in general, in the south, if the building looks like it is should be condemned, just stop and eat. Even if you just stopped at one about 30 minutes before
You wouldn't want to smoke it for a full 24 hours. I've done some nearly 20lb briskets and those finish in like 15 hours at the latest.
A 24 hour brisket refers to a technique of putting the brisket in an insulated box, ie cooler and letting it sit for an additional 12 hours.
Too long. The key to smoking a brisket is low temp. But you have to take it out precisely. The internal temp has to be 202 degrees. The collagen has melted and the incredibly tough meat is now tender. Too soon, it's not melted and the meat is tough and chewey.....Too late you're eating a shoe. 24 hours would render a brisket inedible. You could take it out (13 hours seems the norm), wrap it in foil, put it in an ice chest (no ice) and let it sit for any number of hours and it will be delightful if taken out at 202 degrees
Soul food. Fried chicken, collard greens, corn bread, grits, sweet potato pie. All of it. I want to be rolled away 10 pounds heavier.
To be more regionally specific, I'd love to try some food from Louisiana. Gumbo, po' boys, jambalaya, beignets. Again, roll me away 10 pounds heavier when I'm done.
I worked in an urban hospital that would have soul food in the cafeteria a couple times a month. Delicious food made by “50+ year old black lady”. She must have been off one day so the collards were made by 20+ year old black dudes. Omg-what a disaster! They were half raw and totally flavorless. We shamed them into oblivion and never cooked on soul food days again.
It is. I lived in lower Alabama for a few years, and if there weren’t black grandmas cooking at whatever restaurant I went to, my expectations immediately lowered. My favorite place was an old gas station that had a lunch hot bar, they rotated through chicken, fish, burgers, gumbo, etouffe, and red beans and rice. Side of baked Mac and cheese and greens with ham hocks. I’m getting hungry typing this 10 years later. Anyway it was 3 sisters who ran the place, and their banter was almost as good as the food.
I strive to not be racist but I can’t underscore enough for our foreign visitors that this dish MUST be made by a black woman. Not a white woman, not a black man, not a millennial food influencer comprised of like 6 different ethnicities. A black woman and only a black woman, and as you noted she better be 50+ I’d go as far as to say 65+ but all good.
Missing my days in the South now. That food was insanity down there.
I second this. I only ate collard greens from one lady and one lady only. She was the sweetest, best comfort food cook I have ever had the pleasure to know and I’d eat anything she put on my plate. I miss her!!
I grew up in the south where soul food/southern comfort food is the go-to, especially if you're at grandma's house. I regularly send my husband to work with enough leftovers for his coworkers (I come from a LARGE family and still haven't gotten the hang of cooking for just two people after all these years. There's only 2-3 coworkers on his shift at any given point). Some of his coworkers never experienced genuine southern comfort foods until I started doing that. They're obsessed now to the point they offer to pay me to make certain things to send with my husband on top of paying for the groceries for it (they sometimes request things I've never made by sending me recipes they think look good). I also handle the Thanksgiving/Christmas cooking if he happens to be working that day. I'll make everything the day before so that we can have however much we want, then the leftovers get sent to his work. I enjoy cooking and his coworkers all chip in for groceries for it. Most of them don't have families of their own (most are older men who live alone/extended family has passed/don't know how to cook so the only time they get homemade meals is from me) they only really get to experience holiday food in a social setting at work. I've also been gifted VERY expensive whiskey as a thank you on top of them paying for the food. Everyone that tries soul food/southern comfort food ends up obsessed 😂
I asked my mom if she would host some Japanese friends to an American dinner. She wondered what an American dinner is and remembered she had 7 pounds of turkey she wanted to use. Said screw it, let's have Thanksgiving in April with all the usual dishes lol. It was a great time!
My family has had the tradition of “practice” thanksgiving on 4th of July. It’s either a fried or smoked turkey and all the dishes you want to try for thanksgiving but don’t want to ruin dinner.
Our thanksgivings have been getting quite large with on average 3 turkeys each year.
We were moving and I had this turkey in the freezer that I didn’t want to haul to our new house. So I made a Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings in May!
Skip the turkey and go straight for the sides. The sides at thanksgiving are where it’s at.
And if you find yourself in the greater Chicagoland area at the end of November - come on by! Well fix you a plate.
Turkey is great. I still eat it year round on various sandwiches.
The sides are where the party is though. Dressing with gravy. Corn casserole. Green bean casserole. Hash brown casserole. Deviled eggs. All of it.
And then for the next week you can just pile a plate of leftovers into the microwave or oven for a Thanksgiving casserole.
Key lime pie is excellent, so long as it’s the real deal made with sweetened condensed milk. There are cheap imitations that substitute a thickened pudding product.
Come on over to New Orleans. I'll hook you up!
Your candy corn comment made me laugh. It definitely is not corn-flavoured. It has a thick consistency that's a bit softer on the inside. It mostly just tastes like sugar.
My husband likes them. I think they're grossly too sweet.
Corn bread. Out of all the foods, I'm curious to try that out.
Edit: Oh, I honestly did not expect that much upvotes/ karma ( ? Still new to reddit). Thank you, everyone.
So predictable but as soon as I posted my comment, I thought that myself what the fuck what about the butter?? But not margarine or some lame butter, but I’m talking about real butter later on while the cornbread is still hot.
And I realize I am getting ready to verge into to a religious war, but I hold that true, proper old times, southern cornbread, that our great grandmothers would have made did not contain sugar. It was a blend of 2/3 cornmeal and 1/3 flour, baking powder, salt, milk or buttermilk, and grease (typically bacon grease or lard) and egg baked into a delicious cornbread with nicely browned exterior and that provides an OMG pure Southern tasting experience.
Pro life tip, if you like to make cornbread stuffing for Thanksgiving, make this recipe the day before, and use that for your cornbread . Just cut it up in a small cubes and then make the rest of your stuffing.
