What would you serve in your AMERICAN Restaurant

On green tomatoes, fried green tomatoes being, I gather, a southern treasure - I have used thin sliced garden green tomatoes on home made pizza with, naturally, mozzarella, fresh basil, and some garlic, and the odd olive slice. That would be restaurant fare from me, but american only in that I am. Doubt it's italian either.

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@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

it's actually in Michigan, a few hours over the border from me

What does it look like?
Is anyone in charge of it?

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@OmSigDAVID,

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bb/Hellmi.jpg/800px-Hellmi.jpg

View of Hell

and it's not the only one

Hell for Certain, Kentucky
Hell, Arizona
Hell, Norway
Hell, Grand Cayman
Hell, California

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@djjd62,

I got family near there...

how 'bout buffalo wings?

(the chicken kind)

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@Rockhead,

you little devil Razz

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@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

View of Hell

and it's not the only one

Hell for Certain, Kentucky
Hell, Arizona
Hell, Norway
Hell, Grand Cayman
Hell, California

Imposters ?
What happens to imposters ?

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@OmSigDAVID,

I would serve a mixture of traditionally Jewish and Italian dishes (which is what I was exposed to growing up in New Jersey and really love), and some traditionally southern stuff along with tex/mex (if I could get my mom to come work there and cook it).

Breakfast-
pancakes, waffles, (plain and pecan), omellettes (especially cream cheese and smoked salmon), eggs, bacon, sausage (links and patties), home fries, biscuits, gravy, bagels of all sorts with white fish salad available (I even eat bagels toasted with onion gravy on them - that is AWESOME- not traditionally eaten by any culture I know of but I love it), and I'd throw oatmeal on there because I love it and in case any moms with children came in.

Lunch/Dinner: sandwiches:turkey club, reubens, grilled cheese, etc.
all different types of soup - chicken noodle, tomato and red pepper, lentil, matzoh ball, potato and onion, carrot and corriander, etc., etc.
Chicken enchiladas, chile, tamales, tacos in soft and hard shells,
I'd also have chile dogs - you could use your chile on those,
chicken pot pie, spaghetti with marinara sauce and sweet italian sausage, lasagne, you could serve the sweet italian sausages as sandwiches on good hard rolls...
stuffed cabbage
pot roast with gravy, potatoes and green beans

Dessert: chocolate cake, cherry and apple pie, peach cobbler, hot fudge brownie sundaes.

Drinks: ICED TEA!
(These are all the things I love to eat when I go to America and miss when I'm here).

I'd call my American restaurant THE UNITED STATES OF DELICIOUSNESS... (get it - that sort of incorporates the fact that in the US you have so many different types of cultures and thus foods...)

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@aidan,

I certainly woud have included lasagna on my American menu,
if it were within the limits of this thread,
but the author inquires about the definition of American food.
Hence, we r limited to American food on the menu.

If we had not been, then all of our menus (or most of them)
woud have been much, much more expansive and comprehensive.

I 'd not want any Italian accusing me of pro-American plagiarism of old Italian cookery.

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@OmSigDAVID,

David - Lasagne is a staple of certain American homes. So is spaghetti and meatballs. There are a lot of Italian American people where I grew up- that's the food I grew up eating and know how to cook. I consider it an integral part of my American diet and in fact my culinary heritage and experience.

That's the whole point and richness of America. We integrate people and foods from all over the world. How many hundreds of years do you have to eat something before you can say it's a part of your heritage and culture?

Also on my menu I forgot to put French toast. And I'd make it with thick french bread soaked in a mixture of egg, milk or cream, dash of vanilla and cinnamon- fry in butter and serve hot with cream cheese and fresh raspberries in the middle and raspberries on top with maple syrup and bacon. That's my Americanized version of French toast.

I also forgot my Americanized version of strawberry shortcake - sourcream poundcake with strawberries and whipped cream.

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@aidan,

aidan wrote:

David - Lasagne is a staple of certain American homes. So is spaghetti and meatballs. There are a lot of Italian American people where I grew up- that's the food I grew up eating and know how to cook. I consider it an integral part of my American diet and in fact my culinary heritage and experience.

That's the whole point and richness of America. We integrate people and foods from all over the world. How many hundreds of years do you have to eat something before you can say it's a part of your heritage and culture?

Also on my menu I forgot to put French toast. And I'd make it with thick french bread soaked in a mixture of egg, milk or cream, dash of vanilla and cinnamon- fry in butter and serve hot with cream cheese and fresh raspberries in the middle and raspberries on top with maple syrup and bacon. That's my Americanized version of French toast.

I also forgot my Americanized version of strawberry shortcake - sourcream poundcake with strawberries and whipped cream.

U can 't do THAT!
That ;s ripping off the whole world
and claiming that everything is AMERICAN if an American has eaten it.

