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American's have a terrible dilemma when it comes to declaring our favorite American food. We are a nation of immigrants and while much of our food is quite delicious, it does not take it's origins from us. Our food is as diverse as the countries that our people came from. I'm not sure there is a dish that is truly American, not even the hot dog is truly American. It is of German descent.

Some would say that the favorite food of Americans is to take any food, mass produce it in some whacky, almost recognizable form of the original food, wrap it in paper and sell it through a drive-through window. Or, for manufacturing purposes, if it's not possible to make it look like a semblance of the original, we simply market it as the new and improved look of the original. American's are marketing geniuses when it comes to selling mass quantities of food. Maybe that's our true calling in the culinary world.

Some of the most popular, mass produced American foods are:

Pizza, BBQ, hard-shell some kinda maybe meat sorta tacos, French fries, and hot dogs and all of the above have origins outside of the United States, except the hard-shell some kinda maybe meat sorta tacos those are definitely American (Mexicans sure didn't invent them).

The potato chip was invented in 1853 by George Crum, a New York chef, who was of Native American decent so this popular snack may qualify as a truly American food. So, out of the choice between hard-shell some kinda maybe meat sorta tacos and the potato chip, I'm gonna have to say my favorite American food is the potato chip. As reported in history, this culinary delight was created by accident when a patron of the restaurant didn't like the thickness of the French fries they were served. The patron sent back the order back, asking for thinner fries.

It's possible that the hamburger would also qualify as an American food invention but because I'm a vegetarian, I'm still sticking with the potato chip as the best American food invention, especially since nowadays, a great deal of the hamburgers sold here in the United States are made with that same maybe meat sorta stuff.

I think Americans also invented that stuff called "Pasteurized Processed Cheese Food." I do believe the French are still laughing at us over that. So, the potato chip it is "Favorite American Food Invention."

Learn more about this author, Martha Rhodes.
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