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

I just remembered the green cucumber sandwich spread…Benedictine!

And being a Kentucky gal, I’ll have to toss these into the stewpot…

Kentucky Hot Brown - created at the Brown Hotel in downtown Louisville in 1926.
Appalachian Spoonbread
Kentucky Burgoo
Kentucky Derby Pie
Rolled Oysters

I don’t eat these things anymore, but man I’m hungry now!

Gilly Burke wrote:....and "biscuits" are entirely different things either side of the pond.

In Uk we would  call what you call a 'biscuit' a ' scone".

https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/british-scones/

A 'biscuit' here is  more this kind of thing:

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/oct/18/crumbs-a-history-of-biscuits-in-15-fantastic-facts-from-flatulence-cure-to-phenomenal-fuel

Our biscuits are very soft, light not at all sweet, and typically eaten with a generous portion of butter, often with the addition of honey, white gravy, jelly, or jam - or as a breakfast sandwich. Scones, in my experience, tend to be firmer, more dense, to hold up to clotted cream and tea. My mil was Scottish, spoke in a heavy brogue, and informed me (gently, but in no uncertain terms) that "those soft things were lovely, but certainly NOT a scone!", when I made her some biscuits. She said it, as she reached for another one, and explained the difference. I was glad she had room in her palate, to appreciate both! I do took, now. Yum!

You can never go wrong with Rocky Mountain Oysters...

Before I was hired my manager used to take visitors from Asia and Europe to Bruce's Bar in Severance, CO for this 'treat'. Fortunately, I'm still as curious about them as I ever was.

A number of people have included cheddar cheese in or on various foods.  Cheddar cheese originated in England, so  probably wouldn't impress any European visitors as "American" food.  When I was stationed in Germany back in the 1970's, two things were totally foreign to Germans--sweet corn on the cob with butter and salt and American ice cream.  To them corn was only for livestock, but once I convinced my landlady to try some of the Illini Chief that I had grown in her backyard, she reluctantly took a tiny bite out of an ear I'd buttered for her.  She was an instant convert who happily traded her leeks and spargle for my sweet corn every summer.  The ice cream was a hit with everyone.  All they had was Italian Ice (like eating a thawed popsicle) and gelato (think Creamsicle in multi flavors).  The creamy richness of our ice cream was ambrosia to them.

Mountain Oysters   (don't tell them what they are before they eat these)    :-)
Huckleberries (in a pie)
Indiana's famous 'Sugar Cream Pie'
Fried Green Tomatoes

This is such a fun thread!
If anyone would like to see what's "American" according to Wikipedia's contributors, this link to American cuisine leads to a wonderful series of ideas and photos.

I grew up in southern AZ, so it's Mexican for me
Tortilla soup
Taco salad
Salpicon tostados
machaca
calabasitas
chilequiles

Fresh fried corn tortilla chips are the best if you can get good thin organic corn tortillas
I can send recipes if interested

what a great idea

Yes Robin I was thinking Grits too!

An Elvis favourite deep fried peanut butter banana & honey sandwich! Or maybe that's a thing if you like The King!!

Andrea that sounds very Canadian to me

Ah, see what you mean about uk scones and us biscuits..

https://feastgloriousfeast.com/breakfast-biscuits/

Gilly Burke wrote:There are certainly fruits and vegetables that are available in us that are not available in uk.

I'm curious what fruits and vegetables are not readily available in the UK.

The adult version of the Rocky Mountain Oyster, being harvested from the testicles of adult cattle, goes by the generic name "Bull Fries". Much more exciting to eat, as the slices are quite large and obviously come from a large gland.

Ice cream sodas and malts (chocolate?).  

buffalo wings pizza ( at a place called Zetti's)
Oh I miss them so much!

I went to UB for two years, We were eating buffalo wings 5 days of a week, detoxing in the remaining two.

Breakfast burritos and breakfast tacos, complete with a selection of hot sauces, salsa, fresh pico de gallo. I’m in Texas, so that’s a perfect breakfast for me.
What part of the US are you in? If you’re up north, you’re not going to have access to gator tail (which I highly recommend if you can get it). No matter what you serve, let them know that’s what you eat in *your* region, and the rest of the US is basically a collection of different countries as far as local food culture goes. For instance, my chili (Texas style) is majorly different from the chili my grandma used to make (she was from Michigan). They’re basically different food groups. For home cooking, there are regional styles, not American style. Make a New Yorker angry by serving him Chicago pizza. Make a Texan cry by serving him sauce on spaghetti and calling it chili. New Mexicans serve enchiladas “Christmas style” but go across the border east or west and hardly anyone knows what that means. It’s all good, and it’s all American, but just make sure your guests know it’s not what they’re going to get if they drive in any direction for a few hundred miles.  

