History UsefulNotes / CuisinesInAmerica

* When the label was invented in the 1980s, it was code for ludicrous extravagances like the ones described in ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', and retained that connotation through the 90s and early 2000s. The flagship of this style was Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins's specialty shop The Silver Palate, purveyors of comestibles strange and wonderful to the yuppies of '80s Manhattan.
* However, after the Great Recession of 2008 all but killed the market for ludicrous extravagances, "New American" more commonly describes remixes of American ComfortFood (like fried chicken, hamburgers, and macaroni and cheese, or regional dishes like cheesesteaks and hotdish) that gain extra refinement through attention to ingredient quality and creative twists on the recipe, but stay comforting by refusing to overcomplicate. Thus mac and cheese might be perfectly straightforward in structure but feature a mix of artisanal cheeses instead of day-glo orange powder; or a burger might be made with prime cuts of beef on a more sophisticated bun (brioche and to a lesser extent pretzel are stereotypical) and topped with some special cheese from a local dairy and local vegetables but otherwise be pretty similar to what you'd see at a diner; or a cheesesteak might be the classic beef/whiz/onions/bread but have the steak be Angus ribeye and feature "whiz" that's actually a house-made Mornay sauce made with local cheddar. (And yes, one of the big things with this "New American" is an emphasis on good cheese, especially local good cheese, because good cheese is discriminating but comforting).\\

And of course, like any country, there are millions of local establishments to choose from. While modern suburban developments built after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII tend to mostly stick to "chain" restaurants and the occasional independent restauranteur trying to break in, older and more established communities in America tend to have plenty of local establishments. This is also true of "underserved" communities -usually those too rural or poor for the big chains to want to invest in- as independent restaurants will fill the void. And much like anywhere in the world, the quality and price of these establishments varies drastically, from bougie high-class restaurants with professional chefs (sometimes brought in from abroad) to greasy-spoon diners that have been passed down through generations of family.\\
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On the higher end, you've got plenty of fancy restaurants that deal in higher-end meats (venison, buffalo, quail, pheasant, et cetera) and higher-class steaks. Generally, if you're looking at USDA Prime beef, it's gonna be served in a fancy restaurant. Finally, if the cuisine is listed as "New American", you'll be looking at a fairly large bill at the end of the night, although the meaning of this has changed over time. When the label was invented in the 1980s, it was code for ludicrous extravagances like the ones described in ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', and retained that connotation through the 90s and early 2000s. However, after the Great Recession of 2008 all but killed the market for ludicrous extravagances, "New American" more commonly describes remixes of American ComfortFood (like fried chicken, hamburgers, and macaroni and cheese, or regional dishes like cheesesteaks and hotdish) that gain extra refinement through attention to ingredient quality and creative twists on the recipe, but stay comforting by refusing to overcomplicate. Thus mac and cheese might be perfectly straightforward in structure but feature a mix of artisanal cheeses instead of day-glo orange powder; or a burger might be made with prime cuts of beef on a more sophisticated bun (brioche and to a lesser extent pretzel are stereotypical) and topped with some special cheese from a local dairy and local vegetables but otherwise be pretty similar to what you'd see at a diner; or a cheesesteak might be the classic beef/whiz/onions/bread but have the steak be Angus ribeye and feature "whiz" that's actually a house-made Mornay sauce made with local cheddar. (And yes, one of the big things with this "New American" is an emphasis on good cheese, especially local good cheese, because good cheese is discriminating but comforting).\\

