Intro to the State Meal Challenge

For a while now, I’ve been following bloggers and Instagrammers who are making iconic foods from each state (or country!) and thinking, “I’d love to try that!” So after much procrastination, I’m finally doing it! 

My purpose in doing this challenge is to try new foods that I’d never think to make on my own, and hopefully learn some new cooking techniques while I’m at it. I’m a homebody–I haven’t traveled much outside the western United States–so what I cook for myself on a regular basis hasn’t changed much since I was in college. By doing this challenge, I hope to become an improved cook, broaden my horizons, and eat a better variety of foods. 

To start, I consulted this map to come up with a geographical order in which to make the meals. Most people who do this challenge go in alphabetical order, but I think it demonstrates the regional differences better when you go in geographical order. I’ll be starting with Utah (my home state) and heading east before looping back around to hit the west coast and end with Arizona (where I lived during high school).

Here’s the map I drew up!

For meal ideas, I went online and found a bunch of lists and a very popular reddit thread about which foods represent each state in the US. Comparing them, I made my own list of what seemed to be the most iconic foods in each state, trying my best to come up with a full meal consisting of a main dish, sides (vegetable, fruit, and/or carb), drink, and dessert. 

I’ll do my homework and use authentic foods as often as possible, but in the end these will be state-INSPIRED meals, not true replications. I’ll try to be true to each state’s tastes, but I’m also going to let my personal preferences have an effect on what I make and how I make it (for example, I will NOT be making Rocky Mountain Oysters even though Wyoming apparently loves them. Blech!). I know my ignorance and inexperience will be obvious and I’ll make a lot of people mad because I chose the wrong food or cooked it wrong or had the wrong opinion about it, so I apologize in advance. If you have any tips or suggestions for improvement, I would love it if you would comment on my posts!

I didn’t come up with these recipes on my own, obviously. Whenever possible, I’ll include the source for the recipe I’m using. However, I do tend to tweak things as recommended in comments sections, and those changes will be reflected in the recipes I post. So the source is a good place to start if you want a recipe written by a pro, but note that I’ll do some things differently. 

I’m not the first to do this challenge, nor will my attempts be the best, but I hope you enjoy following along and are inspired to try new things!

Special thanks to @emily_eats_the_states on Instagram for inspiring me to do this, and for starting this reddit thread, which gave me tons of great ideas (and has been cited in so many of the online articles I found!)