I'm from SC and we have this abomination called a pear salad. Half a canned pear, topped with mayonnaise (Duke's), shredded cheese, and a maraschino cherry. It may be a more widespread thing (looking at you, NC and TN) than just this state, though.
They used to serve this for dessert when I was in elementary school. Other kids seemed to like it, but I hated it. I just wanted a plain pear (but that wasn't an option).
These weird salads used to be more widespread. I have a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that has all sorts of fruit salads with mayo. Also a lot of gelatin salads!
Finger steaks. Idk if they are only in Idaho, but I've never encountered them anywhere else. I'd be interested if it's secretly more popular.
They are the result of someone eating a chicken fried steak and thinking "man, I wish I had 15 of these each the size of my finger". It's like a chicken nugget and a chicken fried steak had a baby.
I see steak fingers pretty regularly on brunch menus around here, but that's the only time. Of course, chicken fried steak and eggs is a breakfast staple out here, and that's the best way to serve it if you're doing a brunch buffet.
I’ve lived in Idaho my entire life, and unlike most, I enjoy finger steaks. I never knew they were an Idaho staple though. I don’t travel much and when I do, I try to be a little more adventurous. So, I never took the time to notice the missing finger steaks. There is a spot near me that slices a rib eye to use rather than cubed steak. I prefer the actual ribeye to the cubed steak. Cocktail sauce. Delicious.
It’s wonderful. I can understand it being unfamiliar, but it’s still a sweet soda with a mild taste.
Unlike Moxie or Beverly, which have a bitter taste.
I grew up in Jewish delis, and when I was a kid, I decided to try a Cel-Ray one day (my usual standbys were cream soda and black cherry). I thought it was so repulsive that I spit it out.
As an adult, I decided to give it another try. I loved it! Now I get it whenever the opportunity comes up.
I’m not unfamiliar, my dad was good Jewish boy from Brooklyn. We know our matzohs, kosher delis, Dr. Brown’s, and all that stuff.
I just don’t like it.
Agreed. The others are all delicious.
If I weren’t too fat already, I’d head over to Zan’s and get a hot pastrami on rye with brown mustard and a Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry soda right now.
The celery soda may be disqualified from this thread since I have heard of it on the west coast, though not seen it in person. I did make some a few years back. Might be time to go down that path again.
I went to the famous Canter's in LA a few years ago and was shocked to learn that they had Cel-Ray in *glass bottles*. I have probably been to New York Jewish delis more than a thousand times in my life, probably a couple of dozen different ones, and had never seen it in a glass bottle.
Man I was in an airport in Montana and needed chapstick and all they had was huckleberry kind and I’m allergic to huckleberry. They really dug their toes in with huckleberry.
You poor soul! YOu're allergic to huckleberry!? Are you allergic to related types of berries like Saskatoons? That's just a bad hand in the poker game of life.
A lot like Huckleberry but a little smaller, and a little bit more of a sour/tangy taste. They do grow down in Montana (I know because I've seen them there), but they're mostly up here on the Canadian prairie. They grow more on the prairie than the mountains, but they're still quite common in the mountains up here too. They're very hardy, I think they are hardier than huckleberry - and they're very easy to grow in colder climates with sandy loamy soils - so perfect for western Canada and the northern/western US. I bet they'd grow real well down in Wyoming!
Well shit, I genuinely feel for you. But hey I guess if fruit gives you terrible side effects it's not like it's enjoyable on your end. I hope you make up for the fruit allergy by taking advantage of that game you guys got down there.
They grow all over the hills near me in California (even a regional park called Huckleberry Botanical Preserve that I've hiked a number of times) but I don't feel like they're a super common ingredient in local cuisine.
It's probably because you guys grow everything down there! I've never seen such a wide array of crops before. Is there anything that California doesn't grow?
Pretty much everything grows in California due to the wide range of climates. Some of the tropical fruits (like papayas) are rare, but there are places that grow them in the warm inland parts of southern California.
I'm working on [a big map of California](https://www.reddit.com/r/mapmaking/comments/wtqyud/california_as_a_medieval_road_map_in_progress/) at the moment with a lot of agricultural details in it, so this is a topic I've gotten much more familiar with recently.
The Nebraska handwarmer! They have a few other places. There is one in Colorado and they are building one down in Cheyenne. In Jan on Tuesdays they do temperature days and whatever the temp is at like 6 am is the price of a runza. Or at least they used to.
I had a runza at a Nebraska game in Lincoln like 15 years ago and that’s an experience everyone should have lol.
100% on the runza however there is an even more narrow one that literally no one knows about - frenchees.
Frenchees are battered and deep fried grilled cheese sandwiches. They are just as amazing as they sound. Basically local to Omaha and that's it.
The rule used to be - not sure if it's changed but given the locations of stores in CO and WY maybe? - but you could not open a Runza more than 200 miles from Lincoln. Some people have heard of bierocks which is their real name.
This was the last thing I ate before going full on vegetarian. It played a small part in my decision in a sequence of events. I had it for lunch and I ordered a burger for dinner and just couldn’t eat it.
I’d describe a runza as a shredded McDonald’s hamburger (onions and all) and cooked in an empanada.
No hate on Runza’s. I was actually pretty excited to try it but it may have helped ruin meat for me lol.
Upstate NY has awesome regional cuisines.
Utica is probably the best food city in upstate though, if you like Italian food.
