What food is special to your region?

[Cehrabehra]

here boiled fish is popular, and it's nasty. I don't know what they cook it in - it always tastes musty and it's bloody expensive!!!

Oh, but wait, I just thought of what is REALLY the special delicacy of this city....

SEA CUCUMBERS!

They come rarely fresh, usually dried, sometimes sealed in liquid and plastic, and sometimes frozen. At all times they are THE food of Dalian. They're bloody expensive, about $15 for ONE of these suckers. They consider them super healthy. I don't know if anyone actually likes them though lol I've tried them. Not the worst food I've had, but not going back for more.

I wish I could get a shot of the mascots for Dalian which are little sea cucumbers with legs and hats and smiles and eyes... goofy, goofy stuff maynard.

They even have a sculpture here... Here's the sculpture:

 

[Jennifer W]

Not a food, but a soda - Irn Bru (pronounced iron brew). It's phenomenal...

One of the best things about it is the adverts they have run over the years, which you can see here if you have spare time

http://www.irn-bru.co.uk/

I don't think you can buy it outside of Scotland and it's probably the main cause of dental decay in this country.

My kid would be in time-out until her 49th birthday if I caught her drinking this, but um, it's really good and I drink it secretly in the car from time to time.

lol we had this in scotland, it's interesting for sure! There are chemicals in it that are illegal in the USA so they have a modified version they occasionally sell there I hear. It's very very difficult to get it in the states.

It isn't the same without the illegal chemicals. There is a myth here that it is the cause of red hair, too.
It's very nice with a shot of whisky in it, and makes a fantastic mixer for vodka, if you're really classy...

ETA the sea cucumber sculpture cracked me up! I thought it was a real one until I read the post properly...

 

[Trekkie]

It's unique. I can't think of anything even similar. It is very sweet, but yes, it is refreshing and slightly tart. When it's ice cold, there's nothing quite like it. It has a slightly metallic tang, hence the name. The colour is like nothing else on earth - the closest comparison I can think of is that really orangey red hair that many Scots have.

Scottish children are brought up on the stuff. Here, we don't debate whether breast feeding or formula feeding is the way to go, it's whether regular or diet irn bru is best for baby. (I'm kidding ...just).

ETA I just read some of the details on the Irn Bru website. It does indeed contain iron.

OMG! I love irn bru!

We have a watered down, not quite as nice version available here in South Africa... But all it does is make one crave the real thing!

Btw, I'm surprised you don't mention deep fried Mars bars?!

I currently live in the Eastern Cape region of SA and here we have "delicacies" that no one else in the country admits to eating!

For instance...

Trip and trotters - the feet and stomach lining and of an animal boiled for hours. Like many people, if the meat is fresh deer, I prefer my tripe green - this means it's still ripe with whatever undigested yumminess the animal had for lunch. It's delicious!

Walkie-Talkies - the fried heads and feet of chicken. I can't say I'm a fan, but I've had it once or twice. It's nice and crunchy.

Smileys - the boiled head of a sheep or goat. nom nom nom nom

Regulars in our shopping trolley - ostrich! We have ostrich mince, ostrich biltong, ostrich sausage. Hmmmm... It's so tasty, I can't believe it's actually good for me!

This weekend we had genuine Mexican chilli, but with ostrich mince. It was delicious!

My FI has learned the hard way that I order crocodile at just about any opportunity. If I could, I'd eat crocodile every day for breakfast lunch and supper!

I also love all Cape Malay and Indian food, especially biryanie and just about any curry you put in front of me. I like it hot, hot, hot! The hotter the better!

 

[JewelFreak]

My mother told me that an old New England treat was to eat snow with maple syrup, which we sometimes did when I was a child.

Deb/AGBF

Deb -- we did this in northern NY state too. It's called "sugaring off" & you eat it in late winter, early spring when sap begins to run in the maple trees. Really yummy!

