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?

It sounds like a brilliant idea. But on arrival make for the nearest pharmacy and stock up on the biggest jar of tums you can buy, your going to need them.
I miss In N Out burger in California, my and Dh's secret pleasure eaten on trips to the airport to pick up visitors. We did the Animal fries once, OMG we needed tums and felt sick all night, but they tasted so good.
Oh and don't forget your stretchy trousers your waist will expand as the trip progresses.

In n out burger double double animal style! drool

Fish tacos (and wine!) in cal, all you can eat buffet in Vegas, diners in 'NYC (I like Katz).

I wanna go!

Lunch at the Paradise Cove beach restaurant in Malibu.

Sunday Brunch at the Mandalay hotel in Vegas.

Street food on the piers in San Francisco

I'm with Seneca - eastern NC barbecue is the best. A rather controversial view where I live ( South Carolina)

we went to new haven and new york over easter and the first thing i did when we knew we were making the trip was seek out eating places featured on the tv programme man vs food. we went to (the burgers were amazing) and the cheese truck.

What are 'animal fries' please?

(feels hopeful about being included in the Winnebago as has big arse...)

I just knew that this thread would be about food! DH and have a long-standing pipe dream of doing exactly the same thing!!

Once spent a year in the USA and lost weight, only time in my adult life when was properly slim: had no car and it seemed like one had to choose between wheatgrass shot diet and fitness angst and becoming a giant portion of onion rings or plastic bucket of potato "salad".

A friend flew out to visit at the end and we did a trip for a few weeks. I was hardly eating and was a crap host, bought little food for the long journey: carrot sticks, tortilla chips (different colours) and coffee. She said wtf and ranted when we had no booze on an Amtrak and had to buy tiny cans of 1% "tequila sunset" which tasted of sunny delight. we visited many diners before she persuaded me to return home, thank god.

God I was a shit friend to do a trip with!

highlights were all kinds of burritos, from Chipotle or salsa verde to refried bean, sugary salsa and velveeta luminous cheese ; mini carrot and raisin muffins; lemon drop vodka martini and sweet cheap Californian rose.

And coffee, coffee, coffee.

Fantasy road trip means I get to leave my IBD at home right?
Carnegie deli and Joe's Pizza in NYC.
Seafood in SF
Hell I'll even stop at Taco Bell.

Dopey Animal Fries are Fries (chips) smothered in cheese, grilled onions, and InNOut's special sauce. Deeeelish!

Make sure you brig a set of clothes that are a bigger size and plenty of gaviscon (it's very expensive here)

I am so fed up of American food so fed up we off for an InNOut burger

Maine for a clambake, add a nice two pound lobster. New Mexico for empanadas, rice and beans and tortillas. Georgia for the best peach and pecan pies ever. When we drove across the country, my father always stopped and asked where the local people went for food and that is where we went.

Go to Astro's diner in New York. The food is sublime. It was a couple of blocks from out hotel which was part of the Hilton chain.

Waving from Hardeeville, South Caroline on our unscheduled and unplanned road trip!

We were supposed to be in Mexico this week but the flights were too full.

We stated in Atlanta for 3 nights, and now we are in a little motel on the interstate. We've just been to Pizza Bellas about 14 miles north, we had pizza, calzone and (not) the best wings in the world, and catfish!!! And shrimp and sweet potato fries

I don't think that they have many tourists down there

We go to John's Place here in Victoria, BC lots. It was on the show. Good Eggs Benny.

Just wanted to point out that Maple Syrup is Canadian.

Sounds like Animal Fries are a bit like Poutine here - chips, stringy melty cheese and gravy. Yum!

Just wanted to point out that Maple Syrup is Canadian.

Plenty of maple syrup is harvested in Vermont. And New York. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and my own state, Ohio. Also, Native Americans were the first to harvest maple syrup.

I grabbed a Bagel before hopping
on to a Greyhound bus in New York about 20 years ago. Bloody lovely it was, about the size of a frisbee and it was buttered one half and cream cheese the other

Also sat watching TV in a motel room eating Chinese directly out of their upright cartons

Can I come with you?

Have any of you had InNOut either sober or without a hangover? Because, frankly, it's shit.

Fish tacos here are divine.

Diners are overpriced crap.

Soft shell crab is heaven on a plate.
That's my 2 cents!

I never drink so my In N Out trips were always sober. Defo not shit. Heaven in comparison to the usual MacDonalds or Burger King burgers.
Also a rip to eat rubbish Mexican food in Taco Bell should be on the list. Dd likes the nachos bell grande, I liked Plain old Bean burritos and crunchy tacos. Dh liked the bean burritos extra Onions. Ds won't eat much he worked there in high school but now makes great mexican for us here in UK,

Sadly, where I live in USA, the food is revolting, and expensive.

For Mexican, it's best to find a little hole in the wall place. There was a tiny place in my old home town that made the best menudo on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Best hangover cure in the world! And their carnitas was so tasty. Now I'm hungry.

InNOut is the food of the gods, drunk or sober.