Two years ago we set out to identify a signature dish for each state, from Sonoran dogs in Arizona to cheese curds in Wisconsin. For the second iteration of this list, we wanted to go beyond the classics—the food everyone tells you to try when you visit—and highlight chefs and cuisines that have had a distinct impact or reflect a noteworthy community in the state. We looked at all 50 states (plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico) and their unique food histories, debating our choice for each on impassioned Zoom calls and lengthy Slack threads. The final result is a list of state-specific cuisines, each based on a longstanding diaspora (like Vietnamese food in Louisiana), an Indigenous community (Abenaki in Vermont), or something totally endemic (New Mexican in New Mexico). Our goal was to highlight a cuisine worth traveling to each state for, much of which you truly can’t get anywhere else. In some cases, it was so hard to choose that we included an honorable mention. At a time when much of the travel we’re doing is domestic and road-trip-based, it feels apt to celebrate America’s varied food cultures—and maybe even discover a little something about our home states along the way.
