Every dish eaten in America has originated elsewhere! Is there anything called American Cuisine?!

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The hamburger was invented just a couple of blocks from Yale Unirversity. Pizza was invented on the Lower East Side of NYC. The Rueben sandwich was the winner in an original sandwich contest in Nebraska. There are lots of foods that are typically American. Just look for them.

Considering that the US and Canada have been settled by white people for only a few hundred years, and by white people from every part of the world who brought their own version of cooking with them, we're not doing too badly for developing a cuisine. Compare that to, say, Italy, where people have been working on developing a cuisine for some thousands of years, during times when people really did develop things unique to their area since only a few hundred years ago most people rarely travelled more than 20 miles from where they were born so they might have had no idea how the people in the next valley were preparing their food.

What did the native people eat before the white people arrived? You'd be surprised how much of it you still eat today. Maple syrup, pumpkin and any other squash, popcorn and any other corn product. Potatoes were unknown in Europe until they came from South America. Turkey and bison are only found in the Americas. Same for blueberries, wild rice, cranberries, most beans. And if you think American food is just like dishes by the same name in other parts of the world, I guess you haven't been to those other parts of the world. Things are different.

Here in Northern California, the first peoples (Native Americans or Indians) ate ground oak acorns fried into patties and seasoned with salt, fresh shellfish and fish from the ocean, bays, or rivers. They gathered berries and nuts.
If you study Anthropology, you will find that most native cuisine is similar: a starch, a little protein, and then seasonings like salt or honey. This is true all over the world.

Oh sure, there's lots of American cuisine.
Boiled mixed vegetables.
Pasta laced in garlic accompanied by garlic bread.
Garlic salad.
Boiled corn on the cob.
Pizza Pizza Pizza.
Pizza Hut Pizza.
Boston Pizza.
Chop suey.
Chow mein.
AND much more disgustingly inedible garbage. Americans are scavengers; they'll eat anything.

I think the turkey is the true American food. Its the only one which has been developed from a native resource into a unique national dish.
Everything else..from bread to corn to grits has its equivalent in the "Old World"

Canada has similar issues at which point some point to the indigenous animals, especially Bison and some types of salmon. The methods don't really change.

Barbecued Ribs is the quintessential American cuisine. Others include Cajun foods such as Jambalaya, Gumbo, and fried okra.

South American/Native North American...

Succotash comes to mind.
-popcorn
-maize/tortillas/hominy/cornbread
-Hot chocolate
-alcoholic corn drink called chica
-pemmican

In Maine we call it corn.lol.Actually the clawed lobsters,Homarus Amaricanus,found off the shores of the northeast are an original.

McDonalds,Burger King,Kentucky Fried Chicken,Dairy Queen just to name a few.They are world famous restraunts too.

Anything with corn is pretty american. Corn dogs are probably the most American thing you could ever put in your mouth. Corn + hotdog + stick, yup.

creole, southwestern cuisine...

How about Buffalo chicken wings?

we invented sourdough bread. that's all we need

Yes your statement is quite wrong.

What were Americans eating before the British invasion? Um...don't you remember your history? The first American colonists were....BRITISH. If you mean the native Indians, they were eating corn, turkey, and squash (like pumpkin) - all of which are unique to N. America (well, ok, not corn - that goes all the way down through S. America)

While much of American cuisine is the result of immigrants bringing old recipes with them and improvising in America, there are some uniquely American dishes that just don't exist elsewhere.

American BBQ - smoked, grilled, smothered in sauce, or rubbed - doesn't exist elsewhere. Oh sure, the cooking method originally came from the Carribean where it has more similarities to, say, the Hawaiian i'mo than the giant smoke boxes used in modern BBQ pits but the end result is pretty uniquely American.

Much of the food found in South is pretty uniquely American, even if ingredients and even cooking methods came over from France and England. This includes Cornbread - which we got from the native Indians, collard greens and chitterlings - which came from the slaves, Jambalaya - which has some roots in French provencial cuisine, but now is its own unique dish, Mac&Cheese - invented by our own Thomas Jefferson. There's also doughnuts, and all those fruit-based desserts - crumbles, bettys, etc. - which took advantage of all the new berries and fruit that were encountered in America.

Much of what Americans called "Mexican food" isn't really found in Mexico. Oh sure, many of the individual ingredients and spices came from there, but the burrito, nachos and even the ground beef taco were all invented in America.

Same goes for many dishes that we think of as being "ethnic" in origin: Deep dish pizza, Spaghetti & Meatballs - do not exist in Italy. Chop suey, General Tso's Chicken, Fortune Cookies - do not exist in China. Hibachi - does not exist in Japan.

I recommend you check out Feasting On Asphalt 1 & 2, a book (and TV miniseries) by Alton Brown whose show, Good Eats, is on Food Network. In this series, Alton and his crew ride across the country, visiting and exploring what is "real American food".