Illinois Ranked as Having Top 5 Absolute Best Food in America

I love it when the internet makes food declarations as if they're scientific fact even though there are few things in life that are more subjective than food preferences. That being said, it's hard to argue with the "science" that has just named Illinois as having among the top 5 absolute best food items in America.

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Far and Wide is the latest culprit media outlet that has decided to issue sweeping rankings on the good, bad and ugly of food. Most of the time I choose to debate places that do this because food beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. In this case, I'll do something I rarely do - agree with the outcome.

According to their extensive reasons why, Far and Wide says Illinois has the 5th absolute best food in America. But why? Yes, deep-dish pizza gets the expected mention, but it's the varied ethnic influences of "Polish, Italian, Mexican, Serbian/Croatian and Pakistani immigrants" that ultimately wins the day. They also love that Illinois people take hot dogs so freaking serious. That's not a bad thing in my book.

While I appreciate the ethnic stylings that make so much Illinois food unique, it really does need to circle back to the deep dish pizza though, doesn't it? If your pizza has cheese that deserves its own exclusive zip code, that's one for the win column I think.

For the record, Missouri comes up in the 20's of the ranking almost exclusively for BBQ excellence and I can't really argue with Texas being in the top 5 either.