There is a myth that the best (perhaps the only) real American cooking is regional cooking, cooking specific to the settlers and migrants to a particular region and the things that grow there. Once that might have been true and occasionally -- particularly at the very high end -- you may find something wonderful. (I am thinking wistfully of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester County, New York, and any lobster roll eaten at the end of a pier in New England on a sunny day.)
The reality is that in most places authentic regional food has been overtaken by bevies of chain restaurants, not just at the Macdonalds and Wendys level, but also at the $50 and up dining experience. Everywhere we are offered the same homogenized foods and experiences at places I would never eat at in my own home town, where I know where to find great food at every level from a juicy hamburger to Fine French Cuisine.
In the great cities there are still authentic experiences (and new restaurants experimenting with nearly anything, some of which may be very pleasant). But when you go to a tourist area (and there are lots of reasons to do that -- children to entertain and educate, historic sites or relatives to visit, foreign guests to expose to Americana), one falls into a deep culinary abyss -- except for the traditional American breakfast, which is available everywhere.
To the extent that any native cuisine still exists, it is likely to be bastardized, combined with gift shops and petting zoos, railroad museums and golf courses. You are likely to be sent away from the Pennsylvania Dutch country surrounding Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for example, convinced that the settlers existed entirely on protein and carbohydrates. We went to a polite but entirely formulaic (and expensive) steak house for dinner, just to be guaranteed that we could get a salad.
Since we're on the east coast, summer means frequent forays to the New Jersey, New England, or Maryland sea shore. There are still some authentic Italian restaurants and seafood houses tucked away here and there, but even then one must be careful to avoid pompous places that pretend to be seafood houses but are really Continental Restaurants in disguise (complete with truly dreadful wine lists and waitresses who know nothing about either wine or fish).
We have worked out a returning home strategy from weekend trips, however. Dinner is always Chinese (takeout or not) or Philadelphia Cheese Steaks and Hoagies. At least we can vouch for their authenticity.
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