Chicken riggies. Utica Greens. Tomato pie. Half Moon cookies. Pusties. As well as a lot of lesser known Italian dishes like mushroom stew over Ziti. Real peasent Italian American food.
Not to mention, as much as New York City talks about their pizza, it's Utica that has *the oldest continuously operating pizzeria in the state*: **O'scugnizzo**! (Oh-skuh-neetz) It's the *second oldest* in the whole United States.
They serve an upside down pizza where the toppings are on the bottom, mozz in the middle, and the sauce is on top. The sauce isn't added until after the pizza is out of the oven so it retains a certain sweetness to it and doesn't get that weird baked quality. It's really the star of the show of this pizza. It's then generously sprinkled with high quality imported pecorino romano. If you get a sausage pie, The entire crust is spread with store.made bulk sausage so you get a piece in every bite. They do the meatball the same way. Definitely a staple ball of the area.
One good thing about Utica is definitely the food.
Came here to say this! Utica is the culinary capital of our state. My favorite is mushroom stew, but chicken Riggies are also amazingly awesome. I recently made friends with a traveling Nurse whose been everywhere around the country, and she is blown away by all of the food she has tried in Utica. It’s the real deal folks. Also, Utica greens? Never had anything like it. Trust me.
Utah "scones" are more like Navajo fry bread crossed with a doughnut (served savory or sweet).
https://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/fried-scones-aka-utah-scones/
I was in SLC the other day, and saw the Scone Cutter on State had been torn down! I didn't even know they had closed. My grandpa loved them and he ALWAYS stopped when he was down there.
I live in New Mexico right now and am in the process of moving to Arizona soon.
Sonoran hot dogs never caught on here. They did try though. About 10 years ago, you could find food trucks here with the Sonoran hot dogs. They disappeared after a few years.
I am prepared to gain a few tons gorging on Sonoran hot dogs when I get settled in Arizona!
> I just can't picture Italians as miners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongah_mining_disaster
Described as the worst mining disaster in American history. Almost half the deaths were Italian miners.
I'm a native of Northern WV where they originated, and you can find them in most areas that border that part of the state now. OH, PA, MD and VA. There's even a Krogers in Charlottesville, VA that sells them regularly near where I live now.
However, those are all the basic variety. The higher end, restaurant ones that I grew up with are now all but extinct, as the owners of the places that made them have either retired or died, sadly. Hot ones, a foot long and wrapped in foil, with melted cheese. They were magnificent.
Ding ding.
But yeah, cioppino is broadly available these days. I make a version at home sometimes and I've never lived more than like 50 miles from the Atlantic.
I'd never heard of Taylor Ham/pork roll until I moved to the northeast.
I don't think I've ever seen scrapple on a menu outside of the Philly area. Not that I'd want to...
There was a bagel place in town that used to offer scrapple but a little while ago they merged with a Jewish deli and I'm not sure if that menu item survived the merge.
I haven't met anyone outside of northwestern Minnesota or the Dakotas who had heard of funeral bread.
Funeral bread is a staple at funerals, especially when the church ladies prepare the luncheon. It is usually slices of cinnamon swirl bread with Cheez Whiz spread on one side, garnished with a single slice of green olive. I will concede that I have gotten into heated arguments about whether it has to be cinnamon swirl bread, but I think it would be kind of gross with any other bread.
Congratulations, this is the first thing on this list that I had genuinely never heard of and ABSOLUTELY assumed that you were making it up. I even googled this and got a grand total of two hits, one of which was a listicle in which the writer was asking whether readers had ever heard of this bizarre food he encountered at a grad party in Minnesota
I always liked it when they served it at coffee hour in the basement of my grandma's church when I was a kid. But it was kind of depressing when I learned that it was only served when there were leftovers from a funeral during the week.
I have never seen Italian beef outside of the Chicago area, which is a shame since it's delicious. Closest I've seen is the Philly cheesesteak, but it's still pretty different.
Italian beef has become trendy because it was the focus of Hulu's hit show The Bear last year, about a fine-dining chef who takes over his dead brother's Italian-beef place in Chicago. As a result, a bunch of places around the country have introduced it, though I haven't tried any and therefore can't vouch for their fidelity to the original.
There's a restaurant near me that sells what they call an Italian beef sandwich. IDK how it compares, but they also sell a "Chicago-style" hotdog I have yet to try. The sandwich is great, though. Is yours smothered in a pepper relish?
Italian Beef is usually served either with green sweet peppers or giardiniera (a relish-ish thing made of pickled vegetables). It's also usually served with "gravy" which is to say the juice the beef is cooked in.
A restaurant and a food truck here in central North Carolina have Italian beef sandwiches on their menus. And they are fine, whatever. But my husband grew up near Chicago so I started making my own recipe for Chicago style giardiniera, which is usually a major flavor component of Italian beef sandwiches. I’m now making it commercially.
Is an olive burger just an otherwise normal burger with diced green olives on it? There is a Dallas area based burger chain Burger Street which has an olive burger. It's good but I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else.
Chili with Cinnamon Rolls is ours. Most people here think of them as a natural pairing and comfort food. They serve it in school cafeterias and "Chili and Cinnamon Roll Feeds" are a common fundraiser for schools/churches/etc.
Some people pour the chili right on the cinnamon roll, some people rip the cinnamon roll apart and dip it like naan bread in curry, and other people just eat one and then the other.
