Inspired by this pho article, someone asked: Why doesn’t the United States have a national dish? Mexico has their burritos, the British have beef wellington (or spoted dick, depending on how snarky an answer you want,) the French their cassoulet.
The early contenders are easy to deal with. Sure, the saying goes “nothing’s more American than apple pie.” But then, oh, there’s the cherry pie lobby trying to get their vote in. And what about corn? Can a vegetable take the title? Frankly, all these are too divisive to carry the mandate.
Let’s move on to the heavyweights. Like baseball, hot dogs are stereotypically American. Even Upton Sinclair can’t argue that. A certain fast-food clown would rather the whole world associated our fine nation with hamburgers, instead. But really, shouldn’t we have, well, a slightly fancier national dish? Something we can dress up a little? When the ambassador from Luxembourg comes over for a formal state dinner, I think it’d be a little embarrassing to have ketchup and mustard next to the fine silverware. I don’t care how many stars your restaurant has, there’s only so far you can go with either the hamburger or the hot dog.
So what’s left? Can’t we come together and choose a single national dish for all?
Me, I’m rooting for the Twinkie.
-pmmj, Guest Blogger
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10Feb
5 Responses
Naah, hot dogs are too close to their German origins. I agree that the American national dish has to be something that is processed and scientifically adjusted to provide the most satisfaction at the lowest cost and with the longest shelf live. But it shouldn’t be twinkies or velveeta, since that’s a food, not a meal. Therefore, I nominate the Swanson frozen fried chiken dinner. I had more drumsticks from the freezer than you would imagine before I ever had the real thing.
how about the grilled cheese sandwich? prepared with white bread, Pam, a nonstick pan and American cheese, of course.
Barbeque. I bet that’s the only food, besides Cajun, that can really be called authentically american. Lets see the ambassador from Luxembourg tuck into a huge rack of baby back ribs.
First, barbecue is Australian. Secondly, barbecue is not a type of specific food it’s a way of cooking.
Pasted from a different site: “Southern cooking is most distinctly “American”. Dishes such as Creamed Okra, Peach Cobbler, Buttermilk Pie, Black-eyed peas and Rice are all unique to the South.”
Personally I’d vote for apple pie, though 😉
General consensus seems to be that barbequing (slow cooking over a wood heat-source)started in the 1800’s when western cattle ranchers needed a way to serve their cowboys tough, low quality cuts of meat. You might be thinking of grilling, Anna- something that, tho as ancient as sticking some chipmunk in a fire, is truly an Australian artform.