With the Fourth of July coming up, MSNBC posts its list of 10 foods that make America great:

  1. New England clam chowder (MA)
  2. Pastrami (NY)
  3. Shoofly pie (PA)
  4. Smithfield ham (VA)
  5. Po-boys (LA)
  6. Fajitas (TX)
  7. Chicago hot dogs (IL)
  8. Chili verde (NM)
  9. San Francisco sourdough (CA)
  10. Olympia oysters (WA)

I have to concur with some of the reader opinions to this article. What about Philly cheesesteaks? And how did we forget Buffalo wings? Surely they are a better representative of New York than O-s-c-a-r.

What about barbeque, from Kansas City and Memphis? Of course, for Louisiana, Po-boys are good, gumbo is better, but you can’t beat the rum-covered bread pudding and fried cheesecake. Perhaps this should have been a top 15 or 20. I have yet to find food indigenous to Colorado beyond the Denver omelette. Blah.

Bring the green bean casserole with the fried onions, the chopped carrots and cheese, the cherry jello salad, and my grandmother’s brandy pumpkin pie.