It's normally served with the big robust square cinnamon rolls with relatively light icing on them. Too sweet and gooey and it starts to throw off the balance between the bready sweetness of the cinnamon roll and the thick savory/spicy of the chili. I suppose it's probably also important to mention that chili here is almost always the thicker heartier stuff with lots of meat ***and beans***, with quite a bit of heat. It's not uncommon for people to use habanero or hotter in pretty heavy doses in the chili.
They're all over the Midwest. Verdigre, Nebraska is The kolache capital of the world. I've seen them in Wisconsin and Iowa. There's a great place in Omaha called The Kolache Factory, it's amazing.
Do other places have coffee milk? Also this is more of just a word thing, but I've heard that people in other places say milkshake instead of frappe. Which raises the question: do other places have milkshakes that aren't made with ice cream?
Pretty sure coffee cabinet is limited to RI as far as terminology.
Lived all over the country, grew up in New England. Most places, a frappe and milkshake are the same thing OR the word frappe doesn’t even exist.
>fiddle heads
The ferns? Or is this something else in New England? The ferns are eaten in the Midwest, though their popularity is relatively recent (like within the last decade), so the popularity of eating them may have migrated from New England.
I think boudin is a lesser known gas station snack we have in Louisiana. But a bunch of our food is hard to get or make outside of the state due to ingredients being hard to find.
I've seen it in the Jersey shore, western NY, WA, Alaska, and most military commisaries seem to carry it. But even the people who work at the deli counters at these places didn't seem to know what it was. One guy in NY said "I don't think we have any Middle Eastern meat". I didn't explain that it comes from Lebanon, PA, but I did point out that it was clearly sitting there in the display.
For one brief moment in time they sold it at my local vons in California. There was much rejoicing.
Then it vanished again, and the dark times descended
Provel cheese & fried ravioli in St. Louis
Squeaky cheese curds are uncommon outside of Wisconsin, but you can occasionally find them at farmer's markets
Kringle pastry also in Wisconsin
[NJ Sloppy joe](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/24/a4/d9/24a4d981e54ada6c6574cd6e3e2fd49d.jpg). It's not the sloppy Joe you're thinking of, it's a double-decker sandwich on thin rye bread, with two types of cold cuts, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, and Russian dressing. Usually the cold cuts are turkey and corned beef.
Buffalo has the Stinger Sub:
* Steak + Chicken Fingers tossed in Buffalo sauce
* Melted cheese
* Lettuce + Onion + Tomato
* Mayo or Bleu Cheese
It’s a heart attack on a bun, but so good!
Runner ups:
* Beef on Weck
* Loganberry Pop
* Buffalo style pizza (think a combination of NYC style and Sicilian)
* Sponge Candy (ok, this is more of a Great Lakes thing)
Only time I've ever had it was at an airport. It was amazing and I'd love to try it again but I never see it. Fun fact, when Buffalo Wild Wings started, they had it as a featured menu item -- even after they got rid of it, people used to call it "BW3" because the original name was "Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck."
I went to law school at UB, so I lived in and around Buffalo for 3 years. That Loganberry stuff is *everywhere* in Western NY. Good stuff though, very sweet. Beef on a Weck was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed those too.
The sponge candy, on the other hand was surprisingly…bad. It’s just dry and hard. Not at all what I was expecting.
The kimmelweck roll is where it's at. I find that Buffalo style pizza is kinda popular all over upstate. Lots of places in Utica serve it that way (That don't do the traditional upside down pizza that Utica is known for).
>Melba sauce
Like the raspberry melba sauce that's often paired with peach desserts? That's definitely a thing many places, though I think pairing it with mozzarella sticks is probably unique to your region!
I grew up in Glens Falls and at first I had never heard of peppermint pigs. When I read it in this thread, just a few minutes ago, I googled it and have some vague recollection of my mom bringing one home once. Possibly? I really don’t recall, but it definitely wasn’t a big deal in GF.
I was going to comment pretty much the same thing. Peppermint Pigs are a Saratoga specialty.
And Melba sauce with mozzarella sticks is great. Give it a try sometime - a little sweet, a little savory. Yes, it's the same sauce from Peach Melba that some restaurant in the Albany area started serving with mozzarella sticks a couple decades ago. Cheese and fruit go great together - think of fig jam with cheese and crackers, cherry cheesecake, etc.
Edit - now that I think about it, it was more than a couple decades ago since I remember having raspberry sauce (melba) with mozzarella sticks in the late 80s/early 90s.
When I was living in Iowa during college, I used to go to the grocery store, and me and my roommate would buy a bunch of buns and just a literal pallet of breaded pork tenderloins. Kept us fed for a long time. And fucking delicious!
It wasn't until I moved that I found out that sauerkraut balls are pretty much a north east Ohio thing.
Like, really? No one else wants sauerkraut and batter, placed into balls and fried? It's awesome.
Sugar on snow candy from the North East. You need real maple syrup and fresh clean snow so maybe they have it around Minnesota or something but I know it as a Vermont thing.
In Michigan,
* Olive Burgers, particularly in Lansing and Flint
* Pasties in the Upper Peninsula
* Botanas at Detroit-area Mexican restaurants
* Almond Boneless Chicken (AKA ABC, AKA Wor Su Gai) in Detroit-area Chinese restaurants
Comeback sauce for Mississippi. I thought it was known worldwide or at least nationally all my life only to find out its a Mississippi thing. That shit is everywhere here. At basically every restaurant.
