What are traditional American dishes?

Wei Perng, MPH, PhD

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During a recent trip to Mexico City, I had the pleasure of sampling several traditional Mexican dishes: crickets on guacamole, pickled nopal on salad, and beef tacos de lengua (cow tongue tacos)! Yum, I’ll try anything at least twice. My Mexican colleagues laughed at my enthusiasm and asked, “What are some traditional American dishes?” Images of French fries (wait – those are from Belgium), hot dogs (hmm, sausages in bread are from Germany), and pizza (er, nope… Italy) flashed through my mind. Embarrassed, I said that I was not entirely sure, that I would find out, and pivoted to prattling on about traditional Taiwanese foods. For the remainder of my trip, I was plagued by a nagging question: I was born and raised in the U.S. – why can’t I think of any traditional American dishes? 

​It turns out, I am not alone. America is a melting pot of cultures, and many of the foods now considered “traditional American foods” were imported from abroad as diverse immigrants settled into varied communities across the country. But, there is a darker component to this too. My ignorance on traditional American dishes is also due to the systematic erosion of the Native American culture and experience. Displacement and assimilation, often through violence, has led to the loss of Indigenous culture, including knowledge of how to live and eat sustainably using local resources. A major component of this was the reliance of many American Indian communities on the Commodity Food Program, which provides ultra-processed foods like canned beef, powdered eggs, and sugary beverages. As described in a NPR interview with Chef Sean Sherman of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, some Indigenous persons are making an effort to identify native ingredients and recipes to reclaim their culture, and break the cycle of reliance on low nutrient/high calorie government food that have directly contributed to the high rates of type 2 diabetes, excess adiposity, and heart disease in American Indian populations. 

​As I continue to follow such stories in hopes of learning more about traditional American foods, I have ongoing conversations with American Indian students at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical campus who have kindly and openly shared their culture with me, including their favorite traditional foods – some of which have divisive histories. I learned that fry bread (which reminds me of Taiwanese you tiao) is a staple comfort food for the Navajo peoples, but it is also a relic of how they have had to make do with government-rationed commodities of powdered, preserved, and dry goods. Other dishes have a happier history. For example, Three Sisters Succotash is a stew comprising corn, beans, and squash – the primary crops of many Native American tribes. These vegetables are frequently planted together for their mutual benefit: the beans give nitrogen to the soil and climb the corn stalks to obtain sunlight, while the large leaves of the squash vines keep the soil damp. Accordingly, this dish not only reflects the deep agricultural knowledge of American Indian peoples, but also symbolizes central cultural tenets of friendship and support, and never taking more than one can give back to their community. While I still have a lot to learn about American Indian culture, I cherish the nuggets of knowledge shared with me thus far, and look forward to being better prepared next time I am asked about traditional American dishes.