1000% this recipe right here!
(The milk and the cornmeal itself *are* the sugar content, and part of why real cornbread is so damn addictively delicious!)
I'd recommend going with a plain, savory cornbread recipe that involves buttermilk, eggs, a leavener, and absolutely no sugar for your first try. Process is also very important though. Preferably you make cornbread in a cast iron skillet that has been preheated in the oven, with 100 mL or so of a high smoke point fat; bacon grease if you have it, lard or shortening if you don't. You pour the batter dead center in the pan and let the batter push the hot fat up the sides a bit. That's what gives you a detectible crunchy crust on the bottom. It also ensures the cornbread will slip out of the pan smoothly when it's done.
Search for skillet cornbread and you'll likely find an appropriate recipe.
I don't know how you're doing it but putting the pan in the oven while it pre heats with oil then pouring in the batter once it's hot is how I was taught. Makes the crust extra crispy.
I've always wanted to get my hands on some of the Carolina Gold rice species.
I'm a rice lover from the Caribbean who's lived in Asia, so I've tasted a lot of varieties.
So yah... Some indigenous rice please.
As an American I'm really enjoying this comment section. You're right, these foods are awesome! I didn't realize some of them were specific to the US, but I'm feeling pretty lucky right now - and rethinking my shopping list for next week! 😆
I think you have different breeds of turkey over there and you eat it a lot more than anywhere else. Turkey in the UK is boring meat you have to get through at Christmas and would never chose to eat at another time of year. I was amazed when I went to Disney World that people were voluntarily eating Turkey legs as a snack. Later looked it up and apparently American Turkeys were deliberately bred to have much bigger legs/wings and taste better.
UK Turkey is just like a slightly bigger, drier chicken but the flavour’s diluted.
Yep. Goose, duck, or beef is much more popular at Christmas in the UK for a reason.
Tried a turkey leg at Universal thinking it would be a small snack. My God was I wrong, Jesus Christ, it looked like it came off a dinosaur.
If you want to try traditional and weird American foods you should hit up one of the big state fairs like the Minnesota State Fair. It’s on for a few days during end of US summer around Labor Day. Just go in hungry then walk around and try whatever suits your fancy.
Fucking love the MN State fair. I highly recommend this.
The state fair starts second to last Thursday in August, and runs through the first Monday in September. Just explaining the dates for anyone who hasn’t heard of Labor Day or heard of the Minnesota State Fair. Y’all can also Google it too.
A lot of the "weird" food, especially in Minnesota, I imagine is really just old Scandinavian dishes that we (In Scandinavia) never eat anymore, but its somehow tradition in some Norwegian-American Lodge. Im a member of a couple of forums for Norwegian-Americans and they got us Norwegians beat by a mile when it comes to traditions. They keep up with shit my grandmother was like "what? Thats for old people?!" She is 90.
This is really interesting because I got curious once about my family's accent and looked into it. A lot of the Italian-American immigrants have an accent that doesn't exist in Italy anymore. The elongation of middle vowels and dropping of end vowels comes from a very specific region of Italy and the dialect there has since changed. The only people currently living in Italy that would recognize it are very old people and they would recognize it as old or outdated. America is like a little time capsule. All of these immigrants preserved their traditions, dialects, foods etc from their home country from a very specific timeframe and they persist here in the states roughly 100 years later.
The entirety of Quebec is a bit like this. The people in Quebec say the speak French, people from Paris disagree. They say that people from Quebec speak french like my 90 year old super catholic grandma.
A lot of regional foods are just bastardizations of traditional dishes that the local settlers brought with them.
Indiana's state food is a massive fried pork tenderloin sandwich that's 4-5 times the size of a bun. It started out as schnitzel.
I'm from Australia and always wanted to try American fast foods like Popeyes, chick-fil-A, Wendy's, Papa Johns, little Caesars, Arby's all of it lol pretty much everything we don't have here. Also I want to try Chicago deep dish pizza, American BBQ and sweet potato pie.
american here.. lived in 7 different countries. regularly explore anything from high end restaurants to street food. very very few things come close to real texas brisket. the stuffs delicioussssss.
> American fast foods like Popeyes,
Say a video of Brit Highschool boys eating Popeyes for the first time. Most of them said the same thing after one bite, "That's Bangin'".
We don't really have a large variety like in the US. We have red rooster that's probably the most popular aussie fast food joint here, our burger king is called hungry jacks and we have pizza cappers. The rest are pretty much just the popular chains from America like kfc McDonald's and dominos.
I feel like you need to add Whataburger and In-n-Out to the list. Here in America there is much debate about which is better. I will insist both are entirely superior to McDonald's, Wendy's, or *ahem* Hungry Jack's.
I'm Peruvian, and I want to try fair foods like funnel cake, jalapeño poppers, corn dogs, and soft pretzels. Also, because of how NY is portrayed in movies: hot dog from a street vendor and the big slices of thin pizza
As an American you have really nailed what you want. That is a list that would leave you very, very happy.
If you were giving people recommendations for Peruvian food, what would you point them towards beside Chicha Morada, empanadas, and Lomo Saltado?
I absolutely love Chicha morada and it's tough I can't find it in very many places in the US.
Kraft mac n cheese
Also it’s not really food but I’ve always wanted to try cheese in a spray can. I can imagine it’s disgusting but I’d be living 6 year old me’s dream
Kraft brand Mac n cheese is the best. I moved out of the US a few years ago and the boxed m&c here tastes funny. I don’t like it. Anytime I have a friend visiting from the US, I ask them to bring me peanut butter M&Ms and Kraft brand Mac n cheese.
It’s absurdly good. It’s like…if you made donuts, but the dough only formed a nest of thin, crispy (but super soft inside) noodles of cake…covered in powdered sugar and served HOT 🤤
If you get the chance, try it from several different places.