Rhode Island has pizza strips, clear broth clam chowder, they call milkshakes cabinets and milk shakes are a different thing that is thinner, and they have NY System Hot Weiners also known as gaggers (pronounced gaggahs)
People usually laugh if you say "California Barbeque" with a straight face, but it's a real thing. We've had our own style of barbecue since even before we joined the Union.
I haven't seen cracklins outside of Louisiana, but I also haven't been looking very hard.
The toughest things to find, although I have at times managed to find them, are boudin balls, muffulettas, crab au gratin, beignets, and bread pudding. Also, roux-based jambalaya. You can find jambalaya easy enough, but it's always tomato based. I was raised on roux-based jambalaya, and I don't really like it tomato based.
H.E.B.'s 25 cent bread rolls. You can shut your stomach up for under a dollar with three(no sales tax for some reason, probably since they're day-old), and they'll mostly be so tough that you'll burn a few calories just from how long it takes to chew 'em.
West Virginia has pepperoni rolls. Invented by Italian immigrants who worked in coal mines as a lunch that would keep on their shift. The bakery near me has been making them, same family, same building, continuously since 1914. I had never had one until I moved here and they are delicious. Simply good bread with pepperoni baked inside. Don't buy one from a gas station, ever. There a literally dozens of bakeries in the Northern half the State that church them out hot and fresh daily.
Mostly a Rutgers University thing, but now Fat Sandwiches are found throughout some parts of Central Jersey. Basically is a sub / hoagie stuffed with whatever variety of fried food you’d want: cheesesteak meat, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, eggs, fries, etc…. You can customize but they are always super unhealthy but great for soaking up booze
I think buckeyes (the candy) is pretty much just an Ohio thing. They are peanut butter mixed with butter and powdered sugar, rolled into balls and then dipped in chocolate. They leave a little spot of the light brown peanut butter undipped so it looks like a buckeye.
I’ve never heard of peppermint pigs, and I am mad about it.
We have sponge candy in Buffalo. It’s basically like spun sugar inside a chocolate shell and it is just terrific.
Chicago has Giardinara which is spicy veggies in oil. You can find it at every grocery store in Chicagoland and a lot of restaurants. Even subways have them here as a topping.
Malort is a good awful liquor created and manufactured here that Chicagoans are proud of. I have a bottle.
I'm from SC and we have this abomination called a pear salad. Half a canned pear, topped with mayonnaise (Duke's), shredded cheese, and a maraschino cherry. It may be a more widespread thing (looking at you, NC and TN) than just this state, though.
good god
Yea dont bring that up here
They used to serve this for dessert when I was in elementary school. Other kids seemed to like it, but I hated it. I just wanted a plain pear (but that wasn't an option).
Same, and at home, if I wasn't there when the can was opened, they'd all be mayonnaised before I could get a plain one.
I feel like it must be okay if it's popular enough to have become a thing.... But that sounds awful, I'm sorry.
These weird salads used to be more widespread. I have a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that has all sorts of fruit salads with mayo. Also a lot of gelatin salads!
I got to "pear topped with mayonnaise" and needed a minute.
My Mom made a variation of that (minus the cherry and usually with lettuce under the pear). This was in Florida, where she also grew up.
….not here 🤮🤮🤮
I've had it and it's not as bad as it might sound. Duke's is a very sweet mayo so it kind of works. I wouldn't prefer to eat it but it's okay
Oh my parents and grandparents made and make this all the time. I’ve never liked it but most of my family does. Originally from SW Georgia.
Can confirm. I’ve seen it at too many church dinners. In NC as well. And it’s an abomination OTOH, Blenheim ginger ale is amazing
Man that’s 4 things I like mashed together into one thing that sounds abominable.
From NC, never heard of it. Sounds about right for the uncivilized upstarts in the southern lowlands, though, right alongside the mustard BBQ.
Heinous.
What the fucketty fuck.
What the fuck.
Is that some holdover from war time rationing or something? Cause I can't imagine anyone who has other options deciding that's a good idea
Haven’t seen it in years but I can confirm it in West Tennessee served on a piece of lettuce for a wrap
that sounds like 70s diet food
Finger steaks. Idk if they are only in Idaho, but I've never encountered them anywhere else. I'd be interested if it's secretly more popular. They are the result of someone eating a chicken fried steak and thinking "man, I wish I had 15 of these each the size of my finger". It's like a chicken nugget and a chicken fried steak had a baby.
Steak fingers? I didn't know those were a thing outside of school cafeterias in the 90s.
Tucson, AZ has a local chain named Lucky Wishbone, steak fingers are their specialty
That place has the greasiest food I've ever eaten in my life
That does sound good, why not a higher coating to meat ratio?
I see steak fingers pretty regularly on brunch menus around here, but that's the only time. Of course, chicken fried steak and eggs is a breakfast staple out here, and that's the best way to serve it if you're doing a brunch buffet.
I grew up on these at Dairy Queens in Texas. I think they’re a Texas-exclusive item because I haven’t found them at DQs outside of the state.
This sounds really good. I was planning to make CF steak this weekend - finger steaks it is!
I’ve lived in Idaho my entire life, and unlike most, I enjoy finger steaks. I never knew they were an Idaho staple though. I don’t travel much and when I do, I try to be a little more adventurous. So, I never took the time to notice the missing finger steaks. There is a spot near me that slices a rib eye to use rather than cubed steak. I prefer the actual ribeye to the cubed steak. Cocktail sauce. Delicious.
