Lots of food talk on here so I thought I'd ask for some recipes and ideas.
What is the essential American eating experience? I've eaten at both Burger King and MacDonalds before anyone suggests that - I'm talking backwoods proper food, I'm talking chilli to die for, I'm even talking Nouveau Cuisine Americain.
We export our crappy fast food because it has a high profit margin, sorry about that.
The essential American eating experience would take weeks, and to do it right you have to visit all the major regions where the food originated to get the "genuine article." American food is extremely diverse, it includes all the indigenous foods, all the immigrants' foods, and the various hybrids of all of the above.
For one book with alot of good versions of "clasically American" dishes, this is an excellent book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0688052827/qid=1114528872/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-1749432-0213652?v=glance&s=books&n=507846Some foods to look into:
New England clam chowder... this one of the major liquid food groups in New England. This is a pretty simple dish, and recipes for it abound. However, the quality all hinges on the freshness of the clams used, hence substitutes outside New England tend to be pretty crappy. I know of no place in the entire state of Texas to get acceptable clam chowder, for instance. If you can't get live clams to make it with, don't bother.
New England features lots of excellent seafood, but having been to England, it isn't THAT different. The emphasis in New England is really good fish prepared in fairly simple ways (bake it, fry it, etc.).
Steaks... I am quite confident that Americans make the best steaks on Earth. Prime beef grilled over a hot fire, at most lightly seasoned and served with a baked potato with every artery-clogging substance available (butter, cheese, sour cream, bacon...) is an impressive meal, and I don't think any other country does it even remotely right. Good steak places are pretty much everywhere in the United States.
This can be reproduced pretty easily with a hot grill, good meat, and the recipes and tips at:
http://www.weber.com/bbq/pub/recipe/category.aspx?c=beefHowever, Prime beef is typically only sold to restaurants, so you typically can't get a 100% reproduction of the best steak houses' results at home.
Hamburgers... the McDonalds hamburger hovers at the bottom of the burger totem pole in America. If burgers were cars, McDonalds would be a Fiat. Burgers are prepared in endless varieties and varying degress of sophistication here, and are often not to be trifled with.
Barbecue... this is meat cooked/smoked over low heat over long periods of time, NOT grilling. Name a meat and it can be barbecued. Sauces and spices vary radically by region, and different regions focus on different meats. Without a proper smoker and alot of experimenting, getting good results yourself is a bit dicey.
Chicken fried steak:
http://www.texascooking.com/features/june2002chickenfriedsteak.htmPizza... our pizza is not the pizza of Italy. It is the product of Italian immigrants producing something alot more interesting. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Southern New England, and anyplace with long-standing Italian immigrant populations will typically have excellent pizzas. Varies by region quite a bit, Chicago-style being a thick pie, New York Style having a thin but flexible crust, Sicilian being a square pizza with a very "crusty" crust, and so forth. Even though it is a superficially simple dish, good pizza is hard to reproduce at home. All large pizza chains are crap.
Chili... there is no fixed recipe for chili. In some regions it has beans, in others beans are forbidden. Most use ground beef, but almost any meat is fair game (including game meat like venison). Alot of it has more or less a tomato base, but even that isn't a constant. Aside from chili powder and/or cumin, some amount of hot peppers for heat, and maybe onions, it is pretty much a free-for-all, as long as the end result is a spicy stew.
Here is just one example, in spite of the beans I've even gotten Texans to admit it is good (although they say it still isn't chili because it has beans). Anasazi beans are specified because they taste good and are low gas; other beans can be used in their place, and as long as you follow the "gas free soak" instructions the results shouldn't be too socially unacceptable.
Chili Recipe
Full Batch
Meat:
2 lb ground sirloin
Vegetables, fresh:
1 sweet yellow onion, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 Jalapeno peppers, seeded & finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 tbsp crushed garlic
Canned & dried goods:
3 cans diced tomatoes
½ cup low sodium/low fat beef broth
½ cup medium Arriba Fire Roasted Red Salsa
1 cup uncooked Anasazi beans
Spices:
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Hot Shot" pepper mix
1 tsp ground chipotle pepper
1 tsp ground ancho pepper
1 tsp Chinese chili garlic paste
1 tsp ground dry mustard
2 packets Sugar in the RawTM
Worcestershire sauce
Salt (to taste)
Miscellaneous:
½ cup Bitburger beer
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
The night before cooking the chili, do the gas free soak.
Bring 5 cups of water to a boil; add 1 cup dry beans. Boil 2-3 minutes, and then cover and set aside overnight. Drain and rinse beans thoroughly before cooking. This will remove 75-90% of the indigestible sugars. Anasazi beans also have much less of these than most beans to start with.
The night before the chili will be served:
Add the beans to a pot with 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Add more water at any time if beans are not covered. Drain well & rinse.
In a large skillet, brown the ground sirloin, garlic, and onions at medium-high heat. Add the olive oil. Reduce heat. Add the chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, and other spices. Stir over low heat for a few minutes, then transfer to the crock pot.
In the crock pot, add the beans, meat and remaining ingredients. Simmer over low heat as long as possible (8+ hours being ideal). Gradually add additional beef broth if the chili gets too thick (this should be unnecessary).
