One of my favourite things to do whilst traveling is to explore local supermarkets/drugstores, delis and bakeries etc. I always like to sample things that are exclusive to the country I’m visiting and I wouldn’t be able to get back home. Doesn’t need to be anything special but I’ve only been to America during autumn winter so around then it’s all Christmas and pumpkin spice themed things but this year will be my first summer trip. If you have any recommendations let me know! it can be anything meal, snack, healthy, unhealthy, cheap or expensive. I am however visiting a city so I won’t have access to a Walmart.
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depends on the region, but sweet tea is a pretty seasonal thing I think. you can absolutely get it in the winter, but it’s designed for summer.
I know you can get it year round, but watermelon reminds me of summer.
Someone said sweet tea, I’ll add fresh corn especially if you can get the kind that are only grown over here probably.
Regional as well but BBQ
S’mores over a fire
Saltwater Taffy
a hotdog and a lemonade (or even a frozen lemonade) at a baseball game
My local farmers market starts on June 8th.
Cherry season in the Pacific Northwest is around mid July for a few weeks. They’re highly perishable and do not have a long fruiting season, so you gotta get while the getting is good.
Frozen custard. Usually only sold from walk-up windows, which are mostly only open in the summer.
Also in Vermont, maple creamies.
Root beer float. You can also do floats with other combinations if you don’t like root beer. Coke or your favorite soda (look for local/regional specialties in the store) plus vanilla ice cream, or ginger ale plus sherbet is good.
Summer is fair and carnival season in a lot of places, so if you find one of those, there will be all sorts of novelty (mostly unhealthy) treats you don’t typically see elsewhere.
A good farmers market can also be a great place for local specialties. Maybe a variety of fruit that isn’t available everywhere, or cheeses from local creameries, baked goods; it varies a lot but is worth checking out if there’s one near where you are.
Also ask locally for the city you’ll be in. They’ll probably have local dishes that aren’t common nationwide.
Summer in New England is for farm stands and ice cream stands. Depending on where you are, you might be able to find a farmers’ market in a city, though that’s not the same as picking your own berries or making fresh corn on the cob within a couple of hours of it being picked.
For ice cream, check a sub local to the city. For Boston and surrounding cities, Toscanini’s and JP Licks are both well known, but there are quite a few others. There are also some well known stands in suburbia, but those tend to be less creative with their flavors though excellent on their fruit flavors and quantities.
New England has the most farm-to-consumer farms, so even in my teeny town with no restaurant or gas station there like 10 farms. 2 grow just fruits and veggies – you just drive to their house and they have a store in front. I get fresh corn picked moments before I buy. Fresh tomatoes. .
The kinds that can’t be sold to grocery stores because they don’t have the same long shelf life and bruise too easily.
These are just grown for the very best taste.
So find a place with good tasting corn (and veggies)– which isn’t always the place that just grows whatever variety is easiest to grow and has the biggest yield or is good for cows or ethanol.
Summer in New England is also seafood time. Steamers, lobsters, oyster, fried clams…
This is really dependent on what city. I also do the same as you when I travel in country and make sure to try foods I don’t have normal access to in my area. My answers would be very different than say New Orleans or Boston
Depends on where in the US you are. Like, the US is a huge landmass so summer is experienced differently in different regions. The summer temps where I grew up in the midwest were the temps this last December where I live now in Texas (coincidentally, I miss winter).
I would go to the subreddit for whatever city you’ll be visiting and see if they have any festivals going on in the area when you’ll be there! They’ll also be able to tell you what produce is in season in the area or what local snacks are *really* good. Like the summer fair near where I grew up, they would make ice cream with milk from the cows being shown at the fair and whatever fruit was in season. Absolutely the best ice cream I’ve had in my life.
Meanwhile here in Texas it’s bbq for summer. We’ll also have crawfish through July if you’re close to the Gulf Coast so you could look for crawfish boils if you’re in the area.
You can also see if a state fair is going on that you could get to.
Some general US summer classics are:
Arnold Palmer (lemonade+ iced tea)
Which reminds me that our lemonade might be different than yours depending on where you come from. In other countries its a soda, but here it’s a mixture of lemon juice, water, and sugar. Try it if you haven’t before, it’s really refreshing.
Rootbeer float
S’mores
I have to second the crawfish boils on the Gulf Coast. Def worth trying. And snow cones! I’m craving a watermelon lemonade snow cone. Each stand has different syrups and different machines for shaving the ice, so try several different places and flavors.
It’s strawberry season, so strawberry shortcake! I prefer the version with the more biscuit-like shotcakes, but angelfood cake is alright in a pinch.
Corn on the cob that was picked that day.
Strawberries, zucchini, and fresh wild caught salmon.
Tiki cocktails!
Made my first Jungle Bird of the year and sat outside yesterday!
Water ice, soft 🥨
GOOD cantaloupe! The rock-hard, out-of-season cantaloupes you can buy at most supermarkets are completely different from a real sun-sweetened, vine-ripened one.
In-season strawberries are great. When they’re out of season here, they’re apparently usually imported primarily from Egypt and Turkey.
Lived in Virginia for a while and had a huge garden there.
Nothing like a fresh tomato still warm from the sun right off the vine.
Throw a little salt on it 🤌🏽
Strawberry lemonade and chargrilled hotdogs
Hit up a snowcone shack. There prolific, usually locally owned, and a nice treat on a hot day.
Though not inherently seasonal, Clamcakes and littlenecks on the half shell are the first things that came to mind. I’ve been DYING for some littlenecks.
Tomatoes. Of course you can get tomatoes year-round. But there’s nothing quite like a locally grown tomato when they are in season.
There’s the standard Fourth of July meal, salmon in egg sauce with sweet peas and new potatoes. Also, blueberry everything.
Boiled peanuts