DH is from Holland -- most of their food is Germanic, nothing especially individual, boiled cabbage & potatoes, etc. They eat a lot of cheese. My favorite Dutch food is brined raw herring, especially the first of the fishing season. It's an acquired taste & MUCH better than it sounds! (Particularly when compared to Trekkie's, oooh ahhh.)

--- Laurie

 

[Trekkie]

My mother told me that an old New England treat was to eat snow with maple syrup, which we sometimes did when I was a child.

Deb/AGBF

Deb -- we did this in northern NY state too. It's called "sugaring off" & you eat it in late winter, early spring when sap begins to run in the maple trees. Really yummy!

DH is from Holland -- most of their food is Germanic, nothing especially individual, boiled cabbage & potatoes, etc. They eat a lot of cheese. My favorite Dutch food is brined raw herring, especially the first of the fishing season. It's an acquired taste & MUCH better than it sounds! (Particularly when compared to Trekkie's, oooh ahhh.)

--- Laurie

Haha! A lot of our food sounds awful but tastes really good!

Whenever I visit my coloured relatives, I just say hello and head straight for the kitchen. There's always something good hiding in there. For some reason this behaviour is entirely appropriate around my coloured relatives but not at all allowed around my white relatives!

I'm glad you mentioned brined raw herring. Whenever my best friend returns from visiting his sister in Sweden he has horror stories of being forced to eat raw fish that's been buried for months. I thought he was joking, but clearly he is not!

 

[AGBF]

I went to look up, "A New England Boiled Dinner", which I had always loved, and came across this website:

http://www.lifeintheusa.com/food/newengland.htm

This website mentions things about New England cuisine which are self-evident to me, but may not be to others, like our love and plentiful use of the cranberry! I had forgotten how my husband's European relatives had failed to fall in love with all things cranberry as I had expected that they would! Apparently, it is an acquired taste!

I, also, could eat Indian pudding until I was as fat as a barrel. I have made a huge slow cooker full of it for a holiday party for my extended family. Served with whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream, this is one of my (and my Aunt Dot's) favorite desserts. She always reminisced about living in Boston and having the famous Durgin Park Indian pudding. (For those who don't know, Indian pudding is one of those puddings made with molasses that is mentioned on the website I cited.)

We do use a lot of corn, but I assumed that the rest of the country did, too. Certainly the South is famous for cornbread, so we aren't the only ones who use a lot of corn!

And you know about the clams; the lobster; the scallops; the codfish...right? There was a lot of pollution when I was growing up, but my mother dug for clams on the seashore here (the Long Island Sound).

And my great aunts and uncles had huge gardens, too, where they managed to grow vegetables and have berry bushes. Their apple trees were their pride, though. They grafted different varieties of apples onto trees and changed the apples. I was too young to understand exactly what went on, but was fascinated to watch the process! Limbs would be cut off one tree and attached to another with tar.

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

 

[vc10um]

Montgomery Inn....heaven. You can buy the sauce at grocery stores.
Cinci has a lot of great foods- my fav is Graeters Ice Cream (it will change your life).

When I visit one of my best friends, we go to the Columbus Graeters near campus and split the Jim Tressel Sundae. I make her order it, though, since, well, saying that name makes me want to vom. Just a little. But it's SO GOOD.

 

[rhbgirl24]

Hmm... New Jersey:

I know someone already said pork roll.

But NJ is really known for their produce. Nothing like jersey tomatos or jersey corn!

Also because we're in the middle of two big cities, the Philly Cheesesteak is also awesome and NY style pizza too!

 

[dragonfly411]

I'm from FL and some of the things I've grown up with that are special to the region are:

LOTS of seafood.
Conch Stew
Shark Stew
Fried conch
fried oysters
steamed oysters
frog legs - fried, grilled
gator tail
turtle soup
fried turtle
chicken and dumplins
Fried shoftshell crab
gator chili
craw fish scampi
steamed craw fish
fried craw fish
fried okra
home made cole slaw
fried chicken
potato salad
macaroni salad
fried venison
venison stew
boiled okra
fresh corn on the cob
creamed corn
baked corn
corn fritters
The list goes on and on and on and on and on

 

[Tuckins1]

I'm from Michigan, so it's pretty much your standard mid-west type food.... But around here, we have some of the most fantastic burgers and pizza i've ever had!!!