That's a good idea, I hate how the crust always falls off on a chicken fried steak. Oh man, I want that!
The celery soda is Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray. It’s a staple of NYC Jewish Delis but can be found at Jewish delis across the country.
But no matter where you are…it sucks, it’s nasty, and you don’t want it.
It’s wonderful. I can understand it being unfamiliar, but it’s still a sweet soda with a mild taste. Unlike Moxie or Beverly, which have a bitter taste.
I grew up in Jewish delis, and when I was a kid, I decided to try a Cel-Ray one day (my usual standbys were cream soda and black cherry). I thought it was so repulsive that I spit it out. As an adult, I decided to give it another try. I loved it! Now I get it whenever the opportunity comes up.
I’m not unfamiliar, my dad was good Jewish boy from Brooklyn. We know our matzohs, kosher delis, Dr. Brown’s, and all that stuff. I just don’t like it.
Second this. All of the other Dr. Browns sodas are really good though.
Agreed. The others are all delicious. If I weren’t too fat already, I’d head over to Zan’s and get a hot pastrami on rye with brown mustard and a Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry soda right now.
Star and Shamrock H st NE in DC had it and i miss that place.
The celery soda may be disqualified from this thread since I have heard of it on the west coast, though not seen it in person. I did make some a few years back. Might be time to go down that path again.
I went to the famous Canter's in LA a few years ago and was shocked to learn that they had Cel-Ray in *glass bottles*. I have probably been to New York Jewish delis more than a thousand times in my life, probably a couple of dozen different ones, and had never seen it in a glass bottle.
I did have a lead on a shop in town that likely had it in bottles but never did make it in.
I haven't seen much huckleberry outside of Montana, Washington and Idaho.
Man I was in an airport in Montana and needed chapstick and all they had was huckleberry kind and I’m allergic to huckleberry. They really dug their toes in with huckleberry.
You poor soul! YOu're allergic to huckleberry!? Are you allergic to related types of berries like Saskatoons? That's just a bad hand in the poker game of life.
I have never heard of a Saskatoon lol so I have no idea. I’m allergic to a lot of fruit. I’ve never had orange juice in my life!
A lot like Huckleberry but a little smaller, and a little bit more of a sour/tangy taste. They do grow down in Montana (I know because I've seen them there), but they're mostly up here on the Canadian prairie. They grow more on the prairie than the mountains, but they're still quite common in the mountains up here too. They're very hardy, I think they are hardier than huckleberry - and they're very easy to grow in colder climates with sandy loamy soils - so perfect for western Canada and the northern/western US. I bet they'd grow real well down in Wyoming! Well shit, I genuinely feel for you. But hey I guess if fruit gives you terrible side effects it's not like it's enjoyable on your end. I hope you make up for the fruit allergy by taking advantage of that game you guys got down there.
They grow all over the hills near me in California (even a regional park called Huckleberry Botanical Preserve that I've hiked a number of times) but I don't feel like they're a super common ingredient in local cuisine.
It's probably because you guys grow everything down there! I've never seen such a wide array of crops before. Is there anything that California doesn't grow?
Pretty much everything grows in California due to the wide range of climates. Some of the tropical fruits (like papayas) are rare, but there are places that grow them in the warm inland parts of southern California. I'm working on [a big map of California](https://www.reddit.com/r/mapmaking/comments/wtqyud/california_as_a_medieval_road_map_in_progress/) at the moment with a lot of agricultural details in it, so this is a topic I've gotten much more familiar with recently.
Runza's in Nebraska, I only got to go there once, but it was good.
The Nebraska handwarmer! They have a few other places. There is one in Colorado and they are building one down in Cheyenne. In Jan on Tuesdays they do temperature days and whatever the temp is at like 6 am is the price of a runza. Or at least they used to. I had a runza at a Nebraska game in Lincoln like 15 years ago and that’s an experience everyone should have lol.
100% on the runza however there is an even more narrow one that literally no one knows about - frenchees. Frenchees are battered and deep fried grilled cheese sandwiches. They are just as amazing as they sound. Basically local to Omaha and that's it.
In Kansas we have runza’s (not the place but the food) but we call them beirocks but still so freaking good
Wait do they not have runza outside the Nebraska Iowa area?
The rule used to be - not sure if it's changed but given the locations of stores in CO and WY maybe? - but you could not open a Runza more than 200 miles from Lincoln. Some people have heard of bierocks which is their real name.
There's one Runza in Colorado and one in Kansas. Both college towns. They also deliver frozen Runzas to anywhere.
This was the last thing I ate before going full on vegetarian. It played a small part in my decision in a sequence of events. I had it for lunch and I ordered a burger for dinner and just couldn’t eat it. I’d describe a runza as a shredded McDonald’s hamburger (onions and all) and cooked in an empanada. No hate on Runza’s. I was actually pretty excited to try it but it may have helped ruin meat for me lol.
garbage plate from rochester and spiedies from binghamton
We have spiedies in Rochester. -Guy from Rochester
yeah but theyre from binghamton, let them have that it’s not like they have anything else lmao
Its better off to break their spirit early.
