American Dishes

[thomaschristeena]

Hii

Please mention some American dishes names. I am learning cooking and I want to know few of the great dishes names which are liked by the majority of people.

[rotuts]

take a peak here :

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_foods

 

round beef hamburger, soft bun, lettuce, tomato, mayo  +/- precessed cheese.  on the grill, 

 

Apple Pie

 

etc

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

take a peak (sic) here :

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_foods

 

The problem with that link is that most of the dishes, while popular in America, weren't originally American. Being a nation of immigrants, most of the USA's food culture is imported. Or at least adapted from foreign cuisines - Europe, China, Africa, S. America. Apple pie existed in England long before America was colonised, for example. And items like "fried chicken" and "fried fish" are universal - not American.

Wikipedia fail again.

True American food is rare. General Tso's Chicken may qualify. It certainly isn't Chinese!

 

Edited July 21, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[kayb]

Fried okra. Fried catfish. White beans with ham. Barbecued pork shoulder. Barbecued ribs.

 

I don't know that any of those are exclusively American, but then, most of us here aren't native Americans, anyway.

 

If you want native American food, tomatoes, frybread, squash are some I can think of.

 

[KennethT]

@liuzhouYou've hit the nail on the head... I can't think of any 100% original, indigenous, American food, but as kayb said, most people here aren't "native" anyway.  But, I don't think the OP was asking about native, indigenous foods.... but rather, foods that are popular in the US and are commonly known as "American" that may have started off as something somewhere else, and then was later modified/adapted.... like some of the examples in that wikipedia article.  So, I think for the purposes of the OP (who is seemingly not American - or is only a recent American or resident, based upon the language in the post), I think the wikipedia article fits the bill.

 

Many years ago, there were a lot of restaurants that served "American food" - the menu consisted largely of grilled or broiled proteins - steaks, broiled chicken or lamb chops, broiled flat fish (like fillet of sole), along with some form of potato (mashed potatoes, french fries or hash browns) and an overcooked vegetable or two - usually string beans, peas&carrots, etc.  There were very few sauces or seasonings aside from salt & pepper, or Heinz' ketchup.  Thankfully, these types of restaurants have gone out of fashion (and out of business), at least in the NYC area (with the exception of the steakhouse, which is as or more popular than ever).

[liuzhou]

16 minutes ago, kayb said:

Barbecued pork shoulder. Barbecued ribs.

 

People worldwide have been barbecuing meat for millennia. It may be popular in America but, as you say, can it really be claimed as American?

[kayb]

Just now, liuzhou said:

 

People worldwide have been barbecuing meat for millennia. It may be popular in America but, as you say, can it really be claimed as American?

I guess I am thinking more toward the unique blend of spicing and smoking that constitutes Memphis-style barbecue, as opposed to, say, pernil or char siu or something else!

 

[Arey]

55 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

The problem with that link is that most of the dishes, while popular in America, weren't originally American. Being a nation of immigrants, most of the USA's food culture is imported. Or at least adapted from foreign cuisines - Europe, China, Africa, S. America. Apple pie existed in England long before America was colonised, for example. And items like "fried chicken" and "fried fish" are universal - not American.

Wikipedia fail again.

True American food is rare. General Tso's Chicken may qualify. It certainly isn't Chinese!

 

 

45 minutes ago, kayb said:

Obviously I don't know how to delete a quote This is Arey speaking not KayB)

Applying this standard I can say that nothing involving potatoes, bell peppers, corn, cornstarch, some sorts of beans etc. can be called Chinese food.  Years ago I used to go to a Greek Restaurant and one day mentioned to the woman who ran the place that I was growing Greek oregano. She said that was impossible and it couldn't be Greek oregano because I was growing it in New Jersey and not Greece. You can't call it a lima bean unless you're eating it in Lima Peru, y you can't call it Lebanon Bologna unless you're eating it in Lebanon (Pa. that is) and you can't call it French dressing on your salad unless you're eating it in France, although they'd probably deport you for even putting that crap on your salad and then calling it French.

