Six Foods Brits Should Try in America (And Four You Can Skip)

One of the good things - in fact perhaps the best thing - about America is the sheer variety of foods and cuisines on offer. Anyone who thinks it's all burgers and fries probably hasn't been to the States! With so many different people who have immigrated and bought their own food cultures with them, it's bound to be varied. For the purposes of this list, I will keep it to foods that can be defined as broadly American, with some regional Southern specialities. Also didn't include steak/burger/fries/hot dog etc. Most of these things are easy enough to find in most parts of the world nowadays, and the purpose of this list is to tell people about things they might not have considered.

1. Corn dog - if you only ever try one stereotypical American food, make it one of these. A hotdog style sausage on a stick, deep fried in a very smooth, crispy batter. If you've ever had a battered sausage from the chippy, you have the idea. The batter is perhaps a little sweeter than I first expected, but it's still a nice savoury snack.
2. Grits - I know, I know. This one surprised me too! I assumed I was going to dislike grits before I even tried them. I'd read about fictional characters disliking them, and from the name I thought they would be gritty. They're actually really creamy, smooth. The best think I can compare it to is soup. I said to one of my friends that it would be good in wintertime, which lead to a joking "Sorry, what's that?" since he's from a hotter state. They do need a little extra seasoning to bring out the flavour - salt, pepper or butter - the ones I had came with cheese on top.
3. Proper BBQ - Americans really do have a good handle on doing BBQ. They keep the meat juicy and tender, and apply the right amount of sauce. Anything with the word "rib" in it is always a good idea from a specialist BBQ place. Pulled pork sandwiches are also neat. However, if you're not used to them, I have to remind you to watch your portion sizes! If you're coming from anywhere outside of the States, you probably aren't used to so much food.
4. Funnel cakes - deep fried sweet batter, topped with icing sugar. What's not to like?
5. Pumpkin pie - Americans do sweet pies well. See if you can't get your hands on canned pumpkin - foreign section in the supermarket or Amazon - and try it yourself! Most come with a recipe, or you can find one online, and they're not too tricky to make.
6. Chicken and waffles - the sweet and savoury mix works really well here. Americans are known for their odd food combinations, but when they find something that works, it really works.

These are four American foods I found didn't live up to the hype. I still recommend trying them out of curiosity to see what the fuss is about, but they aren't on my list of foods I seek out when I'm over there. The thing with a lot of these foods is that they're not actually bad, per se, but are just strange to my tastes.

1. White gravy - if my American friends knew this was on my list, they'd never invite me back. Sorry guys, but I just don't get it. It has very little flavour, and when it's on top of something like fried chicken that really needs a flavourful sauce, it doesn't do anything. Don't even get me started on the thing you call biscuits and gravy. Those aren't biscuits and that is not gravy!
2. Hershey's chocolate - if you're used to Cadbury's, Hershey's tastes awful. I'm sorry, but it's just a fact of life. It literally tastes of vomit. Which is possibly because of the presence of butyric acid in it.
3. Cinema popcorn - they put melted butter on it. The butter makes the popcorn go soggy. Popcorn is supposed to have something of a bite to it. Mixed sweet/salty from a UK cinema is way better.
4. Bacon - It's a tiny strip mostly of fat, cooked until it shrivels up so that it's no longer there. Wait until you go home, and have bacon with a proper amount of meat on it. I have no idea how Americans are obsessed with this when their bacon isn't even good.

There's my list! It's harder for me to figure out this list in reverse, since I don't really know what would appeal to American tastes. I was trying to get an even five and five, but I ended up with six and four. Do you have any suggestions or anything you think I've missed from this list?