Honesty and integrity require us to respect the actual ethnic authorship of meals.

For that matter, if many Americans read War and Peace,
that does not make it American literature; its Russian literature.
It woud not matter if EVERY single American read the book; its still Russian.

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@OmSigDAVID,

I thought by American restaurant he meant a restaurant in America. And I thought he meant what would people serve in a restaurant in America that American people would like to eat.

Sorry - I guessed I missed the point. I thought I was from a typical American home and I grew up eating and enjoying all the things I listed.

Are bagels not American?

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@aidan,

aidan wrote:

I thought by American restaurant he meant a restaurant in America. And I thought he meant what would people serve in a restaurant in America that American people would like to eat.

Sorry - I guessed I missed the point. I thought I was from a typical American home and I grew up eating and enjoying all the things I listed.

Are bagels not American?

I have a hunch that there is a specific ethnic group
that will lay legitimate claim to them.

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@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

I have a hunch that there is a specific ethnic group
that will lay legitimate claim to them.

Okay, so can I, as an American of Irish/Scottish/English/ and native American descent lay claim to corned beef and cabbage and sodabread (or brown bread as they call it), shortbread and haggis, bangers and mash and corn?

Or would people say, those are Irish/Scottish/English/ dishes - the only thing as an American I can rightly claim is corn?

If a wider culture has integrated a dish into their repertoir of staple meals to the extent that it is known and loved in that country - you don't consider that food to have become a part of that culture? Are you going to tell American people who eat corn tortillas in Texas - that that is Mexican food? What if people have been eating corn tortillas in Texas since Texas became a state?
As I asked, how many hundreds of years does a culture have to eat something before it becomes a cultural marker for those people?
And isn't integrating the food of a people part and parcel of integrating those people?
And isn't that the point of America?
And are Americans who cook and eat those foods in America not behaving in typically American ways? I think they are. So I think you can consider those foods part of a typical American diet. And that's what you'd serve in your restaurant if you wanted to appeal to American people.

How about eggs benedict? Is that American? I've only ever seen it on the menu in America. They very rarely have it here and I can't remember seeing it on any of the menus of any other country I've been in (maybe France ) and I know because I look carefully for it because I LOVE it.
(Although I forgot to put it the first menu I posted here).

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@aidan,

Interesting question.

(We have eggs benedict btw....very popular at breakfasts at present.)

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The Mission burrito.......

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/2700806016_cb0084ea63.jpg?v=0

....which, I will have to point out (lest I offend David), evolved in California (specifically San Francisco), and in my experienced is still only properly prepared in within 100 miles of that city.

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@aidan,

aidan wrote:

I thought by American restaurant he meant a restaurant in America.

No; b4 I retired, I loved attending a French restaurant
whose real estate was in Syracuse, NY.
It was owned and operated by an immigrant French chef and his French family.
It was decidedly NOT an American restaurant, tho it was firmly implanted in the ground of NY.

It had a superb French menu.

aidan wrote:

And I thought he meant what would people serve in a restaurant in America
that American people would like to eat.

The point of the thread (as I understand it)
is to get our American opinions of what is AMERICAN FOOD,
as distinct from food that originated in other places.

The point of the thread is to DISTINGUISH American food
from non-American food.

aidan wrote:

Sorry - I guessed I missed the point.
I thought I was from a typical American home
and I grew up eating and enjoying all the things I listed.

Eating it does not convert that cuisine from what it was
into American cuisine, even if u enjoy it.

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How could we forget American Cheese?! Who needs brie or camembert when you can buy a stack of perfectly matched little rubbery squares made of oil, milk and salt individually separated by their own clear plastic wrapper and pre-cut to fit onto a piece of Wonder Bread? It even comes in two colors, day-glow orange or white.

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@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

It had a superb French menu.

Yes, and it sounds as if that restaurant owner was French and decided to make his restaurant an exclusive reflection of what French people eat when they're in France.
As a Chinese restaurant exclusively reflects what Chinese people eat in China.
As a Thai restaurant exclusively reflects what Thai people eat in Thailand, etc., etc...
So I think an American restaurant should or could reflect what American people eat in America.

I think my menu fits that criteria.

And by the way, eggs benedict could have originated in America- according to legend- it could also have originated in France. I guess that's up in the air. All I know is if I put eggs benedict on my menu it would be an accurate reflection of what American people eat in America- so it would fit.

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@dlowan,

There was a gentleman i recently met who is Canadian (have known his wife from online for a few years now) who prepared eggs benedict, using back bacon rather than ham. I was extremely impressed that he was able to poach a dozen eggs (it was a house party) at once, and get them all perfect. That's quite a culinary accomplishment!

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@Green Witch,

From what i have read, chop suey is an American dish, rather than a Chinese dish. Same thing with pasta, which is actually Chinese, and not Italian.

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What would you serve in your AMERICAN Restaurant

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