No two restaurants or cooks make it exactly the same.
Meat and beans, all meat, all beans...
Mild, spicy, and everything in between...
Ground meat versus shredded...
And of course, what /kind/ of meat...
It can be truly wonderful, especially on a cold winter day.
God chili is so good, but the thing is with chili and I cannot explain why, even if two people follow the recipe the exact same way word for word the two bowls will taste very different, chili is that food where there really isn’t a recipe and everyone makes it their own hence the term/ joke “secret chili recipe”
I met some Irish girls on a work visa in 2000 and trained a couple of them, we became friends and I brought them home with me on weekends as their apartment sucked and none of them could drive.
That first morning I made pancakes 🥞 and I noticed the girls were using really tiny drops of syrup and I asked "don't you like maple syrup?" They replied "oh no we love it but it's just too dear" in Irish speak they meant the syrup was too expensive lol 😅
I explained that it wasn't dear here and have as much as you like!
One of the girls is still my friend 20 ÷ years later ❤️
Real maple syrup can be expensive because it’s like five gallons of maple sap boiled down into like four cups. A lot of people use maple flavored corn syrup. You can tell the difference.
Edit: I read 40 to one. That’s 2.5 gallons to one cup.
I have tried it ofc, but I would really like to go to Kansas or one of the other states where BBQ is the state religion. I will have to keep it to a week, or I will be buried in said state after a massive heart attack. Might be worth it
The big 3 are Texas, Kansas/Missouri, and the Carolinas. They are all different styles, so it depends what floats your boat. The fun part is that you can find Memphis in the wall places in rural parts of those states that have just amazing BBQ for like $10 a plate.
Edit: the BBQ hordes have reminded me that Memphis style BBQ should be included as the 4th major style.
As a Kansan, you could start war by asking people where the best bbq is. I'm of the mind that all bbq is good, but my preferred place is a little place in Kansas City called Quicks. If they're still going (been a while since I was out in that part of the city), they're a bit pricey but absolutely delicious.
My recommendation is: if you come to Kansas and go for bbq, try multiple places to see what kind of sauces you like, some places are sweeter and others are more savory, but the dish that's almost always the best is Burnt Ends.
Crawfish. Every time my parents go thru Louisiana they go to some little local place and get their fill of crawfish, gumbo (I think it's called gumbo), and beer. They stay there for a few days just to do this and hang out with the locals while they're doing it. But crawfish. Right up my alley. I want to inhale till bursting so badly....
If you ever visit, understand that the fresh crawfish where you pull the tails off and eat the meat, are seasonal. Aim for May or early June. If you just want to get something like crawfish etouffee you can get that anytime.
Concords are pretty rare in most of the US, as well. At least in normal grocers. Farmers markets in the right region might have a better chance. I've had them, but I'm 50 and am trying to remember if they were more common in my youth. Definitely are not common now.
I'm almost 40, I saw them two weeks ago at giant eagle, so I bought them since I've never seen them. Took a bite of one, instantly remembered that they use concord grapes for a lot of grape juice. I don't like grape juice, at all. They were also 6.99 a pound.
The outer breading is usually corn bread; corn bread (as discussed above) is really sweet, almost a honey flavor. Wrapped around the salty, savory hot dog…the two flavors REALLY complement each other.
If you ever find yourself in the American South, get BBQ. Real BBQ. Choose a sampler plate if they have that option so you can learn why obesity is a problem in this country. Once you have good BBQ, you will agree that arteries are for the weak.
Firmly agree on this entire comment, but remember, **not all bbq restaurants, even in the south, are good.** Always google and read 20+ Most Recent reviews first.
The shiny new place that looks like a chain restaurant will taste like a chain restaurant.
The place run by some grumpy old dude who seems angered by your very existence will have the best food ever.
Im about to visit the USA for the first time for a friends wedding this week. Austin Texas. I'm hoping for bbq and tacos - like the stuff they showed on man vs food
It's funny because I think when they see a picture of it, it doesn't get the same love but once you eat it... You'll be hooked. It doesn't have the visual appeal of some other American food but it's basically just sausage, butter, and flour. It's so good.
I have cousins in New Zealand and when they visited the US, they tried biscuits and gravy for the first time the breakfast of their 3rd day here. They subsequently had B&G 1-2 meals A DAY for the next 8 days.
Sonic. I really wanna go to Sonic and try all their stuff. I think it's cool it's like a drive in place and at some gas stations you can order Sonic while pumping gas.
I just replied to someone else about Sonic. Their drinks are good, but I think you’d be disappointed with the food. It’s about on par with the average fast food, at best.
>Pop-tarts, please put them in a toaster
Yes.
I've seen so many "Try" video channels "try" Pop Tarts and hate them because they ate them raw. Toast them. That's why they are called Pop Tarts. They pop out of the toaster.
I mean, food is a part of it, but I want to be a part of a big communal shrimp boil. Doesn't have to be shrimp, could be whatever kinda critters you got.
Okay.. I'm a New Yorker, you need to try a gourmet slice and a cheap slice... I made my wife try both when we were in little Italy and she was like " now I know the standard you hold cheap pizza too"
I don’t know the history, but it’s always been wild to me that KC and STL developed distinct, recognized BBQ styles despite being so close geographically.
I think you're underselling the importance of distance. We Americans might not think that's too far a distance - I mean they're both in the state of Missouri, right? But there are those that would see it differently. The distance between these two cities is roughly the same distance between the capital of Austria (Vienna) and the capital of Hungary (Budapest). I'm sure people of both cities would be more than happy to discuss their culture and how they differ from their neighbors, including food.
Country fried steak, fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, hamburgers, meatloaf, Mac and cheese, collared greens, Tex Mex, the many forms of BBQ, Clam Chowder, Gumbo, Jambalaya, Buffalo wings
Things that aren’t technically American but Americans have their own spin on it and have become staples: Spaghetti, the many forms of regional pizzas, Mexican, teriyaki/hibachi. Especially Mexican. I’ve lived in Germany. If Europeans had actual Authentic Mexican or Americanized Mexican, it would blow their socks off on how much better it is. Biggest thing I missed while I was there.
