• 0 Posts
  • 60 Comments
Joined 2 months ago
cake
Cake day: January 3rd, 2026

help-circle







  • subseries wrote specifically for young adults

    but that was pretty shocking and I’d be a bit wary letting my 12 year old read that.

    While I do think that letting children read dark books (as long the “darkness” isn’t because the author’s edgy) is not only ok, but necessary for them to be able to handle darker emotions, I want to mention that 12 is teen, or pre-teen, but definitely not a young adult.







  • spam musubi

    That’s sushi with spam. I wouldn’t call that unique because how similar it is to any other sushi, its just an ingredient replacement. Now if the spam was specifically seasoned or prepared then yeah, it’d be a unique snack.

    Frybread is basically hungarian lángos

    And deep fried podpłomyk recipe is also very similar.

    loco moco

    I can’t find anything like it, or from similar ingredients, so I’d call it unique. They are similar dishes, but either with more than 1 ingredient removed, or lacking the complexity.

    cheese zombies, jojos, Seattle dog, huckleberry everything, etc.

    Grilled cheese sandwich, potato wedges, hot dog with a different ingredient, huckleberry is an ingredient, not a dish.

    Southwest USA and Mexican have a lot of overlap but are also just as distinct with “Tex-mex” being it’s own culinary thing. Puffy tacos, chili con queso, cornbread, cowboy caviar, nachos, etc.

    Igredient replacement, literally not a dish but a dip, Native American, a bean salad, nachos are Mexican. Tex-mex I think is mostly one ingredient replacement. Literally you had a lot of beef and cheese and that’s how you made Mexican recipes.

    Midwest, Alaskan, southern, east-coast, Puerto Rican

    Midwest and Alaskan, as well as east-coast, those three sound most promising. Can you maybe tell a bit more about them?

    Southern is likely to be European cuisine with one ingredient replacement, Puerto Rico is famously a territory of the USA, but not a state :-)

    pasta is any less “Italian” despite it just being Chinese noodles with a few changed ingredients.

    Yeah, pasta is not a unique Italian dish. It was invented by so many cultures independently. Bolognese sauce on the other hand is, as I can’t find any other similar dish that was invented independently from it. Do you see the distinction I’m looking for?

    Edit: you might wonder why then I count pumpkin pie as a unique - the main ingredient changed, and you often add caramel and pecan pies on top, making it significantly different than other pies.




  • Out of all the dishes you mentioned, only Gumbo is a uniquely USA dish.

    Jambalaya is an African recipe with an ingredient change to match what was available.

    Mudbugs are eaten everywhere where they are present, and I personally think that Polis Zupa Rakowa is the best usage of that ingredient. If were talking about the mudbug boil, every cousine I know of that has access to them have similar recipe.

    Blackened redfish is uhhh… Hot pan with spices to pretend its grilled (ingenious, but not a unique dish https://www.foodrepublic.com/1631780/origin-why-redfish-banned/)

    Crawfish etouffee - huh, I think it’s also an invention. The cooking method and igredients seem to be unique enough that its visibly distinct from any other similar dish that I know of and could check the recipe of.

    Courtbullion on the other hand is too similar to French one that I would call it a variation, instead of an unique invention.

    (Does that make sense? I’m not trying to diminish other foods but to showcase how unique Gumbo and etouffe are)


  • I’ve been thinking about it, and I can only name 3 dishes that were uniquely created in the USA (so no General Tsao Chicken), that were not an old recipe with a changed ingredient because it’s hard to get the original (so no Jambalaya), or were not just bigger sandwiches (so no Italian sandwich):

    Gumbo.

    Pumkin pie.

    Buffalo wings (but I’m not sure if this can be called a dish, as its so simple its more like a snack, and its fast food).

    If someone can think of more, please advise - I’m extremely curious.

    Edit: Etouffe is also one.



  • That is an interesting point and I want to add three cents to it.

    Sometimes diasporas preserve the original recipes better than the country of origin. An example of it are some Polish dishes that were preserved closer to the original than in Poland, because when Poland was under USSR occupation there were severe food shortages and some recipes had to evolve or were literally forgotten.

    (IIRC that was just a few cakes and pastries, but hey, it still happened!)