What are some American foods that a European might have never tasted?

Another childhood memory is peanut butter and banana sandwiches that maybe Europeans have not had.

I learned that one of Elvis Presley's favorite foods is peanut butter, banana, and bacon.

I have not had that one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter,_banana_and_bacon_sandwich

I had never heard of this one until I read the Wikipedia article above:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool%27s_Gold_Loaf

We were never lucky enough to taste a huckleberry pie - which is supposed to be fabulous.
The worst things we  ever tasted in the USA are:
Boston Clam Chowder - tasteless, watery and could not find any clams.  Actually bought in Boston at the markets
Mac 'n cheese - OMG a slimy square of pasta and plastic cheese with a plastic grilled top.  No added salt or spices.
Coffee and Tea with whitener or creamer
Reconstituted mince sold as steak.

But got some great seafood, particularly in Washington DC at the river.  And lobsters in Florida wow

Sharon Goodenough wrote:"Cincinnati Chili" aka Skyline Chili which is chili on top of spaghetti noodles (a 2-way), add grated cheddar on top for a 3-way, onions or kidney beans under the cheese for a 4-way, onions AND kidney beans for a 5-way. Don't forget the oyster crackers and hot sauce!
The ground beef in the chili is boiled instead of browned, giving the chili a fine-grained texture, and the chili has notes of cinnamon and chocolate because...there's cinnamon and cocoa in it! Oh yeah! I almost forgot! A coney! Hot dog bun with chili, onions and cheese and a little mustard on the bun.
It's a Cincinnati classic!

LOL, an x-girlfriend was from ''Cinci-tucky' and her friend's father owned a Skyline...the secret ingredient is....chocolate. Seriously, I've had it and it just tastes like what it is, kinda weird IMO, but to each their own.

I was going to add just regular ole' Yankee Chili ( w/ beans ) to the list. When I lived in Texas my boss gave me his Chili recipe and I asked, what beans he uses, and he looked at me like I just grew a third eye in my forehead.

I currently make my own vegan chili w/ TSP, homemade chili spice and plenty of hot peppers from the garden, I also make a green TSP "chicken" chili w/ tomatillos instead of the reds and have about three other variation of chili where I often put posole'/ hominy corn and or mole' into it.

Oh, one other addition: Rocky Mountain Oysters!

Of course America (North-America) is a continent and probably people in one part have totally different dishes than in other parts. And that's the same in Europe ... maybe there's even more difference!

Here in my part of Italy I must say that guacamole, peanut butter, marshmallow fluff and maple syrup are things that people have heard of but never ventured to try.

Other items are also sushi and most Asian cuisine. Also corn on the cob.

Anne Miller wrote:When I was a kid I went to visit my grandparents every summer.

Something my aunt fixed me while I was there was a carrot and raisin sandwich.

I bet not many Europeans have had a carrot and raisin sandwich and probably not many Americans, either.

Definitely trying this!

For lunch today, I made cornbread dressing to go with some turkey that I took out of the freezer.

Then I thought, I bet not many Europeans have had cornbread salad:

https://permies.com/t/192645/good-Cornbread-Salad-recipe

James Renzi wrote:Here in my part of Italy I must say that guacamole, peanut butter, marshmallow fluff and maple syrup are things that people have heard of but never ventured to try.

Other items are also sushi and most Asian cuisine. Also corn on the cob.

If you can eat real Italian style, why would you want anything else!?

I think the only ones of these I haven't had is real sushi and marshmallow fluff. I could probably have found sushi in Birmingham when we lived near there, and I stock the dry ingredients in my shop here. Marshmallow fluff? Really for kids I suppose? I wouldn't call that food, unless it is not what I suppose it to be.
Guacamole I didn't come across until I was a student in London, the same with curries (my mum doesn't like the smell) although I'm not sure if British curries count as Asian LOL. Chinese is the other Asian cuisine commonly available, albeit highly modified for western palates no doubt. I remember shucking sweetcorn out of the husks as a child (making the silk into blond wigs :) ) bought from a local farm shop. My Mum was pretty adventurous in retrospect.; my parents spent a couple of years in the US in the 1960s before I was born, which may have influenced them somewhat. Growing their own food meant I didn't realise how unusual yellow courgettes (zucchini) and patty pan squash were then.

Timothy Norton wrote:

Nancy Reading wrote:
What's the difference between American goulash and hungarian goulash?

American Goulash

Credit to Spend With Pennies
Hungarian Goulash

Credit to The Recipe Critic.

Hungarian Goulash is more like an actual stew. American Goulash is the weirdest combination of elbow macaroni, ground beef, and tomato.

I never liked (American) Goulash but my grandparents would make it ALL THE TIME. I ate what I was served and was thankful for it haha.

I don't want to be pedantic, but I will

Hungarian goulash (gulyas) is a soup. I think what you have pictured is closer to a pörkölt which is a stew.

