Photo: Getty Images
Do you have your favorite, go-to meal? Your state does, too!
Mashed compiled a list of the need-to-try foods in every state. Here's what Mashed said about its list:
Other states don't have official foods recognized by the government but do offer emblematic eats celebrated by the citizens. In some cases, the best foods to try in each state are based on location, as in with lobsters in Maine and cheese in Wisconsin. In other cases, it's a matter of cultural heritage, as with pizza in New York and the burrito in California. And sometimes there may be a state food you need to try just to check the proverbial box, not because your tastebuds are tantalized (Rocky Mountain Oysters, we're looking at you here). Whether they become new favorite foods in your household or once in a lifetime bites taken as you pass through, here are 50 foods that you really should try for a true taste of America.
In Arizona, you need to try chimichanga. Here's what Mashed said to back up its decision:
The world brilliance comes to mind when one thinks of the chimichanga, a signature Mexican-American food beloved all over the nation that traces its roots to Arizona. Brilliance, because that's what it took for someone to look at a burrito, a finished foodstuff ready to be served and eaten, and say: "Wait... fry it. Fry the whole burrito." That's what a chimichanga is, it's a fried burrito usually served topped with cheese and salsa and sour cream, and though far from a healthy food, it is an absolute delight to eat.
Almost surely not an authentic Mexican food, the chimichanga was apparently first "created" in Arizona sometime in the 1950s. There is a potential apocryphal story that a chef at a Mexican restaurant in Tucson accidentally dropped a finished burrito into a deep fryer and decided to try the thing after retrieving it. Another story says a Phoenix chef intently created the new fried burrito after experimenting with myriad other ways to put new spins on established foods. Or maybe the first chimichanga was created just south of the border in Mexico, then made its way into Arizonan fare. We'll probably never know for sure, but to be sure this delightful food spread from Arizona to menus all across the land, and if enjoyed in moderation, this taste of the Copper State is not to be missed.
To read the full list of the foods you need to try in every state, click here.