7-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.

Cheesesteak

Philadelphia's most iconic sandwich: thinly shaved ribeye (the meat must be frozen briefly to slice thin enough) cooked on a flat-top griddle and topped with Cheez Whiz (the canonical choice), provolone or American cheese in a soft, hinge-cut Amoroso roll; Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's Steaks face each other across an intersection in South Philly and have been arguing about the definitive version since 1930.

Lobster Roll

New England's summer pinnacle: cold-water Atlantic lobster knuckle and claw meat, minimally dressed with mayonnaise and a whisper of celery salt, piled high in a butter-toasted split-top hot dog bun (Connecticut version is warm, dressed with melted butter); the lobster must be as fresh as possible; eaten on a picnic table at a Maine wharf shack with a bag of salt-and-vinegar chips and a cold Moxie soda.