USA / Mid-Atlantic

Mid-Atlantic American

Philly cheesesteak: griddled ribeye.

39 dishes · 143 ingredients · 19 techniquesReference

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Signature·Dish

Buffalo Wings

Crispy fried chicken wings coated in a spicy, tangy sauce

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Mid-Atlantic American cooking is the urban Northeast — Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware — where each city contributed an iconic dish. Philadelphia: cheesesteak (Pat's and Geno's still argue about the original), pretzels, scrapple, water ice. New York: pizza by the slice, bagels-and-lox, pastrami at Katz's, cheesecake. Buffalo: Buffalo wings (Anchor Bar, 1964). Baltimore: blue crab cakes, Old Bay seasoning on everything. The Jersey shore: Italian-American hoagies, salt-water taffy. New York cheesecake — Junior's, dense, never New York Style means lighter. Bagels boiled then baked, the Lower East Side Jewish inheritance. The cuisine is urban, immigrant-driven (Italian, Jewish, German), and the source of America's most-exported regional dishes.

Start Here

Philly Cheesesteak

Thin-sliced ribeye griddled with onions and (sometimes) bell pepper, topped with melted American or Cheez Whiz, piled on a long Italian roll. Eaten standing.

Why start here · Philly cheesesteak is the regional argument. Cheez Whiz or provolone? With onions or without? Pat's or Geno's? Choose your camp.

New York Cheesecake

Cream-cheese-and-sour-cream filling on a graham-cracker crust, baked in a water bath until dense, set, and crackless. Served plain or with strawberries.

Why start here · NY cheesecake at Junior's defines the genre — dense, tall, smooth, no fluff. Light-and-fluffy 'New York-style' elsewhere is misnomered marketing.

The Pantry

Egg

See all 143 ingredients›

How They Cook

Techniques that define this cuisine

Griddle

Jersey Pork Roll Sandwich

Smoking

Bagel with Lox Half-Smoke Hot Dog

Pan-frying

Scrapple

Curing

Bagel with Lox Eggs Benedict Hot Dog

See 15 more techniques›

Other regions

Siblings within American — each its own tradition.

Southern American

Soul food and BBQ heritage — fried chicken, biscuits, collards, pecan pie.

New England American

Cold-Atlantic Yankee — clam chowder, lobster rolls, baked beans, cranberry traditions.

Midwestern American

Heartland-farmer pragmatism — Chicago deep-dish, hotdish, Wisconsin cheese, Detroit Coney.

BBQ-TexMex American

Texas BBQ and Tex-Mex border — brisket, chili, nachos, fajitas, breakfast tacos.

Californian American

Pacific-Rim seasonal fusion — Cioppino, avocado toast, sourdough, In-N-Out.

Southwestern American

Red and green chile, pinto beans, and the question 'red or green?' — the New Mexico and Arizona table.

Appalachian American

The mountain foodways of Appalachia — soup beans simmered with a ham hock and eaten with cornbread, foraged spring ramps, sorghum syrup poured over biscuits, and apples dried and stacked into spiced cakes. A thrifty cuisine of hog, corn and preservation, with deep Scots-Irish and Cherokee roots.

Pacific Northwest American

Salmon, Dungeness crab, and berries — the cool, water-rich corner of Oregon and Washington.

Floridian American

Florida's sun-and-sea cooking — stone-crab claws with mustard sauce, grouper and conch from the Gulf and the Keys, citrus in every dessert, and the Cuban-American table of Tampa and Miami: pressed Cuban sandwiches, black beans and rice, picadillo. Caribbean, Cuban and Cracker-South strands meet on the peninsula.

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