50 dishes for 50 states

July 4, 2015 by
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deep dish pizza 

Today is a major holiday for the United States, and what better way to celebrate a nation’s birthday than to honor iconic regional American dishes? That’s just what the website Popsugar has done with its slideshow of 50 foods from each state in the US. 

As with every list of this type there are probably controversial choices because many states lay claim to different foods, and because large states can have several dishes attributed to them. But in the sense of solidarity that the holiday provides, we’ll overlook any such problems (even though I have a slight issue with the depiction of the food from my home state, North Dakota).

The show starts with Alabama and its fried apple pies. The legend of these small hand pies says they were born of frugality as people looked for a use for leftover pie filling and dough scraps. Moving down the alphabet there are some expected foods, like Alaska’s king crab legs, Georgia’s peach pie, Illnois’ deep dish pizza, and Pennsylvania’s Philly cheesesteak.

There are less common dishes as well. Idaho’s finger steaks (breaded and fried strips of tenderloin) are a bit unusual. They originated in Boise, Idaho in 1957, when local chef Milo Bybee developed the dish (again finding a use for leftovers). South Dakota’s entry is a food called chislic. Chislic is small pieces of meat on a stick, ranging from lamb to venison to beef, fried and served on toothpicks with sides of saltine crackers and garlic salt.

Photo of Chicago-style deep dish pizza from 12 Tomatoes, indexed by an EYB Member

Category: Holidays & Celebrations

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8 Comments

  • chawkins  on  July 4, 2015

    Neither of the two links work for me!

  • ellabee  on  July 4, 2015

    Get rid of eyb header info on the link and it works. Pretty accurate list as these things go! But the photo of ham biscuits is a howler; Virginia ham is not the pink canned midwestern product pictured, but a dark red cured meat served in paper-thin shavings on biscuits. Slices as thick as pictured would be used only to flavor simmering green beans or collards…

  • hillsboroks  on  July 4, 2015

    Thanks Ellabee! It was fun to look through the list and it really made me hungry! But Inhave to say I have a absolutely no quarrel with Marionberry Pie as the choice for Oregon. That or any other berry pie is what we are baking And eating at this time of the year.

  • chawkins  on  July 5, 2015

    Thanks, Ellabee!

  • Jane  on  July 5, 2015

    Both links now corrected – sorry about that!

  • Rinshin  on  July 5, 2015

    Hawaii = loco moco, plate lunch or poke.

    For CA, it's such a big, diverse state that it is hard to pick only one dish . Southern CA is so different to my area here in Norcal. Do we really still eat cobb salads?

  • Rinshin  on  July 5, 2015

    There seems to be lotsa sandwich types here too.

  • TrishaCP  on  July 5, 2015

    Crab cakes are a good call for Maryland, but steamed blue crabs with Old Bay or Maryland crab soup would have worked too.

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