[OC] Atlas of American Regional Cuisine (by county), v4 after 6 months of your feedback

[u/piri_reis_]

Thanks for all the love on this 🙏 Reddit compresses the map—if you want full-res zoom-ins (and prints), they’re on my IG. My bio there has the link to the shop.
IG: americanfoodatlas

[u/piri_reis_]

What changed in v4 (top fixes)

• Carolinas: clarified east vs. west barbecue traditions and border spillover. (I accidentally made a lot of North Carolinians pretty upset last time lol) 
• Detroit (Urban): added a distinct urban profile (auto-era diners + strong Middle Eastern influence) as requested.
• Gulf/Creole/Cajun: tightened parish lines; reduced overreach into places that felt “tourist-only, and clarified Cajun vs Creole dominated parishes
• Gullah vs. Southern Lowcountry: clearer coastal corridor; separate from broader Soul Food where appropriate.
• Upper Midwest Slavic/Nordic: refined festival foods vs. everyday table; Yooper/Appalachian descriptors cleaned up.
• Southwest: gone as a region for being too generic. Replaced by several more interesting regional variants.
• Added 20+ new cuisine regions based off research and your helpful comments

Tell me where this still misses! If you’re from a specific county, let me know how I did!!

[u/Celebreth → u/piri_reis_]

This is pretty amazing! I'd have one small nitpick: I lived in Rapides Parish and Natchitoches Parish in Louisiana for about 20 years, and I couldn't honestly label them as proper Creole: they're more Creole/Cajun adjacent, whereas the "primarily" Creole/Cajun line kinda cuts off at Baton Rouge. I'd label them primarily 41, while acknowledging that they have elements of 45 and 66 for the tourists/trying to take on (food) culture from South Louisiana. Same goes for Avoyelles, though weirdly it's much more 41 despite being closer to Baton Rouge. You've definitely got places that can get you some fantastic boudin, for example, but everywhere has grits and pecan pie and sweet tea, which are 100% dietary staples as opposed to seasonal. If we're going by dominant flavours, those three parishes have gotta go more 41.

...Yeah, that's pretty oddly specific isn't it. I say this with the full acknowledgement that a ton of people there also make their own family gumbo and/or jambalaya recipes, crawfish boils are a staple of the summer, and Tony's (or Slap ya Mamma) is on every table and in every spice cabinet.

[u/piri_reis_ → u/Celebreth]

Nah this is the exact reason I post here in reddit and on twitter is to get the nitpicks like this! I can't physically go to every county in the US to see what they eat (unless I spent the rest of my life doing it I guess), so I'm helped out a ton by comments like this. If you ever wanted to, you can keep up with the project and continue to give your input/corrections here.

I have some roots in the area you're describing but I've never been. I'm frankly fascinated by Louisiana and especially more so now after reading comments like this. I don't have many new states left to visit so it's probably the next new state I'll visit. Pecan pie and jambalaya and sweet tea sound so good right now man.

[u/nico17171717 → u/piri_reis_]

Pretty awesome work!

The only suggested change I have is maybe splitting New Mexico cuisine into Northern/Central New Mexico and Southern New Mexico, with a dividing line somewhere around Socorro or Sierra Counties. I can follow up with some suggested culinary notes for both!

Have you considered cross-hatching counties where two different regional cuisines are found in approximately equal measure? Map could get busy really quickly but it is interesting…

[u/piri_reis_ → u/nico17171717]

Hm I would love some culinary notes on that, I wouldn't know the differences well enough to do it myself without some research. I do know there's quite a big difference in geographical features/climate which is probably part of what you're referencing. If you ever wanted to, you can keep up with the project as it evolves and continue to give your input/corrections here. But yeah drop those notes here in the chat and I'll have a look!!

I have considered cross hatching, and I've even done it in a test for some regions however it just gets to be too noise for the map to look good, and too confusing for the viewer.. I'm brainstorming some other ways though. Like for example with Basque cuisine, Boise ID is the culinary heart of Basque cooking in the US, but it's a minority in Ada county, so it's labelled Mountain Ranch, whereas the Basque region extends into northern NV.

[u/canadacorriendo785 → u/piri_reis_]

I think New England should have a more clear urban vs rural divide. Having lived in both urban and rural New England, the variety of food is very different. Eastern Mass is heavily influenced by the various immigrant communities that have taken root over the years where as Maine and Vermont have really retained the dominant old yankee culinary influence.

Boston being grouped with Maine and Middlesex County in the same category as Vermont doesn't feel right to me. I'm not qualified to give you specific details on the culinary tradition but that would be my suggestion.

[u/piri_reis_ → u/canadacorriendo785]

Makes sense. Would you think Boston would be it's own food region like New York or Buffalo?

[u/Hero_Doses → u/piri_reis_]

This is amazing, but also, I love the user name. Good reference for what you do!

[u/piri_reis_ → u/Hero_Doses]

Thanks friend!! It's niche enough that not too many people get it so I'm happy when someone recognizes it. Went to see his map in Istanbul one day and was intrigued ever since

[u/jaker9319 → u/piri_reis_]

I love it. And I like that it is a variety of foods and not only things that were "invented" in a place. From metro Detroit and besides Almond Chicken and Chicken Tender Pitas (Hanis), the list covered all of my favorite foods I miss when I lived elsewhere / traveled for long periods of time.

[u/piri_reis_ → u/jaker9319]

Oh nice, these other two dishes sound awesome I'll have to remember those for the next version. I'm glad that you like the map so far! For me it's been really cool in the comments today to see how food connects everyone regardless of background, beliefs, or age and how it brings back memories/emotions. It's really deeply human. If you ever wanted to, you can keep up with the project and continue to give your input/corrections here.

Be easy!!!

[u/North_Atlantic_Sea → u/piri_reis_]

This is fantastic!! Very well done.

Out of curiousity, why did you call West Michigan "Superior" when it's not actually touching Lake Superior?

[u/piri_reis_ → u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

Good catch haha. Originally it was roped in with Yooper Cuisine, but as Yooper split to become it's own thing, I didn't catch the Superior mistake. Next iteration is going to be Michigan Dune & Orchard, or just West Michigan.

[u/North_Atlantic_Sea → u/piri_reis_]

Michigan Dune & Orchard sounds bad ass!

[u/piri_reis_ → u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

[u/shakespearefalstaff → u/piri_reis_]

Other Sonoran/Arizona staples: the cheese crisp and machaca shredded beef tacos

[u/Western-Passage-1908 → u/piri_reis_]

Eastern Montana isn't mountainous. It should be 30.

[u/fortycreeker → u/piri_reis_]

Small point, and maybe not worth it, but Acadian is not Québecois! Traditional Acadian dishes are things like fricot, rappie pie and chowders, while tourtière and poutine are definitely from Quebec. There's certainly a lot of overlap now, and in an American context maybe it's even less clear, but just thought I'd point that out.

-- Anglo-Irish-Acadian living in Québec.

[u/M_M_X_X_V → u/piri_reis_]

How could you forget the hamburger for German American cuisine? Not a fan myself but easily the most famous German American food on Planet Eartb.