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Like most New Yorkers -- natives, transplants, whomever -- we love bagels. But we didn't quite capture the essence of this city's bagel identity. So we're calling for a do-over. On our season finale of Food/Groups, we take on New York City's bagels (again) and this time we're diving into the history of smoked salmon, or lox, which has become a key food item to the NYC bagel tradition.

Teriyaki: sweet! Sticky! Born not in Japan, but right here, in Seattle! Modern teriyaki was pioneered in Seattle in the Seventies, and for decades, teriyaki shops thrived as the city's, cheap, quirky alternative to franchised fast food. In the last ten years, about a third of the city's iconic teriyaki shops have disappeared. Can teriyaki survive in the city's glossy future?

Like the state itself, this Alabama BBQ White Sauce is a bit of a barbecue outsider: a white mayonnaise concoction designed not for brisket or pork, but for regular ol' chicken. In northern Alabama, the white sauce's legacy is as complex as it is delicious. It's now a staple in college football tailgates across the state and one that the Alabama Crimson Tide in particular can't get enough of.

Chicago is a city that adores its food icons. But there's one Chicago food tradition that flies so under-the-radar, even many Chicago residents hadn't heard of it before Chicago-born comedian Hannibal Buress penned a love letter to it in Chicago Magazine. "If you live on the South Side or West Side and you go to a restaurant that has bulletproof glass, they probably have mild sauce".

When you think about Cubans in Florida, you probably don't think of Tampa. But you should! Sure, today, Miami has the biggest concentration of Cuban-Americans in the state -- and the country, for that matter. But back before Miami was even a city, it was here, in Tampa, that the cigar industry boomed and the iconic Cuban sandwich was born.

With all due respect to Chicago's pizza pedigree, it's just not the only deep dish in the Rust Belt. Enter Detroit: where the pies are rectangular, the pans are blue steel, and the people have a thing or two to say about that "other" deep dish pizza.

The Land of 10,000 Lakes is also the land of wild rice -- a naturally occurring aquatic grass that's knocked, finished, and sold by Native Americans. And while legit hand-picked wild rice can get expensive, it's an edible through-line that connects Minnesota's pristine past with its modern culinary future.

The Chesapeake Bay is home to over a third of all blue crabs harvested in the entire country, but it's Maryland that lives Chesapeake blue crab to the fullest. After being pushed to the brink of extinction a few decades ago, Maryland's favorite crustacean is thriving on the bay once again.

It's a glorious, 3000-calorie gutbuster of greasy lunch counter staples, from macaroni salad to cheeseburgers, and it brings this Rust Belt city together across lines of class, race, and generation.