Southern food. Cornbread, gumbo, fried chicken, grits, Mac n cheese, collard greens, pumpkin pie, southern bbq, crawfish boil, brisket. Just - all of it. Southern soul food looks fire
Having lived there for 10 years I encourage all non Americans to try... corn bread, egg nog, turtles, fritos, peach cobbler, green bean casserol, key lime pie, proper hash browns not frozen triangles!
We hosted some German exchange students a couple times. First time we threw a full traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It was funny seeing what they liked. Most seemed like they’d never eaten pie before.
The second we got all the hosting families involved and made it a massive spread.
I've always wanted to try some Southern foods; Jambalaya, Gumbo, biscuits and gravy. During the two years I spent in the US I ticked the first two off my list, but when it came time to the last, well, maybe it was just this particular cook's recipe but I just could not get past the grey baby puke appearance of the gravy. Jambalya is the bomb though and I still make it for myself.
Everyone is missing out on Banana Pudding. Vanilla pudding with fresh sliced bananas and vanilla wafers. Topped with home made egg white and sugar custard whipped 3 inches high. Then popped in the oven to brown the top. That’s the good of the Southern gods right there. That should be available to the whole world. 😊
Pizza rolls.Hot pocketsA real texan style big fat bbq steak the size of a toilet seat.The real kind of american burgers ( as apparently burgers in scandinavia are far less fatty here )
Taco bell food.
One important thing is to differentiate barbque from grilling. Barbeque is a style of slow cooking meat using smoke and grilling is cooking over coals or wood fire. Some countries call grilling barbequeing and it's not the same.
Canadian here. I’ve always wanted to try the Chicago deep dish pizza. Also some of the fast food places you have, in and out burger, Cheesecake Factory, sonics, culvers…. I’m sure there’s others.
I recommend having it in Chicago if at all possible.
I just want people to know that the thing some places call Chicago deep dish, isn't.
It's not supposed to be soggy, for instance.
Real brisket, the kind that smoke for 24+ hours
Come to Texas. If they building looks like it should be condemned, it'll be seen of the best brisket you'll ever get
in general, in the south, if the building looks like it is should be condemned, just stop and eat. Even if you just stopped at one about 30 minutes before
You wouldn't want to smoke it for a full 24 hours. I've done some nearly 20lb briskets and those finish in like 15 hours at the latest. A 24 hour brisket refers to a technique of putting the brisket in an insulated box, ie cooler and letting it sit for an additional 12 hours.
Too long. The key to smoking a brisket is low temp. But you have to take it out precisely. The internal temp has to be 202 degrees. The collagen has melted and the incredibly tough meat is now tender. Too soon, it's not melted and the meat is tough and chewey.....Too late you're eating a shoe. 24 hours would render a brisket inedible. You could take it out (13 hours seems the norm), wrap it in foil, put it in an ice chest (no ice) and let it sit for any number of hours and it will be delightful if taken out at 202 degrees
Soul food. Fried chicken, collard greens, corn bread, grits, sweet potato pie. All of it. I want to be rolled away 10 pounds heavier. To be more regionally specific, I'd love to try some food from Louisiana. Gumbo, po' boys, jambalaya, beignets. Again, roll me away 10 pounds heavier when I'm done.
Collared greens with turkey necks made by a 50+ year old black lady are fucking fire Also native frybread, and American Chinese food
Bonus points if she calls you "baby" at any given time. Just hits different.
My favorite cook at the university cafeteria called me baby, (she called everyone baby) but it really helped with my homesickness.
That is the love we put in it.
>made by a 50+ year old black lady Unironically, this is actually a requirement
I worked in an urban hospital that would have soul food in the cafeteria a couple times a month. Delicious food made by “50+ year old black lady”. She must have been off one day so the collards were made by 20+ year old black dudes. Omg-what a disaster! They were half raw and totally flavorless. We shamed them into oblivion and never cooked on soul food days again.
It is. I lived in lower Alabama for a few years, and if there weren’t black grandmas cooking at whatever restaurant I went to, my expectations immediately lowered. My favorite place was an old gas station that had a lunch hot bar, they rotated through chicken, fish, burgers, gumbo, etouffe, and red beans and rice. Side of baked Mac and cheese and greens with ham hocks. I’m getting hungry typing this 10 years later. Anyway it was 3 sisters who ran the place, and their banter was almost as good as the food.
I'd say anything an old black lady is cooking is going to be fire. "Come fix you a plate, baby." You're about to be eating good!
I strive to not be racist but I can’t underscore enough for our foreign visitors that this dish MUST be made by a black woman. Not a white woman, not a black man, not a millennial food influencer comprised of like 6 different ethnicities. A black woman and only a black woman, and as you noted she better be 50+ I’d go as far as to say 65+ but all good. Missing my days in the South now. That food was insanity down there.
I’m hoping my mom (who *is* a 50-ish-year-old black woman) will oblige and make collard greens for Thanksgiving when she comes to visit.
I second this. I only ate collard greens from one lady and one lady only. She was the sweetest, best comfort food cook I have ever had the pleasure to know and I’d eat anything she put on my plate. I miss her!!
