For me, KC-style bbq is as much about the sauce style as is the smoking style. I like Arthur Bryant's meats, but his sauce is much to vinegary for me. My all time favorite in KC is Arthur Bryant's burnt ends. But I would pair a sweeter sauce (like KC Masterpiece) with them.

There are literally scores of bbq restaurants in the KC area; it will be a fun field trip for your friend to try as many as possible :)

Northern Italian
Southern Italian
American New England

It's hard to say exactly as I've never traveled there and many restaurants seem to combine
dishes from the region. For sure Greek, Turkish, Lebanese...

Which part of the US?
Southern US and Soul Food:
BBQ, fried chicken, greens, ham, biscuits and gravy, ribs, egg salad, pork chops, fried okra, jambalaya, bbq chicken, hot chicken.

plus Americanized ethnic: spaghetti, chicken stir fry, roast beef, kielbasa, etc.

Thai (Bangkok/ central region)
Greek
Japanese

Honourable shoutout to Mexican. Very close, but it asked for top 3 only.

Italian (like real Italian. I often wonder how America and Australia ended up with such vastly different versions of Italian)
Westernised Chinese
Anything involving a dead animal and hot coals.

Malaysia (specifically Penang)
Bavaria
Middle Eastern (specifically northern Iraq)

There are some great Kurdish restaurants in Nashville you’d enjoy.

Very contextual, favorite to cook is different from favorite to eat, etc.

I'd say for overall food culture
1. Malaysia/Singapore
2. Spanish/Portuguese
3a. Italian... not because it tastes the best, but because of the culture around it and how much of it i cook
3b. Japanese... aethestics and philosophy. i just dont eat it or cook it often.

Most underrated cuisines from my perspective:
Turkish
Regional Mexican (not Tex Mex)
Uruguay/Argentine/Chilean asado

there’s too many parts of Italia for food. Too fun! :-)
I like how liane moriarty books take place in Australia and say “yum cha” instead of dim sum :-). Even though that’s how I heard it in my past, I still use “dim sum” now.

I definitely first had soup dumplings in China before they became more common in USA. Swoon

My uncle is from Campania and taught me Italian. I love it all but southern Italian is something I can cook well and really love the flavours. Even my sister who would burn water is amazing at southern Italian. When we would visit Naples we'd go out and her being much younger would stay home often with Nonna Maria. My sister does not speak any Italian and Nonna Maria spoke no English but my sister picked up cooking Italian by sitting in the kitchen and cooking with her. It's actually one of her fondest memories of childhood.

I have done no research into this but I always assumed that in Australia we say yum cha because dim sum is to close to dim sim. I do know that yum cha is the whole meal whereas dim sum is the collective name for the food.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sim

1. Ile de France
2. Poitou-Charentes
3. Bordeaux

The three I'm dabbling in at home lately...
Italy
Thailand
Japan

Japanese (not omlettes or curry)
Indian (railway food)
British (stews and pies)

Italian (proper Italy Italian with multiple courses, not Americanized crap)
Japanese
Middle Eastern/Mediterranean