Regional Food

[THE PILGRIM]

We have had several good food threads lately, so lets do regional food.
Once I was up at Ft. Drum, N NY. One of the guys I was visiting took me to a very neat Italian restaurant which was located out in the woods on a frozen river.
I order a meatball sandwich. The waitress asks 'Do you want it double covered? ' I am trying to process that and the guy I'm with says, yes , you probably do. She meant lay it on a plate and cover with sauce. That's the way it came and it was good!
Zoom, zoom , zoom, all the way to Tres Piedras, NM. That's up north West of Taos across the beautiful gorge bridge. There used to be a diner there operated by these three ladies. Grandma, Mother and daughter.
Have been up there on several on deer and elk hunts. Once I ordered a cheeseburger from these gals. One says do you want a chili burger? Yes.
The burger was already on the plate, she grabbed a dipper and poured a dipper of chilii on my burger. North NM chilii tends to be kind of watery and hot.
So tbere seems to be a trend cross country to pour sauce on your sandwich.
When it's offered, I say go for it!
What do you got in your zone?

 

[Muley Gil]

We'uns in the South tend to eat a lot of peas and beans. When I was in Kosovo, my roommate was a former police officer from Indiana. The poor boy had never et black eyed peas. When I was on leave, I brought back several bags of dried peas. Our logistics guy had found a source for bacon (Kosovo is mainly Muslim). I soaked the peas overnight and then cooked them with that hunk of bacon for about 3 1/2 hours. I then made a mess of fried cornbread to go with the blackeyed peas. My roomie ate 3 big bowls full! Just wish I could have cooked up some good greens to go with that meal.

Blackeyed peas, crowder peas, purple hulled peas, pinto beans, etc. Beans were cheap and full of protein. Perfect for poor Southerners.

 

[wildenout]

In Utah we generally get the Mormon Green Jello with Carrots....boring.
Though I do often get a nice bacon, broccoli chop salad with Manderin oragnes in it! That is good.
My mother also made a Ramen/Cabbage salad that was good. Salads and Jello are king in this land.

 

[RonJ]

Here in the Mid West we love Pork Steaks (BBQ). They're tender and tasty and big enough for most appetites. If there's any leftovers they make a great sandwich.

 

[Mule Packer]

Wildenout is right when he talks about the salads here, but he forgot that this area is also a big Dutch oven mecca.

For years, Utah was sheep country...and it still is in a lot of places. Dutch ovens were a standard item in the sheep camps and the cow camps of rural Utah.

The International Dutch Oven Society is headquartered in Utah and it seems that just about everybody has a couple of the big black ovens hanging around ready to do service. I have ten of 'em and there have been times when that just wasn't enough.

At just about every neighborhood barbecue or church social, at least up here in my area, there are at least a dozen Dutch ovens filled with everything from stew, chicken, ribs, potatoes, vegetables, biscuits, and cobblers...plenty of cobblers. You name it, peach cobbler, berry cobbler, apricot/rhubarb cobbler...every type of cobbler under the sun.

In our little town, people kinda have the idea that if you don't like Dutch oven cooking, dinner's over.

 

[RonJ]

Blackberry cobbler? I sure could eat a quart or two right now.

 

[meaneyedcatz]

This might sound lame but I do not know what is indigenous to the Midwest but I'll give it a go.
As mentioned above pork steaks are popular.

pintos with smoked chops and cornbread.

Thin crust pizza

blackberry pi and cobbler

gooseberry pie, but its getting pretty hard to find

our BBQ is not like Texas, North Carolina or Memphis style. I cook the meat till almost done then dunk the entire piece of meat in a bowl of sauce an back on the grill for a couple of minutes. Then back into the bowl of sauce and on the grille for a couple of minutes. Do that a few times and the sauce does not burn but gets cooked on. When done the sauce does not run off and it's a thick, hot, and brings the flavor of the sauce out.

 

[rwsmith]

RICE!!!!

We'uns in the South tend to eat a lot of peas and beans. When I was in Kosovo, my roommate was a former police officer from Indiana. The poor boy had never et black eyed peas. When I was on leave, I brought back several bags of dried peas. Our logistics guy had found a source for bacon (Kosovo is mainly Muslim). I soaked the peas overnight and then cooked them with that hunk of bacon for about 3 1/2 hours. I then made a mess of fried cornbread to go with the blackeyed peas. My roomie ate 3 big bowls full! Just wish I could have cooked up some good greens to go with that meal.

Blackeyed peas, crowder peas, purple hulled peas, pinto beans, etc. Beans were cheap and full of protein. Perfect for poor Southerners.

