It depends on how you define “uniquely created in the USA”.
Frybread has a rich and complex history within the USA, and I would argue it’s very much “uniquely created in the USA” but most variations have a pretty much identical recipe to hungarian lángos.
Also a lot of USA food is very regional. Hawaii has a lot of unique foods, such as loco moco, spam musubi, etc. but would be unrecognizable to most USAians.
Teriyaki dishes are technically Japanese, but the Pacific northwest has taken the concept and run with it to the point where it’s now it’s own unique creation. It also has cheese zombies, jojos, Seattle dog, huckleberry everything, etc.
Southwest USA and Mexican have a lot of overlap but are also just as distinct with “Tex-mex” being it’s own culinary thing. Puffy tacos, chili con queso, cornbread, cowboy caviar, nachos, etc.
Midwest, Alaskan, southern, east-coast, Puerto Rican, etc. all also have their own unique culinary traditions at this point with lots of micro-regional distinctions within them.
However, they aren’t marketed, advertised or popularized in the same way that things like “Chinese food” is. Despite “American-Chinese food”, like general Tsao, or orange chicken, being very much it’s own genre that is unrecognizable as either traditional/old recipe USA or Chinese foods.
To discover many of these things you can’t just “tourism” through but have to actually try to know and understand the people and places.
Conversely, it’s not like Italian food stops being Italian due to its use of “new world” food stuffs like tomatoes, or pasta is any less “Italian” despite it just being Chinese noodles with a few changed ingredients.
If you insist on playing that game you’ll find nothing is unique.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
America does have its own style, though. Or rather a set of styles, just like any other region.
I would say that one aspect of “American-style” cooking (and “American” here includes “Canadian”) is avoiding cooking. There’s so many options when you don’t really want to cook. Just stack some premade elements onto the premade bread and you’ve got a sandwich. Or stick a frozen dinner in the oven (with entire sections of grocery stores dedicated to the options). Or boil some premade dried pasta and mix with heated up premade sauce. Or just get someone to bring you warm food made by someone else.
Or for actual cooking, there’s each of the variants in the OP meme. So many things that people complain about not being authentic, when it’s actually just being cooked American style. Might be due to what ingredients are easier or cheaper to get, which style is easier to make, or just preference.
Pizza is a great example. I’ve had pizza that was described as “authentic italian” and personally I find it to be soggy and floppy compared to the pizza I normally eat. It’s not bad, but I prefer the American style by far. At least in general, a poorly executed American pizza can still be gross, and a high end Italian pizza will probably still be more enjoyable than a mid end American pizza, but all else equal, I like pizza with crust that isn’t saturated with sauce to the point of no structural integrity and toppings smothered in cheese.
Curry is another one that varies quite a bit by style. I like the Thai style (the curry is more of a soup than a sauce) the best personally, but don’t think I’ve ever tried a curry I didn’t like. It’s a dish where you need to be more specific than “curry” to say what you have in mind.
The reality is that the vast majority of people have had as little to do with how their culture’s cuisine has developed as anyone else, so the bragging or competitive comparisons don’t really make sense. Same thing if there’s any shame with being from one of the less prominent or made fun of cultures. I’m Canadian and while I love a good poutine, I had nothing to do with their invention.
Whether or not the dishes were invented in North America, I’d say that the following all are North American dishes (mostly based on my own upbringing in Southern Canada):
Today, my culture includes things like sushi and curry, too. Not to say I have any kind of ownership or special connection other than I enjoy eating them and make an effort to do so from time to time.