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More Cuisines American |
 
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An insightful guide to by an established authority
Click their names to jump to their locations on this page.
Midwest Farm Cuisine
The Midwest is the breadbasket of America, particularly for wheat, corn and soybeans. Its farm cooking is simple and lightly seasoned. And, it is served family style in copious quantities to fuel work-intensive farmers. Tables are laden with fried or stewed chicken, pork chops, meat loafs, pot roasts, mashed potatoes, fresh vegetables, and home-baked apple pies.
Cooking plays a major cultural role. Friends and neighbors gather for the legendary Midwest rural pot-lucks, church suppers, and state fair food-judging contests.
Native American Cuisine
The cuisine of the American Indians was close to nature.
The fare varied according to a tribe's individual culture and food resources.
Most Native American diets relied heavily on meat. The Indians relished wild turkey, deer, squirrel, bear and many other kinds of game. The flesh and fat of game animals, pounded with berries, made Pemmican, a nutritious long-keeping food.
The diet of the Plains Indians, and their culture as a whole, centered on the buffalo. They ate the meat, clothed themselves with buffalo skins, carved utensils out of buffalo bones - nothing was wasted.
The American Indians were skilled foragers, providing many nuts, vegetables, and fruit to vary their diet and ensure good nutrition.
Agriculture for many tribes was based on the "Indian triad" of corn, beans and squash.
The Native Americans taught the European settlers their successful method of growing corn in mounds, fertilizing each pile with fish. They discovered how to make hominy by treating corn kernels - and how to make popcorn - and many other culinary techniques.
New York Ethnic Cuisine
The city is unquestionably the culinary melting pot of the world. It is the residence of many immigrant chefs and home cooks who remain proudly loyal to their homeland's culinary heritage.
You can explore a wide variety of cuisines - Brazilian, Caribbean, Chinese, Czech, Ecuadorian, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Korean, Lebanese, Moroccan, Peruvian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Scandinavian, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, you name it. There are even restaurants that specialize in a regional cuisine of a particular country. This global-scoped ethnicity has become the true New York Cuisine.
Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine
The Pennsylvania Dutch (including the Amish and Mennonites) practice a simple religious life without modern conveniences. But they make up for the amenity sacrifices by preparing vast spreads. They are served buffet or family-table style, instead of by course.
Virtually mandatory is the Seven Sweets and Seven Sours. It consists of homemade preparations such as chow-chow and piccalilli relishes, and the famous Shoofly Pie. Other culinary mainstays include scrapple (pork scraps cooked with cornmeal), potpies (large flat noodles) and Pepper Pot (tripe soup-stew).
Pioneer and Cowboy Cuisines Although Pioneer Cuisine and Cowboy Cuisines are mainly memories today , they once played a notable role in western and central states.
It was monotonous and starchy - bacon, ham and salt pork, biscuits, cornbread, coffee, and pies made with dried fruits. The fare was occasionally relieved by hunting game, catching fish and picking fresh fruit - which were not easy pursuits because the covered wagons were usually on the go.
It was more varied when eaten at the ranch. The food was hearty and served in generous portions. Grilled steaks, slow-cooked roasts, and fresh biscuits were favorites. So were meaty stews.
Tex Mex Cuisine
Many of its dishes share the names with those in the Southwestern Cuisine galaxy. Click its button for a glossary.
The classic "Tex Mex" cuisine did not get its moniker until several decades ago. However, the food style existed before the Mexican land became part of the United States in 1845. It is simple, honest food, reflecting the cooking of early ranchers and farmers in the semi-arid lands.
By the mid 1950s, many restaurants of limited culinary skills opened "Tex Mex" restaurants" in Texas and well beyond. Their product was so bad that the cuisine gained an unjustified negative image among food connoisseurs.
Click an American region to
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I hope my additional cuisines food & travel page helps you enjoy your vacation, tour or trip ©2008 HQP / Hillman Quality Publications
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Homespun
simplicity
However,
cowboys on a cattle drive had to eat what they could carry, catch, or harvest on
the way. There was always a lot of meat for stewing and roasting, supplemented
with beans, baking-powder bread items, and strong black coffee, but not
much else. Cooking had to be done over an open fire, with simple metal skillets,
cauldrons, and baking sheets. The chuck-wagon cook's biggest asset was the Dutch
oven. It could be suspended over a campfire or nestled in the hot coals, with more coals piled on its heavy
concave lid for baking. 