 

[Jennifer W]

It's unique. I can't think of anything even similar. It is very sweet, but yes, it is refreshing and slightly tart. When it's ice cold, there's nothing quite like it. It has a slightly metallic tang, hence the name. The colour is like nothing else on earth - the closest comparison I can think of is that really orangey red hair that many Scots have.

Scottish children are brought up on the stuff. Here, we don't debate whether breast feeding or formula feeding is the way to go, it's whether regular or diet irn bru is best for baby. (I'm kidding ...just).

ETA I just read some of the details on the Irn Bru website. It does indeed contain iron.

OMG! I love irn bru!

We have a watered down, not quite as nice version available here in South Africa... But all it does is make one crave the real thing!

Btw, I'm surprised you don't mention deep fried Mars bars?!

I currently live in the Eastern Cape region of SA and here we have "delicacies" that no one else in the country admits to eating!

For instance...

Trip and trotters - the feet and stomach lining and of an animal boiled for hours. Like many people, if the meat is fresh deer, I prefer my tripe green - this means it's still ripe with whatever undigested yumminess the animal had for lunch. It's delicious!

Walkie-Talkies - the fried heads and feet of chicken. I can't say I'm a fan, but I've had it once or twice. It's nice and crunchy.

Smileys - the boiled head of a sheep or goat. nom nom nom nom

Regulars in our shopping trolley - ostrich! We have ostrich mince, ostrich biltong, ostrich sausage. Hmmmm... It's so tasty, I can't believe it's actually good for me!

This weekend we had genuine Mexican chilli, but with ostrich mince. It was delicious!

My FI has learned the hard way that I order crocodile at just about any opportunity. If I could, I'd eat crocodile every day for breakfast lunch and supper!

I also love all Cape Malay and Indian food, especially biryanie and just about any curry you put in front of me. I like it hot, hot, hot! The hotter the better!

Some of that stuff sounds....challenging.

Deepfried mars bar might be a bit of a myth, I suspect. I never actually found anywhere that sells them. I've had chocolate ganache deep fried in filo pastry at a restaurant, but that was in the US. It was really, really good.

 

[AGBF]

I assure you that Deep Fried Mars Bars would be available in Minnesota at a State Fair. My best friend's son (older brother of my godson) just spent the last 10 or 15 years living in South Dakota and then Minnesota. He took me on a tour of a website of a Minnesota State Fair. There was Deep Fried Spaghetti on a stick and Deep Fried Everything. I will look for a link.

Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5Lr2IhB_o

PS-I was wrong. It is only Snickers bars that I saw deep fried at the Minnesota State Fair.

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

 

[dragonfly411]

Ahhh Fried Oreos!!! Forgot those.

 

[Prana]

In my particular state, we have a lot of locally made sodas and beer. And our thin crust brick oven pizza is in a class of its own. CT is also, I believe, the birthplace of the Hamburger, and the supposed restaurant that created the Hamburger is still in existence, and still makes one of the most bangin' burgers around. They still cook on the original griddle!

Specific to New England, I would say, Lobster (or Lobstah depending on where you're from )-plain ol' lobster, lobster rolls, lobster bisque, etc., blueberries and blueberry pie, maple syrup (the legit stuff), clam chowder (both white and red broth), seafood seafood seafood, cranberries, and Cheddar cheese.

 

[somethingshiny]

I thought of one. Sweet Corn. Not that other places don't have it, but I don't think any other place has a week long festival at pickin time.

Also, a lot of people here put macaroni in their chili which I find extremely weird. And everyone has their own version of Pepsi or Coke marinated venison or beef.

