Today, the taste of America includes everything from hot dogs
and Maine lobster to Hawaiian tuna and soft-shell crab. It has
the tang and Chimayo chilies. Illustration by Joël Penkman  IN
1878, that most American of writers, Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
better known as Mark Twain, undertook a journey through parts of
Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy. Mr. Twain was serious
about the pleasures of gastronomy, but judging from his account
of the trip, published as "A Tramp Abroad," he was not impressed
by what the European larder had to offer. "A man accustomed to
American food and American domestic cookery," he proposed,
"would not starve to death suddenly in Europe; but I think he
would gradually waste away, and eventually die."  'The Taste of
America' F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal  What Mr.
Twain pined for was, well, the taste of America. Today, that
tastes like hot dogs, Cincinnati chili and grass-fed beef. Like
Maine lobster, Hawaiian tuna and soft-shell crab. It has the
tang of Ruby Red gra