Pizza? I think Naples would like a word.
Different school of pizza. And Naples can thank the Americas for the tomatoes.
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Good point! The thread title is about “non-Americans” impressions of “American Food”, and perhaps not what “Americans” like or think of as "American. I find reddit confusing. Maybe because I hesitate to open the “app” and end up trying to make sense of it on Chrome.
I see “Non-Americans, what is the best “American” food?”. Is that all there is? Wow!
So this has nothing to do with what “American” food is, or "American " thoughts or favorites.
My bad.
My son and DIL might say In and Out. I think they know it’s more Californian than “American”. My DIL also thinks we only lbuy our sweetened yogurt and with fruit on the bottom.
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Then we need to qualify - street pizza, or slices, or something. I’m also not a fan of the notion that because an ingredient isn’t native to a country, a food made with said ingredient cannot be native to that country, either. Chickens aren’t native to the U.S., for instance. Does that mean that buffalo wings can’t be American food?
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I suppose one could eat Prairie Chicken wings (the Prairie chicken is native afaik).
This is why I don’t think defining or qualifying is the right way to approach the topic (I am bowing out after this reply), but to each their own. 
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“What’s the best American food” is literally the title of the thread.
Not sure what makes you so upset at this.
Oh well.
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I would argue pizza isn’t typical American - there might be sub/regional styles which evolved in the US but the origin of pizza isn’t in the US. It’s a bit ridiculous to say just because tomatoes originated in America the pizza hasn’t originated in Naples. Without the “groundwork” in Naples and immigrants spreading it around the world (not just the US - just look at the impact in Argentina and Brazil) there wouldn’t have been pizza in the US
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“As American as apple pie”
A dish that will date back to the early English settlers who will have brought this long established pie with them. Our earliest recipe for apple pie dates back to the 14th century. It will have been very well established by the early 1600s
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This wasn’t about origin.
This was about what non- Americans associate with America.
American pizza I associate with America .
Japanese corn-topped pizza I associate with Japan.
Pizza napoletana with Naples.
Pictou County Pizza with Pictou County.
NYC Pizza with NYC.
Destroit Pizza with Detroit.
Rhode Island Pizza with Rhode Island.
Chicago Deep Dish with Chicago.
Hot Pockets with America (invented by Iranian Jewish immigrants- 2 brothers- one is the father of a woman involved with the UCLA scholarship scandal)
Pizza Pops, the Canadian knockoff of Hot Pockets.
Pizza perogies- Alberta
Perogy pizza, also Alberta
…
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I’m sure French, English, Scottish and Irish people, as well as the Vikings, were making apple pies and tarts once they had some apples, flour, sugar and butter whether they were baking in New France, Nova Scotia, New England or Newfoundland.
Longstanding pie tradition throughout Acadia and Quebec.
The origin of apple pie is less interesting to me than current good regional iterations of apple pie.
If you ask an European (German, French, Italian, Spain etc) on the street which country they associate with pizza I am very confident >99% will answer Italy and not the US. It’s typical problem that Americans tend to think (also in culinary terms) that the earth circles around them and that everybody thinks they “invented” things whereas the reality is pretty much the opposite that the rest of the world has a more realistic grasp of historic context.
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The top foods Europeans seek out in NYC:
Pizza
Bagels
Hot Dogs
Pastrami/ corned beef
Guess what? All those epic NYC dishes came from Europe . The pastrami, an epic Ashkenazi food had roots in Turkish basturma. Katz’s pastrami is completely American despite the origin story of pastrami.
I don’t understand why pizza is so Italian when Americans have been making their regional versions of it- that barely resemble Neapolitan pies- for decades. Anyone looking for a doughy American pizza is going to find a charred, thin, wet in the middle Vero Napoletana pizza anemic compared to American pizza.
Maybe Frankfurt and Vienna should claim the hot dog as theirs.
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You’re making a different argument now.
Americanized foreign dishes are the heart of our cuisines.
Not a new argument.
Pizza is as American as Apple Pie
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I don’t generally disagree, but note most of the non-Americans in the reddit thread are specifically calling out New York style (floppy) pizza or Chicago style (deep dish) pizza as their versions of what pizza in the US are their favorites.
They’re not claiming that pizza as pizza is an American invention.
They’re just saying that that certain styles prevalent in America (and, by implication, not really common at home for them) are stuff they like to eat when visiting.
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It seems like people (here & on reddit, where TBH I haven’t spent much time) are conflating “best” with “typical” or “most popular” with regard to US foods non-Americans associate with the US.
As a German who grew up around US citizens, I stand by my answer of wings, cheeseburgers & fries, BLTs. I might add hot dogs, ice cream sandwiches & popcorn. I know there are many more regional dishes, but those come to mind to an ‘outsider.’
Prime Rib & Caesar salad are two more I could think of. Popcorn shrimp.
But maybe I’m missing the point.
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Maybe the non-Americans are not the ones missing the point. Bahaha.
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Those Italics look kinda Italian.
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You seem to think that only Anerica has over time developed regional styles of pizza (and other dishes) and that nothing similar has happened outside of the US. Modernist Pizza has for example many interesting chapters on regional pizza variation in the US and worldwide - and many variations are often not that unique to a region as you claim.
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USC, not UCLA in this case.
Janavs pleaded guilty to paying $300,000 to a consultant who falsified ACT scores for her two daughters and facilitated one daughter’s admission into the University of Southern California as a fake volleyball recruit.
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