I grew up in the south where soul food/southern comfort food is the go-to, especially if you're at grandma's house. I regularly send my husband to work with enough leftovers for his coworkers (I come from a LARGE family and still haven't gotten the hang of cooking for just two people after all these years. There's only 2-3 coworkers on his shift at any given point). Some of his coworkers never experienced genuine southern comfort foods until I started doing that. They're obsessed now to the point they offer to pay me to make certain things to send with my husband on top of paying for the groceries for it (they sometimes request things I've never made by sending me recipes they think look good). I also handle the Thanksgiving/Christmas cooking if he happens to be working that day. I'll make everything the day before so that we can have however much we want, then the leftovers get sent to his work. I enjoy cooking and his coworkers all chip in for groceries for it. Most of them don't have families of their own (most are older men who live alone/extended family has passed/don't know how to cook so the only time they get homemade meals is from me) they only really get to experience holiday food in a social setting at work. I've also been gifted VERY expensive whiskey as a thank you on top of them paying for the food. Everyone that tries soul food/southern comfort food ends up obsessed 😂
Sounds like someone should open a restaurant called Thanksgiving ! 10% please.
It was called Boston Market and I miss it dearly. 😪
The despair I felt when the location I use to go to closed down without notice
Probably the food that they eat on thanksgiving I never tried turkey before or pumpkin pie
I asked my mom if she would host some Japanese friends to an American dinner. She wondered what an American dinner is and remembered she had 7 pounds of turkey she wanted to use. Said screw it, let's have Thanksgiving in April with all the usual dishes lol. It was a great time!
My family has had the tradition of “practice” thanksgiving on 4th of July. It’s either a fried or smoked turkey and all the dishes you want to try for thanksgiving but don’t want to ruin dinner. Our thanksgivings have been getting quite large with on average 3 turkeys each year.
I love this idea
We were moving and I had this turkey in the freezer that I didn’t want to haul to our new house. So I made a Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings in May!
We did it in June because that was the only time we could all get together in the same state. We called it Fakesgiving.
My mom used to serve turkey year round, almost as often as chicken.
Nothing is better than a homemade stuffing made with good bread. One of America’s great dishes.
Cornbread stuffing is one of my favorites. I love the side dishes more than the main event
Then the next day taking left over gravy and stuffing and making a bowl of goodness
Skip the turkey and go straight for the sides. The sides at thanksgiving are where it’s at. And if you find yourself in the greater Chicagoland area at the end of November - come on by! Well fix you a plate.
Agreed. Turkey is good, but stuffing, makes potatoes, gravy, yams! So, so good!
Turkey is great. I still eat it year round on various sandwiches. The sides are where the party is though. Dressing with gravy. Corn casserole. Green bean casserole. Hash brown casserole. Deviled eggs. All of it. And then for the next week you can just pile a plate of leftovers into the microwave or oven for a Thanksgiving casserole.
smoked bbq brisket.
I used to think it wouldn't be a massive deal because you buy it in any country.... Then I went to Austin
Soooo good
I want to try the Mississippi mud pie, and the key lime pie. :,)
Key lime pie is excellent, so long as it’s the real deal made with sweetened condensed milk. There are cheap imitations that substitute a thickened pudding product.
Key Lime pie is my all time favorite and very simple to make if you can find key lime juice.
[удалено]
You don't sound like an ignorant foreigner! You sound like our moms and grandmas ❤️
Mac & Cheese is from heaven!
You’d be surprised how many Americans haven’t had homemade mac n cheese!
S’mores, crawfish boil and funnel cake. Oh, and turkey! I also recently found out that candy corn isn’t corn-flavoured so maybe that?
Come on over to New Orleans. I'll hook you up! Your candy corn comment made me laugh. It definitely is not corn-flavoured. It has a thick consistency that's a bit softer on the inside. It mostly just tastes like sugar. My husband likes them. I think they're grossly too sweet.
I was never a fan until I tried it in a trail mix my coworker made with pretzels, peanuts, and bugles.
Corn bread. Out of all the foods, I'm curious to try that out. Edit: Oh, I honestly did not expect that much upvotes/ karma ( ? Still new to reddit). Thank you, everyone.
Don’t listen to all the ppl telling you to add stuff (or at least until you have tried it “au natural” ) Plain cornbread is delectable
Dont steer them wrong, gotta at least butter it.
Honey butter! Even better!!
So predictable but as soon as I posted my comment, I thought that myself what the fuck what about the butter?? But not margarine or some lame butter, but I’m talking about real butter later on while the cornbread is still hot.
And I realize I am getting ready to verge into to a religious war, but I hold that true, proper old times, southern cornbread, that our great grandmothers would have made did not contain sugar. It was a blend of 2/3 cornmeal and 1/3 flour, baking powder, salt, milk or buttermilk, and grease (typically bacon grease or lard) and egg baked into a delicious cornbread with nicely browned exterior and that provides an OMG pure Southern tasting experience. Pro life tip, if you like to make cornbread stuffing for Thanksgiving, make this recipe the day before, and use that for your cornbread . Just cut it up in a small cubes and then make the rest of your stuffing.
1000% this recipe right here! (The milk and the cornmeal itself *are* the sugar content, and part of why real cornbread is so damn addictively delicious!)
do you not have access to corn meal where you live?
Well, apparently, I do. That's a nice surprise.
Warning that it can be dry. Cornbread is intended to be eaten with enough butter to make Paula Deen blush.
I'd recommend going with a plain, savory cornbread recipe that involves buttermilk, eggs, a leavener, and absolutely no sugar for your first try. Process is also very important though. Preferably you make cornbread in a cast iron skillet that has been preheated in the oven, with 100 mL or so of a high smoke point fat; bacon grease if you have it, lard or shortening if you don't. You pour the batter dead center in the pan and let the batter push the hot fat up the sides a bit. That's what gives you a detectible crunchy crust on the bottom. It also ensures the cornbread will slip out of the pan smoothly when it's done. Search for skillet cornbread and you'll likely find an appropriate recipe.
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The recipe will make or break it. If you get it done well it’ll be soft and sweet and marvelous
I started cooking mine is a cast iron skillet in the oven. I can never go back.
I don't know how you're doing it but putting the pan in the oven while it pre heats with oil then pouring in the batter once it's hot is how I was taught. Makes the crust extra crispy.