The US also has a fairly old tradition of viticulture. Upper-class Americans, [[WineIsClassy like upper-class people everywhere in the West]], have always had a taste for wine, and in the West, the Spanish missionary monks grew vines, mostly for sacramental purposes. In the colonial period and early Republic, however, this was mostly imported from Europe; consumption patterns mirrored those of Britain, with claret, sherry, and especially Madeira wine dominating the market. Although the US has a large number of indigenous grape species, it was quickly discovered that these generally produce crappy[[note]]while this is definitely subjective and a matter of individual taste, New World grapes produce a wine that's generally described as "foxy", and is certainly different from that produced by traditional European grapes[[/note]] wine, and attempts to plant their European cousin ''Vitis vinifera''--the standard wine grape--frequently ran into problems. Nevertheless, a wine industry eventually took root[[note]]by literally using American roots; standard practice is to graft European vines onto American rootstock, which is more resistant to the pests that were killing off European species[[/note]] in America, partly depending on the American grapes, and partly on European grapes in those areas--like California--where they took hold. By the time of Prohibition, Missouri[[note]]The largest wine producing area before prohibition.[[/note]], New York and Ohio had reasonably strong viticulture, but the reputation of American wine was still low.[[note]]This is the origin of the "Kosher wine is horribly sweet and generally horrible" trope in American Jewish culture. Kosher wine must be made at least in part by Jews and boiled if handled at all by gentiles, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the East Coast Jewish community was the largest by far. The vineyards producing Kosher wine were predominantly in New York, using American Concord grapes; sugar was added to mask the awful flavor.[[/note]] Prohibition only made that worse, basically destroying the wine industry; when Prohibition was lifted, the major center of production in California began churning out cheap, highly alcoholic fortified wines sold in bulk--the famous "bum wine" or "jug wine" associated with poor drinkers.\\

Unlike Americanized Chinese places, these Italian American restaurants are surprisingly often legitimately fine-dining establishments (with menu prices to match). If you're willing to forgive the fact that it isn't really food you would get in Italy, it can be quite enjoyable. It helps here that the better places among these have updated with modern Italian cuisine, adapting improved techniques to their traditional favorites and exploiting the increased availability of real Italian ingredients to raise the bar further.[[note]]Artie Bucco's Vesuvio restaurant from ''Series/TheSopranos'' is actually a pretty representative example of this style, although it must be emphasized that (1) relatively few such restaurants are actually hangout spots for the Mob and (2) Vesuvio, being situated in the North Jersey suburbs, is a bit different from what you'd find in the more well-established communities in New York or Philadelphia, or even in Hudson County (the part of New Jersey immediately across the Hudson from Manhattan, containing Hoboken and Jersey City) or Newark (to the extent that such places still exist in Newark).[[/note]] If you like old-school Italian-American veal parmigiana, just wait till you have it with top-quality veal, fresh mozzarella, and sauce made from genuine D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes, all topped with real Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and made by a chef who had done stints in both Milan (where he learned a few tricks about frying veal cutlets) and Naples.\\

When it comes to sit-down restaurants, rather like Chinese, you can generally find two kinds of "Italian" restaurant in the US. The ones serving the American-based fusion "Italian American" cuisine are generally older restaurants--some dating to [[TheGildedAge the late 19th or early 20th century]]--in the big cities of the Northeast plus Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco (and a few scattered other places, mostly in the Great Lakes region).[[note]]I.e. the places with significant Italian communities before 1950. (And before you ask, New Orleans and San Francisco have Italian communities going back to the 19th century. The Mafia was actually in New Orleans about a decade before it reached New York.)[[/note]] These are commonly called "red-gravy places" or "red-gravy restaurants" because of the stereotypical association with tomato sauce (which was for some time--and still is in many cases--called "red gravy" by Italian-Americans in the Northeast and in Chicago, based on a misunderstanding of the correct translation of the Italian word ''sugo,'' which is what many tomato sauces are called).[[note]]On at least one occasion, a non-Italian who had come up with a good recipe for spaghetti sauce was repeatedly, to his consternation, told by Philadelphia-area Italian-Americans that what he was making was "gravy."[[/note]] These restaurants really can be quite old now: the oldest, Ralph's in South Philadelphia, dates to ''1900'', and many of the classic establishments in other cities are almost as old.\\