Christopher Weeks wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:American Goulash is the weirdest combination of elbow macaroni, ground beef, and tomato.

FWIW, I've never heard of that. But it looks and sounds sort of like Chili Mac.

ETA: I was wondering if this was a local/regional thing (I've lived several years or more in southern California, the Mid-Atlantic, and around the Midwest, and I'm into food, but didn't know about this 'American' dish) but the Wikipedia article makes it sound like a midwestern thing. It didn't exist in my circles in Missouri, Illinois, or Minnesota (around which I've lived, aside from five years out east, since 1979), but it's clearly a well-documented phenomenon, not just something they happened to serve at Tim's church or whatever.

I saw Timothy's "American Goulash" picture and said "What?! That's American Chop Suey. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_chop_suey Which is apparently the New England version... (beef, tomato, bell pepper, onion, elbow macaroni) I never knew it as anything else!
One of my top ten favorite comfort foods, which bring childhood memories flooding back. I would get scolded for "sampling" the sauce as it simmered on the stovetop all afternoon. I can truly eat unhealthy amounts of the stuff!

I saw Timothy's "American Goulash" picture and said "What?! That's American Chop Suey. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_chop_suey Which is apparently the New England version... (beef, tomato, bell pepper, onion, elbow macaroni) I never knew it as anything else!
One of my top ten favorite comfort foods, which bring childhood memories flooding back. I would get scolded for "sampling" the sauce as it simmered on the stovetop all afternoon. I can truly eat unhealthy amounts of the stuff!

My elementary school served something similar that they called Johnny Marzetti. A quick Google search suggests that's a Midwestern dish (I grew up in Montana).

This is a hyper-local one but Melba sauce.

Melba sauce is a fruity raspberry sauce that is exclusively found around here as a condiment to dip mozzarella sticks into. It's great, just trust me.

Whoopie pies!  (Maine or PA Dutch, it doesn't matter.)  They're like two muffin tops made of cake (usually chocolate) with a thick layer of icing between them.

Also seconding shoofly Pie (wet bottom, of course) and scrapple (fried, served with maple syrup).  

If you want to punish somebody, souse (closest to German Sülze). Or cup cheese, if you hate them more than parking tickets.

Other things popular in and around Eastern PA:
Red Beet Eggs (hard boiled eggs pickled in the juice from a jar of pickled beets)
Dandelion greens (or lettuce) with hot bacon dressing
Fastnacts (which are just potato donuts fried in lard more or less, eaten before lent)
Potato candy (mashed potato mixed with confectioner's sugar and sometimes coconut, rolled in coconut, sugar, or cocoa powder; I've seen a lot of variation)  
Funny cake (cake batter baked in a pie shell with a chocolate sauce poured on top; the sauce sinks and makes a layer at the bottom)
Lebanon bologna is like a summer sausage, but so much better (tangy and sweet, made from beef hearts).  
Pierogies are from Eastern Europe, but they're really popular here and I know a lot of people from Down South or Out West who've never had one.
Halupki and Halushki, also both Eastern European.  
Chicken Pot Pie, which is actually a soup.
Dried sweet corn, stewed in milk (Cope's is the big brand, but lots of Amish and Mennonites still dry their own)
Pork Roll, which is kind of like Spam but tangier, but comes in big logs and is sliced like lunchmeat, then fried and served on a bun with American cheese.
Hot Bologna is the kind of meat mix you'd use in ring bologna, but thinner (like sausage), cooked rather than smoked, then pickled in a spicy vinegar solution.
Pig Stomach: kind of like a haggis, it's mainly cabbage, sausage, and potatoes (sometimes an apple) stuffed into a cleaned pig's stomach and baked for a couple hours.

Timothy Norton wrote:This is a hyper-local one but Melba sauce.

Melba sauce is a fruity raspberry sauce that is exclusively found around here as a condiment to dip mozzarella sticks into. It's great, just trust me.

Raspberry, huh? I would have thought peach.

I'm pretty open to trying stuff, yet Potato candy makes me pause....
 (pause)
Yeah, I'd try it!  Has anyone here had it?

Susan Mené wrote: I'm pretty open to trying stuff, yet Potato candy makes me pause....
 (pause)
Yeah, I'd try it!  Has anyone here had it?

I just realized I was mashing up two different types of candy into one.  Irish Potato candy is the one with coconut and rolled in cocoa powder; it doesn't have mashed potato in it.  PA Dutch Potato candy is mashed potatoes and sugar, mixed into a dough and rolled out, then covered with peanut butter, rolled into a log, and cut into bite sized pieces.

Hell of a Dutchman I am, if I couldn't even remember that.  (To be fair, I grew up eating both and I haven't had it in 25+ years)

Melba sauce originated in the 1890s as a dessert sauce created by French chef Auguste Escoffier.
It was named after Australian opera singer Nellie Melba.
How it originated
Escoffier created the sauce to honor Melba while working at the Savoy Hotel in London.

