Food traditions in different states
National American cuisine was formed relatively recently, and its main dishes are borrowed. Traditional US cuisine is a kind of mix of European, Indian, Mexican and national cuisines of other nations. In addition, the national dishes of the United States vary from state to state, what will appeal to the inhabitants of Alaska will cause bewilderment in California.
Food traditions in different states
Salads are ubiquitous: from the simplest (for example, fresh cucumbers or tomatoes) to multi-component branded vegetable-based mixtures.
Typical Southern states are deep-fried chicken (fried chicken), beef schnitzels (country-fried steak), smoked pork (barbecue), cornmeal pancakes and bread, crabs and soups (she-crab soup) and meatballs (Maryland crab cakes) of them.
In the states of New England, boiled corned beef with vegetables (boiled dinner), fish dishes, lobsters, clam chowder are traditional.
Table decorations in the Midwest are grilled beef steak, baked potatoes, chocolate cake. Midwestern cuisine has been strongly influenced by Italian immigration (“deep” Chicago pizza, St. Louis fried ravioli, etc.)
In the southwest of the country, a synthesis of Mexican and American cuisines, the so-called Tex-Mex, dominates, the typical dishes for which are fajitas, tacos, burritos, chile con carne, stuffed sweet peppers and other Tex-Mex dishes.
Ice is widely used in the diet of Americans. A pitcher of ice is a common attribute of service in a restaurant. Iced tea is popular. Beer is usually served cold in a chilled mug.
Typical dishes and products
American Pizza – pizza with a lot of meat (sausages, minced meat, etc.), Brownie – a rectangular piece of rich brown chocolate cake, Chili con Carne – a spicy meat dish with chili, Chocolate Chip Cookies – cookies with chocolate chips, Jambalaya – a dish of rice, meat and vegetables, Muffin – a small cake, banana split – ice cream with banana, whipped cream, sprinkled with nuts, peanut butter, Bagel – an American equivalent of a bagel, barbecue, steak, hamburger, mashed potatoes, maple syrup, ham , corn dog – sausage in cornbread dough, cornbread, corn flakes, donuts, popcorn, Waldorf salad – sweet and sour apples, celery root and walnuts, Caesar salad, sandwiches, Tabasco sauce, Thousand sauce islands”, Clam chowder (clam soup), Taco, pumpkin pie, Cheesecake, oven-baked turkey.
Restaurants.
The national American dish is a hamburger in all forms and other fast food achievements, washed down with Coca-Cola. But fortunately, this does not mean that there is nothing more to eat in America. There are many lovers of good food here and restaurants of national cuisine are presented like nowhere else.
In any big city you will find Chinese and Japanese, Spanish and Mexican, Irish and Indian, Greek and Jewish restaurants, and they will be, as they say, on every corner.
Here, visiting a restaurant is not an event. Many dine there several times a week, or even daily. A real American always has his favorite restaurant. Beverages. Americans joke that they only drink one drink.
When hot, it is called coffee, and when cold, it is called Coca-Cola. There is no need to explain what Coca-Cola is, but the coffee consumed by Americans in huge quantities does not taste like that served in Italy, France or Turkey. Finding a place in the USA where they know how to brew coffee is not easy.
Burgers, hot dogs or tomato ketchup are not the most exquisite culinary fantasy, but they can fill you up and are easy to prepare with minimal time. The examples given are only a modest but characteristic illustration of American cuisine. If we set ourselves the goal of answering in more detail the question of what exactly housewives serve on the table for their families in the open spaces between the Canadian and Mexican borders, then a common denominator would not be found.
Immigrants from all over the world flocked to the United States with a baggage of their own recipes and original dishes that still exist, except perhaps crossed with the dishes and original products of the country that adopted them.
However, each ethnic group made sure that in the New World they also had at their disposal the old familiar starting products. And since all the climatic zones lie in fifty states, here you can find almost all plants and animals suitable for food.
In addition, each new settler had to provide for his own livelihood, so he began to grow crops and raise livestock in much larger volumes than necessary for personal consumption – for sale. Thanks to good climatic conditions and fertile soils, the United States quickly became the world’s largest producer and exporter of food at the same time.
The nature of the daily diet of the family of the average American is due to the orientation to the minimum expenditure of time.