Thai. Every old-world dish that contains tomatoes, potatoes, corn, or peanuts was invented after these ingredients arrived from the Americas.
But American cuisine is defined by its variety and its willingness to be inspired by and combine foods from the whole world.
You wanna know what makes America great? We’re the land of the kalbi taco, spam musubi, the kimchi quesadilla and the tandoori pierogi.
Okay I just invented tandoori pierogi for this post, but now I want one. And that’s the point.
Creole food like jambalaya and gumbo. This cuisine is arguably the most truly 'American.' Aside from a handful of cooking techniques taken from the French, the dishes are really unique.
Cajundawg replied:
Cajun and Creole cooking. It's a derivative of French cooking, but it's so far removed now that it's a unique cuisine. You're not getting boiled crawfish made properly anywhere outside of southern Louisiana.
Chicken fried steak.
Yes I know some of you are going to say “what about German schnitzel?” … IT IS NOT THE SAME AND YOU KNOW IT.
The size of a dinner plate and served with white gravy.
Tex-Mex - it’s not Mexican food but rather a Texas creation that extends even to fajitas and margaritas
Ok my myopic cultural narrow mind was widened by ‘Mexican’ food. Mexico is a big country, with cultural regions and different tastes and people. Northern Mexican, pacific coast, central Mexico, etc. like the entirety of US, there are regional flavors to be discovered.
Americanized Chinese food. Even while living in Asia, I would crave General Tso's chicken and honey walnut shrimp because it's just not the same abroad.
AppHelper replied:
Americanized Chinese food, and specifically East Coast Chinese food. Stuff like General Tso's chicken, egg rolls, egg drop soup, oily, soy sauce–laden lo mein, beef and broccoli, and fortune cookies. Funny enough, this stuff doesn't exist in Asia. I was so happy to see that an American Chinese restaurant opened in Shanghai, but it closed down.
I used to go to a floating market on the Chao Phraya in Ayutthaya Thailand in the 70s. I would get fresh spring rolls with ginger sauce from a little lady in a dugout canoe with a charcoal grill. I've never found any since then that tasted as wonderful as hers.
Chili. It’s based on New World ingredients, every region of the US has its own variation, families have their own recipes, and internet wars have been fought over how to define 'real' chili. (Most of us can agree that Cincinnati is wrong.) We’ve mass-produced it, added it to fast food, and made it even worse for you by adding tons of cheese and pouring it over fries.
Nothing can be made worse by adding tons of cheese. Unless you’re lactose intolerant.
Mac 'n' cheese. My non-American wife first thought it was called 'mecan cheese,' which she assumed was short for American cheese. She had never seen the word in writing before, and I'd often talk about how I missed my mom's homemade mac.
What is pictured is not proper mac and cheese! The proper stuff is baked in a casserole and topped with real shredded cheddar.
Clam chowder — specifically, white chowda, and none of this red sauce shenanigans. And lobstah, of course. I know it's a global food at this point, but the best lobster in the world is from New England (mostly Maine), and wow, is it good.
What in the holy hell is that in that picture? It looks like baby clams next to a bowl of Velveeta.
As someone not from the states I would k**l to try a peach cobbler or a pumpkin pie
Philly Cheesesteak
Was recently in Prague and a local guy told me that the most American food to him was a corndog and that is probably the right answer.
I haven't had a corn dog in a few years. I used to buy them in bulk because they were easy for the kids when I wasn't up to cooking. But Sam's stopped selling them 😕
Truck stop/diner/greasy-spoon breakfast. Doesn't matter what you order and if you're somewhere in the mid-west- even better.
Or, if you ever find yourself in a church basement in Minnesota after an event, you will know the authentic, All-American comfort of many kinds of salads with no lettuce, dessert bars, and hotdishes.
These, and the sing-song accents of grammas and grampas, are what I missed the most living abroad.
Fried Chicken. It's a combination of a Scottish cooking style where they fried unseasoned food in Lard and west African seasonings.
That is just a stereotype that they'll deep fry anything in Scotland... No evidence whatsoever on that, as shown on this section of menu from a chip shop in Inverness! M1-6576e41f90e91.jpg 
Barbecue.
Pizza and burgers may be more commonly eaten here, but they're really adaptations of food from Europe. Brisket, ribs, or pulled pork, slow cooked in a pit smoker and smothered in barbecue sauce, are more American in origin, and extraordinarily delicious.
There are lots of regional variations too. Mostly a result of what resources were available (ie, it's smoked with whatever wood is readily available in that region), but now they are a strong point of regional pride, and the topic of endless "which region has the best BBQ" debates. (I'm a fan of Memphis style, myself, but it's all good.)
Louisiana boiled crawfish and crabs.
Popcorn. Who can see a movie without it? It was first made by Native Americans.
If you make popcorn at home, get some Flavacol from Amazon. It’s a popcorn salt that makes your popcorn taste like movie theater popcorn. I highly recommend it.
Buffalo wings, which were invented and perfected in Buffalo, New York. This creation has no roots in any other countries.
Betty Crocker recipes. Betty defined the classic middle American dinner for decades. Think: chicken breasts topped with provolone slices, covered in cream of chicken soup, then covered with stuffing mix and butter and baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
fried oreo's from the state fair. Pretty much anything deep fried at the state fair is American culture.
Note: this post originally had 47 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Can we talk about bacon? Not slices of pork, but heavily smoked, fried-to-a-crisp porkbelly strips. Yes, it's terrible for you. You wouldn't see Americans on the internet craving it so badly if we all fully indulged; 3 strips adding up to about 1 cooked ounce is normal. But it is SO good.
I just had breakfast but after scrolling through this list, I'm feeling an urge for a Second Breakfast.
Why is Maryland C**p Cakes NOT on this list!!! It a regional delicacy but if you want to get juicy, steam a bushel of lady crabs, some beer and pick the meat and eat'em both ways!!!
Can we talk about bacon? Not slices of pork, but heavily smoked, fried-to-a-crisp porkbelly strips. Yes, it's terrible for you. You wouldn't see Americans on the internet craving it so badly if we all fully indulged; 3 strips adding up to about 1 cooked ounce is normal. But it is SO good.
I just had breakfast but after scrolling through this list, I'm feeling an urge for a Second Breakfast.
Why is Maryland C**p Cakes NOT on this list!!! It a regional delicacy but if you want to get juicy, steam a bushel of lady crabs, some beer and pick the meat and eat'em both ways!!!
