What is American food?

People have asked me or it has come up in conversation while traveling or living abroad, what defines American food. And I thought about it and all I could say was hamburgers & french fries, hot dogs, spaghetti & meatballs and steak & potatoes. I didn’t really know because I don’t really eat food typically thought to have originated from America. My taste buds prefer a more international mix of flavors. I guess now, in retrospect, I could have also said fried chicken & coleslaw, potato salad, Coca-Cola, Dairy Queen, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, waxy Red Delicious apples & super glossy Florida oranges.

Black bean burger. Don't be jealous!

American food to me is just an amalgamation of food from across the globe. It is food from Germany, Mexico, Spain, France, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, India, Italy and to a much lesser degree food from Africa and Central & South America, but all Americanized to fit American tastes, which tend to be sweeter, saltier, more peanut buttery, more coconutty and fattier than the original.

Sweet potato fries...sooo good!

Having been back in the states now for just more than a week, I have a new definition for American food after being reacquainted with the food I used to eat. Food not easily found in Asia and probably not easily found outside of the West Coast. I don’t know what people in the red states eat other than meat. So, I have recently compiled a mental list of foods that I only associate with being from America even if that is not the case because of my ignorance of being American and assuming other countries don’t eat or have the food I will soon mention.

French toast topped with strawberries & walnuts and vegetarian sausage.

The next time somebody asks me about American food, I will say apricots, Fuji apples, dried cranberries, black-bean burgers & sweet potato fries, oatmeal & brown sugar, baked tofu, thick crust pizza, burritos, brownies, cupcakes, walnuts, almonds & pecans, pancakes, French toast, donuts, baby carrots, celery & peanut butter, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, sunflower seed butter & peach preserve sandwiches, tortillas & cheese and chocolate chip cookies. Not that anyone will understand, but that’s what I’ll say. Well, that’s what I think I’ll say. In reality, because of the difficulty in translation, I’ll probably just say hamburgers, hot dogs and Coke. Yep, that’s what we all eat. Really big portions, three times a day.