Apart from McDonalds, the good old-fashioned American junk food, it’s hard to find a national food identity when you’ve lived in the United States all your life. Here’s some foods you can call truly American.
- Country Fried Steak
Seems to be just a basic meal, right? You can have it for dinner or have it for breakfast, it’s a pretty standard thing just about anywhere you go. I don’t think I’ve ever heard country-fried steaks being referred as “American” food, yet if you go to Canada, you likely won’t find them anywhere. I’m staying in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, about fifteen minutes outside of Niagara Falls. The closest I’ve come to country-fried steak would be from the Denny’s in Niagara Falls, which is also one of the most expensive Denny’s in the corporation.
- Chick-Fil-A
Rest in peace for not having the best lemonade and chicken nuggets known to mankind while I’ve been here. The closest Chick-fil-a in Canada is at the Buffalo airport. Canadians have been known to make the drive down, just to stand in a horrendously long line to wait for America’s staple. You would think that Chick-fil-a had expanded to the great white north, but alas they remain an American commodity.
- Ribs and Wings
Again, I wouldn’t necessarily have pinned ribs and wings as an American food. Maybe barbeque foods in general are more “American,” but I would have described this more as hot dogs, hamburgers and maybe anything on the KFC menu. But when the cafeteria featured American food last weekend, it was traditional ribs and wings piled on a plate with mashed potatoes and coleslaw.
- Sweet Tea
As a connoisseur of sweet tea, I’ve scoured every aisle at upwards of four grocery stores and I have yet to find actual bottled sweet tea in Canada. It doesn’t exist here. The standard iced tea is sweeter than standard iced tea in the US, but southern sweet tea is nowhere to be found.
- Cheese curds
Let’s be clear, Canada’s national food is poutine- fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. But the cheese curds your thinking of that you might find at Buffalo Wild Wings or Freddy’s is far from the reality. Cheese curds aren’t fried here. You can’t find Wisconsin-style cheese curds anywhere.
