to want to plan a trip across America based entirely on..

[CoffeeAndOranges]

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network?

I would start in New York for a slap up breakfast in one of those amazing 50s diners and take it from there...

Fresh salads and hipster kale smoothies in California.
Street food vans in Austin, Texas
Seafood on the North East Seaboard.
Proper BBQ in the south (I won't specify a state as apparently it's very contentious as to who does it properly).
Mexican food in Texas.
Italian food in Brooklyn.

Basically the places they go to make everything look yummy. Hell even the abomination that is biscuits & gravy (which looks suspiciously like scones in white sauce to me) looks good. I know American food has a terrible reputation but there look to be some fantastic places doing proper home cooking, the sort you just don't seem to get here. And I bet it's cheaper too. Although I would need to lose 2 stone before going, just to allow for the huge portions.

Anyone else up for it? Will we take a VW campervan or will there be enough of us for a proper big ass Winnebago?

No YANBU, US road trips are the king of all road trips. Now if you'd said based on "The movie Thelma and Louise" my answer might have been different!

I'm thinking Winnebago convoy.....

Can we start with fish ands chips at Durgin Park in Boston before we travel south and east ?

I'll come on your fantasy trip! It'll be good practice for the road trip from Nashville to NYC via Washington I'm planning with DD for next year.

Just counting down the days til the kids are old enough to be left with grandparents..........

Ooh convoy!! We could reword the song Convoy using our MN. 'handles'

I'll come too if I may? I lean more towards Man v Food-style but I also long to just go to small town America and see if it is as bonkers weird as my extensive watching of many, many 1980s brat pack movies suggests.

I'm laying the groundwork for us to do a massive road trip in a few years time when the kids are mid-teens. It will take me that long to convince DH, but I will!!

I had the very same idea but I couldn't find some of the shows to start making a list so it just fizzled out really... wimp
Really I need a list of ALL the DDDs that were ever on the show. With notes on their specialties. (See what I did there? No second 'I')

Have you watched the film Chef with Jon Favreau? It's brilliant for planning a trip like this.

Add in deep fried pickles, beignets and café au lait in the French Quarter in New Orleans and rather than Mexican in Texas, try it in southern California, around San Diego - much more authentic IMO.

Texas should be all about the barbecue, beer butt chicken, brisket and beans! Texas in general is great for food truck parks, they're all over the place, not just Austin, though it is a very cool city.

Portion sizes in the south are traditionally HUGE, but you can always get a take out box and eat the leftovers the next day.

YANBU, I love that programme and a USA coast to coast road trip is my dream holiday. I will join the convoy!

We did this (twice) across California. Black Bear Diner yum!

Don't forget to hit Cincinnati; I regularly eat at a couple of places that were featured on the show. One in particular has amazing Mexican food.

America is beautiful. Rent an RV and go for it! :)

Well, I'm already in the US. But may I suggest you skip the Kale Smoothie (bleargh) and substitute an In'N'Out Burger with Animal Fries when you're here in California? Heaven on a bun. You can make up for it the next day with any of our wonderful 'farm to table' or 'slow food' restaurants.

Looks like we have ourselves a MN Triple D convoy, rollin out across America! Since it's a fantasy trip, we can use the biggest, gas guzzling' proper massive trucks as well, the ones that are about 6m high and have big exhaust pipes on the cabs.

Here's a website to help with the planning...it could be a loooooong tour!

www.flavortownusa.com/

I had a five course breakfast in a beautiful Victorian Inn on the East Coast a few years ago.

Didn't eat for the next two days!

mate said the food in california was disappointing

We have done new york. Loved their breakfasts of pancakes with syrup and bacon and the mcgriddles in McDonald's there.

if doing route 66 , Ted drewes in St Louis for frozen custard is a must do

Peshwari beat me to it. Ted Drews is amazing! Frozen custard (super smooth ice cream) in amaIng flavours - my favourite was George Washington (vanilla custard with fresh cherries and chunks of sweet pastry) . Amazing.

Doh! Amazing flavours!

YANBU. Don't listen to the nay-sayers WRT American food. That is mostly due to knee-jerk snobbery. The US has developed some outstanding food cultures, extremely inventive and utterly delicious. Sadly, many people in the UK seem to think that American food is only fast food! They could not be more wrong.

I've been to a noodle place that was featured on 3D. It was to die for.

Homesick for St Louis now (used to live there) and it's just the right sort of warm evening to drive out for Ted Drewes

Proper BBQ in the south (I won't specify a state as apparently it's very contentious as to who does it properly)

Eastern North Carolina. And Texans call themselves doing barbecue, but they cook beef. Barbecue is pork. With a tangy vinegar-based sauce, no tomatoes in sight.

Ah Seneca it was your input in the BBQ thread that made me apprehensive as to naming any particular geographical location for the best BBQ! The fair thing to do would be to try some everywhere, just to be sure of course.

Now off to bed to dream foodie dreams.... accompanied by a large swig of Advance Gaviscon (thanks to pregnancy heartburn).

Night y'all!

Coffee I have tried them all, and I like them all, even Texas, but Eastern Carolina is where it all began (with Scottish settlers, so the theory goes) and it is still the best, and I say that even having grown up in Georgia (the second best!)