Unearth The Voyage
American food has a wild personality all its own. From state fairs to Sunday dinners, the U.S. has cooked up combinations that leave the rest of the world scratching their heads.
Some of these dishes are pure comfort, some are downright bizarre, and a few are both at the same time. Get ready to see your favorite foods through fresh eyes.
1. Spray Cheese (Cheese in a Can)
Squeeze a trigger and out comes cheese – that’s the dream, apparently. Spray cheese, sold in pressurized cans, has been a staple of American snack culture since the 1960s.
Visitors from Europe, where aged wheels of artisan cheese are practically sacred, tend to react with wide-eyed horror.
The product is shelf-stable, meaning it doesn’t need refrigeration until opened. That fact alone baffles most international guests.
Real cheese goes bad. This stuff just… sits there, waiting.
Technically, it’s a processed cheese product made with whey and emulsifying salts. It’s salty, creamy, and oddly satisfying on a cracker.
Americans don’t overthink it. The rest of the world absolutely does, and honestly, the debate is half the fun.
2. Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches
Ask any American adult about their childhood lunch and this sandwich will come up within seconds. The combo of creamy peanut butter and sweet fruit jelly on soft white bread is deeply nostalgic – practically a rite of passage.
But outside the U.S., people often find the pairing genuinely strange.
In many European countries, peanut butter itself is a niche product, not a pantry staple. Pairing it with jam and calling it a meal?
That’s a step too far for most. Some countries view it as closer to dessert than lunch.
The sandwich became popular during World War II when both peanut butter and jelly were included in U.S. military rations. Soldiers brought the habit home, and it stuck.
Today, Americans consume about 700 million pounds of peanut butter every year. That’s a lot of sandwiches.
3. Chicken and Waffles
Crispy, salty fried chicken sitting on top of a sweet, syrup-drenched waffle sounds like a breakfast and dinner collision – because it is. This dish has deep roots in Southern American cooking and Harlem soul food culture.
International visitors often stare at the plate for a moment before they commit.
The sweet-and-savory contrast is the whole point. The syrup soaks into the waffle while the crunchy chicken provides a salty bite.
Once people try it, the confusion usually melts away fast.
Food historians trace the pairing back to the 1600s, when waffles were a popular dish in the American South. The modern version gained massive popularity through Harlem restaurants in the 1930s.
Today it’s on menus everywhere, from diners to upscale brunch spots. Strange on paper, absolutely brilliant on the plate.
4. Biscuits and Gravy
Tell a British person you’re having biscuits and gravy for breakfast and watch the confusion unfold. In the UK, biscuits are crunchy cookies, and gravy is a dark, rich meat sauce.
Neither of those things is what Americans mean, and the gap in understanding is genuinely hilarious.
American biscuits are soft, fluffy, buttery bread rolls. The gravy is a thick white sauce made from sausage drippings, milk, and flour, loaded with black pepper and crumbled pork sausage.
Together, they make one of the heartiest breakfasts imaginable.
The dish has roots in the post-Revolutionary War South, where affordable ingredients stretched a long way. Soldiers and working-class families relied on it for fuel.
Today, biscuits and gravy is a diner staple across the country, especially in the South and Midwest. It’s simple, filling, and wildly misunderstood by the rest of the world.
5. Corn Dogs
A hot dog skewered on a stick, dunked in sweetened cornbread batter, and deep-fried until golden – if that sounds like something invented at a carnival, that’s because it basically was. Corn dogs are the ultimate American fair food, and they look absolutely unhinged to anyone seeing them for the first time.
The concept of coating meat in batter and frying it isn’t new globally, but the cornmeal batter and stick delivery system feel uniquely American. Street food vendors in other countries often react to corn dogs with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.
The corn dog was popularized at the 1942 State Fair of Texas, though several inventors have claimed credit over the years. Today, frozen corn dogs are a grocery store staple, and fresh ones remain a fairground favorite.
Messy, portable, and unapologetically fun to eat.
6. Grits
Ground dried corn cooked into a thick, creamy porridge doesn’t sound like breakfast to most of the world – but in the American South, skipping grits is practically unpatriotic. The dish has been a cornerstone of Southern cooking for centuries, and it inspires fierce loyalty among its fans.
Most international visitors taste grits and immediately ask, “What am I supposed to do with this?” The answer depends entirely on who you ask. Some top them with butter and salt, others go for shrimp, cheese, or sausage.
The possibilities are wide open.
Grits trace back to Native American cuisine, where ground corn was a dietary staple long before European settlers arrived. The Muskogee people are often credited with introducing the dish.
Today, the southern U.S. even has a region nicknamed the “Grits Belt.” Simple ingredients, endless variations, and a lot of regional pride packed into every bowl.
7. Meatloaf
Ground beef shaped into a loaf, baked in the oven, and topped with a ketchup glaze sounds like something invented by accident – and yet meatloaf has become one of the most beloved comfort foods in American history. International visitors tend to find the concept a little puzzling at first glance.
The dish looks humble, almost deliberately unglamorous. It doesn’t photograph well, and the name doesn’t exactly sell itself.
But one bite usually changes the conversation. Seasoned with onions, Worcestershire sauce, and breadcrumbs, a good meatloaf is deeply savory and satisfying.
Meatloaf has roots in 5th-century Rome, but the American version evolved during the Great Depression when stretching meat with fillers was a necessity. It became a weeknight dinner icon in the 1950s.
