Food in America is said by many to be all about what everyone else has brought in from the rest of the world. They say that America has no cuisine to call their own –  the Germans invented hot dogs, and the British were eating apple pie like 1,000 years ago.

But the truth is that there is such a thing as typical America food. America does have a cuisine that could not have originated anywhere else.  They are sometimes a bit too greasy, a little too cheesy, and sometimes fried a few times too many. But Americans love them, one could even say, are proud of them:

Food Invented in America

1. Corn Dog

In the 1940’s, a clever man in Texas had the idea of dipping hot dogs in corn meal, deep frying ‘em, and popping ‘em on a stick. And so an American tradition was born, and since then it seems like every summer Americans say to themselves: what can we deep fry next? They’ve deep fried Twinkies, Oreos, hamburgers, even coca-cola. But all of these wondrous achievements owe a debt to the original food that really didn’t need to be battered and fried but just had to be: the corn dog.

 

2. Philly Cheesesteak

Only Philadelphia could invent an iconic sandwich and then vehemently insist that there shall be no attempts to make it good.  The worst ingredients only, please.  Do NOT use good meat. You need the fattiest, stringiest meat to get a proper taste, and no real cheese allowed. Cheese Whiz only.

 

3. “Chinese Food”

One of the great things about American cuisine is that when they come up with something so outrageous that even they  figure out a way to pin it on someone else. Case in point: “Chinese Food.” All across America, Chinese buffets offer endless arrays of beautiful, deep-fried, grease-soaked food. General Tso’s chicken, chop suey, egg rolls, chow mein, fortune cookies. What do all these dishes have in common? They were all invented in America. Seriously people, do you really think Chinese people eat this? No. They eat rice. With vegetables and maybe a little meat. And it’s not battered or fried, or double fried, either.

 

4. S’mores

It’s difficult to say exactly how s’mores became so popular throughout America. Graham crackers are not particularly well-liked, and neither are marshmallows. People generally don’t enjoy eating things that were cooked on a stick  found in the dirt, nor do they usually like to burn our food to a crisp before dinnertime. Yet somehow, s’mores just work. Despite their cutesy contraction of a name, and the fact that you have to actually cook and assemble them yourself, rather than order them from a fast food window, I’ve yet to meet a person who does not love s’mores.

 

5. Reuben Sandwich

This fully-loaded sandwich may seem like an international delicacy, but the reuben is as American as it gets, food-wise. Start with pastrami–a meat so infused with spices that it has more flavor in a single bite than most full meals. Pile this sky-high, preferably using at least a pound of meat per sandwich. Add on some “swiss” cheese–a bland, hole-y cheese that no actual Swiss person would ever touch. Top it off with “Russian dressing,” a beautiful orange mayonnaise concoction that–you guessed it–hasn’t a thing to do with Russia.