 

[Prana]

I forgot! Hot Apple Cider!!!!!!!!!! Soo good. Apple pie as well!

 

[Prana]

I went to look up, "A New England Boiled Dinner", which I had always loved, and came across this website:

http://www.lifeintheusa.com/food/newengland.htm

This website mentions things about New England cuisine which are self-evident to me, but may not be to others, like our love and plentiful use of the cranberry! I had forgotten how my husband's European relatives had failed to fall in love with all things cranberry as I had expected that they would! Apparently, it is an acquired taste!

I, also, could eat Indian pudding until I was as fat as a barrel. I have made a huge slow cooker full of it for a holiday party for my extended family. Served with whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream, this is one of my (and my Aunt Dot's) favorite desserts. She always reminisced about living in Boston and having the famous Durgin Park Indian pudding. (For those who don't know, Indian pudding is one of those puddings made with molasses that is mentioned on the website I cited.)

We do use a lot of corn, but I assumed that the rest of the country did, too. Certainly the South is famous for cornbread, so we aren't the only ones who use a lot of corn!

And you know about the clams; the lobster; the scallops; the codfish...right? There was a lot of pollution when I was growing up, but my mother dug for clams on the seashore here (the Long Island Sound).

And my great aunts and uncles had huge gardens, too, where they managed to grow vegetables and have berry bushes. Their apple trees were their pride, though. They grafted different varieties of apples onto trees and changed the apples. I was too young to understand exactly what went on, but was fascinated to watch the process! Limbs would be cut off one tree and attached to another with tar.

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

We must live close by each other! My DH spends all his summer days fishing and clamming in LIS!

 

[Trekkie]

It's unique. I can't think of anything even similar. It is very sweet, but yes, it is refreshing and slightly tart. When it's ice cold, there's nothing quite like it. It has a slightly metallic tang, hence the name. The colour is like nothing else on earth - the closest comparison I can think of is that really orangey red hair that many Scots have.

Scottish children are brought up on the stuff. Here, we don't debate whether breast feeding or formula feeding is the way to go, it's whether regular or diet irn bru is best for baby. (I'm kidding ...just).

ETA I just read some of the details on the Irn Bru website. It does indeed contain iron.

OMG! I love irn bru!

We have a watered down, not quite as nice version available here in South Africa... But all it does is make one crave the real thing!

Btw, I'm surprised you don't mention deep fried Mars bars?!

I currently live in the Eastern Cape region of SA and here we have "delicacies" that no one else in the country admits to eating!

For instance...

Trip and trotters - the feet and stomach lining and of an animal boiled for hours. Like many people, if the meat is fresh deer, I prefer my tripe green - this means it's still ripe with whatever undigested yumminess the animal had for lunch. It's delicious!

Walkie-Talkies - the fried heads and feet of chicken. I can't say I'm a fan, but I've had it once or twice. It's nice and crunchy.

Smileys - the boiled head of a sheep or goat. nom nom nom nom

Regulars in our shopping trolley - ostrich! We have ostrich mince, ostrich biltong, ostrich sausage. Hmmmm... It's so tasty, I can't believe it's actually good for me!

This weekend we had genuine Mexican chilli, but with ostrich mince. It was delicious!

My FI has learned the hard way that I order crocodile at just about any opportunity. If I could, I'd eat crocodile every day for breakfast lunch and supper!

I also love all Cape Malay and Indian food, especially biryanie and just about any curry you put in front of me. I like it hot, hot, hot! The hotter the better!

Some of that stuff sounds....challenging.

Deepfried mars bar might be a bit of a myth, I suspect. I never actually found anywhere that sells them. I've had chocolate ganache deep fried in filo pastry at a restaurant, but that was in the US. It was really, really good.

Are you telling me deep fried Mars bars don't exist?!

You've just shattered my world view!

Next thing I know you'll be telling me there is no tooth fairy or Father Christmas!