Susan Mené wrote: I'm pretty open to trying stuff, yet Potato candy makes me pause....
 (pause)
Yeah, I'd try it!  Has anyone here had it?

I have. It's actually pretty yummy, and I'll occasionally crave it. The predominant flavor is peanut butter, but how strong it is depends on how thick the peanut butter layer is. Annnnnd, now I want some, and we're out of peanut butter, lol.

Molly Kay wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:This is a hyper-local one but Melba sauce.

Melba sauce is a fruity raspberry sauce that is exclusively found around here as a condiment to dip mozzarella sticks into. It's great, just trust me.

Raspberry, huh? I would have thought peach.

Raspberry is right. This is the definition of Peach Melba:
"Peach Melba (French: pêche Melba, pronounced [pɛʃ mɛlba]) is a dessert of peaches and raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream. It was invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London, to honour the Australian soprano Nellie Melba."

S Tonin wrote:...
I just realized I was mashing up two different types of candy into one.  Irish Potato candy is the one with coconut and rolled in cocoa powder; it doesn't have mashed potato in it.  PA Dutch Potato candy is mashed potatoes and sugar, mixed into a dough and rolled out, then covered with peanut butter, rolled into a log, and cut into bite sized pieces.

Hell of a Dutchman I am, if I couldn't even remember that.  (To be fair, I grew up eating both and I haven't had it in 25+ years)

Probably the Dutch who migrated to America took recipes with them that did not stay here in the Netherlands*. I never heard of candies made with mashed potatoes.
*but often 'Dutch' means 'Deutsch', that is German.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Probably the Dutch who migrated to America took recipes with them that did not stay here in the Netherlands*. I never heard of candies made with mashed potatoes.
*but often 'Dutch' means 'Deutsch', that is German.

Pennsylvania Dutch is a bastardization of Deutsch.  Various groups have pushed to shift the name to Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania Deitsch (which is just "Deutsch," but in the PA Dutch language), but it never seems to stick.  I was raised calling it Dutch, so it's part of my identity, hence calling myself a Dutchman (which I used in a gender neutral way because there are slightly different cultural connotations to Dutchwoman that didn't fit what I was saying).

And to add another layer of confusion, The Amish and Mennonites are often referred to as the Pennsylvania Dutch because they speak the language, but they're actually primarily of Swiss extraction.

All this to say sorry, I should have been clearer, or at least not assumed everyone would know as much about the culture as someone who lives in the very geographically small area where it's still relevant.

Also, I think the recipe with peanut butter dates back to the 1930s/ the Great Depression, so it's most likely a wholly American invention.

S Tonin wrote:PA Dutch Potato candy is mashed potatoes and sugar, mixed into a dough and rolled out, then covered with peanut butter, rolled into a log, and cut into bite sized pieces.

Hell of a Dutchman I am, if I couldn't even remember that.  (To be fair, I grew up eating both and I haven't had it in 25+ years)

Pennsylvania Dutch isn't really Dutch. It's a corruption/misunderstanding/loose translation of Deutsch. So you're good.

Chicory coffee, fried bluegill fillets, antelope tenderloin.  

Nancy Reading wrote:

Christopher Weeks wrote:Can you get Manoomin/wild rice in Europe?

We can in UK. It is pretty expensive though, so I have only had it once. I'd love to try growing it here, but of cousre the seed needs to be fresh/wet to germinate.

I'd bet every bit of it is cultivated "wild" rice.  I think most wild rice in the US is cultivated as well.  Getting real wild rice that grew on a lake or river is trickier.

From Wikipedia
'The Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann.
Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish.'

Carla Burke wrote:

Susan Mené wrote: I'm pretty open to trying stuff, yet Potato candy makes me pause....
 (pause)
Yeah, I'd try it!  Has anyone here had it?

I have. It's actually pretty yummy, and I'll occasionally crave it. The predominant flavor is peanut butter, but how strong it is depends on how thick the peanut butter layer is. Annnnnd, now I want some, and we're out of peanut butter, lol.

Hahaha, that's a bummer!
I'd have to use sunflower seed butter, but I'll look up a recipe and try it

Anne Miller wrote:For lunch today, I made cornbread dressing to go with some turkey that I took out of the freezer.

Then I thought, I bet not many Europeans have had cornbread salad:

https://permies.com/t/192645/good-Cornbread-Salad-recipe

Cornbread salad is a favorite of mine, too. In fact, I made it as one of the sides, for our wedding - and was sad, when there were no leftovers.

John C Daley wrote:From Wikipedia
'The Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann.
Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish.'

It seems the Mennonites were followers of a man named Menno Simons, who really was from the Netherlands (from Frysland, which is a province of the Netherlands).