Ramps and fried potatoes
Yoder's Scrapple.
Fiddle Head fern salad
Groundhog stew
Sassafras and or birch bark tea

Most Europeans have never tried root beer. However, they think it tastes like medicine and cannot believe anyone would drink it as a soft drink.

iced tea

Nopales (cactus pads) prepared any way.  Also the fruit, prickly pear fruit.

But those may not be readily accessible in Missoula!  I like the huckleberry suggestion. So good.

My very British husband had never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, so I made him one. Meh.  Then I grilled it in butter for him, and he swooned. He had also never had a fresh from the garden tomato, sliced, salted, and peppered, with a healthy slathering of Duke's mayo on good white bread. Simple tomato sandwich of my childhood. He loved it. Cheese grits with eggs were another big hit, as were pintos served with creamy vinegary, peppery cole slaw, also made with Duke's mayo, and buttermilk corn bread crispy from a cast iron skillet. He can put away the hot buttermilk biscuits with cream gravy, too. On the other hand, I now enjoy proper ginger parkin made with stout and black treacle with a good strong cuppa (milk in first), a stodgy pork pie (magically made without pork, as we are vegetarians) and a decent pint, baked beans on toast, darkly bitter marmalade on thick slices of buttered toast, and ice cream with jelly (cubes of jello) mixed in!

I'd like to try some American fruit and veg, Particularly ones that are not available commercially here. For example Pawpaws, Saskatoon, Cactus, fiddleheads, ramps, camas,

Hominy or nixalated corn sounds interesting, and yes pretty much unheard of here. I'd also like to try some authentic Mexican and native American foods.

I expect most of the stuff I think I've had of 'American' foods are actually nothing like they would be on that side of the pond, although my parents did spend a few years Stateside before I was born. What you call a "grilled" sandwich I think I would call "fried" and yes they are rather good, we tend to make toasted cheese sandwiches which have one less layer of fat....

Nancy, try your toasted cheese sandwich grilled in a light coating of Mayo and put strawberry jam on the inside with the cheese. Oooooooh my.

Any type of elk meat. Deer as well. I think wild animals are rare there, even if there are theoretically deer native to that land.
Steelhead. Trout?
Paw paws, American persimmons, black berries?
The best type of American food is called Mexican food. Probably not available to a lot of Brits. I don't think a lot of Mexicans live there.
Camas.
Salmon berries, thimble berries.  Yes, all kinds of huckleberries, including Paul's favorite. My favorite kind too.
Sauerkraut. Many Brits go: "What is this?"
Although horseradish is native to Eurasia, it is hardly eaten there. Way more here.
An elegant food I grew up with called Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich.
Collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens.
Pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie.
Mashed potatoes?

John S
PDX OR

Gilly Burke wrote:iced tea

And its southern relative, Sweet Tea.

Grits are very similar to Polenta so while the name might be different, the texture is similar. A guy I worked with talked about having polenta parties when he was growing up but I think you could substitute grits:

1. Get a big group of family and/or friends together.
2. Scrub a large counter or table clean.
3. Randomly place treats like olives, peppers, veggies, grilled meats, sausage, bacon - whatever you really enjoy - on the counter.
4. Pour a large pot of polenta on the counter in a thin layer surrounding all the treats.
5. Give everyone a fork.
6. You can have any treat you want, but you have to eat all the polenta from the edge to the treat. If someone beats you to the treat you wanted, redirect to another one.

He said things could become rather competitive ;-) I suspect this is something your visitors have never experienced.

I'd look at your native plants (and animals + fungi). We don't get sassafras over here. A few people grow Apios, tomatillo, fiddleheads, andean tubers, huckleberry, but not many. Corn smut might be a treat!

Philly Cheese steaks

Probably not available in Montana, but crabs in the shell with bay seasoning. Oh man oh man. That's the Chesapeake in a crabshell!

Jenny Wright wrote:

Gilly Burke wrote:There are certainly fruits and vegetables that are available in us that are not available in uk.

I'm curious what fruits and vegetables are not readily available in the UK.

