They credit my home state, Connecticut, with the cheeseburger.

I THINK there's some truth to that (it may be one of those "six different restaurants all did it at the same time and so it depends who you talk to" kind of things), but I can definitely state that Connecticut is certainly home to the BEST cheeseburgers in the country, as well as in the state, solar system, universe, and any and all past, present and future universes existing in this and any additional known and unknown dimensions -- at a little diner called Shady Glen. Seriously, look them up.

This bag makes me want to go on a road trip.

I thought the famous "first hamburger" at Louis' Lunch in Connecticut is strictly without cheese and served on toasted bread?

1. poor Nebraska... that's just sad.
2. I lived in Colorado for a long time, my whole family lives there, and never ever would I have even considered Cantaloupe?!

I actually may have mis-read "hamburger' for "cheeseburger" -- the picture wasn't clear.

....I also just wanted to talk about Shady Glen.

Poor Nebraska? What about North Carolina's Liver Pudding? Don't they have a signature BBQ?

Well, it says hamburger but has a picture of a cheese burger.

In any event, I feel I'm being too harsh. It's a cute bag.

Nevada Buffets? Ha.

I was sure that my state growing up (Indiana) would be corn.. but I guess popcorn will do ;)

My current state (Illinois) is deep dish pizza... which only is true for certain parts of Chicago.. so not completely accurate for the entire state. I think it could be corn too lol.

Glad to see Alaska is salmon! Washington coffee though...? Boring!

Personally, given that Ohio has Jeni's, Graeters, and several other awesome artisan ice cream makers, I think our signature food should be ice cream. :)

Yeah, NE, NV, & UT are sad/funny. NC's liver pudding sounds a little gross but I might try it.

Happy they got MN right with morel mushrooms though! It's the official state mushroom.

This list of state foods has amused me in the past:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_foods

The cactus shown for AZ is not the one people generally eat.... Maybe the fruit. Maybe. But cute bag!!

I would have thought avocados would be more Californian than grapes. But I'll take it.

@faith, as an ohio native, i second your ice cream vote. but as a cincinnati girl, i miss my skyline cincinnati chili. Mmmm!!

(Luckily my mom mails me the chili seasoning packs here in France)

yeah! buckeyes! i'm so glad they put buckeyes for ohio. those things are so good. if you like the chocolate-peanut butter combination, it's seriously impossible to turn down a good buckeye! plus, any wedding, graduation, first communion, etc., you can pretty much guarantee to see these things amongst the desserts.

I third the vote for ice cream for Ohio, but I do love chocolate peanut butter a la buckeyes. BUT, and this is a big one, they must be homemade or really good quality. Anthony Thomas buckeyes do not count!

The best is making them with natural PB and dark chocolate, and freezing them, so you can sneak out a few every now and then. They never last long at parties, so little worry that they'll melt.

KS is wheat? That's original.

The cantaloupe for Colorado surprises me as well...

Tennessee fried pie?

Moon pie, maybe.

@karenenen, that was my first thought too!

@hyperRevue, I second the NC BBQ thing. In my experience, it's way more popular here than liver pudding. This bag makes me curious about the liver pudding though. My mother always keeps some for the dog, so while visiting I might try it.

I don't think I ever ate a hamburger that wasn't homemade in my 8 years in CT. Now I feel cheated!

I can see only the edge of the NC food. I thought it was shrimp. My grandparents loved liver pudding, the smell of which is repulsive to me. My yankee husband and friend liked some from a local grocery during dinner parties of the 80s. They said it was like pate.

I can't believe that Wisconsin isn't beer.

They were spot on with the Michigan cherry. There is nothing better than driving Up North (yes I mean anything above the finger line) and stopping upon roadside cherry stand after roadside cherry stand to buy pounds and pounds and eat them in the car. I miss my home state.

The whole Florida orange thing though is frusterating. I live in Florida and have since August. Sadly, I live in an area devoid of farmer's markets and fruit stands and I cannot buy a Florida orange in the fall, winter or spring at the grocery store. All of my orange options are from California or South Africa.

Washington should be apples, not coffee. Coffee is really only popular in western Washington and should not be the food for the whole state. We grow many varieties of delicious apples.

And yes, poor Nebraska LoL.

I see it now. It's Neese's, yuck, why aren't we barbecue or sweet potatoes?

@thisisnina and katibop-

Seriously? You poor kids! Cantaloupe with a sprinkling of kosher salt? Rocky Ford! La Junta! God, I miss it.

I think this bag is adorable! Kudos to the artist if you happen to read this. :)

What? No North Dakota? They have fleischkiekle (I hope I'm spelling that right), but that's very similiar to Tennessee's fried pie - it's a spiced beef patty inside a deep-fat-fried pasty. I had never heard of it before spending a summer in ND, I have never seen it anywhere since, but a great deal of the run-of-the-mill restaurants and food stands had it.

A big HELL YES!!! to South Carolina's Shrimp & Grits! Perfect choice. Every restaurant and home cook in SC worth their salt has their own version, and no matter how it's made (there are a million variations), it is pure heaven on a plate.

I'm with y'all on the NC debacle- liver pudding? Really, tote bag? I recently moved up here, and all I've heard about is how Lexington BBQ will change your life. I always thought liver pudding was a culinary horror of the South in general (much like chitlins)... very weird.

I can't find New York in the picture, but is our's pizza. Even though that really is just New York City, not the whole state. Still ...

Oh. Found it. The bagel. I guess that works.

