what is the most delicious food in USA?

fm, true, however you also offered the a taco as a counterexample of something you would not consider American in your sense, and I differed with you on that. And since you were looking at regional cuisine, I offered New England. You don't have to take the example, but it's there anyway. And for what it's worth, the New England gibe at a full Canadian dinner would have a thick layer of maple syrup over the entire thing.

Canadian dishes:
Fiddle heads -fern head, pemican, back bacon, tourtierre, jiggs dinner, montreal smoked meat and bagels, bannock, habitant pea soup, flipper pie and wild meat, like bison, elk or bear...

Which culture influences Canadian food the most?

Very regional isn't it.

I only recognize a few of those as foods I would have known growing up in the Ottawa Valley.

Absolutely, me too, although I've tried most, sans the fish dishes and flipper pie, I've never eaten seal fins... I forgot to mention nanaimo bars.
I'll answer your question a bit later, I've got to run, but suffice to say, Canadian have always been a pretty multi-cultural bunch. Some of these dishes come from from the native tradition, other from the french and some from the irish.

Apart from succotash, every food labelled American is derivative. This is a silly exercise.

whats tourtierre?

PS(I didnt mean to start a dust up among the CAnajuns and the Canajun wannabees).

Thank you ceili. Id give you a red dot but its amazing what modern meds can acxomplish

Monterey JAck. I was distinguishing US as the point (not AMERICA in toto) (ACtually, Mexico is CEntral AMerica.

You may continue to argue with yourself if you wish, I shall step away from the car.

Tourtière is a meat pie beloved of les habitants and many, many other Canajuns.

I remember butter tarts, they have a really good gooey center, like a shoo- fly pie but different.
Set, is Tourtierre derivative of any style meat pie?

Butter tarts are like pecan pies, without the pecans. They are often adorned with raisins, though, and typically are only three or four inches in diameter. There were so many types of pastry popular in France in the 17th and 18th century that i doubt that anyone could establish from just what particular recipe tourtière derives. It's a cinch, though, that les habitants did not invent pastry.

You'd find more originality in North America by looking at Mexican cooking, although i suspect that much of it derives from the aboriginal cuisines. In the United States so much food is derivative that we don't even recognize. One of my favorite greasy spoon foods is a pork loin sammich--which is nothing more, really, than a schnitzel.

farmer, last time I looked, TX, AZ, and NM were all part of the US.

To add to Set's description of tourtiere, it's mixed beef/veal and pork and generally spiced with cloves and sage, and onion in two layers of pastry. However, recipes are as personal as family traditions vary.
Bannock is unlevened bread usually baked around a stick over open flame. It's a variation of irish soda bread and like pemmican - a mixture of grease, meat and berries, it was made for survival in the harsh the northern climate.
Jiggs Dinner is stew like, made from brisket, spuds, a whole head of cabbage, mushy peas, turnip - A Newfoundland specailty.
To answer C.I's question.
This country was, much like the US, settled by waves of immigrants who settled in certain areas. So, for example, Thunder Bay has a high number of Dutch so dutch favourites it is, and Alberta has a huge Ukrainian population. So, Peroghy and Koubasa are big in these parts. Vancouver has a huge numbers of Chinese/Japanese and Sihks. While there are regional favourites, most of canada is pretty mixed and you will find any number of restaurants or specialty stores offering food Mexico to India or the Philipines et al in most big centres. Mind you, there are still some small comunities where you will find a majority of one culture, it's not uncommon to go to these small towns and find Norwegian or lebanese or greek food on every menu. My favourite joint in Glendon has one restaurant a chinese peroghy place...
I remember when I was in NY, my cousin tried to find a food I had not tried, but Edmonton - where I live, is the second most diverse city in Canada, after Brampton Ont. So, she couldn't surprise me.
My city has an annual multicultural day, Heritage days a three day festival of food, music, dance etc.
Again, peasant food dressed up to fit the need of the vast canadian taste bud.

I was just talking to my sister in NYC. They often go to Thanksgiving dinner at her husband's cousin's house north of the city. He's got a tenant who lives on the third floor who is a Canadian chef. For dessert last T'giving he made what sounded from her description like butter tarts, and said they're typically Canadian. She thought they were very good, but super-rich--you couldn't eat a whole lot.

is tourtiere anything like Cornish pasties--seasoning and contents sound very similar--pasties tend to have sort of a flaky pastry shell, tho, not baked in something like a pie tin.

fiddleheads are also New England as well as Canadian--I'm not sure if anyone actually grows them or just picks wild ones. They tend to have a really short season, a week or two in spring, I think--been years since I ate any, they're sort of feathery which is kind of weird.

Tacos are at least as American as succotash (assuming you think Colorado is as American as New England is).

Succotash was a dish of the aboriginal Americans of the Atlantic coast at the time that colonists arrived. Surely you don't allege that tacos were being made when colonists arrived. What particular reason do you have for associating tacos with Colorado?

succotash baked in a pumpkin shell. MAkes me gag just thinking about it.

fiddleheads are an Appalchian favorite along with Ramps and Brunswick stew with cornbread or Journey cake.

Ive had fiddleheads several ways. In MAine they serve them cold with slat and vinegar

In Appalachia Ive hadem hot with cider vinegar and bacon, and boiled with a sour bourbon sauce

I'm bettin' them boys starvin' in Jamestown in the winter of 1607-08 didn't have that problem.

No, tourtiere is an actual pie with a double crust.