Regional US Cuisine

For the final stop on our whirlwind regional American food tour, we're climbing the lofty peaks of the Rockies and Grand Tetons to scope out the fabulous food finds of the Mountain West region. In an area defined by rugged landscapes and harsh weather patterns, settlers learned to live off the sometimes bleak landscapes and take advantage of the region's bountiful native fauna. What has resulted is a food culture that appreciates each ingredient and looks to its determined past to craft each hearty dish. Care to learn more about the range of high altitude cuisine? Just keep reading.

In part five of our regional American food tour, we're touching down on the rolling hills and Great Lakes of the Midwest to investigate what makes this area so delicious. With a friendly handshake, the Midwest has welcomed immigrants from all over the world and assimilated their food into a distinct, hearty cuisine. Bring a healthy appetite, because the Midwest aims to fill your stomach and heart with its honest, comforting, and very filling dishes. Keep reading for an introduction to eating in America's heartland.

After sauntering through the seafood mecca of the eastern seaboard, the sweet and fried flavors of the Deep South, and the fresh, pasture-raised bounty of the West Coast, we're headed to a place where the days are hotter than Hades, and so are people's palates. Folks trek to the Southwest to get in touch with their spiritual sides, but it's just as much a destination for your gastronomical side. Ready to see what's in store? Then keep reading.

Photo: Anna Monette Roberts

The Deep South may be renowned for utilizing pantry items like molasses, butter, and sugar, but the West Coast is famous for having its foodways at its fingertips. This includes seasonal produce from a few hours inland, ideal conditions for vineyards, pastured animals that provide meats, cheese, milk, and eggs, and — particularly in the Pacific Northwest — fresh seafood from the nearby ocean. Keep reading to learn more about the predominantly casual culture and rustic, often simplistic expression of food on the West Coast.

After checking out the seafood and fast food bounty made famous by the Northeast, we're traveling due south to investigate the culinary traditions that make Southern food what it is today. From Virginia down to Florida and clear west to Louisiana and Arkansas, this is a region with a rich history. Southern cooking draws upon American Indian, French, Spanish, African, Caribbean, and English influences (to name but a few). And between forming their own self-declared country for several years and feeling culturally independent from the rest of the US in ensuing ones, Southerners have developed a unique and disarmingly delicious cuisine that's distinctly their own. Care to join us on our tour? Just keep reading for more on Southern cuisine.

As we found in our exploration of barbecue, American food traditions are steeped in this country's diverse and varied history and are not at all consistent from one area to the next. This week, we're traveling from one coast to the other, examining the foods and traditions that make each region unique, and our first stop is in the birthplace of these fine 50 states: the East Coast.

It isn't difficult to come up with a list of iconic foods originating along the Atlantic. With some of the oldest American food traditions introduced since the Constitution was scribed, the region running from Maine down to Maryland boasts a plethora of delicacies that take advantage of the bountiful land and sea and the blending of cultural food practices. Care to take the tour? Keep reading for our guidebook!

We've traveled through the heartland to examine iconic regional barbecue styles, but the birthplace of this nation's smoky tradition lies in South Carolina. In a marriage of the perfect meat with the perfect cooking process, Spanish explorers and their European pigs traveled here in the 17th century and happened upon the American Indians and their slow cooking method with smoke. Long before the region gained the name it boasts today, people were enjoying tender pork thanks to this merging of cultural traditions.

The barbecue developed in South Carolina is not unlike that of its Northern counterpart — with one key difference. Like North Carolinian barbecue, the smoked meat on the coast (the "Pee Dee" region) uses the whole hog with a spicy, vinegary sauce applied during cooking. And in the western part of the state along the Savannah River, the sauce integrates ketchup while the meat of choice is the moister, fattier shoulder. But travel to the Midlands, and you'll come across Carolina gold: a mustard-based sauce traced to early German settlers in the 18th century. South Carolina is perhaps best known for this contribution to barbecue culture, as no other state has adopted mustard sauces with the same fervor.

Have you tried South Carolina-style barbecue and its famed mustard sauce? What did you think?

Take the tour of America's other iconic barbecue regions:

• Texas
• Kansas City
• Memphis
• North Carolina

Source: Flickr user Charleston's TheDigitel