My problem is, when I think American food, I think pizza, pasta, BBQ, and southern food. She doesn't like the first two,I'm not really into BBQ, and I worry that anything too southern would be difficult to find all the ingredients for.
That wiki page is helpful though! I will see if I can't pull a few ideas from that...
Why not just make her something delicious that you eat *in* the U.S.? To me, that's pretty much the beauty of "American" food! At our best, we're a melting pot of different cuisines. At our worst, let's be honest, our food is pretty crappy and unhealthy.
I know! That's what I love about American food too! But then I feel she'll be all "this is really good, but it's really Mexican/Middle Eastern/Italian/Greek/whatever, so it doesn't count."
You are brave to take on a young person's dislike of "American food", when chances are she won't like anything that's not familiar or else that her dislike is based more on general animosity than any real culinary factors. That said, how about some baked beans and cornbread to go with your vegan coleslaw? That's as American as anything I can think of. You can bake her an apple pie but she'll probably think it's too sweet. Can you get US-style sweet potatoes there and make chips with them? How about a nice green salad? I don't love green beans, but you could do something with them and almonds? Maybe something along the lines of pumpkin pie or muffins?
She actually does a lot of baking on her own (we had apple pie for dessert when I was over), so I think most breads and pies would be ok. The baked beans sound like a good idea, so long as I keep them from getting too mushy.
I think you're right about it being a familiarity thing, but I'm still going to try!
If she's into baking then the pumpkin pie could be a good idea. She might have a point of reference in the egg custard tarts that are popular in HK (don't know where you are in China?) and pumpkin pie isn't usually as sweet as other American desserts
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I'm British so perhaps ignore me. But the first things I thought of were all Mexican :p Once I ruled out Mexican things I got burgers and fries then hot dogs then thought deep pan pizza. But I think my point is perhaps you should show American food as food influenced by all over the world due to it's ethnic diversity rather than trying too hard to find something totally American in origins
That's funny :D The more I think about the things I like to eat and what my friends like to eat, the more I realize how ethnically diverse American food actually is, and how strange that may be to people from outside the US.
I don't think it's particularly strange. But I think that's because a lot of what I eat is Indian and even if I go out for food it's most likely for Indian. I think we might have just about as many Indian take aways as we do chippys. A lot of the food we think of as Indian was invented in the UK or is fairly different from it's Indian equivalent. If they do survives of favorite dishes then Indian food is always prominent. I've never thought about food others places that much but I guess I imagined other places have a similar situation
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when I think "American food" I think things like burgers and barbecue...
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That wiki page is helpful though! I will see if I can't pull a few ideas from that...
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S'mores, pumpkin pie, waldorf salad, nachos, brownies... /random ideas
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I think you're right about it being a familiarity thing, but I'm still going to try!
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