People are pretty caught up at approximately any given moment about some fucked up thing happening in the US/on behalf of the US government that people forget that we do, in fact, have a bunch of cultural/political things that are cool and good and rare/uniqe. Furthermore, lots of critiques of American culture are made by Europeans who are entirely too high on their own supply. My contrarianism is in full go mode right now so I'm going to chost about how The US Is Cool And Europeans Have No Right To Throw Stones, because I'm tired of Americans being doomers and I'm tired of Europeans being smug.
Burgers
Dude burgers are so fuckin good man. The average exported fast food burger is selling that shit short, a good burger that someone's dad just pulled off the grill is possibly the greatest of the basic hot sandwiches.
Irish Pubs
The food at American Irish Pubs is only somewhat recognizable as Irish. Like Chinese food, it has adapted to its environment. The Fish & Chips sometimes comes with like, house-made American style potato chips. But goddamn it's usually tasty as hell. An unusually high percentage of them have live Irish folk music at least one night a week. Like solidly half of em. It kicks ass
Regional Cuisine
Regional American Cuisine generally kicks ass. Here are some suggestions:
- If you're ever in DC, get yourself a half smoke.
- While you're at it get some Vietnamese and Ethiopian and Nigerian food in DC too.
- Regional pizza styles are almost always worth it.
- Pittsburgh is a burger city. Get yourself a good burger or five.
- Pittsburgh also has great Taiwanese food, take advantage of this while you're there.
- I actually don't like sharp cheeses, but whenever I visit Wisconsin with family I'm told that the cheese isn't just hype and you should eat as much Cheddar as possible.
- The Mid-Atlantic (the part of the east coast between Baltimore and NYC, inclusive) has great diners. Especially New Jersey, for some reason. You have not lived until you've purchased breakfast food at 2am off of an inexplicably long menu at a restaurant that only accepts cash.
- If you are in any part of the Barbeque Zone and you eat meat at all it's a requirement to get some in every city you visit, it's wildly different even within states. (That's Florida, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, The Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kentucky.)
- Louisiana has multiple state-specific culinary traditions, but honestly just get as much crawfish as you can
St. Louis Food
Ok so this one is my home city. I'm biased as fuck. Man I miss St. Louis food so much.
- Toasted Ravioli: It's beef ravioli but fried with herby breading. You can get fried ravioli in a lot of states but imo most of them overdo the fried. It's lightly battered, not a wad of bread around what is nominally ravioli. Trust me if you've been getting fried ravioli elsewhere in the US you are getting a different dish that's not as good
- Gooey butter cake/cookies: dude how do I even describe these. They're cookies/cake made out of boxed yellow cake batter with a bunch of cream cheese mixed in. They're bright yellow and gooey even when fully baked. Gooey butter cake is kinda cookie-ish, the cookies are cake-ish, they're all good. I miss them every day.
- Fried rice at Chinese takeout places in St. Louis is almost always like, dark dark brown with dark soy. Good shit.
- The St. Paul Sandwich: a staple of St. Louis Chinese food. Egg Foo Young patty, mayo, pickles, white onions, sometimes shrimp. Served between two slices of white bread. Not my thing but I'm proud of it nonetheless.
- Frozen Custard: You like... can get frozen custard outside of Missouri, but it's just not as good. Not even fucking close. The canonical St. Louis frozen custard is Ted Drewes. Get the lime concrete. Trust me, you will wish lime frozen custard replaced all other ice cream.
- Slingers: Hash browns, 2 eggs, and burger pattty smotherd with cheese and chili. Every diner serves em.
- St. Louis style pizza: The only part of St. Louis food that it's ok to openly mock. The crust is cracker-thin (ok, good start), it uses a sweet tomato sauce (ok, cool, different flavor pallette than most pizza), it's cut in squares from a round pizza, and it uses Provel Cheese. Provel is a St. Louis specific nightmare frankencheese made of Cheddar, Provelone, and Swiss. It was designed for its low melting point and clean bite. It was not designed for taste. It's fucking nasty imo, but about half of St. Louisans swear by it so a delicacy it remains. If you must try it, local chain Imo's is the canonical example.
- Fitz's Soda: Local craft soda company that makes the good shit. Cardinal Cream and Hip-Hop Pop are the best flavors. Do not bother with the Fitz's restaurant, just get a custom crate of soda and go to Nudo House or Three Kings right down the street.
- Restaurant rec: Pi Pizza. Named both for pie, the food, and pi, our area code (314). The best Chicago-style pizza in the country. If you have been to their location in DC, do not be fooled, it's so much better in its home turf. EDIT: NOOOOO ITS PERMANENTLY CLOSED
- Replacement Pizza Rec: Katie's Pizza & Pasta. Dude its good brick oven pizzas with fancey toppings but also really fucking good pasta. Like seriously I know brick oven pizza places with fancy toppings are a dime a dozen in the US these days but Katie's is easily the best.
- Restaurant Recs: Mai Lee and Nudo House. Two restaurants owned by the same people. The former is a really solid Vietnamese place with the best spring rolls and Vietnamese iced coffee I've ever had. The latter is a ramen place where you can get Nduja sausage in your ramen.
- Restaurant Recs: if you want Barbeque, there's Salt & Smoke and Sugarfire. Both great. Sugarfire in particular makes a burger out of brisket meat and it's so, so, so fucking good.
- Restaurant Rec: Chong Wah. My favorite St. Louis Chinese takeout place. I get ham fried rice every time. They've also got a St. Paul that my dad likes.
- Brewere Rec: Schlafly. Yes, the same Schlafly family as Phillys Schlafly. Thankfully last I checked the beer Schlaflys and the puritanical Shchlaflys hated each other (I went to the same high school as them but didn't know them very well, so my access to the family drama is very very limited).
