So you go into an AMERICAN restaurant and look at the menu… what would be on it? I mean, if it was going to be authentic, and nobody can call BULL$#!T on your menu - what would be on there? For example - Spaghetti and meatballs, no matter how good they are - Fails. (Italian)
I think a pulled pork bbq sammich dripping in sauce, topped with coleslaw, on a big ol bun is pretty American though.
What else?
…
Not zucchini, fettuccini, or bulger wheat,
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat.
Cheeseburger is paradise.
Heaven on earth with an onion slice.
Not too particular, not too precise.
I’m just a cheeseburger in paradise.
I like mine with lettuce and tomato,
Heinz Fifty-seven and French fried potatoes.
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer.
Well, good God Almighty, which way do I steer
For my cheeseburger in paradise.
Well, here’s the question - what about things that are ethnic in inspiration, but very, very much American in actual execution.
To take your example, for instance, spaghetti and meatballs as we know it: meatballs and red sauce tossed together with spaghetti is entirely an American concoction. If you tried to get that in Italy they’d look at you funny for combining two courses. (Same thing with corned beef and cabbage, pretty much everything we think is “Chinese” food and the burrito)
Bison burger.
BBQ anything
Fries (the French had nothing to do with it–pommes frites)
I would maintain that most of the archetypal American foods still have strong ties to all our various mother countries. While we tend to do more “hot smoking”, smoking meat is a thoroughly European custom, prevalent particularly in northern Europe (more often cured smoked meats and fish).
“French” fries are Belgian!
And how funny that two of the most classic “American” dishes are named after cities from the Old World…Hamburger, Wiener, Frankfurter. American food is just fusion! From tacos to spaghetti to hot dogs to lager beer, we take things from the Old World and do them in slightly different ways…they become almost indistinguishable because of new ingredients and cultures over here, but the lineage is still there. Look at the microbrew renaissance. We finally stopped doing knock-off beers of the Germans after a century or so, and decided we wanted to brew unique stuff, like…UK Pale Ale, UK ESB, UK Porter, Stout, etc… :D Sure, anything domestically brewed labelled “ESB” doesn’t taste anything like British beer, but we naturally are in to taking old influences as starting points and tweaking them. We’re a young country still, we can do that!
I would venture to say that one could travel around America and find at least one creation from each and every city or town that it could call it’s own.
Like a “Philly Cheesesteak” or a “New York Style Pizza” and a “California Smoothie”.
Every city has it’s own creations based on it’s history and the heritage that has embraced it. It’s ethnic heritage…
But we can call it American for sure.
i have no knowledge of the origins but how about
a blt with lots of bacon and slathered in that wonderful white stuff called mayo?
Can’t be more American than a Reuben Sandwich, although it’s disputed whether it originated in Nebraska or New York. I’m sayin’ Nebraska just because… ;D
New thread? Bastardized Foods? I don’t want to trace back noodles to china and call BS on any other people using noodles. That would be taking it a little to far, but if that’s what floats your boat that’s more on topic than I’m sure some of the posts here will be. 
BBQ Pork fried rice comes to mind as does a double meat, frito-suizo chimmi changa for the bastardo category.
Probably anything with a half pound of meat or more on the plate as a single serving would qualify as American.
Hot Wings
Roast turkey and anything with corn is fairly native!
I doubt any other country will claim ABT’s…
KFC Double Down…what other country would be stupid enough to come up with THAT?
There’s lots of regional seafood… many varieties of fish, Blue Point Oysters, Maryland Blue Crabs / crabcakes, etc. How can you call bullshit on something that natively grows in America or off of its shores?
Thanks Giving dinner like nick said.
Meat loaf mashed potatoes and peas with gravy.
Open face roast beef and/or turkey.
Snapper soup.
Pepper pot soup.
Hearty roast game dishes.
+1 as denny said on fried chicken.
Crawdads.
There are a lot more,
Are ya gonna open up a place over there?
Spaghetti and meat balls as we know them Is American, just ask any one from Italy. But I wouldnt want to see it on an “American” menu.
Without going into a dissertation, this thread comes from the ethnic cooking thread where a question was posed by babalou “Isn’t all cooking ethnic?” And much like we can trace back dishes, we can trace back our own lineage, so is there American cuisine? Never would have thought of the seafood, since I am landlocked. Cool answers so far, and Cap if I were gonna open a place it would be Balkan foods.
GO BIG RED!
Salisbury steak and freedom fries?
What are freedom fries?
We have fries around here, I think they are called dirty fries. French fries with fried onions and gravy.
I am really interested in local American dishes. There are so many that I haven’t tried. Some known some I havent even heard of yet.
For example the Calamari Steak of coastal California. Never had one anywhere else. Man they are good too. They must real in those giant squids out in the Pacific.
Ha ha, freedom fries are “rebranded” french fries after the French didn’t back us as they should have after 9/11.
The Calamari steak sounds interesting!
Wets - Fresh cut fries (you know kinda soggy limp) in a bowl, covered in brown gravy.
and then there’s
The Slinger is a Midwestern diner specialty typically consisting of two eggs, hash browns, and a hamburger patty (or any other meat) all covered in chili (with or without beans) and generously topped with cheese (cheddar or American) and onions. The eggs can be any style. The Slinger is considered to be a St. Louis late-night culinary original. It is described as “a hometown culinary invention that might account for St. Louis’ high rate of heart disease: a mishmash of meat, hash-fried potatoes, eggs, and chili, sided with your choice of ham, sausage, bacon, hamburger patties, or an entire flippin’ T-bone steak. It’s dirt cheap, damn good and a drunk’s dream.”
I only ate these on Fridays. 