Any bean on RICE!!! Chicken and rice. Fried chicken. Grits. Soul Food......... DANG!

 

[Gunslinger808]

blackberry pi and cobbler

Is it square?

Anyway, around here we have a heavy Tex Mex and Native American influence, lots of green and red chili, fry bread, tortillas, beans, rice, and marinated/smoked meat BBQs (carne asada).
Liberally lubricated with cheap beer.

If it's spicy, fried, or on the grill, it's dinner (preferably all 3 at once) look up enchillada style chimichangas.

 

[Marshwheeling]

This is Minnesota, so we got walleye. I like it broiled, with salt and pepper, butter and tarragon. A little wild rice on the side. The best, though, is battered with egg and cracker crumbs, fried over a camp fire in a cast iron skillet. A little salt and pepper, and washed down with some Overholt over store ice.

Since this is Minnesota, we also got lutefisk. The high season is October and November, when Lutheran churches all over SE Minnesota and western Wisconsin open their basement dining halls to the public at large. You can take your fisk Norwegian-style, with drawn butter, or Swedish-style with cream sauce. Mashed potatoes, mashed rutabaga, Swedish meatballs, slaw, and some cranberries or lingon berries, plus lefse, krumkake, and rommegrot, a thick cream pudding.

Around here, tenderloin is an expensive cut of beef. Travel a little way down into Iowa, and when they say tenderloin they mean a pork tenderloin. My favorite is served at a little tavern called the St. Olaf Tap, in St. Olaf. The ladies' portion covers a dinner platter, and is usually enough for me. The full-sized loin is the size of a manta ray.

Another delicacy I consider regional is banh mi, the Vietnamese hoagie. I am aware there are big Vietnamese communities in Houston and Orange County, CA, but I never go to Houston, and rarely to SoCal. You get these all down University Avenue in Saint Paul, or Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

Mayo, pate, cold cuts, with sliced carrot, daikon, cucumber, cilantro and jalapeno on a French roll. My favorite version adds grilled pork and a meatball.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Here in the Mid West we love Pork Steaks (BBQ). They're tender and tasty and big enough for most appetites. If there's any leftovers they make a great sandwich.

Do you guys have the pork tenderloin sandwich? In S Indiana and Ohio, they take a slice of pork tenderloin and flatten it. It gets real big - like a dinner plate and real thin. Then it's fried, served on a regular bun.

 

[Alpo]

blackberry pi and cobbler

I like the idea of that, myself. As we all know (or we do if we paid attention in math class), Pi never stops. Like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps going and going and going. There IS NO END.

You could be eating on that blackberry pi forever, and never finish it. Think on that. There'd always be some blackberry pi left.

 

[Brian41]

Coney Island hotdogs are the big thing in this part of Michigan. You see restaurants all over the place selling them and almost all use Koegel hotdogs, a local meat processor here. Lots of competition on who makes the best topping and there is even a difference between a Flint coney and a Detroit one.
Many of those restaurants are owned by Greeks and have Greek food as well. They usually are rather inexpensive and a good place to get a meal at a reasonable price.

 

[jakebrake]

here in the philly burbs, cheesesteaks and soft pretzels...

and, since Lancaster is close, scrapple.

 

[Duster340]

Chicago Italian Beef sandwiches with fried bell peppers and hot giardinare! Or add a grilled Italian sausage for the "combo". Good stuff right there.

 

[pineappleshooter]

here in the philly burbs, cheesesteaks and soft pretzels...

and, since Lancaster is close, scrapple.

How did you forget hoagies and water ice!

 

[RonJ]

Chicago Italian Beef sandwiches with fried bell peppers and hot giardinare! Or and a grilled Italian sausage for the "combo". Good stuff right there.

I've been looking for some Italian Beef. It's tough to find here in St. Louis. Delicious stuff! Chicago style hot dogs are pretty common.

 

[Maze 686]

Hoagies, blueberries, corn, tomatoes, and suasage with peppers and onion sandwiches.

 

[BAM-BAM]

Here in the "burgh" Permantti Brothers......sandwich.....

Italian bread, your chose of meat (I prefer the fried baloney) add a fried egg with the French fries and coleslaw "on the sandwich"........once you pick it up you can't put it down!!!!!!!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Hoagies, blueberries, corn, tomatoes, and suasage with peppers and onion sandwiches.

An angry farmer with a shotgun threatened to shoot me one time in a blueberry patch in Ohio. Been nervous about them blues ever since.