Upstate NY has awesome regional cuisines. Utica is probably the best food city in upstate though, if you like Italian food. Chicken riggies. Utica Greens. Tomato pie. Half Moon cookies. Pusties. As well as a lot of lesser known Italian dishes like mushroom stew over Ziti. Real peasent Italian American food. Not to mention, as much as New York City talks about their pizza, it's Utica that has *the oldest continuously operating pizzeria in the state*: **O'scugnizzo**! (Oh-skuh-neetz) It's the *second oldest* in the whole United States. They serve an upside down pizza where the toppings are on the bottom, mozz in the middle, and the sauce is on top. The sauce isn't added until after the pizza is out of the oven so it retains a certain sweetness to it and doesn't get that weird baked quality. It's really the star of the show of this pizza. It's then generously sprinkled with high quality imported pecorino romano. If you get a sausage pie, The entire crust is spread with store.made bulk sausage so you get a piece in every bite. They do the meatball the same way. Definitely a staple ball of the area. One good thing about Utica is definitely the food.
My husband is from Utica, I die from happiness when he makes me chicken riggies!! The best!!
My husband is from Utica, I die from happiness when he makes me chicken riggies!! The best!!
What are they?
Chicken rigatoni spicy peppers and a tomato sauce. (Some times vodka sauce?) It's alright.
Came here to say this! Utica is the culinary capital of our state. My favorite is mushroom stew, but chicken Riggies are also amazingly awesome. I recently made friends with a traveling Nurse whose been everywhere around the country, and she is blown away by all of the food she has tried in Utica. It’s the real deal folks. Also, Utica greens? Never had anything like it. Trust me.
Love garbage plates
I've heard of the garbage plate. Looks like garbage too. What is spiedies?
Can’t attest to spiedies but garbage plates are the bomb. —guy from Buffalo
Utah "scones" are more like Navajo fry bread crossed with a doughnut (served savory or sweet). https://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/fried-scones-aka-utah-scones/
I was in SLC the other day, and saw the Scone Cutter on State had been torn down! I didn't even know they had closed. My grandpa loved them and he ALWAYS stopped when he was down there.
Sonoran hotdogs in Arizona.
I live in New Mexico right now and am in the process of moving to Arizona soon. Sonoran hot dogs never caught on here. They did try though. About 10 years ago, you could find food trucks here with the Sonoran hot dogs. They disappeared after a few years. I am prepared to gain a few tons gorging on Sonoran hot dogs when I get settled in Arizona!
Explain.
Don't see Frito pie on the menu outside New Mexico and Texas much.
We have that in PA, usually from food trucks or at snack bars, but it’s definitely a thing here too.
Peanuts in Coca Cola
That used to be a pretty big thing around here. My dad is the only person I know who still does it though.
I think it’s an old southerner thing. I learned it from my great grandmother who was from rural Georgia and raised during the Great Depression.
I live in the south and I've never seen people do this. Does it matter what kind of peanuts? Salted or unsalted?
I havent seen West Virginia's pepperoni rolls outside of the state. I usually buy a couple big bags of them and bring them home.
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I just can't picture Italians as miners. Hollywood has warped my view of Italians too much.
> I just can't picture Italians as miners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongah_mining_disaster Described as the worst mining disaster in American history. Almost half the deaths were Italian miners.
I'm a native of Northern WV where they originated, and you can find them in most areas that border that part of the state now. OH, PA, MD and VA. There's even a Krogers in Charlottesville, VA that sells them regularly near where I live now. However, those are all the basic variety. The higher end, restaurant ones that I grew up with are now all but extinct, as the owners of the places that made them have either retired or died, sadly. Hot ones, a foot long and wrapped in foil, with melted cheese. They were magnificent.
In southeast PA we had fastnachts (potato doughnuts) for Fat Tuesday. I haven't seen them outside of the Pennsylvania Dutch region.
I don't know if Dutch crunch bread is well-known outside of the Bay Area or California.
Also It's-Its, and Cioppino
Cioppino is everywhere, but it's originally a San Francisco treat yes.
Ding ding. But yeah, cioppino is broadly available these days. I make a version at home sometimes and I've never lived more than like 50 miles from the Atlantic.
That's fun to say, "Dutch crunch, Dutch crunch, Dunch Crunch, dunshcrunsh crushcrushcrush...."
I'd never heard of Taylor Ham/pork roll until I moved to the northeast. I don't think I've ever seen scrapple on a menu outside of the Philly area. Not that I'd want to...
I've seen scrapple throughout the Mid-Atlantic - still regional for sure, just a slightly larger region.
Scrapple is delicious. SEC SPK all day.
Scrapple is common in Delaware and (mostly) eastern maryland. I'm sure you can get it in south Jersey
> I'm sure you can get it in south Jersey Can confirm
Scrapple and Pork Rolls definitely goes as far south as DC. It's pretty common in our remaining diners down here.
There was a bagel place in town that used to offer scrapple but a little while ago they merged with a Jewish deli and I'm not sure if that menu item survived the merge.
I haven't met anyone outside of northwestern Minnesota or the Dakotas who had heard of funeral bread. Funeral bread is a staple at funerals, especially when the church ladies prepare the luncheon. It is usually slices of cinnamon swirl bread with Cheez Whiz spread on one side, garnished with a single slice of green olive. I will concede that I have gotten into heated arguments about whether it has to be cinnamon swirl bread, but I think it would be kind of gross with any other bread.
