I recently found a fascinating 2023 book at the Meridian
Public Library from the Smithsonian by Lisa Kingsley titled American Table: The
foods, people, and innovations that feed us. If you were looking for speech
topics about food, then this is an excellent place to start. Beginning on page
27 there is a section titled THE UNITED EATS OF AMERICA with the following
divisions and state foods. There is no preview at Google Books, so I am
providing links, mostly to Wikipedia pages, for these forty regional foods:
NEW ENGLAND AND THE MID-ATLANTIC
Connecticut: Steamed cheeseburger
Delaware: Scrapple
Maryland: Crab cakes
Massachusetts: The Fluffernutter
New Hampshire: Grape Nuts ice cream
New Jersey: Pork roll, eggs, and cheese sandwich
New York: New York-style pizza
Pennsylvania: Pepper pot soup
Rhode Island: Hot wieners with coffee milk
Vermont: Maple creemee
THE SOUTH
Georgia: Boiled peanuts
Louisiana: Crawfish etouffee
Arkansas: Chocolate gravy on biscuits
Mississippi: Delta-style hot tamales
THE SOUTHEAST
North Carolina: Vinegar-sauced BBQ pork
Tennessee: Meat and three
Florida: Cuban sandwich
Virginia: Ham biscuits
West Virginia: Pepperoni rolls
THE MIDWEST
Illinois: Italian beef
Indiana: Sugar cream pie
Iowa: Loose-meat sandwich
Kansas: Chili and cinnamon rolls
Missouri: St. Paul sandwich
Nebraska: Bierocks (Runza)
Ohio: Cincinnati chili
North Dakota: Knoephla [soup]
Oklahoma: Fried-onion burger
South Dakota: Chislic
Wisconsin: Friday night fish fry
THE SOUTHWEST
Arizona: Navaho tacos/fry bread
Texas: Viet-Cajun boil
THE MOUNTAIN WEST
Colorado: Rocky Mountain oysters
Nevada: Prime rib
Idaho: Basque croquetas
Utah: Funeral potatoes
Wyoming: Trout
THE FAR WEST AND PACIFIC
Alaska: Reindeer dogs
Hawaii: Spam musubi
Washington: Geoduck
Some of the Wikipedia pages are rather sketchy compared with
those in this book, like that for Idaho’s Basque croquetas:
“….The state is now home to the largest population of
Basques outside the Basque Country. That community has a tremendous impact on
the culture of Idaho’s largest city, Boise, where at restaurants, bars, markets,
and numerous festivals, Boiseans enjoy the tradition of pinxtos
(PEEN-chos), or Basque tapas. Some of the most popular include tortilla, a
quiche-like omelot of potatoes, onions and pimento peppers; bocadillos, a
selection of mini sandwiches; and perhaps the best-loved one of all, croquetas,
breaded and fried morsels that have thick and creamy fillings such as chicken
and cheese with piquillo peppers, or bechamel combined with salt cod or chopped
Iberico or Serrano ham. While similar in form to classic French croquettes,
which are potato-based, classic Basque croquetas rely on a thick white sauce to
form small balls or cylinders that are rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried. The
resultant bites – a hot and crispy exterior that yields to a rich, creamy,
flavorful center – are irresistible.”
The description for: Knoephla (North Dakota) begins:
“The story of North Dakota’s knoephla soup has a through
line that connects it to that of Nebraska’s runza – the immigration of Germans
to Russia during the 18 th century and their subsequent immigration to the
Midwest in the late 19 th century. Knoephla soup, eaten all over the state and
almost nowhere else, is a creamy chicken soup made with celery, carrots,
potatoes, milk, and dumplings called knoephla, from the German knoepfle,
meaning ‘little knobs’ or ‘little buttons.’ The German element in this
comfort-food soup is the dumplings, which are similar to spaetzle – chewy noodles
made with flour, salt, water, and eggs – but the other components were likely
borrowed from other cultures over time.”
And the description for chislic (South Dakota) says:
“Cooked meat on a stick is certainly not a novel concept,
but a certain type of cooked meat on a stick is uniques in America to South
Dakota – and like Nebraska’s runza and North Dakota’s knoephla soup, has its
roots in the food of German immigeants who came to the state from Russia in the
late 19 th century. Chislic, simply put, is cubes of meat – traditionally lamb
or mutton but sometimes beef – that are deep-fried, seasoned with garlic salt,
and served on skewers with saltine crackers. Chislic is likely an anglicization
of the Turkic word shaslik, referring to something on a skewer. (‘Shish,’
as in shish kebabs, means skewer). According to Marnette Honer, executive
director and archivist at the Heritage Hall Museum & Archives in Freeman,
Soth Dakota, chislic was introduced to southeastern South Dakota by Johann
Hoellwarth, who came to Dakota Territory from Crimea sometime in the 1870s.
With very few trees available on the plains from which to obtain wood for
grilling the meat – as was the traditional way Tatar cooks in Russia prepared
it – South Dakota cooks fried the cubes of meat in the tallow of the sheep they
butchered. While in Russia the meat was marinated in onions and other
seasonings for hours, in America garlic salt came to be used. Saltine crackers
supplanted the flatbread. From Freeman , chislic spread in a circle of about 30
miles surrounding the town, often referred to as the ‘Chislic Circle,’ though
today it is served at bars and restaurants throughout the state.”
Spiedies are grilled meat cubes that are similar to chislic.
The image for knoephla soup was captioned from one at
Wikimedia Commons.
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