If you crave fries in San Francisco, Jasper's Corner Tap is a natural choice. But your decisions aren't over yet. Will it be thin, thick, or sweet potato? Do you try the smoked-paprika seasoning or a cheese curd-based poutine, or play it safe with sea salt? There's an entire menu devoted to customizable fries at your fingertips.

French fries are one of the true crowd-pleasers - a food that friends agree upon, that turns up at both five-star steakhouses and roadside dives, and that is familiar but can also surprise you. They can be cut thick or curly, cooked with or without skins, served Belgian-style in paper cones or in a parchment-lined basket with malt vinegar on the side. No matter how you slice it, the deep-fried spud is king.
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Food in the Field gives a sneak peek into what CNN's team is eating, and the food culture they encounter as they travel the globe. Today's contributor is CNN photojournalist Ken Tuohey.

I was just 10 years old when my dad was accepted to the University of Nebraska to complete his Masters degree. I didn’t want to leave the sunny beaches of Southern California, but as a kid, moving halfway across the country sounded exciting. I know better now.

I vividly remember driving through the seemingly endless cornfields, wading thru the city streets with snow up to my waist as we walked to an evening matinee and the fanatical “Big Red” fans who made the town of Lincoln look as if the apocalypse had whenever a football game was in town.

And there was one other thing: the runza.

It’s a delicious hot pastry, filled with ground beef, onions, and cabbage, and was brought by German-Russian immigrants to the United States. It’s a close cousin to the Kansas favorite, the bierock, and it’s m-m-mmm good.
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Eating well while traveling doesn't always mean hitting up the newest, hottest and trendiest locales. Besides, given the notoriously high failure rate in the restaurant industry, chances are the memorable new restaurant you try this year won't be around in the years to come.

Those who want a side of history with their dinners - and a higher probability for a return visit - should seek out some of America's wonderful, still-thriving historic restaurants, from the centuries-old steakhouses in Manhattan to San Francisco's 100-year-old seafood counter, Seattle's midcentury four-star, and the Tex-Mex breakfast spot that Austin, Texas, politicos, from Lyndon B. Johnson onward, have called home for decades.

Read the full story on CNN Travel: 10 of America's best historic restaurants

Along the museum-flanked National Mall in Washington, D.C., food choices are limited but one of the newer Smithsonian attractions has set out to offer its visitors a unique and healthy dining experience. Inside the National Museum of the American Indian there’s a café where patrons can experience a taste of native indigenous cuisine from the western hemisphere. Mitsitam Café serves up a fusion of traditional, natural ingredients in a new-world style.

Patrons can choose from an extensive food list, including salmon roasted on a cedar plank, snapping turtle soup, tree honey white rice, beef tongue tacos and buffalo chili on fry bread.
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Are your tastes on the wild side? If you have the chance to venture on up to Alaska, you just might be in luck.

iReporter Jack Lanam is a 36 year old U.S. Army Civilian working as a Information Technology Specialist in Fairbanks, Alaska. While he says that city fare in the nation's northernmost state is pretty much the same as anywhere, with outposts of chain restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King, Carl's Jr. and Chili's, further into the wilderness, things get a little gamey. As in big game like moose, bear and reindeer.
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Food says so much about where you’ve come from, where you’ve decided to go, and the lessons you’ve learned. It’s geography, politics, tradition, belief and so much more and this week, we invite you to dig in and discover the rich, ever-evolving taste of America in 2011. The week will culminate with a Secret Supper in New York City, and Eatocracy invites you to participate online starting Monday July 11th at 6:30 p.m. E.T.

On maps, New York’s 7 train links Midtown Manhattan with Flushing in Queens, but it really connects New Yorkers from all over the world: so much so that the city has dubbed it the “International Express.” In 2000, it was named a National Millennium Trail, in recognition of its serving as “a metaphor for the migration of all the world’s people to America’s shores.”

Most of its stops are in Queens, which is one of the most diverse counties in the United States. 47 percent of the population was born outside the United States. This migration has brought with it a huge number of excellent restaurants, and the 7 train is a passport to eating all the way around the world.
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After opening more than ten restaurants encompassing Spanish, Greek, Turkish and Mexican cuisines, receiving the prestigious James Beard Award and popularizing tapas for Beltway patrons, Chef Jose Andres has a new role as culinary historian.

"I'm going back to 16th, 17th, 18th-century books, because books to me are a very important way to say, 'This began here on that date and this is the first book that ever published that recipe with corn or that recipe with pawpaw," said Andres gesturing to an imaginary book in his hand.
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Nathan Berrong works at CNN's satellite desk and this is the second installment of his beer column. Drink up.

The United States is filled with amazing breweries, but to me, you can’t begin to talk about beer in America without starting out West. Maybe it’s the climate that is ideal for growing hops, or the beautiful scenery that inspires the brewers, or the diverse culture that promotes creativity. Whatever it is, I say there’s no debating that the best region for beer in the United States is the Pacific or West Coast region.

West Coast beers, plainly put, are massive beers. Massive beers that are bursting with flavor, typically high in alcohol, and have unusual names like “Serpent’s Stout” and “Monk’s Blood”. The staple West Coast beer is the hop heavy, India Pale Ale. Commonly referred to as the IPA, it is also a very common beer style across the country, as nearly every brewery in the US has their own version of it. But, no one brews them better than Sierra Nevada in Chico, California, which has been brewing amazing IPAs for over 30 years, long before the craft beer explosion began.
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Kimberly Segal is a CNN Supervising Producer

People associate the Jersey Shore with casinos, salt water taffy and now reality star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi. What does not come to mind, but rightly should, is the South Jersey sub - a signature sandwich is similar to what people in other parts of the country call a hoagie, grinder or hero.

It is not just the medley of meats and cheese that make this sandwich so special. "Atlantic City bread is unlike any other bread that you get anywhere else in the world," says Aaron Marinari, who grew up in this shore town and now lives in California. Marinari has put this theory to the test.

He went to the best deli in his new hometown and bought all the ingredients to try to replicate the sub that he grew up eating. "I put the whole sandwich together but it's nothing compared to home," Marinari adds, "It did not come close to fulfilling my craving for a New Jersey sub."
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Heartbreak ensued yesterday at the annual Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia when a power outage at the golf club's production center temporarily interrupted the availability of pimento cheese sandwiches to hungry fans.

Augusta.com reports that severe thunderstorms were the cause of the power loss and that at least one patron was pretty cheesed off at the lack of sandwiches.
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