American Dream Southern cooking chicken-fried steak biscuits and gravy peanut butter, banana, and (sometimes) bacon sandwiches Robert Thompson South Elvis
For much of his adult life, Presley, with his rise from poverty to riches and fame, had seemed to epitomize the American Dream. In his final years, and following the revelations about his circumstances after his death, he became a symbol of excess and gluttony. Increasing attention was paid to his appetite for the rich, heavy Southern cooking of his upbringing, foods such as chicken-fried steak and biscuits and gravy. In particular, his love of fried peanut butter, banana, and (sometimes) bacon sandwiches, now known as "Elvis sandwiches", came to symbolize this characteristic. According to the media scholar Robert Thompson, the sandwich also signified Presley's enduring all-American appeal: "He wasn't only the king, he was one of us."
