Recipes

Can't speak to LA, but nah. Cream cheese is the East coast trick. The Midwestern secret is "cream of [ ]" soup. Cream of mushroom is my go to, but when I ate chicken I used Cream of it a lot too. It's useful in casserole/hotdish where a roux would be great but a real pain in the ass.

Yes about the Midwest.

LA on the other end has an insane variety of foods, so while they have organic, vegan restaurants where everything is super healthy, they also have southern BBQ foods, steak houses, Asian foods, Italian foods, etc.

I think there's a heavier focus on organic, vegan restaurants up in the San Francisco area.

Recipes in the south: The secret ingredient is more butter.

I don't see anything about cream of mushroom soup.

The bit about the food in LA being delicious might not be true but the second half is 100% true.

From the US of A and I can tell you the Midwest is a fairy tale. It doesn't exist, it isn't real. People who think they're in the midwest are not, people who are don't think they are.

You might find multiple award winning shortbread-sugar-cookie crusted apple pie recipes in the coal/bible belts, you might find world class sashimi in LA, and you might find amazing tacos for different strokes throughout, but otherwise I really don't think you can generalize the food in such a wide and diverse nation.

For something really similar to the example you could take Banana Bread, which is cherished throughout the USA, and the secret to making it perfect and delicious is this: 1. do not use milk and vegetable oil, instead use sourcream and butter. 2. coat the pan in coconut oil or lard for a soft texture. 3. you can cook at 350 or reduce the temperature as low as 270 as long as you cook it until absolutely no batter sticks to the fork or toothpick when you poke it in the center and let cool slowly for a long time.

Where are these steps followed correctly? People with either experience or wealth, as in literally anywhere.

I grew up in the midwest. We survived on processed ingredients. I now live in the Bay Area.

I tell my partner that I need the shitty Kraft cheese for my grilled cheese sandwich, not the cheeses from Whole Foods or Trader Joes, because that's what I had growing up. I need the shitty ingredients for certain specific foods because I want that taste. It's not a lot of meals, but a handful must match my childhood.

At the Minnesota State Faire last year, I had deep fried cheesecake batter. Yes, this is correct.

That or 3 sticks of butter

When mom cooked breakfast, she'd collect bacon grease (as, like, supplemental butter) and add that to subsequent meals. AFAIK, it still happens, but is probably less common.

If it's in the South you have to deep-fry it as well.

French cooking: add wine, cream, and butter.

Sounds accurate to me.

does LA even have an original dish? afaik its only good because it hosts a lot of asian/latin food.

Agreed on the Midwest. I refuse to ever go to LA so I'm just gonna say you're 100% objectively correct that their food sucks with all the confidence of a Chicago native, because our food is better than everyone else's.

Cream cheese is universally beloved, even by those with lactose intolerance