Are you a Taylor Ham stan? Do you take your cheesesteak wit' or wit'out? Do you argue about brisket bark?
Now you can cast your vote to enshrine your favorite regional dish in an official American record.
Voting is underway for the Official State Dish Registry, which aims to be a permanent record of the foods that help define each state's identity, much like state birds and nicknames.
The registry is a part of America250's celebration of the semiquincentennial. The organization named Joe Ariel, Goldbelly cofounder and CEO, as its official food curator.
"My broader hope of the whole project, when all is said and done, is that it becomes a living archive," Ariel told USA TODAY in an interview. "Really the national food registry for American regional
food."
The voting period ends on Nov. 1, and results will be announced in the fall.
According to the registry's website, the options were initially developed by referencing regional cookbooks, state historical societies, dishes recognized by state legislators over the years, and foods widely understood as state icons. Voters were then allowed to nominate additional dishes.
Oregon's marionberry pie leads the overall leaderboard, as of Aug. 23, ahead of the California burrito, the New York-style pizza slice, Texas' brisket and the Taylor Ham found in New Jersey.
The races are close. In Nevada, prime rib held a five-vote lead over shrimp cocktail, while in Hawaii, plate lunch led poke bowl by four votes. A battle is shaping up in Missouri as Kansas City burnt ends is edging out St. Louis' toasted ravioli by four votes.
How does Ariel see American cuisine?
Ariel argued in the interview that America, and by extension its cuisine, is less like a melting pot and more like a gumbo.
"In a great bowl of gumbo, you clearly and decisively can tell the different components of it. It's all merged into one, but everything maintains its uniqueness," Ariel said.
Ariel pointed to the bagel sandwich as an example of how American cuisine blends diverse culinary traditions while keeping their origins identifiable.
"There's so much connective tissue to a country of immigrants who have brought certain things, but also have taken certain things, shared certain things and merged them together to create these beautiful foods," he said.
The canon of American cuisine is far from final, Ariel said, pointing to buffalo wings among a slew of relatively recent additions.
"That literally was invented by Italian immigrants, in the mom's restaurant; her son and friends came up with it drunk one night," he said. "They took the wings, mixed it with butter, Tabasco, fried it up, created this thing that, at the time, became a viral sensation. Now it's on every American food menu across the country."
He noted that some viral culinary creations, like the cronut, do not break through to become iconic. Nashville hot chicken, on the other hand, is "mid-loop" of going from virality to mainstay, Ariel said.
Ariel said that he does not view his role as food curator through the lens of a critic, but rather someone trying to document how Americans eat.
"You might have a West Virginia pepperoni roll, and there is so much meaning behind that dish for people from there," he said. "You might not think it's the most delicious thing ever, but you don't need to. What's more interesting is trying to appreciate and understand why that came to be and what the meaning of it is to the people that are from there."
He added: "I just think that's a much more beautiful way to open your eyes, and your mouth, to the world around you."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Does your state dish reign supreme? America250 lets you decide