 

[ChloeTheGreat]

I assure you that Deep Fried Mars Bars would be available in Minnesota at a State Fair. My best friend's son (older brother of my godson) just spent the last 10 or 15 years living in South Dakota and then Minnesota. He took me on a tour of a website of a Minnesota State Fair. There was Deep Fried Spaghetti on a stick and Deep Fried Everything. I will look for a link.

Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5Lr2IhB_o

PS-I was wrong. It is only Snickers bars that I saw deep fried at the Minnesota State Fair.

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Supposedly, the Minnesota State Fair rivals the Texas State Fair. (I guess that means they're both huge events and have tons of fried food.) I was in Minnesota during the fair last year but didn't get the chance to go. My sister did and she brought me some fried cheesecake. Yum.

 

[Jennifer W]

I assure you that Deep Fried Mars Bars would be available in Minnesota at a State Fair. My best friend's son (older brother of my godson) just spent the last 10 or 15 years living in South Dakota and then Minnesota. He took me on a tour of a website of a Minnesota State Fair. There was Deep Fried Spaghetti on a stick and Deep Fried Everything. I will look for a link.

Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5Lr2IhB_o

PS-I was wrong. It is only Snickers bars that I saw deep fried at the Minnesota State Fair.

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Oh, there's nothing you can't deep-fry if you really set your mind to it! When I worked in a psychiatric hospital the catering team used to make buffet lunches for management and clinical team meetings to their very own very special recipes. You could always tell who hadn't been at a meeting there before - they tried to eat the deep fried macaroni cheese balls in batter...

 

[artdecogirl]

Wow Trekkie, those do sound ah interesting.... We have what they call head cheese that is a pigs head boiled and all the bits gel up into a meat (using this term loosely) loaf type of stuff that they slice up like sandwich meat, sounds the same as your smileys? Why do they call them smileys? Wait, I do not want to know. Our ancestors sure knew how to use every bit of the animal to keep food on the table. and chicken feet, oh my.

 

[anchor31]

We have a few things in Québec that I believe are unique to our region.

"oreilles de crisses" (deep fried smoked pork jowls)
Maple taffee on snow
"pâté chinois" (similar to shepherd's pie; a layer of seasoned ground beef, a layer of corn and a layer of mashed potatoes)

 

[artdecogirl]

I forgot about the fair, not everyday minnesota food for sure but some like corn on the cob, walleye. The theme has een anything on a stick and most of it is deepfried. People here wait all year for state fair cheese curds, they are the best ever. EVer and ever. Deepfried pickles are also nummmy.There has been the fried candybars for sometime and they are not too bad but very rich and not my cup o tea. I always thought that Iowa had the biggest state fair?

 

[dragonfly411]

Deep Fried Mars Bar

 

[Jennifer W]

It's unique. I can't think of anything even similar. It is very sweet, but yes, it is refreshing and slightly tart. When it's ice cold, there's nothing quite like it. It has a slightly metallic tang, hence the name. The colour is like nothing else on earth - the closest comparison I can think of is that really orangey red hair that many Scots have.

Scottish children are brought up on the stuff. Here, we don't debate whether breast feeding or formula feeding is the way to go, it's whether regular or diet irn bru is best for baby. (I'm kidding ...just).

ETA I just read some of the details on the Irn Bru website. It does indeed contain iron.

OMG! I love irn bru!

We have a watered down, not quite as nice version available here in South Africa... But all it does is make one crave the real thing!

Btw, I'm surprised you don't mention deep fried Mars bars?!

I currently live in the Eastern Cape region of SA and here we have "delicacies" that no one else in the country admits to eating!

For instance...

Trip and trotters - the feet and stomach lining and of an animal boiled for hours. Like many people, if the meat is fresh deer, I prefer my tripe green - this means it's still ripe with whatever undigested yumminess the animal had for lunch. It's delicious!

Walkie-Talkies - the fried heads and feet of chicken. I can't say I'm a fan, but I've had it once or twice. It's nice and crunchy.

