8 of New York’s Best Regional Dishes Butchered by AI

You can bash New York all you want, but one thing you have to admit is that we're spoiled with delicious regional delicacies.

In my continued pursuit to highlight the imperfections of AI, I thought I'd give Canva's Magic Studio a New York regional dish pop quiz. The results are honestly comical.

If you're hungry, take a pause and eat something now because you might lose your appetite after seeing these renditions.

Long Island B.E.C.

Some argue that you can get a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese anywhere in New York. Technically, you might be able to walk into a deli anywhere and order one, but there's a very specific formula. If they're asking how you want the eggs cooked, it's already not the real deal.

Here's what we're looking for:

I thought this would be a nice softball for the AI bot to start with. However, like many places outside of Long Island and NYC, they dropped the ball on it.

Aside from the nitpicky fact that this is on toast and not a bagel or a roll as it should be, there's no bacon! That's white bread with some rubbery egg and maybe a tomato?

My expectations from this point on hit the floor.

Rochester's White Hots

This regional dish goes way back and has spread beyond the confines of Rochester. The toppings and the amount of char is up to you, but the basics of them should look like this:

I knew I wasn't going to get what I was looking for when prompting the AI bot for this one:

This one feels like a Twilight Zone fever dream. We see it understands the hot dog side of a White Hot and then kind of guessed the rest?

Rochester Garbage Plates

It's hard to pin down an exact recipe for a garbage plate because you have a ton of options as to what you can put on it. Broadly, it's a big, greasy, hot plate of comfort foods thrown together. Home fries, macaroni, ground beef, onions, you name it.

Here's an idea:

As I said, you have a lot of options in terms of how you like your garbage plate. So here's what AI is fixin' for:

Personally, I would add more than just 2 individual french fries and would probably opt for real macaroni instead of the Rice-a-Roni-looking starch on that plate, but overall, not the worst we'll see.

Utica's Tomato Pie

While copycats around the state have leaned into the tomato pie trend, it all started in Utica. If you've never had it, it's pretty self-explanatory. It's a beautifully made pizza sans cheese (or just a sprinkle of cheese on top). The tomato sauce is the main event.

Here's what a good one looks like:

When I said self-explanatory before, I guess that was a little generous. Here's what AI imagined:

It is quite literally a pie crust filled with tomatoes. Not exactly what we're looking for but I understand how we got here.

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Utica's Chicken Riggies

Another tasty Italian-style dish out of Utica. This is a dish I'm happy to see start making its way around the state because how can you lose with chicken, vodka sauce, and rigatonis?

Just take a look at it!

AI clearly had some kind of idea of what chicken riggies technically are, but I can't say they made it look very appetizing.

It's far too soupy-mushy looking for my taste. It's giving a non-perishable, canned rendition look and I just can't get behind it.

SEE ALSO: Little-Known Regional Dish is New York's Best-Kept Secret

Binghamton's Spiedie

Spiedies are a dish that I don't think you really know about until you've been to or know someone from Binghamton. The general concept of skewered meat on a roll is pretty well-traveled, but the Spiedie sauce delicacy is a little more nuanced.

The pictures do a better job at giving you an idea:

I didn't think AI would know what a Spiedie is, and I was correct:

You see the attempt at the skewered element with that bottom kebab layer, but I would not look at this picture and immediately be able to identify it as a Spiedie. Why is the bread cartooned? And what is the sandwich sitting on?

Western New York's Beef on Weck

Full transparency, I haven't had a true Buffalo beef on weck. But basically, it's beef on a roll. But not just any roll! It's on a kummelweck roll which is distinct in its caraway seed and kosher salt topping.

Here's the idea:

This is another one that stumped the AI bot hard:

Freshly defrosted, uncooked-looking ground beef in a bowl with maybe potatoes? But one thing is for sure - there are no caraway seeds or kosher salt on that roll, making this a true miss.

New York City Cronut

New York City is home to many other food creations beyond just the cronut. But I picked this one because I thought AI might not know about this croissant-donut fusion delight.

SEE ALSO: 3 New York Restaurants Named Best in the Country by Yelp

Here's what we were looking for:

And to my surprise:

I give the AI credit, this is the most appetizing rendition of them all.