Pumpkin is one

Boston Baked Beans
Northern (sweet) & Southern (savory) corn bread
Maple bacon
'Burnt ends'
Beanie-weenies

Sharp cheddar Mac n cheese with onions and black pepper?

paul wheaton wrote:We have somebody here from england.  And we have had people here from all over the world before - but somehow I got a bee in my bonnet about what foods have never been tried.  Here is the list I have so far ...

s'mores
BBQ
corn bread
pecan pie
key lime pie
thanksgiving meal
chicken fried steak
grilled cheese sandwich
fried chicken
hot dog
biscuits and gravy
popcorn
the banana split
corn dogs
root beer float
pumpkin pie

And something a bit regional

   huckleberry pie

And something that is a bit Missoula

   veera donuts

Any other suggestions?

Mike Barkley wrote:Hominy is nixalated corn. A process of soaking corn in lye. Grits are made by grinding that.

That cucumber sauce sounds similar to tzatziki which is a mediterranean sauce.

Close, but no cigar.  You're right about hominy, but the nixtamalized corn is dried and ground to make masa harina.  Once you have that, you can make corn tortillas among other things.

Traditionally, grits were made from prepared, then dried hominy that was ground.  But today it's made from plain old dried corn, but not sweet corn -- usually, field corn or a corn called 'dent.' Both are partially de-germed, dried, and ground to make grits and polenta.  Grits and polenta are pretty much the same thing -- maybe the polenta is ground finer.

Cornmeal on the other hand is a courser grind and is whole grain.  Cornmeal is also denser than grits/polenta when it cooks up, but frankly, this is splitting hairs for me. I use them both interchangeably.

Tzatziki is made from cukes that have been cut, basically anyway you want as long as you can fit the results in your mouth comfortably. I've seen it with skin on and skin off.  Sometimes, the preparer will cut, salt and drain the cukes, or scoop all the seeds and pulp out of the center, or both. I've seed it shredded, julienned, thin and thick-sliced, diced and minced -- everything except ground. In any event, there is no sour cream. Instead, plain or Greek yogurt is used.  Ingredients:  plain or Greek yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, olive oil, salt, sometimes lemon juice, dill, mint, or parsley. I'm a big fan of plain yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, lemon juice if you want it more acidic.

I never buy Greek yogurt.  I just buy the plain yogurt and if I want it thicker, I put it in a paper coffee strainer (or a patch of old muslin or cheesecloth) and let the water drain out. If you're serious about this, you can save the yogurt water and replace some of the liquids in muffins or pancakes/wafles to make them more savory.  It's great in my corn muffins -- where I already omit the sugar.

Thanks to Bob's Red Mill site for the deep dive. https://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/healthy-living/what-is-it-wednesday-corn-gritspolenta/

P.S. My Polish grammie made cucumbers and sour cream with a bit of white vinegar to thin it. She'd thinly sliced the cukes, skin on, rinse and salt them, and let them sit to extract some of the moisture from them. Then rinse them again and add the sour cream and vinegar to taste. S&P of course. She served it as a side or salad.

PBJ sandwich.
(Peanut butter and jelly)
Definitely Americans are the only ones who eat this.
Mexican foods if you are on the West Coast.
Lobster and clams if you are in Maine.
I am from New Zealand (very British foods) and taught in America for 7 years. These were all unique foods to me.
If they are from England I would go with something from the Jewish cuisine, especially if you are West Coast, or NY city. A Reuben? Matzo balls soup?
Also Bagels are sooooo American.
Personally I regard PBJ as an amusing form of insanity.
I would only give then biscuits and gravy if you really, really do not like them, and they have insulted your grandmother. The British make scones with jam and cream and do it well. They do not pour gravy over scone batter. When they want to do something like this they make Yorkshire pudding, and they do this really, really well. So please do not do this to them.
sorry if I have misspelled anything.

Carla Burke wrote:

Jenny Wright wrote:

Gilly Burke wrote:There are certainly fruits and vegetables that are available in us that are not available in uk.

I'm curious what fruits and vegetables are not readily available in the UK.

Pumpkin is one

Huckleberries - never seen one

Just a short reply as I don't want to get into trouble ;-)
Europe is a continent with vastly different cuisines. Some people are adamant that the British one should not even be called cuisine, lol.
Trout, sauerkraut and horseradish are eaten very commonly here (trout is of European descent and was introduced into the US).

Other things that were mentioned like sweet corn on the cob, chocolate chips cookies, pumpkin and peanut butter can be found in most supermarkets and the cookies are prepared at home by many families.

I would be most curious about native food, like nopales, something with chipotle, local berries, meat like bison etc.
And good Mexican food is hard to get. On the other hand, we have very authentic Italian cuisine so most Germans would be skeptical to eat something like deep dish pizza or spaghetti Alfredo or with meatballs.