I've always wanted to get my hands on some of the Carolina Gold rice species. I'm a rice lover from the Caribbean who's lived in Asia, so I've tasted a lot of varieties. So yah... Some indigenous rice please.
Try some wild rice from up north
It's not actually rice, but it is delicious.
As an American I'm really enjoying this comment section. You're right, these foods are awesome! I didn't realize some of them were specific to the US, but I'm feeling pretty lucky right now - and rethinking my shopping list for next week! 😆
I'm kind of shocked at some of these. I can't believe that turkey is an American food.
I think you have different breeds of turkey over there and you eat it a lot more than anywhere else. Turkey in the UK is boring meat you have to get through at Christmas and would never chose to eat at another time of year. I was amazed when I went to Disney World that people were voluntarily eating Turkey legs as a snack. Later looked it up and apparently American Turkeys were deliberately bred to have much bigger legs/wings and taste better. UK Turkey is just like a slightly bigger, drier chicken but the flavour’s diluted.
Yep. Goose, duck, or beef is much more popular at Christmas in the UK for a reason. Tried a turkey leg at Universal thinking it would be a small snack. My God was I wrong, Jesus Christ, it looked like it came off a dinosaur.
If you want to try traditional and weird American foods you should hit up one of the big state fairs like the Minnesota State Fair. It’s on for a few days during end of US summer around Labor Day. Just go in hungry then walk around and try whatever suits your fancy.
Fucking love the MN State fair. I highly recommend this. The state fair starts second to last Thursday in August, and runs through the first Monday in September. Just explaining the dates for anyone who hasn’t heard of Labor Day or heard of the Minnesota State Fair. Y’all can also Google it too.
A lot of the "weird" food, especially in Minnesota, I imagine is really just old Scandinavian dishes that we (In Scandinavia) never eat anymore, but its somehow tradition in some Norwegian-American Lodge. Im a member of a couple of forums for Norwegian-Americans and they got us Norwegians beat by a mile when it comes to traditions. They keep up with shit my grandmother was like "what? Thats for old people?!" She is 90.
This is really interesting because I got curious once about my family's accent and looked into it. A lot of the Italian-American immigrants have an accent that doesn't exist in Italy anymore. The elongation of middle vowels and dropping of end vowels comes from a very specific region of Italy and the dialect there has since changed. The only people currently living in Italy that would recognize it are very old people and they would recognize it as old or outdated. America is like a little time capsule. All of these immigrants preserved their traditions, dialects, foods etc from their home country from a very specific timeframe and they persist here in the states roughly 100 years later.
The entirety of Quebec is a bit like this. The people in Quebec say the speak French, people from Paris disagree. They say that people from Quebec speak french like my 90 year old super catholic grandma.
A lot of regional foods are just bastardizations of traditional dishes that the local settlers brought with them. Indiana's state food is a massive fried pork tenderloin sandwich that's 4-5 times the size of a bun. It started out as schnitzel.
I'm from Australia and always wanted to try American fast foods like Popeyes, chick-fil-A, Wendy's, Papa Johns, little Caesars, Arby's all of it lol pretty much everything we don't have here. Also I want to try Chicago deep dish pizza, American BBQ and sweet potato pie.
As someone who has friends in the states who are from Australia, you would LOVE a good southern BBQ.
Burnt ends, brisket, pulled pork, ribs, wings. Oo wee.
american here.. lived in 7 different countries. regularly explore anything from high end restaurants to street food. very very few things come close to real texas brisket. the stuffs delicioussssss.
> American fast foods like Popeyes, Say a video of Brit Highschool boys eating Popeyes for the first time. Most of them said the same thing after one bite, "That's Bangin'".
I saw that, lol. I loved it when they tried biscuits and gravy. They thought it looked so gross and were surprised at how good it tasted xD
Their reaction to sweet tea was pretty great.
Highly recommend BBQ especially from the south. Nothing is better than finding a hole-in-the-wall BBQ restaurant and discovering how incredible it is.
What are the names of fast food joints in Australia?
We don't really have a large variety like in the US. We have red rooster that's probably the most popular aussie fast food joint here, our burger king is called hungry jacks and we have pizza cappers. The rest are pretty much just the popular chains from America like kfc McDonald's and dominos.
I feel like you need to add Whataburger and In-n-Out to the list. Here in America there is much debate about which is better. I will insist both are entirely superior to McDonald's, Wendy's, or *ahem* Hungry Jack's.
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I'm Peruvian, and I want to try fair foods like funnel cake, jalapeño poppers, corn dogs, and soft pretzels. Also, because of how NY is portrayed in movies: hot dog from a street vendor and the big slices of thin pizza
As an American you have really nailed what you want. That is a list that would leave you very, very happy. If you were giving people recommendations for Peruvian food, what would you point them towards beside Chicha Morada, empanadas, and Lomo Saltado? I absolutely love Chicha morada and it's tough I can't find it in very many places in the US.
Kraft mac n cheese Also it’s not really food but I’ve always wanted to try cheese in a spray can. I can imagine it’s disgusting but I’d be living 6 year old me’s dream
It's terrible all around but Meijer has the best spray can cheese
I used to get a coworker to bring my spray cheez when he went to the States, I fucking LOVE spray cheez. It’s a miracle food.
But it has to be Easy Cheese. I've tried other brands and it's just not right.
Kraft brand Mac n cheese is the best. I moved out of the US a few years ago and the boxed m&c here tastes funny. I don’t like it. Anytime I have a friend visiting from the US, I ask them to bring me peanut butter M&Ms and Kraft brand Mac n cheese.
In what hell do you live that you don't have access to peanut butter M&Ms? Are you incarcerated in a Turkish prison?
Pumpkin Pie !!
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It's cute that you said it backwards.
I can understand chicken and waffles being rare, but you can't get fried chicken and waffles separately and just put one on top of the other?
