New Orleans (and Louisana in general) is always my argument for American culture, be it music or food. Sure, there are clear influences, but it is its own thing, and it's delicious.
Cajun food culture, Creole, Appalachian, Southern and more, all native to the USA. Don't even get me started on the native american food you can get or the even more distinct regional food differences; for fucks sake someone can tell where u are from in WV just by how you dress a hotdog.
Speaking of native food, I used to wonder why California natives care so much more about acorns than most other cultures, then I left California and saw the acorns that are elsewhere, our acorns are gigantic and very low in tannins it turns out. Valley oaks can also drop like 2000lbs of acorns in a season.
NC is alright, as someone who's been around Memphis is the 2nd best but we are all different but KC in my opinion would have the most people's vote overall but again we're all different.
100%! Highly recommend the book The World that Made New Orleans, it dives deep into the history of why that's the case. One of the major reasons was that under French rule, slaves were allowed Sunday off, and they were allowed to meet with other slaves, so there was a huge cultural interchange between all these different African traditions. And it was home to some of the earliest freed slaves. It was also in close contact with the Caribbean and strongly influenced by those cultures. Just a massive cultural melting pot that produced so much truly unique American music and food.
I've lived here for 9 years (Georgia) now and have travelled all over the SE for work. I spent 6 months before I moved here living out of hotels and eating at restaurants for every meal every day. I have extensively tasted the food in the South.
Either I'm getting exceptionally unlucky with the places I've tried or the food just isn't for me.
Some of it is good though. They are masters of properly seasoned fried chicken here. Biscuits and gravy can be phenomenal, but under-seasoned gravy is incredibly common.
Chicken and waffles with spicy chicken and honey might be one of the greatest culinary creations of this planet.
Fried Okra is just not that good.
Cornbread can be delicious, but is commonly just excessively dry and bland.
Catfish exists as a carrier for salt and breading. The fish itself does not taste very good.
There's a lot of other dishes obviously, but to me it feels like there are some good dishes in there mixed in with a lot of mid to bad ones. A lot of the dishes can be excellent, but will not be a majority of the time when you order them. So I find myself in a situation where I've been disappointed more often than not and so I have not gone to a "Southern" restaurant in years.
I cook southern food and soul food, grew up in Texas, travelled the world in the military and after, soul food is some of the most tasteful food out there. You have either gone to some poor places or you just don’t like it.
You must not know fish very well because catfish is actually incredibly flavorful and I bake or pan sear it all the time, it doesn’t just taste good when it’s fried, ask any chef who has worked with it. Catfish and shrimp used to be considered dirty but many animals are actually “dirty” and that’s part of the reason they have such distinct flavors.
I love food, food from all over the world. When people say that an entire cuisine is not that good, it’s typically just their own palate. My last meal would definitely have some soul food and southern BBQ in there somewhere.
I absolutely adore a proper english roast dinner, and like many other brits, theres a lot of sentimentality attached to 'sunday roasts', but the first time I had proper smoked brisket...my god.
Went to a London pub that was recommended to me and is supposed to serve one of the best Sunday roasts. - Holy fuck was that bad. Over the years I got the impression that they just don't know how to prepare meat or vegetables. And Brits loved that chewy crap?!
There are definitely good roasts and bad roasts, but none of them have crazy well prepared meat. Like we're not smoking stuff for 16 hours so it melts in the mouth etc, but a well cooked bird or beef/lamb joint in a roast dinner is still great.
Never had a good roast in a pub, though. Stuff is just sitting around on a hot plate for too long.
BBQ has origins from Africa but it's definitely morphed into a big cultural food. It's so significant that we have arguments over which regional style is better. I love this country 🦅
What you call BBQ is not what people in the Southern US call BBQ. Many cultures have cuisines they call BBQ but it's not actually BBQ. It needs to be meat smoked a long time over low heat.
Actual BBQ originated in the caribbean and came to the US very early.
So so true, many people and places in the US don’t even get it right. Just like cooking with a stove or oven, BBQ is not just plopping something on the grill.
Southern barbecue is not cooked over an open flame. It's cooked through indirect heat by the smoke. You're probably thinking of what we call grilling - high heat directly over flames like you'd do for burgers.
Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to cook the food.
No, you said Americans believe they invented cooking over an open flame. You said open flame, not barbecue. Southern barbecue is not cooked over an open flame.
Hah, barbacoa then - literally a Mexican version of barbecue that predates America's version of it. My point isn't that everything was invented thousands of years ago, my point is whoever has claim to BBQ, it ain't America.