In any case I guess the kind of people you attract will be open-minded and enjoy anything prepared with love! Let us know how things work out!

boysen berries and tayberries are not available generally in uk. just grown by permies

Seven layer dip with tortilla chips makes a good light and cold meal.

Breakfast tacos are cheap quick and easy even easy to make ahead of time and then reheat

Migas is even easier just remember to add the fried tortilla towards the very end if you want a little crunch.

Pecans are southern native and works just as well to add flavor and crunch to a salad or as a savory ingredient instead of only in a pie.

Not that long ago one of the british judges on the cooking shows my sister watches was talking about how casseroles were a particularly American food.  It has stuck with me because I still can't figure out what made them stand out to him as something unique. For the most part I always assume any recipe we eat here probably traveled here from another country.  This thread has been a bit of a learning experience to me.

persimmon pudding
cobb salad
macaroni and cheese
cubano
dagwood
West Virginia dogs (hot dogs with mustard, onions, chili and cole slaw)
cheese grits
chicken and waffles
crawfish
crab cakes
king cake
jambalaya
cornbread
fried green tomatoes
hot brown
beignets
lobster roll
rolled oysters
clam chowder
fried okra
gumbo
Philly cheesesteak
Smithfield ham (even though Smithfield is now Chinese-owned)
green bean caserole
tuna caserole
burgoo
sugar cream pie
derby pie
country-fried steak
fritters
fried pies
root beer
sarsaparilla
corn smut
green chile stew
frybread
scrapple
po boy sandwich
muffaletta
pemmican
biscuits
biscuits and gravy
frito pie
black walnuts
hickory nuts
pecans
pecan pie
sweet potato pie
pawpaw ice cream
key lime pie
sourdough
buffalo wings
buckeyes
modjeskas
bourbon balls
bourbon barrel beer
bourbon fudge
pimiento spread
mint julep
various BBQs
Tex Mex
New Mexican cuisine
Green or Red? <grin>

Grant Holle wrote:I just noticed "root beer float" in the first list. I can't speak for Brits, but my French in-laws (and my wife) hate root beer. Apparently it reminds them of a nasty medicine they took as kids.

The Colombian side of the family hates root beer. They said it tastes like toothpaste. I understand there have been root beer flavored toothpastes. I've never seen them. But they have mint in toothpastes yet mint is pretty much a food staple all over the place. Some have come around when given floats on extremely hot days.

...and whatever the hell this is...

https://www.jonessoda.com/pages/turkey-and-gravy

John Suavecito wrote:
The best type of American food is called Mexican food.

Haha! Yes!!! This is another vote for Mexican. My husband is from Belfast and our biggest successes with family and friends visiting from over the pond (both Ireland and UK) have always been Mexican food. My experience is that a lot of people from UK have a taste for spice because they're used to eating a lot of amazing Indian food. Even for those who aren't, it can be milded down. For example, easy baked (Americanized) green enchiladas were a huge hit and ingredients can be found in any part of the country.
-Fry a bunch of corn tortillas.  -Make a mixture of condensed mushroom soup, sour cream, canned green chiles,  and diced onion (I just dump stuff in... no need to worry about measuring). Layer tortillas, mixture, and shredded cheese in a casserole and bake at typical casserole temps/times until bubbly and a little crunchy on top. So easy and UK people ask for the recipe. We're vegetarian, but meat-eaters can absolutely level up by the addition of shredded chicken. Also, if you're in a place where you can get them, always opt for fresh roasted green chiles, which are far superior.

Other hit Mexican food- tacos (wayyyyy better if you fry your own shells, and a major level up if you use something like pot roast to fill them), homemade salsa, guacamole, sopapillas, chile con carne (no, it's not the same as chili, and it doesn't use ground beef or beans for cryin' out loud!), and even nachos, especially with homemade white queso sauce. Chiles rellenos are amazing but I have seen soooo many frankensteinish recipes that I am loathe to recommend them unless you live in a place where they are part of the culture (I'm assuming this is not Montana). Don't forget tres leches cake.  

And, from the midwest....
Horseshoes, of course. Can't get any more Midwestern than that.  And please include a ton of old-church-lady casseroles.  Like tater tot casserole, green bean casserole, etc. And things like jello/pretzel salad for dessert.  Apples cored and stuffed with a mixture similar to brown betty topping and drizzled with caramel sauce then baked.

Heading southward... my Texan relatives would never have a family gathering without creamed corn casserole and sweet sun tea.

Corn on the cob roasted in the husk.
Potatoes stuck into the coals of a campfire then eaten with butter and salt. Mmmmmmmm.