5-Day United States
Itinerary

BBQ

America's most argued-about regional food — smoked low and slow over wood for 4 to 18 hours; Texas brisket over post oak is the pinnacle: a bark of black pepper and salt crust concealing 11 kg of USDA Prime beef with a smoke ring reaching a centimetre deep; Kansas City's burnt ends are the fatty brisket tip twice-smoked; Memphis ribs need no sauce; the regional differences are a matter of state identity.

Mardi Gras Cuisine: Gumbo

New Orleans' greatest dish and Louisiana Creole cooking's most complex achievement — a dark, roux-based stew (the roux must be cooked for 45 minutes to a chocolate-brown before anything else is added) with Andouille sausage, chicken or seafood, the holy trinity (celery, onion, green pepper), filé powder and okra; served over white rice; the roux is everything: too light and it is flour gravy, too dark and it is bitter ash.

New York-style Pizza

America's most consumed pizza and a distinct regional form — a thin, foldable 18-inch slice of hand-tossed dough with a crisp but pliable crust, a light layer of tomato sauce and low-moisture mozzarella, sold by the slice and eaten folded in half on the street; Joe's Pizza on Carmine Street is the benchmark; the water (New York's soft limestone-filtered supply) is credited for the crust's superiority.

Thanksgiving Dinner

America's most sacred annual meal — a roast turkey (brined or dry-rubbed overnight, roasted for 4 hours) with cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potato with gravy, sweet potato casserole with marshmallow, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie; a meal eaten by 50 million families on the fourth Thursday of November; the turkey must be golden, the gravy pan-dripped and the pie homemade.

Nashville Hot Chicken

Tennessee's most ferocious dish — a whole fried chicken breast or thigh soaked in buttermilk and cayenne, dredged and deep-fried, then brushed with a lard paste of cayenne, brown sugar and garlic that turns the crust a burnished red; served on white bread with pickles to cut the heat; invented as revenge at Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in the 1930s; now the most replicated regional dish in America.