1. New Mexican flat enchiladas
It was the pre Columbian Maya who invented tortillas, and apparently the Aztecs who started wrapping them around bits of fish and meat. You have only to go to any Mexican or Tex Mex place to see what those ancients wrought when someone dipped tortillas “en chile” (hence, the name). “Flat” (the stacked New Mexico style) or rolled, smothered in red chili sauce or green (or both, for “Christmas” style), enchiladas are the source of much cultural pride in the Land of Enchantment they’re particularly enchanting made with the state’s famed blue corn tortillas fried egg on top optional.
2. Fajitas
Take some vaqueros working on the range and the cattle slaughtered to feed them. Throw in the throwaway cuts of meat as part of the hands’ take home pay, and let cowboy ingenuity go to work. Grill skirt steak (faja in Spanish) over the campfire, wrap in a tortilla, and you’ve got the beginning of a Rio Grande region tradition. The fajita is thought to have come off the range and into popular culture when a certain Sonny Falcon began operating fajita taco stands at outdoor events and rodeos in Texas beginning in 1969. It wasn’t long before the dish was making its way onto menus in the Lone Star State and spreading with its beloved array of condiments grilled onions and green pepper, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, and sour cream across the country. Don’t forget the Altoids.
3. Baked beans
It’s not a cookout, potluck, or the end of a long day in the saddle without a bubbling pot full of them. Just ask the Pioneer Woman, who waxes rhapsodic about the baked bean recipe on her site (not a version with little weenies, but how fun are they?). Yummy and plenty historical. Long before Bostonians were baking their navy beans for hours in molasses and earning the nickname Beantown in the process New England Native Americans were mixing beans with maple syrup and bear fat and putting them in a hole in the ground for slow cooking. Favored on the frontier for being cheap and portable, chuck wagon, or cowboy, beans will forever live hilariously in popular culture as the catalyst behind the “Blazing Saddles” campfire scene, which you can review in unabashed immaturity on YouTube.
Guys risk life and limb fishing for this delish superfood. Unlike Atlantic salmon, which is 99.8% farmed, Alaska salmon is wild, which means the fish live free and eat clean all the better to glaze with Dijon mustard or real maple syrup. Alaska salmon season coincides with their return to spawning streams (guided by an amazing sense of smell to the exact spot where they were born). Worry not: before fishing season, state biologists ensure that plenty of salmon have already passed upstream to lay eggs. But let’s get to that cedar plank, the preferred method of cooking for the many Pacific Northwest Indian tribes whose mythologies and diets include salmon.
5. Banana split
Like the banana makes it good for you. Still, kudos to whoever invented the variation of the sundae known as the banana split. There’s the 1904 Latrobe, Pennsylvania, story, in which future optometrist David Strickler was experimenting with sundaes at a pharmacy soda fountain, split a banana lengthwise, and put it in a long boat dish. And the 1907 Wilmington, Ohio, story, wherein restaurant owner Ernest Hazard came up with it to draw students from a nearby college. Fame spread after a Walgreens in Chicago made the split its signature dessert in the 1920s. Whatever the history, you’ll find plenty food for thought at the annual Banana Split Festival, which takes place on the second weekend in June in Wilmington.
6. Cobb salad
The chef’s salad originated back East, but American food innovators working with lettuce out West weren’t going to be outdone. In 1937, Bob Cobb, the owner of The Brown Derby, was scrounging around at the restaurant’s North Vine location for a meal for Sid Grauman of Grauman’s Theater when he put together a salad with what he found in the fridge: a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, some cold chicken breast, a hard boiled egg, chives, cheese, and some old fashioned French dressing. Brown Derby lore says, “He started chopping. Added some crisp bacon, swiped from a busy chef.” The salad went onto the menu and straight into the heart of Hollywood.
7. Key lime pie
If life gives you limes, don’t make limeade, make a Key lime pie. The official state pie of Florida, this sassy tart has made herself a worldwide reputation, which started in where else. the Florida Keys, from whence come the tiny limes that gave the pie its name. Aunt Sally, a cook for Florida’s first self-made millionaire, ship salvager William Curry, gets the credit for making the first Key lime pie in the late 1800s. But you might also thank Florida sponge fisherman for likely originating the concoction of key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks, which could be “cooked” (by a thickening chemical reaction of the ingredients) at sea.
what dish could be so evocative that it inspired Hank Williams to write a party song for it in 1952 and dozens more to cover it (including everyone from Jo Stafford to Credence Clearwater Revival to Emmylou Harris) The sweep upthe kitchen cousin of Spanish paella, jambalaya comes in red (Creole, with tomatoes) and brown (Cajun, without). Made with meat, vegetables (a trinity of celery, peppers, and onions), and rice, Louisiana’s signature dish might be most memorable when made with shrimp and andouille sausage. Whatever the color and secret ingredients, you can be sure of one thing when you sit down with friends to a big bowlful: son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou.
9. Macaroni and cheese
The ultimate comfort food, macaroni and cheese is also the salvation of many a mom placating a finicky toddler. Nothing particularly American about pasta and cheese except for the fact that on a European trip, Thomas Jefferson liked a certain noodle dish so much he took notes and had it served back home at a state dinner as “macaroni pie.” Jefferson’s cousin Mary Randolph included a recipe for “macaroni and cheese” in her 1824 cookbook “The Virginia Housewife.” So whether you’re eating a gourmet version by one of the countless chefs who’ve put their own spin on it, or just digging like a desperado in the pantry for that box of Kraft, give mac and cheese its patriotic props
The Chesapeake Bay yields more than just the regatta loving suntanned class in their sock free topsiders. It’s the home habitat of the blue crab, which both Maryland and Virginia claim as their own. Boardwalk style (mixed with fillers and served on a bun) or restaurant/gourmet style; fried, broiled, or baked, crab cakes can be made with any kind of crab, but the blue crabs of Chesapeake Bay are preferred for both tradition and taste. When Baltimore magazine rounded up the best places to get the city’s signature food, editors declared simplicity the key, while lamenting the fact that most crabmeat doesn’t even come from home turf these days. Kind of makes you crabby, doesn’t it
San Francisco’s answer to French bouillabaisse, cioppino (cho pea no) is fish stew with an Italian flair. It’s an American food that’s been around since the late 1800s, when Portuguese and Italian fishermen who settled the North Beach section of the city brought their on board catch of the day stew back to land and area restaurants picked up on it. Cooked in a tomato base with wine and spices and chopped fish (whatever was plentiful, but almost always crab), cioppino probably takes its name from the classic fish stew of Italy’s Liguria region, where many Gold Rush era fishermen came from. Get a memorable bowl at Sotto Mare in North Beach, Scoma’s on Fisherman’s Wharf, and Anchor Oyster Bar in the Castro District. Don’t feel bad about going with the “lazy man’s” cioppino it only means you’re not going to spend half the meal cracking shellfish.
“Good Old Raisins and Peanuts,” GORP is the energy salvation of backpackers everywhere. Centuries before trail mix came by the bag and the bin, it was eaten in Europe, where hiking is practically a national pastime. The thing to remember here is that the stuff is American food rocket fuel. Add all the granola, seeds, nuts, dried fruit, candied ginger, and M&Ms you want. Just be sure to store in a bear proof canister because suspending from a branch in a nylon sack isn’t going to do it.
Ground rules: acknowledge that even trying to define American food is tough; further acknowledge that picking favorite American items inevitably means leaving out or accidentally overlooking some much loved regional specialties.
