You haven’t had good New York pizza. Street carts maybe? If you want to pick on NY pizza the problem is grease, not sauce or cheese. You shouldn’t have to blot your food with paper towels before eating it.
Sauce on a cracker isn’t really pizza, neither is deep dish. Sorry. I have to say that or they won’t let me back into NY. Proper thin crust is an art form.
I’ve eaten lots of NY pizza. The grease comes from whole milk mozzarella.
Now here’s a mind-blower; I’ve eaten my share of pizza in NY, Chicago & lots of other places but the best pizza I ever had was from a little place called Medusa - open only in the summer - on the Greek island of Skiathos in the Agean between Greece & Turkey.
St. Louis style is cut in squares as well. I think it is probably related to Chicago-style thin crust. I’ve never had Chicago-style, though, so I can’t speak to any textural differences in the crusts. Any time I’m in Chicago I stuff myself shamelessly with Lou Malnati’s deep dish!
We had a big middle American cookout last night - I fired up the charcoal kettle for burgers! I served them on onion buns, tater tots cooked in bacon grease on the side. I also made my favorite burger condiment, green olive mayonnaise. While it’s not a traditional middle American thing (I don’t think), I got the idea from a small burger chain that came to my town when I was in junior high, called Hot ‘n’ Now. They served a double olive burger that was just two patties, lettuce, tomato and a TON of mayo with a handful of green olives stuck in it. This combination represented unparalleled originality for mid-Michigan in the 80s, and I have loved it ever since! The Hot ‘n’ Now in my hometown closed years ago, but there is still one left in the southern part of the state. I stopped in last time we drove through that area and the double olive burger is still as good as ever!
Anyway, for dessert I made a mixed berry crumble with almond streusel. In Michigan/Ohio this is called a “crisp,” but I know other Americans might call it something else (cobbler, buckle, etc.). I say call it whatever you want, just don’t put oatmeal in your streusel! 
Damn that sounds good!
Tonight will be Swiss steak, mashed potatoes and probably spinach (if it is still viable) quickly cooked in bacon grease.
My Mother would make Swiss steak once in a while. About 10 years ago I started missing it and began trying to duplicate her recipe. (No sign of it in her recipe box and she no longer really speaks enough to convey that level of information.) I tried a half dozen recipes but no dice. Finally tried one of those seasoning packets that have you cook the meat in an oven bag. Darned if it doesn’t taste exactly like Moms! Maybe that was her recipe the whole time?
What exactly does Swiss steak mean to you? I didn’t grow up with anything called Swiss steak, but DH said that in southern Missouri, the same dish, a cube steak with a brown gravy with onions, could be called either Swiss or Salisbury steak. We DID occasionally have what we called Salisbury steak when I was a kid, but as I recall it was a cube steak in creamy mushroom gravy (or rather, cream of mushroom soup).
Swiss steak was sliced, not cubed. I’ve been using round steak which seems to match the memory. It was served in a thinish tomato gravy .Always served over mashed potatoes. Different flavor profile than an Italian tomato sauce.
Salisbury steak was always cubed steak or patties from grind with a brown gravy and onions. Sometimes it had mushrooms.
This is the seasoning packet. It is hard to find these days. I think the last time I found it was in New England last year. I really need to work on a from scratch version.
Would American Basque cuisine be considered Middle American? It’s not literally located in “middle” America (I’m assuming that’s the fly-over states with small populations) but it reminds me of Middle American cuisine.
I’m headed to Central Valley in California soon, it’d give me an incentive to report back!
I’m still not 100% sure what Middle America is! But please do report about the Basque adventures.
I was fortunate to be able to eat at a few Basque restaurants when there still was a presence in San Francisco. The food was really delicious!
Is the packet something that would have been common when your mom made the dish often? I wonder if it was something even less specific like a bullion cube… ?
Perhaps. She was mainly a "from scratch " cook. Exceptions were Good Seasonings salad dressing packets and also the cream of mushroom soup used in her tuna casserole. I think the baking bags came out after the '70’s so if she used a seasoning packet it predated this rendition.
Could be she kept the packet as a cheat for days she wanted a break! She had her secrets like the solo bottle of Coke hidden in the vegetable bin for her lunch indulgence…
Central valley in ca counts. Los Banos ?
Bakersfield!
Absolutely . I would take the dreaded 11 hour drive from Sacramento with my sister and husband . Bakersfield was are final leg to Henderson Nevada to see my nephew. A old timer had a seat exclusively for him and his dog to eat at everyday in this Italian restaurant Luigi’s . We saw it . So cool, very polite.
It’s a tough drive, that’s for sure.
You could fly to Europe in the same amount of time.
Duplicate
What a fascinating article. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! I’ll be there tomorrow. I’m excited. 