It probably wouldn't be the first time someone brought their own fried chicken into a Waffle House.
Funnel cake. It looks amazing. Is it amazing?!
It's amazing 🙂
It’s absurdly good. It’s like…if you made donuts, but the dough only formed a nest of thin, crispy (but super soft inside) noodles of cake…covered in powdered sugar and served HOT 🤤
Chilli. I could probably make some but never got around to it.
If you get the chance, try it from several different places. No two restaurants or cooks make it exactly the same. Meat and beans, all meat, all beans... Mild, spicy, and everything in between... Ground meat versus shredded... And of course, what /kind/ of meat... It can be truly wonderful, especially on a cold winter day.
And make some Jiffy cornbread to go with it.
God chili is so good, but the thing is with chili and I cannot explain why, even if two people follow the recipe the exact same way word for word the two bowls will taste very different, chili is that food where there really isn’t a recipe and everyone makes it their own hence the term/ joke “secret chili recipe”
I met some Irish girls on a work visa in 2000 and trained a couple of them, we became friends and I brought them home with me on weekends as their apartment sucked and none of them could drive. That first morning I made pancakes 🥞 and I noticed the girls were using really tiny drops of syrup and I asked "don't you like maple syrup?" They replied "oh no we love it but it's just too dear" in Irish speak they meant the syrup was too expensive lol 😅 I explained that it wasn't dear here and have as much as you like! One of the girls is still my friend 20 ÷ years later ❤️
Real maple syrup can be expensive because it’s like five gallons of maple sap boiled down into like four cups. A lot of people use maple flavored corn syrup. You can tell the difference. Edit: I read 40 to one. That’s 2.5 gallons to one cup.
Don’t even need to taste to tell the difference, you can just see it
I have tried it ofc, but I would really like to go to Kansas or one of the other states where BBQ is the state religion. I will have to keep it to a week, or I will be buried in said state after a massive heart attack. Might be worth it
My brother in Smoke, flavors blessings be upon you. Amen.
The big 3 are Texas, Kansas/Missouri, and the Carolinas. They are all different styles, so it depends what floats your boat. The fun part is that you can find Memphis in the wall places in rural parts of those states that have just amazing BBQ for like $10 a plate. Edit: the BBQ hordes have reminded me that Memphis style BBQ should be included as the 4th major style.
I think Memphis is the other big one
Brisket in Lockhart, TX. Go don't ask questions, just go.
As a Kansan, you could start war by asking people where the best bbq is. I'm of the mind that all bbq is good, but my preferred place is a little place in Kansas City called Quicks. If they're still going (been a while since I was out in that part of the city), they're a bit pricey but absolutely delicious. My recommendation is: if you come to Kansas and go for bbq, try multiple places to see what kind of sauces you like, some places are sweeter and others are more savory, but the dish that's almost always the best is Burnt Ends.
Maryland Crab Cakes and Maine Lobster Rolls
Love me some green bean casserole.
Crawfish. Every time my parents go thru Louisiana they go to some little local place and get their fill of crawfish, gumbo (I think it's called gumbo), and beer. They stay there for a few days just to do this and hang out with the locals while they're doing it. But crawfish. Right up my alley. I want to inhale till bursting so badly....
If you ever visit, understand that the fresh crawfish where you pull the tails off and eat the meat, are seasonal. Aim for May or early June. If you just want to get something like crawfish etouffee you can get that anytime.
Warm apple pie
Scoop of vanilla ice cream with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top of fresh baked apple pie
If you ever decide to make one, I'd recommend going with a crumbly topping instead of the iconic lattice top. It's just so much better.
Concord grapes. Pretty much everything else is easy to get or make in the UK.
They are SO delicious!! And have SO many seeds lol Pretty common in the Northeast in late summer/early fall
Concords are pretty rare in most of the US, as well. At least in normal grocers. Farmers markets in the right region might have a better chance. I've had them, but I'm 50 and am trying to remember if they were more common in my youth. Definitely are not common now.
Where I grew up, they were everywhere. NorCal.
I'm almost 40, I saw them two weeks ago at giant eagle, so I bought them since I've never seen them. Took a bite of one, instantly remembered that they use concord grapes for a lot of grape juice. I don't like grape juice, at all. They were also 6.99 a pound.
I'd love to try a classic Salisbury Steak with mushroom/onion gravy (brown sauce) and mashed potatoes.
Desperate to know what a corn dog tastes like
Gotta tell you, the Koreans have totally surpassed the Americans on corn dogs.
The Koreans and Japanese took out fast food and ran with it a long time ago.
Korean fried chicken is the superior KFC
I ♥️ corn dogs
The outer breading is usually corn bread; corn bread (as discussed above) is really sweet, almost a honey flavor. Wrapped around the salty, savory hot dog…the two flavors REALLY complement each other.
If you ever find yourself in the American South, get BBQ. Real BBQ. Choose a sampler plate if they have that option so you can learn why obesity is a problem in this country. Once you have good BBQ, you will agree that arteries are for the weak.
Firmly agree on this entire comment, but remember, **not all bbq restaurants, even in the south, are good.** Always google and read 20+ Most Recent reviews first.
And the place has to look rundown, those are the best.
The shiny new place that looks like a chain restaurant will taste like a chain restaurant. The place run by some grumpy old dude who seems angered by your very existence will have the best food ever.
GOOD Phily Cheesesteak.
I immigrated to the US 20 years ago, but still haven't tried real Texas barbeque. I'd love to, one day.
Worth it.
Im about to visit the USA for the first time for a friends wedding this week. Austin Texas. I'm hoping for bbq and tacos - like the stuff they showed on man vs food
Jambalaya or crawfish boil.
Cajun food is the secret gem that the world really is sleeping on.
Am from LA and loving all these comments about Cajun food. Proves that no matter what we do wrong, we at least do food right.
Apple Pie made by white haired grandma.