Today it’s still a staple on family tables and diner menus, a no-fuss classic that refuses to go out of style.
8. S’mores
Roasting a marshmallow over an open flame and sandwiching it with chocolate between two graham crackers sounds like a beautiful mess – because it absolutely is. S’mores are a campfire ritual for millions of Americans, and the whole experience is just as important as the taste.
The problem for international visitors is that none of the three ingredients are universally familiar. Graham crackers don’t really exist outside North America.
Marshmallows aren’t a pantry staple everywhere. The combination of all three is even harder to explain.
The first printed s’mores recipe appeared in a 1927 Girl Scouts handbook, though the treat likely existed before that. The name is a contraction of “some more,” which tells you everything you need to know about how addictive they are.
Today, Americans consume about 90 million pounds of marshmallows each year, and a significant chunk of that goes straight onto a stick.
9. Sweet Potato Casserole (with Marshmallows)
Putting marshmallows on top of a vegetable dish and baking it until golden is the kind of culinary decision that requires no apology in America and complete justification everywhere else. Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows is a Thanksgiving tradition, and it sits firmly in the zone between side dish and dessert.
Guests from other countries often do a double take when they see it on the holiday table. Is it a vegetable?
Is it a dessert? The answer is yes.
Americans have decided that sweet potatoes deserve to be sweet, and no one is taking that away from them.
The dish became popular in the early 20th century when the Angelus Marshmallow company began including recipes on its packaging to boost sales. It worked spectacularly.
Today, the casserole is so embedded in Thanksgiving culture that skipping it can cause genuine family tension. Worth every marshmallow.
10. Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin as a dessert filling is not a concept the rest of the world has fully embraced, and Americans are completely fine with that. Every November, pumpkin pie takes center stage on Thanksgiving tables across the country, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a way that’s distinctly, unmistakably American.
Visitors from Asia and Europe often taste it expecting a savory flavor and get a silky, spiced custard instead. The reaction ranges from pleasant surprise to polite confusion.
Pumpkin in most other cuisines is used in soups or stews, not pies.
Pumpkins are native to North America, and Indigenous communities cooked with them long before European settlers arrived. The Pilgrims adapted pumpkin into early pie-like dishes, and the tradition evolved from there.
Today, the U.S. produces over a billion pounds of pumpkin annually. Most of it ends up in a pie tin, right where it belongs.
11. Jell-O Salad
Somewhere in mid-century America, someone decided that gelatin should contain vegetables, fruit, or even meat, and that this creation deserved to be called a salad. Jell-O salads were wildly popular from the 1950s through the 1980s, and they remain a potluck staple in parts of the Midwest and South today.
The concept is hard to explain to someone who hasn’t grown up around it. Imagine lime-green gelatin holding shredded carrots and cream cheese in a perfect molded ring.
That’s a dish people brought to church potlucks with genuine pride.
Jell-O itself was invented in 1897 in LeRoy, New York. Aggressive marketing in the early 1900s turned it into a household name.
Recipe booklets promoted by the Jell-O company encouraged housewives to get creative, and creative they got. Today, Jell-O salads are more nostalgia than trend, but they’re still showing up at family reunions across America.
12. Fried Butter
Yes, this is a real food. Yes, Americans invented it.
Fried butter is exactly what it sounds like: a frozen stick of butter coated in sweet dough, dropped into a deep fryer, and served warm, often dusted with powdered sugar or cinnamon. It debuted at the Texas State Fair in 2009 and immediately went viral.
International food journalists covering American state fairs often list fried butter as the most baffling item they’ve encountered. The concept of frying pure fat seems to break something in the brains of people who didn’t grow up with fair food culture.
Abel Gonzales Jr., the inventor, won the “Most Creative” award at the fair that year. The inside melts into a warm, buttery pool while the outside stays crispy.
It’s indulgent, theatrical, and completely unnecessary in the best possible way. State fairs exist partly just to see how far American creativity can push a deep fryer.
13. Sloppy Joes
The name alone is doing a lot of work here. A Sloppy Joe is seasoned ground beef cooked in a tangy tomato-based sauce and piled onto a soft hamburger bun.
It is, by design, impossible to eat without making a mess. That’s not a flaw.
That’s the whole personality of the dish.
Most countries have their own version of ground meat in sauce, but the combination of sweetness, tang, and the deliberately soft bun is distinctly American. Visitors often find the texture and sauce level surprising, especially the sweetness.
The origin story is debated, but one popular claim traces Sloppy Joes to a cook named Joe at a Sioux City, Iowa diner in the 1930s. The canned version, Manwich, launched in 1969 and made the dish a weeknight staple for generations.
Napkins are non-negotiable. Extra napkins are strongly recommended.
14. Deep-Fried Oreos
Taking a perfectly good chocolate sandwich cookie, dipping it in funnel cake batter, frying it until golden, and showering it in powdered sugar is either genius or madness. Americans at state fairs decided long ago that the answer is both, and they’ve never looked back.
Deep-fried Oreos have become one of the most recognizable symbols of American fair food excess. Food bloggers from around the world travel specifically to try them, often with a mix of excitement and genuine concern for their health.
The warm, gooey center is usually what wins everyone over.
The dish was invented by Charlie Boghosian, known as “Chicken Charlie,” at the San Diego County Fair around 2002. It spread to fairs nationwide almost immediately.
The outside turns slightly crispy while the cookie inside softens and the cream filling melts into something almost unrecognizable. Strange on paper, unforgettable in practice.