Smileys - the boiled head of a sheep or goat. nom nom nom nom

Regulars in our shopping trolley - ostrich! We have ostrich mince, ostrich biltong, ostrich sausage. Hmmmm... It's so tasty, I can't believe it's actually good for me!

This weekend we had genuine Mexican chilli, but with ostrich mince. It was delicious!

My FI has learned the hard way that I order crocodile at just about any opportunity. If I could, I'd eat crocodile every day for breakfast lunch and supper!

I also love all Cape Malay and Indian food, especially biryanie and just about any curry you put in front of me. I like it hot, hot, hot! The hotter the better!

Some of that stuff sounds....challenging.

Deepfried mars bar might be a bit of a myth, I suspect. I never actually found anywhere that sells them. I've had chocolate ganache deep fried in filo pastry at a restaurant, but that was in the US. It was really, really good.

Are you telling me deep fried Mars bars don't exist?!

You've just shattered my world view!

Next thing I know you'll be telling me there is no tooth fairy or Father Christmas!

Oh, I'm sure they exist, because there's nothing you can't deepfru, but I don't see them here, ie they aren't a Scottish speciality, as far as I know. The fish and chip shop in our village doesn't do them anyway, and they fry some... unusual things.

I do love a frozen mars bar though, but that's more of a house speciality than a regional one!

 

[aliciagirl]

That deep-fried Mars bar is frightening!'

My hometown in WV is famous for their ramps. Disgusting, garlic-scented, onion-looking things. They are sort of like leeks? Everyone would dig them out of the woods and then have them with eggs for breakfast. Ugh.

 

[elrohwen]

In CT it's probably pizza - people are are obsessive about their pizza here. I'm in the western part of the state so it's mostly NY style. In New Haven they have their own type of pizza which locals will defend to the death (I still haven't tried it). I honestly couldn't tell you where there was a Dominos, Papa Johns, or Pizza Hut in my town (though there is an Uno's in the mall I've seen), but I can list at least 5 locally owned pizza places right by my house. They're everywhere!

Growing up in Pittsburgh anything Polish or German was the local specialty - especially pierogi or anything made with cabbage.

 

[elrohwen]

That deep-fried Mars bar is frightening!'

My hometown in WV is famous for their ramps. Disgusting, garlic-scented, onion-looking things. They are sort of like leeks? Everyone would dig them out of the woods and then have them with eggs for breakfast. Ugh.

My parents went to grad school in WV and told me about how the entire town would stink for a couple of weeks during the ramp festival. I love garlic and onions though, so I'd like to try it!

 

[Jennifer W]

In CT it's probably pizza - people are are obsessive about their pizza here. I'm in the western part of the state so it's mostly NY style. In New Haven they have their own type of pizza which locals will defend to the death (I still haven't tried it). I honestly couldn't tell you where there was a Dominos, Papa Johns, or PIzza Hut in my town (there is an Uno's in the mall I've seen), but I can list at least 5 locally owned pizza places right by my house. They're everywhere!

Growing up in Pittsburgh anything Polish or German was the local specialty - especially pierogi or anything made with cabbage.

I want to move there. I would be really, really thin if it wasn't for pizza.

 

[Jennifer W]

That deep-fried Mars bar is frightening!'

My hometown in WV is famous for their ramps. Disgusting, garlic-scented, onion-looking things. They are sort of like leeks? Everyone would dig them out of the woods and then have them with eggs for breakfast. Ugh.

My parents went to grad school in WV and told me about how the entire town would stink for a couple of weeks during the ramp festival. I love garlic and onions though, so I'd like to try it!

LOL! It possibly didn't smell as bad as Helsinki during the Herring Festival. DH worked there for a while a few years back and there was herring. Everywhere. It's hard to feel truly festive about herring, but I think they gave it their best shot. I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy and feeling nauseous at the best of times, so my visits were few and far between that month!