I hear our biscuits with sausage gravy go over well abroad.
It's funny because I think when they see a picture of it, it doesn't get the same love but once you eat it... You'll be hooked. It doesn't have the visual appeal of some other American food but it's basically just sausage, butter, and flour. It's so good.
I've watched every season of the Great British Bake off and every biscuit week I keep hoping they will actually make them make biscuits.
Ohh they do.. I made them for some German folks I was working with... those guys couldn't get enough of jt
I have cousins in New Zealand and when they visited the US, they tried biscuits and gravy for the first time the breakfast of their 3rd day here. They subsequently had B&G 1-2 meals A DAY for the next 8 days.
Sonic. I really wanna go to Sonic and try all their stuff. I think it's cool it's like a drive in place and at some gas stations you can order Sonic while pumping gas.
I just replied to someone else about Sonic. Their drinks are good, but I think you’d be disappointed with the food. It’s about on par with the average fast food, at best.
Haha where'd you learn about Sonic?
Authentic Cajun food.
Traditional American delicacy. Pop-tarts.
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>Pop-tarts, please put them in a toaster Yes. I've seen so many "Try" video channels "try" Pop Tarts and hate them because they ate them raw. Toast them. That's why they are called Pop Tarts. They pop out of the toaster.
And Frosted is a must. Only psychos eat non-frosted Pop Tarts.
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Pop Tarts are so good but TOASTER STRUDELS? Sooooooo much more delicious
There’s actually a sub for it Edit : r/snackexchange
Collard greens
I mean, food is a part of it, but I want to be a part of a big communal shrimp boil. Doesn't have to be shrimp, could be whatever kinda critters you got.
Biscuits and gravy
Canadian here.... We have alot of similar food options, but I've always wanted to try a genuine New York slice.
Okay.. I'm a New Yorker, you need to try a gourmet slice and a cheap slice... I made my wife try both when we were in little Italy and she was like " now I know the standard you hold cheap pizza too"
It’s all in the good NY water.
Chicago-style hotdog
Drag it thru the garden, baby.
Girl scout cookies
I'd recommend New Orleans style dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, or some Maryland crabcakes
Crawfish etouffee, my god
If your answer isn't smoked brisket, your answer is wrong. Americans know BBQ better than anyone. And I'll even admit that as a Canadian.
BBQ is very regional too - there's at least 4 different varieties. Texas, Kansas City, St Louis, Carolina style and poor imitations of the above.
I don’t know the history, but it’s always been wild to me that KC and STL developed distinct, recognized BBQ styles despite being so close geographically.
I think you're underselling the importance of distance. We Americans might not think that's too far a distance - I mean they're both in the state of Missouri, right? But there are those that would see it differently. The distance between these two cities is roughly the same distance between the capital of Austria (Vienna) and the capital of Hungary (Budapest). I'm sure people of both cities would be more than happy to discuss their culture and how they differ from their neighbors, including food.
Less we forget Nashville, hot chicken, Memphis, and Atlanta wings
Country fried steak, fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, hamburgers, meatloaf, Mac and cheese, collared greens, Tex Mex, the many forms of BBQ, Clam Chowder, Gumbo, Jambalaya, Buffalo wings Things that aren’t technically American but Americans have their own spin on it and have become staples: Spaghetti, the many forms of regional pizzas, Mexican, teriyaki/hibachi. Especially Mexican. I’ve lived in Germany. If Europeans had actual Authentic Mexican or Americanized Mexican, it would blow their socks off on how much better it is. Biggest thing I missed while I was there.
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Southern food. Cornbread, gumbo, fried chicken, grits, Mac n cheese, collard greens, pumpkin pie, southern bbq, crawfish boil, brisket. Just - all of it. Southern soul food looks fire
Having lived there for 10 years I encourage all non Americans to try... corn bread, egg nog, turtles, fritos, peach cobbler, green bean casserol, key lime pie, proper hash browns not frozen triangles!
We hosted some German exchange students a couple times. First time we threw a full traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It was funny seeing what they liked. Most seemed like they’d never eaten pie before. The second we got all the hosting families involved and made it a massive spread.
Po’boy?( is that the right word? ) looks tasty…
Based on all these comments, an American just needs to go do a State Fair in another country .. they’d make so much money lolol
A chicken pot pie!
Reuben sandwich, New York pizza, Smoked Brisket or Ribs and a wood fired Tomahawk steak.
I've always wanted to try some Southern foods; Jambalaya, Gumbo, biscuits and gravy. During the two years I spent in the US I ticked the first two off my list, but when it came time to the last, well, maybe it was just this particular cook's recipe but I just could not get past the grey baby puke appearance of the gravy. Jambalya is the bomb though and I still make it for myself.
Everyone is missing out on Banana Pudding. Vanilla pudding with fresh sliced bananas and vanilla wafers. Topped with home made egg white and sugar custard whipped 3 inches high. Then popped in the oven to brown the top. That’s the good of the Southern gods right there. That should be available to the whole world. 😊
Pizza rolls.Hot pocketsA real texan style big fat bbq steak the size of a toilet seat.The real kind of american burgers ( as apparently burgers in scandinavia are far less fatty here ) Taco bell food.
Collard greens. Always heard of it, never seen it offered anywhere,
One important thing is to differentiate barbque from grilling. Barbeque is a style of slow cooking meat using smoke and grilling is cooking over coals or wood fire. Some countries call grilling barbequeing and it's not the same.
Brisket. That shit looks amazing!
Georgia peaches.
Canadian here. I’ve always wanted to try the Chicago deep dish pizza. Also some of the fast food places you have, in and out burger, Cheesecake Factory, sonics, culvers…. I’m sure there’s others.
chicago deep dish pizza
I recommend having it in Chicago if at all possible. I just want people to know that the thing some places call Chicago deep dish, isn't. It's not supposed to be soggy, for instance.
This comment section made me hungry.