Cheese curds used in USA cooking?

It's a thing in Minnesota, too. Battered and deep fried cheese curds, dipped in your favorite sauce. Cheese curds are also an ingredient in a Canadian artery clogger called poutine. That's fries, curds, and a rich brown gravy, for the curious minds among us. They are a byproduct of the cheddar cheese making process, usually the curds that were not pressed into a mold, or which broke off in the process of cheddaring, or even those left over after the molds were filled. It's a fresh cheese- aka "green cheese", since it isn't aged. If you get them fresh enough, or are energetic to make your own curds, they will squeak for the first day or so after - so another name is squeaky cheese. Up here you can also get them flavored, with garlic, or peppers, horseradish, etc. You don't have to eat them fried, you can eat them cold out of the bag, and they make for nice lunchbox snacks with a few veggie sticks for health 😊.

Le Bec Fin (Mindy) raised this question in relation to Super Bowl appetizers thread.
I don't know the answer(s).