Understanding USA: Culture, Sports and Cuisines

Fried Chicken And Waffles

Scottish immigrants brought the deep-fry method across the pond, and it was good old Colonel Saunders who started pressure-frying chicken breaded in his secret spices at his service station in Corbin, Kentucky, paving the way for Kentucky Fried and all the other fried chickens to come.

Nuggets, fingers, popcorn, bites, patties -- one of our all-time favorite ways to eat fried chicken is with waffles. And one of our favorite places to eat it is at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

Philly Cheese Steak

Made of "frizzled beef," chopped while being grilled in grease, the Philly cheese steak sandwich gets the rest of its greasy goodness from onions and cheese (American, provolone, or Cheese Whiz), all of which is laid into a long locally made Amoroso bun.

California Roll

Most credit chef Manashita Ichiro and his assistant Mashita Ichiro, at L.A.'s Tokyo Kaikan restaurant, which had one of the country's first sushi bars, with creating the "inside out" roll that preempted Americans' aversions by putting the nori (seaweed) on the inside of the rice and substituting avocado for toro (raw fatty tuna). The avocado-crab-cucumber roll became a hit, and from that SoCal beachhead, sushi conquered the country.

Lobster Rolls

Melted butter on knuckle, claw, or tail meat -- we love it simple. But the perfect accompaniment to a salty sea air day in Vacationland would have to be the lobster roll. Chunks of sweet lobster meat lightly dressed with mayo or lemon or both, heaped in a buttered hot dog bun makes for some seriously satisfying finger food. Fabulous finger-licking lobster time in Maine is during shack season, May to October, and every August, when Rockland puts on its annual lobster festival.

Peanut Butter Sandwich

Creamy or chunky? To each his own, but everybody -- except those afflicted with the dreaded and dangerous peanut allergy and the moms who worry sick about them -- loves a good peanut butter sandwich.

Peanut butter is an American mainstay, often paired with jelly for that lunchbox workhorse the PB&J. For a rocking alternative, try peanut butter sandwiches the way Elvis Presley liked them: with ripe mashed bananas, grilled in butter.

Banana Split

Like the banana makes it good for you. Still, kudos to whoever invented the variation of the sundae known as the banana split. There's the 1904 Latrobe, Pennsylvania, story, in which future optometrist David Strickler was experimenting with sundaes at a pharmacy soda fountain, split a banana lengthwise, and put it in a long boat dish.

You'll find plenty food for thought at the annual Banana Split Festival, which takes place on the second weekend in June in Wilmington.

Key Lime Pie

If life gives you limes, don't make limeade, make a Key lime pie. The official state pie of Florida, this sassy tart has made herself a worldwide reputation, which started in -- where else? -- the Florida Keys, from whence come the tiny limes that gave the pie its name.