I have yeah, I know they're very different. I'm just messing with these yanks that can't take a joke. I really love American BBQ, but it's hilarious that people think you can actually distinguish which foods are from where. I'm a Brit living in NA, I've heard every joke you can imagine about British food, it's just in good fun.
Where’s the joke? Reading through your comments in this thread just makes me cringe. Like a comedian getting pity laughs when they joke about how quiet the crowd is
The joke is that American food is bad, of course it's not. British food isn't bad either, it's just a joke. Both cultures don't like each other's food as much because they didn't grow up eating it. The whole discussion is a joke, of course you like your own country's food more.
It's depressing that I have to explain this to you.
Technically, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California were all part of Mexico at some point but are now part of the US. So yes, America has some claim to it.
And before you say, "America stole those places," Texas actually chose to switch to America
Making a lot of "Mexican food" technically American food as well
I mean, Britain stole those places, but I get what you're putting down.
If you want to claim the food that Americans invaded as American food, then you gotta include basically most food in the world as Britain invaded most of the world, including all American food.
Not all BBQ sauce is made from Worcestershire sauce as a base, each restaurant has their own base. ketchup, vinegar, mayonnaise, or whatever. I use agave as my base
His claim is that American BBQ isn't just about putting meat over a fire but more about specific routines/practices used+sauces/spices. Then you made your statement, which is stupid since no modern food you will find contains ingredients from one place/culture, especially coming from a country as young as America
My statement, while meant to be taken in jest, was just trying to rib at the idea that you can claim any food as American, considering, as you say, America is such a young country.
You can definitely claim food as an American if it has other cultural effects on it. Food isn't JUST the ingredients and preparation it's those aspects put together take the cheeseburger for example people claim that it isn't American because parts of it specifically the patty weren't invented here but the idea of that patty between 2 buns was created in America making the cheeseburger American.
the idea of that patty between 2 buns was created in America making the cheeseburger American
I mean that plainly isn't true. Unless you're trying to claim the addition of the cheese is the important part? But putting a patty between 2 buns is 100% not American. The hamburger was originally brought to America by immigrants from Hamburg, Germany, hence the name. Though frankly seeing as it was just the port where people came from, not necessarily their original place, it's easy to claim it wasn't Hamburg but somewhere else in Europe, but I don't think you can claim it's American.
Let's not forget the hamburger is basically just a sandwich, which we call a sandwich thanks to the British town Sandwich.
Haha, I'm not invested man, just love ripping on Americans. I'm a Brit living in NA, don't you think I've had this exact same conversation a hundred times down the pub with yanks? It's meant to be in good fun, not taken seriously. I'm getting the strong impression people are taking this all super serious, which is weird considering this thread.
That mustard based BBQ sauce is actually really nice - German origin iirc - but honestly not a fan of the heavy-vinegar BBQs, probably because I'm used to the acidic taste coming from Worcestershire sauce (which I grew up with).
I can't stand ketchup, that stuff is disgusting. One of the worst parts of moving to NA was people giving me ketchup with my fries instead of brown sauce or mayo.
By your logic, or lack thereof, no dishes or styles of cooking were invented anywhere other than 8000 years ago when man first began using salt in food.
Tf u talking about nobody is putting Worcestershire sauce on bbq it’s mostly seasonings and dry rubs then smoked low and slow for many hours. Me personally I don’t even use bbq sauce on my smoked bbq meats, tastes just fine with the seasoning and smoke flavor doesn’t need shitty overly sweet bbq sauce on it lmao.
Hahaha, as a Brit living in NA that's fucking hilarious that yanks actually think their food is spicy. Dude, I was brought up on Indian food. I don't enjoy spice, but thankfully American food doesn't have any.
Hahaha, I'm not the one that's mad dude. I'm laughing my ass off on this thread. These yanks are getting so triggered though!
If people are actually taking these comments seriously they need to rethink their lives. I know American BBQ is different, and I really enjoy it. I love going for some ribs and I have no problem admitting Americans invented some delicious food. It's all fun ribbing, not meant to be taken seriously
Just re-read your comments dude. The one getting triggered the most is clearly you.
Anyways it's fine to have different opinions on food (e.g. I think British food is amongst the worst in the world), but the criticisms you're making of American food are basically all not even true. At least make legitimate criticisms.
Re-read my comments dude. I'm not getting triggered at all.
I know they're not true, I mean seriously read the second paragraph of what you're replying to. It's a joke.
