Philly cheese steak? Cajun/creole food (gumbo, jambalaya, etc.)? Tex-mex? Lobster rolls? Chicago style pizza?

Which do you think is the most popular and which is your favorite?

35 comments

  1. Has to be pizza in general.

    Many, many different styles, that people have very strong opinions on.

  2. Tex-Mex, and I don’t think it’s even close. I can get Chipotle, Moe’s, Willy’s, etc. with ease anywhere in the country.

  4. Probably pizza in all its regional glory. Brooklyn style, New Haven style, Chicago style, Detroit style, California style, everybody’s food truck “neopolitan” style, whatever Dominos is, etc etc. Maybe this isn’t exactly what you’re asking but every city sub reddit probably has a thread somewhere about how to get x type of pizza in y city.

  6. Pizza, Tex-Mex or Soul food (assuming you’re including fried chicken, mac & cheese, etc).

  11. I feel like saying Pizza is a bit too easy given it has a lot of variations and not all those are common at all beyond NY style pizza which has kind of a muddy definition outside of NY anyway. That’s similar to Tex-Mex being sometimes used as a catch all for Mexican/Latin style food found in the US where plenty you do find isn’t really Tex-Mex at all and either a different style of Americanized Mexican or possibly leaning more traditional, not to mention the many other Latin cuisines and their influences you can find especially in the border states but even beyond.

    I’d actually probably say BBQ as while it certainly has variations, all of those have a unifying theme (smoked meats cooked low and slow), it is more of a regional food still as opposed to like Pizza which really feels at this point is just universal (having several national pizza chains is evidence for that I’d say). But BBQ can be found basically anywhere if you look for it now and yet is still treated more of a “specialty/regional” food.

  13. I wouldn’t consider pizza regional, it’s everywhere, half aisles frozen section at stores, even though it has regional specialties.

  15. If we’re only considering very specific regional foods then I’d say Buffalo wings. Pretty much every bar in the US serves them.

  16. Mexican and Italian foods take the crown for sure specially depending on the states your in.

  18. Maybe buttermilk breaded fried chicken, which is a southeastern specialty but eaten regularly all over the country.

  20. When people I know travel to St. Louis, they usually make a point to get barbecue, which is a very good idea because there are some very fine barbecue joints here. The St. Louis food items that suck are Bread Co bagels, Imo’s pizza, and toasted ravioli with meat (it’s fine with cheese, but the meat gets too dry). The St. Louis things people should be getting more of are gooey butter cake (I have no idea why this is only a St. Louis thing), slingers, and Bosnian food.

  22. A lot of suggestions on the most popular so I’ll just mention my favorite: New Mexican food.

  24. Going to put this out there, cause everyone seems to be thinking lunch and dinner.

    But Biscuits and Gravy is a pretty iconic American Breakfast item.

  31. Bagels.

    Though not uniquely New York (Montreal bagels go head to head against NYC bagels), they began as a thing in the US in NYC and have spread everywhere. And unlike pizza or BBQ, they’re something that many people will have on a daily basis.

  35. The most popular is arguably the kind of watered-down Northern Mexican food that is the backbone of every Mexican restaurant in an old Noble Romans/Chi-chis/etc. in every small and medium-sized town and suburb in the eastern United States. If you’re from small-town USA, you know about this place.

    Best food is Southern/Creole.

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