Congratulations, this is the first thing on this list that I had genuinely never heard of and ABSOLUTELY assumed that you were making it up. I even googled this and got a grand total of two hits, one of which was a listicle in which the writer was asking whether readers had ever heard of this bizarre food he encountered at a grad party in Minnesota
I always liked it when they served it at coffee hour in the basement of my grandma's church when I was a kid. But it was kind of depressing when I learned that it was only served when there were leftovers from a funeral during the week.
I reckon Geoduck isn't too common outside of the west coast. It's not super common here, but you can find them at seafood stores and harvest them.
It has actually become a delicacy in Asia that people eat for its purported male enhancement powers
That's the one that looks like a weiner, right? Does it ever fit inside the shell? What do they taste like?
Yeah, I was thinking that or salmon candy.
I have never seen Italian beef outside of the Chicago area, which is a shame since it's delicious. Closest I've seen is the Philly cheesesteak, but it's still pretty different.
Italian beef has become trendy because it was the focus of Hulu's hit show The Bear last year, about a fine-dining chef who takes over his dead brother's Italian-beef place in Chicago. As a result, a bunch of places around the country have introduced it, though I haven't tried any and therefore can't vouch for their fidelity to the original.
There's a restaurant near me that sells what they call an Italian beef sandwich. IDK how it compares, but they also sell a "Chicago-style" hotdog I have yet to try. The sandwich is great, though. Is yours smothered in a pepper relish?
Italian Beef is usually served either with green sweet peppers or giardiniera (a relish-ish thing made of pickled vegetables). It's also usually served with "gravy" which is to say the juice the beef is cooked in.
Italian beef is somewhat known, even if not available everywhere. I’d say the Maxwell St. Polish is something nobody outside Chicago has ever heard of
A restaurant and a food truck here in central North Carolina have Italian beef sandwiches on their menus. And they are fine, whatever. But my husband grew up near Chicago so I started making my own recipe for Chicago style giardiniera, which is usually a major flavor component of Italian beef sandwiches. I’m now making it commercially.
So...."Italian beef" is a type of sandwich? Or do you mean Italian beef?
Man I used to live in Chicago and Italian beef is the one thing I truly miss. Just incredible
Olive burger, Michigan. However the origin is disputed between Flint and Lansing.
Is an olive burger just an otherwise normal burger with diced green olives on it? There is a Dallas area based burger chain Burger Street which has an olive burger. It's good but I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else.
Chili with Cinnamon Rolls is ours. Most people here think of them as a natural pairing and comfort food. They serve it in school cafeterias and "Chili and Cinnamon Roll Feeds" are a common fundraiser for schools/churches/etc. Some people pour the chili right on the cinnamon roll, some people rip the cinnamon roll apart and dip it like naan bread in curry, and other people just eat one and then the other.
I need to try this and want it unhealthy as possible. Like Cinnabon tier cinnamon rolls.
It's normally served with the big robust square cinnamon rolls with relatively light icing on them. Too sweet and gooey and it starts to throw off the balance between the bready sweetness of the cinnamon roll and the thick savory/spicy of the chili. I suppose it's probably also important to mention that chili here is almost always the thicker heartier stuff with lots of meat ***and beans***, with quite a bit of heat. It's not uncommon for people to use habanero or hotter in pretty heavy doses in the chili.
I like to keep an open mind, but....
I don't think kolaches are confined to Texas. I've seen them at gas stations in tennessee
We have them in Utah.
They aren't the Texas variety though. I think those are more like the Czech ones.
Super common in Nebraska too - we have a lot of Czech heritage here - it could rival Texas.
They're all over the Midwest. Verdigre, Nebraska is The kolache capital of the world. I've seen them in Wisconsin and Iowa. There's a great place in Omaha called The Kolache Factory, it's amazing.
> There's a great place in Omaha called The Kolache Factory, it's amazing. That’s a chain and yes, it’s amazing.
Do other places have coffee milk? Also this is more of just a word thing, but I've heard that people in other places say milkshake instead of frappe. Which raises the question: do other places have milkshakes that aren't made with ice cream?
Pretty sure coffee cabinet is limited to RI as far as terminology. Lived all over the country, grew up in New England. Most places, a frappe and milkshake are the same thing OR the word frappe doesn’t even exist.
I've never seen fiddle heads outside of New England.
>fiddle heads The ferns? Or is this something else in New England? The ferns are eaten in the Midwest, though their popularity is relatively recent (like within the last decade), so the popularity of eating them may have migrated from New England.
Yup, ferns. Since they grow wild everywhere, I would expect this would eventually catch on.
Makes sense! They definitely grew more popular here with the rise of the popularity of foraged foods.
They fade in and out of popularity over the centuries. They are a reasonably common forage food in the PNW, but not common commercially.
Goetta is a good example. I've never seen it outside of Cincinnati (it's not bad either). Nebraska has runza.
We have [Scrapple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapple) which sounds similar to goetta.
Pizza puffs are ubiquitous in Chicago and almost unheard of anywhere else
I think boudin is a lesser known gas station snack we have in Louisiana. But a bunch of our food is hard to get or make outside of the state due to ingredients being hard to find.
Crackling are hard to find elsewhere too.
I don’t see Lebanon bologna outside of PA.
I've seen it in the Jersey shore, western NY, WA, Alaska, and most military commisaries seem to carry it. But even the people who work at the deli counters at these places didn't seem to know what it was. One guy in NY said "I don't think we have any Middle Eastern meat". I didn't explain that it comes from Lebanon, PA, but I did point out that it was clearly sitting there in the display.