When it comes to sit-down restaurants, rather like Chinese, you can generally find two kinds of "Italian" restaurant in the US. The ones serving the American-based fusion "Italian American" cuisine are generally older restaurants--some dating to [[TheGildedAge the late 19th or early 20th century]]--in the big cities of the Northeast plus Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco (and a few scattered other places, mostly in the Great Lakes region).[[note]]I.e. the places with significant Italian communities before 1950. (And before you ask, New Orleans and San Francisco have Italian communities going back to the 19th century. The Mafia was actually in New Orleans about a decade before it reached New York.)[[/note]] These are commonly called "red-gravy places" or "red-gravy restaurants" because of the stereotypical association with tomato sauce (which was for some time--and still is in many cases--called "red gravy" by Italian-Americans in the Northeast and in Chicago, based on a misunderstanding of the correct translation of the Italian word ''sugo,'' which is what many tomato sauces are called).[[note]]On at least one occasion, a non-Italian who had come up with a good recipe for spaghetti sauce was repeatedly, to his consternation, told by Philadelphia-area Italian-Americans that what he was making was "gravy."[[/note]]\\

Lower-end Chinese places tend to be little takeout shops. Lower-end sit-down establishments may bill themselves as "Polynesian"; this is because many early tiki restaurants served heavily Americanized Cantonese dishes,[[note]]Both of the original tiki bars, Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber, served a lot of Americanized Cantonese dishes with "tropical" flourishes like pineapple; Don the Beachcomber's original food menu in particular was almost entirely Chinese. While this wasn't fully authentic, (1) that wasn't the point (most of tiki's early enthusiasts were ex-[=GIs=] who had served in [[WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific the Pacific]] and knew that what was on offer wasn't "really" Polynesian--they just wanted a good time in surroundings that reminded them of their R&R/shore leave DuringTheWar) but (2) it wasn't ''too'' far off, since by "Polynesian" they usually meant "Hawaiian", and there is (as mentioned) a strong Cantonese influence on the cuisine of Hawaii (not as strong as Japanese, of course, but post-WWII it was best not to mention that on the mainland).[[/note]] and if a place bills itself as such, it likely relies heavily on its bar. Home delivery is a staple at the lower end of Chinese food (a common stereotype is the poor college student/recent grad who survives on cheap Chinese takeout/delivery). While quality and taste will vary, there are some good takeout shops all around the country. Strip-mall buffets have also become fairly common in recent years, especially in suburban areas. These places will most commonly have two-word names consisting of apparently random vaguely-China-related words (or at least words that sound China-related in context) like "Golden Wok", "China Star", "Temple Garden", or "Peking Express"; "New" or "Super" or similar adjectives may be prefixed, especially for buffets (e.g. "New Shanghai Buffet" or "Super Golden Buffet"). However, when serving a Chinese-American community, the name either will sound more like "Hong Kong Cafe" or will be in untranslated Chinese, usually a 2-3 character (and thus 2-3 syllable) phrase per Chinese restaurant naming convention (e.g. New York's venerable Wo Hop).\\

* Also notable is the Coney Island Dog or Coney dog, a type of chili dog that, despite its name, is from Michigan (for no apparent reason, diners in Michigan generally and the Detroit area in particular tend to be called "Coney Islands"). Key points with the Coney dog is that (1) the chili sauce is a beanless affair with sweet spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, owing more to Eastern Mediterranean meat sauces than to Tex-Mex chili con carne (no surprise, since the restaurant owners were historically from Greece or North Macedonia and these days are often Arab [[note]]The current owners of the two "classic" Detroit Coney Islands, Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island on Lafayette Blvd. in Downtown Detroit--are from Yemen[[/note]]) (2) the meat in the chili is supposed to be beef heart (possibly supplemented with other cuts, but the heart is crucial), (3) no ketchup is used (again), although tomatoes in the chili sauce are fine, (4) the standard toppings are mustard and raw chopped onions, and (5) as far as aficionados are concerned, the dog itself must be a beef or pork dog (mixtures are OK, but between the Midwestern beef culture and the fact that the restaurant owners tend to be Muslim Arabs these days pure beef is more common) in a natural lamb-intestine casing. Note that there's a rivalry between Detroit-style dogs (which use a wetter chili) and Flint-style (where the chili is dry), as well as Jackson-style (which alleges that Flint stole its recipe).