Edited July 21, 2016 by Arey (log)

[rotuts]

Kudos your Way 

 

@Arey  

 

The Burger, cooked outside, on Henry Ford's 'recycled' ' briquettes  with wiff's of Liquid Briquette starter all around the block.

 

soft bun, lettuce tomato mayo.   Processed 'American' cheese, w the yellow food coloring.

 

American Apple Pie, not the froo froo tart au pomme.

 

american cheddar cheese if you like in the East.  has to be from Kraft.

 

sorry for the wiki link,  but not that sorry.

 

BTW Avery, nothing with a tomato unless you are cooking in The America's

 

just saying.

[cakewalk]

Yes, Virginia, there really is American food. 

 

This is an argument that has been batted around for ages. It usually goes something like this: Americans are not "native" to America, it is an immigrant culture, therefore there is no real American food. Bulls**t. This isn't a question of "purity." It's a cultural question about food. Whether or not we started with a blank slate (and who does?), there are many dishes that have been adapted to become quintessentially American in their new form. (And may those adaptations never end.) Apple tart existed. Americans altered that and made deep-dish Apple pie. Then they added cranberries to it, brilliant IMO, and definitely American. Ground meat doesn't belong to anyone. Hamburger and French fries (to hell with the name) belong to America. And on and on. These are American dishes now. 

[IowaDee]

How about cornbread and the variations...corn pone, johnny cake, hoe cakes, hush puppies ?

[huiray]

General Tso's Chicken. :-) 

It may have had some starting points in Taiwan but it is definitely a USAmerican dish now, with some ascribing its formulation to a place in NYC. :-D.**

 

How about Big Macs, Whoppers, McD Fish Fillet? ;-) Definitely of USAmerican origin, in its execution, if not the idea behind it.

 

** One thinks of Chicken Tikka Masala as a national dish in the UK now...

[huiray]

To the OP:

 

What do you mean, exactly, by "American"?  North America. or the USA, or something else?

[Shel_B]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

True American food is rare. General Tso's Chicken may qualify. It certainly isn't Chinese!

 

 

http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com/

Available on Netflix

[rotuts]

Kudos 

 

@Shel_B

 

lover the trailer

 

now how can I see the full vid ?

 

sorry I can't change the bold.

 

the Rx looks interring too on that web site.

[Spork]

I'm with @IowaDee. Corn, in all of it's wonderful forms.

[gfweb]

Poor guy wants a few American dishes and he gets a political debate.

 

Oy. We ALL know what he means. To be American food doesn't require it to be purely indiginous. If so, all Italian food with tomatoes isn't really Italian.

 

Fried chicken, boiled crawfish, cajun cuisine, the many schools of BBQ, hamburgers, chicken-fried steak, fried green tomatoes, hop n john, lobster roll, etc

[rotuts]

@gfweb 

 

Kudos your way !

 

maybe its a slow day in China ?

 

BTW  perhaps you've forgotten Apple Pie

 

just saying

 

[ed.:  Lets not bring up Scrapple.  More For Us  "

[Shel_B]

37 minutes ago, rotuts said:

now how can I see the full vid ?

 

 

If you don't want to pay for a Netflix subscription, you can sign up for a 30 day free trial:

 

http://netflixdeals.com/free-netflix-trial/

 

FWIW, there are many food-oriented movies and documentaries on the service.

Edited July 21, 2016 by Shel_B (log)

[gfweb]

19 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@gfweb 

 

Kudos your way !

 

maybe its a slow day in China ?

 

BTW  perhaps you've forgotten Apple Pie

 

just saying

 

[ed.:  Lets not bring up Scrapple.  More For Us  "

 

 

Oh yes!