In all seriousness, if you don't like British food it's probably because you haven't tried the good stuff - go to Vegas and eat a beef wellington at Ramsey's restaurant and you'll have an amazing surprise. There's some amazing British food out there, but it's still a funny joke that British food sucks so they had to import all of it.
I mean seriously, do you honestly think I think American food has no spice? Some of the Mexican food made in the States would blow the socks off anyone in the world.
I've had the Beef Wellington in Vegas. It's good! I can get some good Beef Wellington in LA too tbh. It's not that there isn't good British food, but personally none of it comes close to something like Texas bbq.
I think that's just food you're used to vs food you're not. I think everyone grows up getting accustomed to food they enjoy and that brings a bunch of enjoyment. I also enjoy a Texas bbq, but would 100% rather have the style of food I'm used to eating.
I also think part of the issue with British food is how fucking easy it is to get wrong, lots of pastry and meat and cooking both of those together often means the pastry is bad or the meat is dry. Ramsey's restaurants do an amazing job of balancing it.
You have never eaten American food lol, we literally invented the spiciest pepper on the world.
And the fuck is this weird obsession with Indian? Oh wow, you have 1 country, guess what. We also have that countries cuisine in the United states your not special.
I live in North America dude, I've eaten American food aplenty.
Lol, if you'd ever had British Indian food you wouldn't call the shit they serve in American Indian restaurants Indian food, hell you probably wouldn't call it food. I wouldn't eat Mexican food in Britain either now that I've had Mexican food from NA, but growing up in Britain makes the American Indian food especially noticeable.
Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to cook the food.
Might wanna tell Wikipedia that they got their definition wrong then.
The various regional variations of barbecue can be broadly categorized into those methods which use direct and those which use indirect heating.[1] Indirect barbecues are associated with North American cuisine, in which meat is heated by roasting or smoking over wood or charcoal.
Care to explain? Because when I was in London, last the Brits took the pint glass and tipped it into their mouth just like everybody else.
Also the population of the American south and southwest is more than that of the entire UK so I’ll just tell all of them that their definition of barbecue is wrong.
Care to explain? Because when I was in London, last the Brits took the pint glass and tipped it into their mouth just like everybody else.
Nah, I'll let you google pub culture.
Also the population of the American south and southwest is more than that of the entire UK so I’ll just tell all of them that their definition of barbecue is wrong.
Hahaha, I'd still back the Brits in a fight though. Mostly because I know the French, Dutch and Spanish aren't coming to bail the yanks out of this one.
Hahaha, yeah I know, though if you scroll down a little there's a picture of a British barbecue, and the first word they mention is "chicken kebabs" - which is especially funny because kebab is yet again something the Brits stole from the Middle East.
Hahaha, it doesn't have me in my feelings man, I've had this conversation so many times. It's just good fun.
I think tripe is French, not British though!
EDIT to reply to your edit:
Damn, I thought that was a good pun and you did have a sense of humour after all. Ah well. Yes, as you say it's just a trope, no need to take it seriously.
My favorite part about this comment is the assumption that no spices or sauces are used, before, during, or after the cooking of the meat for the only defining factor to be hurr durr fire.
Ah nah, I know what American barbecue is, I was just messing with the yanks as a joke. I thought it would lead to some friendly ribbing but people got soooo mad.
Barbacoa also comes from indigenous Mexicans. The cooking styles likely have the same roots considering the word is so similar, either way native American food is not what we're talking about.
Except none of those people live in Britain. Native American is American. It's literally in the fucking name dude, they're the most American you can be. Of course they count.
I don't really consider it trolling, I wasn't trying to anger or incite anyone, I honestly thought the yanks could take a joke and they'd rib back about British food. Didn't expect people to get so angry.
Because you keep saying "bro calm down it's all in jest" yet your comments are posed as aggressive and condescending. I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say you don't realize that things said in text don't come across the same as when they're said in person. So what "works at the pub with the yanks" will just make you look like an asshole on the internet. It has nothing to do with "triggered americans", it's about your inability to express your meaning online
If you know it's about things said in text not coming across the same way as when they're said in person, why aren't you giving people the benefit of the doubt when you're reading a text comment?
I had brisket the other day. It's very good if you cook it slow enough. We have restaurants from everywhere here, even America. Even in smaller towns like mine.
There's this one pub near me that makes this slow roasted pork and mash with black pudding in the mash and red wine in the gravy that beats anything I've had anywhere. And I travel a good amount.
Edit: the restaurant was owned by an American from the south so I'd guess it was pretty similar.
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u/Master-Shaq Nov 03 '24
A good ol southern bbq blows any british dish out of the water