Liver pudding for NC is really funny. The pic is based off of a Neese's Sausage wrapper. They have commercials that run in NC and always have someone from the Neese family (with a great NC accent) talking about how it's a NC tradition. (For non-locals, it's essentially liverwurst.)

Besides BBQ would have sparked a hot debate. Does the bag mean eastern NC BBQ or western NC BBQ? These things matter.

My new state Georgia is a peach. Duh, but what about a pecan pie!? Maybe there should be 2 bags. One with fruit and veg and one with prepared foods.

Makes me wanna live in MN.

I've lived in Tennessee my whole life and I've never had fried pie. In fact, I don't think I've even heard of it. But I also have no idea what TN's state food would be if I had to choose, haha. Maybe thinkingwoman is right. We DO have a Moon Pie festival, after all.

1. Chicken for Arkansas? To be honest, I can't really think of anything else it'd be. Its home to the worlds largest chicken manufacturer, Tyson. (Maybe some packaged snacks from Wal-Mart?) People in Arkansas claim cheese dip. Any thoughts on that? I've always been sort of confused about it, but growing up there I did guzzle it in great quantities.

2. Ok. Pepperoni Rolls for West Virginia is perfect. I have lived in West Virginia for a year and I would say this is the third best thing about West Virginia, besides the mountains and the people. If you're interested in knowing more about this delicious treat, or want a recipe to make them, please check out my informative blog post:
http://kmarone.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/pepperoni-roll-time/
Please ignore the fact that I haven't blogged in months.

Also, in North Carolina I always heard "livermush." which is way grosser sounding than liver pudding, which makes it a more appropriate name cause that is some gross stuff.

Also, New York--buffalo wings? anyone? anyone? just sayin'

Ok I'm done now.

New York should be apples!!! Washington apples can suck it, ours are the best! I mean, I like bagels, but outside of NYC, you know, most of the state, apples are where it's at.

Thanks everyone for all your awesome comments! We love how much (good) debate our food selections are creating. So fun.

Hey! What did Washington ever do to you? Sounds like someone needs some coffee...

Some of these are actually accurate!

Like, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Massachusetts...

Others are just sad.

North Carolina? C'mon you haters. Liver???? I'm outraged.

And Nevada? Buffet??? (Although, that's probably sad.... but true.)

On a side note, the first time I ever ate cashew chicken was at a Chinese restaurant in Missouri! Who knew?

DC is a half smoke? What?

Seriously, just because Tyson's based in Arkansas? I mean, if you're gonna go with an agricultural product why not rice? 48 percent of US rice comes from Arkansas.

Also, I would totally not associate mud pie with Mississippi. Just because they're called French fries doesn't make 'em French. Maybe catfish or banana pudding?

All the transplanted Nebraskans I know are crazy for runzas. And I believe the runza is the state food of Nebraska. There's a Runza Hut in Lawrence, KS and that's where everyone in my area goes to get their fix.

And the Kansas wheat thing...yeah, that's something we'll never get past.

Colorado is home of the Rocky Ford melon, the best cantaloupe you can buy. When I was growing up in Denver, the old-timer newspaper columnists used to rave about them, but you couldn't find them in the supermarkets, probably because the supermarkets get their melons (nasty, hard little bowling balls) from California.

Those of you who are living in the state and haven't heard of Colorado cantaloupe need to travel down to Rocky Ford and give it a try!

I am from VA and I love me a good ham so salty you don't have to refrigerate it. I currently live in PA and I don't see scrapple all that much. I saw it more at home in VA. Cheesesteak would be more appropriate but thats because I live near Philly. I doubt the western Pennsylvanians would agree.

SCRAPPLE???? Are you serious? Who eats that? Seriously!! Poor Nebraska? What about poor PA? Because Scrapple? Seriously? The outrage! I'm sputtering over here. Ugh.

Cute bag! All the places I know enough to comment about seem right to me: DC half smokes are an institution-- when Carla Bruni came to town, she ate two in one sitting! Salt water taffy IS summer at the Jersey shore, and it neatly avoids the North Jersey/South Jersey divide, too.

And I'll spare you the line from Wedding Crashers about crab cakes and football and Maryland :-)

Mmmm, king cake! Since I moved to RI (coffee milk, spot on), I beg my mom to mail me a king cake every year....

dnlandes - you are correct, us western Pennsylvanians would not agree to cheesesteak! Over here it's pierogies and those giant Primanti's sandwiches. Or the Pittsburgh salad, which entails putting french fries and cheese on a grilled chicken or grilled steak salad.

I think PA should be Beer. We have a lot of breweries, large and small, and we take it very seriously. Or pretzels, because there are so many pretzel factories. Or chocolate, in honor of Hershey. But not scrapple. Anything but scrapple!!

Idaho - bottom right corner & a potato.
Glad to see we were the after thought...

Ribeye for Texas...would've made more sense to have brisket or chili.

I'm not convinced about blue crabs for DE--I know Marylanders love their crab cakes, but I always think of crabs as more of a MD thing. But then, I strongly dislike seafood anyway, so I tend to ignore it. At least we didn't end up with scrapple, since there's an apple-scrapple festival every year downstate (ugh!!)

Where is New Mexico???? I'm dying because I can't find it. Please tell me it's chiles! Texas ribeye? I second the vote for chili. Also liked avocado for California, though grapes (RAISINS!) work pretty well.

Okay, color me silly and happy -- NM is green chiles. Spot on!