 

Scrapple, apple pie, shoofly pie, NY style pizza, fried catfish, cornbread, etc etc

[Lisa Shock]

chiffon cake, the brownie, devil's food cake, red velvet cake, Toll House Cookies (the first chocolate chip cookie), ice cream cones, iced tea, corndogs, potato candy, anadama bread, s'mores, Green Goddess dressing, Ranch dressing, Thousand Island dressing, Crab Louie, Oysters Rockefeller, Clams Casino, the cocktail, Waldorf Salad, Perfection Salad, Tetrazzini, Stromboli, spaghetti and meatballs, popcorn, taco shells, Baked Alaska -and probably at least 50 more things from the Ranhofer book alone!

 

Plus tons of recipes developed by big food companies to sell their pre-packaged foods like: green bean casserole, french onion dip, Ritz cracker pie, tuna noodle casserole, etc.

Edited July 21, 2016 by Lisa Shock
spelling (log)

[pastrygirl]

how about mac & cheese?

 

peanut butter cookies?

[gdenby]

Hi @thomaschristeena,

Most, but not all, American foods are adaptations of of earlier recipes from other places blended w. local ingredients. Among the very few foods still widely eaten that were being cooked before European colonization is "pop corn." Many corn based foods go way back in history.

Among older recipes still in use are Boston Baked Beans, a kind of bean stew that added molasses from the sugar trade into a basic bean stew.

American style BBQ appears to be adopted from older native methods of cooking meats over glowing, but not burning, coals. The American practice 1st used hogs gone wild from Spanish explorers on the Atlantic coast. Sometime later, Texans and Mexican began using beef.

Chili also started in Texas, influenced by early immigrants from the Azores, whose cooking was influenced by north African spices. But it is now widespread, w. many variants, often including tomato sauce and beans, sometimes even on top of pasta noodles.

Odd items, like "Philadelphia" cream cheese, or "American" style cheese are found in many recipes. These cheeses are, as far as I know, peculiar to American industrial food production. Both may be important ingredient to "mac-n-cheese."

As far as I know, chicken fried in a simple batter has been common for perhaps 100 years.

Big chunks of meat cooked in any method have been pretty common, if sometimes costly. Served w. potatoes prepared in various ways.

Pre-sliced bread, toasted, and smeared w. peanut butter.

Pancakes covered w. maple syrup.

[rotuts]

Indian Pudding

[liuzhou]

11 hours ago, Arey said:

Applying this standard I can say that nothing involving potatoes, bell peppers, corn, cornstarch, some sorts of beans etc. can be called Chinese food.  Years ago I used to go to a Greek Restaurant and one day mentioned to the woman who ran the place that I was growing Greek oregano. She said that was impossible and it couldn't be Greek oregano because I was growing it in New Jersey and not Greece. You can't call it a lima bean unless you're eating it in Lima Peru, y you can't call it Lebanon Bologna unless you're eating it in Lebanon (Pa. that is) and you can't call it French dressing on your salad unless you're eating it in France, although they'd probably deport you for even putting that crap on your salad and then calling it French.

 

 

The problem with this is that you are talking about ingredients, whereas the topic is about dishes.

Of course, different cultures have adopted ingredients from elsewhere and integrated them with their own cuisines. Potatoes certainly originated in the Americas, but have been used in many places to create unique local dishes - for example China's 醋熘土豆丝 (cù liū tǔ dòu sī) - vinegar fried potato slivers, or something like 大盘鸡 (dà pán jī) - big plate chicken from Xinjiang which uses potatoes as an ingredient.  No one sane would claim that these dishes are American, just because potatoes originated in America.

 

Similarly, no one is going to say that Italian cuisine is really American if they use tomatoes, or that Duck à l'Orange is really Chinese because that is where oranges originate.

What I am complaining about is that Wikipedia list containing dishes which are so ubiquitous that they can hardly be deemed American. Whether you call them French fries or chips, they are eaten throughout much of the world (yes, including China). The UK and Australia with their fish and chips leaps to mind. American?

Bread? American? I won't go on.