Which State Has The Best Food?

Image: Jim Cooke

Do you consider your hometown dish to be the best food in the United States of America? We'll see about that.

Albert Burneko wrote an article over at Deadspin where he ranked the best and the worst of signature food from all 50 states of the USA. Did your favorite food make the list? Did Burneko fail to rank your state's food appropriately? Why did he rank Ohio's Cincinnati Chili lower than "being hit by a car"? I mean, worse than Alaska's whipped seal oil and berries delicacy known as akutaq? And what happened to Nevada's state food, anyway?

But first, the 10 best regional food in America:

1. Chicago-style deep-dish pizza (Illinois)
2. Shirmp and grits (South Carolina)
3. Mission-style burrito (California)
4. Crab cake (Maryland)
5. Peach pie/cobbler (Georgia)
6. Gumbo (Louisiana)
7. Key lime pie (Florida)
8. Fried green tomatoes (Alabama)
9. Stacked enchilada with green chile (New Mexico)
10. Marionberry pie (Oregon)

... then we'll skip down to the bottom 10:

41. Michigan pasty (Michigan)
42. Chislic (South Dakota)
43. Green Jell-O with carrots
44. Lutefisk (North Dakota)
45. Salt water taffy
45. Handheld meat pies (Nebraska)
46. Akutaq (Alaska)
47. Boiled dinner (New Hampshire)
48. Nothing (Nevada)
49. Steamed cheeseburger (Connecticut)
50. Cincinnati chili (Ohio)

What's your state food and did it rank correctly in the list? Read the full list over at Deadspin

For New Jersey, their choice of "Salt water taffy" is met with NO NO NO!!! I've seen lists like these before, and invariably they are unaware of the true NJ delicacy known as Tailor Ham, or pork roll.

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Dear Cincinatti,
Cinnamon in chili is just weird, but chocolate in it? That's simply unforgivable. If you've ever wondered why your chili is constantly covered with a pound of cheddar and almost always served over spaghetti or hot dogs, it's because it is too terrible to eat on its own.

On an unrelated note. What is a Mission-style burrito? I'm from CA and I've never had one of those. Here in San Diego, most people just get bean and cheese, carne asada or the California, which comes with carne asada and french fries.

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This person says "I mean, it's salmon. Whoop-de-fuckin'-do. I like mine with extra board." Which leads me to believe they haven't actually tried my state's and probably alot of other state's delicacy while making this list. Problem with making a top list is that it's always not objective and usually not based on polls on popular opinion. It's based on the likes of the person who made the list.

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Yes, our (Texas's) barbecue brisket is definitely the best.

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I'm most interested in the two "worse-than-nothing" options. I can imagine a steamed cheeseburger being pretty awful, but what's going on with Cincinnati chili?

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