The super bowl food thread made me think about regional food.
Someone mentioned they were going to serve pork roll, I had some at a tailgate. People there were raving about this regional specialty. I was less than impressed, lol!
What regional food speciality do you love that someone in another part of the country would find, not that tasty?
For me, it’s definitely Skyline Chili, Cincinnati Chili. My family loves, loves, loves it. When I go east to D’s house, she has me bring frozen Skyline Chili. We don’t have one near us but will schedule our lunches so we can stop.
Will schedule around Chick-fil-a also but it’s not regional anymore.
This is only popular around a small part of Detroit because of the large Hungarian population: dirty bread (szalonna). It’s rye bread covered with veggies and then szalonna (like bacon) grease drizzled on from a constantly roasting piece of meat.
It’s the closest I come to breaking my vegetarianism and it is sooooo good but most people are reluctant to try it. Those who do, love it.
I love sopapillas in New Mexico, dripping with honey. I want to tell people here that they are better than beignets but I don’t want to start an argument!
Chicken Pot Pie. No, it’s not a pie. It’s a PA Dutch dish made with square noodles, chicken, carrots, and potatoes in a chicken broth. A local fire hall is selling it tomorrow as a fund raiser and we’re looking forward to our dinner tomorrow night. Unless you were raised on it, you not only don’t like, you find the thought of eating it appalling.
FlyMe:
My daughter makes it for her fellow teachers in AK and they love it.
Maybe I should send her some pig stomachs to fill?
In my childhood part of western NY white (all pork) hot dogs are a big deal. My father used to ask for white hot dogs everywhere we went on vacation just to be cute.
Scrapple. If your family has PA Dutch background, or rural MD background (think PA Dutch South) this is something you eat. If you don’t, well you probably don’t. And if you eat it with ketchup or maple syrup, or even King’s syrup instead of applebutter, you are so very, very, very wrong.
Real pizza. (not that others wouldn’t find it tasty–just that they don’t recognize that their “pizza” is not nearly as good.)
Also, funny that you reference pork roll. In NJ, it’s sort of a thing now to say if you call it pork roll or Taylor ham, which signifies which part of the state you come from.
The obvious thing from Maine is Moxie, the state’s weird soda. On the other hand, I don’t think that many people in Maine are really crazy about it either.
Hangtown Fry (omelet with bacon and oysters)…It originated during the California Gold Rush and remains popular in some iconic San Francisco restaurants.
I haven’t tried it but the Swedes have a rotten fish eating contest. It’s fermented fish in a can, that makes the can buckle! Called surstromming - https://www.thelocal.se/20100825/28566
A few more locals (that I don’t like but the vast majority of people seem to):
Faygo (pop). It’s apparently made it out to the rest of the midwest now but it wasn’t when I was growing up. I have pictures of my great-grandparents drinking them.
Coney dogs. Each region of MI has its own spin on it.
Superman ice cream.
Do Eat:
Paczki. This exists in many cities but they’re still unknown to most (maybe that’s changing?). I always looked forward to paczki day at school and thought it was universal. Mr R had NO idea what I was talking about when I asked him to pick them up on our first Fat Tuesday together lol.
Yup, scrapple. One of the local New England chain grocers carries it and I’ve got a block in my freezer.
Growing up outside Phila, we had Taylor Pork Roll on the lower school menu, about every 2 weeks. Wasn’t popular, lol. In my mind, I can still smell it. But speaking of NJ, yes, the pizza is great. And finding a food truck for sausage and peppers on a roll.
