Eat your heart out …in the usa

Anyone who thinks that food in the United States of America is all junk food will be astonished by the variety of the true cooking of the country. Scrapple, grand central oyster stew, jambalaya, tacos, cioppino and hashed browns are all American dishes, yet they come from different traditions and different regions of the country.

There are six main cooking regions in the USA: New England, New York, Deep South, Mid West, Tex Mex and West Coast. Here's a quick guide to what you can eat there.

In New England they eat a lot of fish and shellfish. Many dishes are left on the stove to be eaten all day, such as boiled beef and chicken stew, and Boston is the home of the famous baked beans.

New York is where people from all over the world meet, and you can see this in its cooking: Greek, Italian, Russian, Chinese and others. Pizza and pasta are favourites, and it's the home of the hot dog and the hamburger.

In the Deep South, it's a mix of English, French, African and Caribbean cooking, with spicy seafood, beans and rice, pork dishes, pecan pie and of course, southern fried chicken.

The farmland of the Mid West produces corn-on-the-cob (maize;), steak, tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce, and baked hams. The people who live there came from Europe, so you can also try Hungarian goulash, Swiss, Dutch and English cheeses and Scandinavian coffee.

Tex Mex is hot and spicy, with green and red peppers, beans, tomatoes, mangoes, avocados and chocolate sauce (mole).

The West Coast is known for its fruit, especially oranges and lemons, and for its seafood, lobster and mussels. A lot of the cooking is with wine.

From brownies to tacos, from spare ribs to clam chowder, cooking in the USA has something for everyone. Enjoy!