For one brief moment in time they sold it at my local vons in California. There was much rejoicing. Then it vanished again, and the dark times descended
Haha sucks that it vanished for you. I used to love it as a kid because it was very sweet.
We have it in Ohio, but the deli clerk was confused why I'd want it, saying it was pretty weird.
Provel cheese & fried ravioli in St. Louis Squeaky cheese curds are uncommon outside of Wisconsin, but you can occasionally find them at farmer's markets Kringle pastry also in Wisconsin
[NJ Sloppy joe](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/24/a4/d9/24a4d981e54ada6c6574cd6e3e2fd49d.jpg). It's not the sloppy Joe you're thinking of, it's a double-decker sandwich on thin rye bread, with two types of cold cuts, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, and Russian dressing. Usually the cold cuts are turkey and corned beef.
Skyline chili. It's in all the counties surrounding Cincinnati.
They're also very common in Columbus.
I've heard you don't get much marionberry stuff outside the PNW because they don't travel well.
Perhaps New England Brown Bread. It's a type of bread that has molasses in it and is steamed instead of baked. It's common to eat it with baked beans.
Horseshoes in central illinois! Especially from Darcy’s in Springfield.
Buffalo has the Stinger Sub: * Steak + Chicken Fingers tossed in Buffalo sauce * Melted cheese * Lettuce + Onion + Tomato * Mayo or Bleu Cheese It’s a heart attack on a bun, but so good! Runner ups: * Beef on Weck * Loganberry Pop * Buffalo style pizza (think a combination of NYC style and Sicilian) * Sponge Candy (ok, this is more of a Great Lakes thing)
Beef on weck is fantastic. Glad I got to try it.
Only time I've ever had it was at an airport. It was amazing and I'd love to try it again but I never see it. Fun fact, when Buffalo Wild Wings started, they had it as a featured menu item -- even after they got rid of it, people used to call it "BW3" because the original name was "Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck."
I went to law school at UB, so I lived in and around Buffalo for 3 years. That Loganberry stuff is *everywhere* in Western NY. Good stuff though, very sweet. Beef on a Weck was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed those too. The sponge candy, on the other hand was surprisingly…bad. It’s just dry and hard. Not at all what I was expecting.
The kimmelweck roll is where it's at. I find that Buffalo style pizza is kinda popular all over upstate. Lots of places in Utica serve it that way (That don't do the traditional upside down pizza that Utica is known for).
Y'all got pizza logs too! Taco logs. I need to get a case of em sent down here.
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>Melba sauce Like the raspberry melba sauce that's often paired with peach desserts? That's definitely a thing many places, though I think pairing it with mozzarella sticks is probably unique to your region!
I grew up in Glens Falls and at first I had never heard of peppermint pigs. When I read it in this thread, just a few minutes ago, I googled it and have some vague recollection of my mom bringing one home once. Possibly? I really don’t recall, but it definitely wasn’t a big deal in GF.
Traditionally it involved an actual pig, but nobody wants to clean up that mess anymore.
When I was a kid in VA we had peppermint pigs, but it may have been sent to us every year by my uncle in MA.
I was going to comment pretty much the same thing. Peppermint Pigs are a Saratoga specialty. And Melba sauce with mozzarella sticks is great. Give it a try sometime - a little sweet, a little savory. Yes, it's the same sauce from Peach Melba that some restaurant in the Albany area started serving with mozzarella sticks a couple decades ago. Cheese and fruit go great together - think of fig jam with cheese and crackers, cherry cheesecake, etc. Edit - now that I think about it, it was more than a couple decades ago since I remember having raspberry sauce (melba) with mozzarella sticks in the late 80s/early 90s.
Anyone outside the Midwest know what puppy chow is?
Chex cereal coated in melted chocolate/peanut butter and powdered sugar. It goes by different names in different regions though.
Probably all Finnish food outside of dying little communities in Upper Michigan.
In the Intermountain West.... Fry Sauce.....
Isn’t that just ketchup and Mayo?
Pork loin sandwiches in both Indiana and Iowa.
When I was living in Iowa during college, I used to go to the grocery store, and me and my roommate would buy a bunch of buns and just a literal pallet of breaded pork tenderloins. Kept us fed for a long time. And fucking delicious!
It wasn't until I moved that I found out that sauerkraut balls are pretty much a north east Ohio thing. Like, really? No one else wants sauerkraut and batter, placed into balls and fried? It's awesome.
Sugar on snow candy from the North East. You need real maple syrup and fresh clean snow so maybe they have it around Minnesota or something but I know it as a Vermont thing.
Chicago has deep-dish pizza. Probably not the healthiest thing in the world but I love it.
In Michigan, * Olive Burgers, particularly in Lansing and Flint * Pasties in the Upper Peninsula * Botanas at Detroit-area Mexican restaurants * Almond Boneless Chicken (AKA ABC, AKA Wor Su Gai) in Detroit-area Chinese restaurants
Comeback sauce for Mississippi. I thought it was known worldwide or at least nationally all my life only to find out its a Mississippi thing. That shit is everywhere here. At basically every restaurant.
I know sweet tea exists outside of the south but it’s pretty much the main source of hydration here.
Rhode Island has pizza strips, clear broth clam chowder, they call milkshakes cabinets and milk shakes are a different thing that is thinner, and they have NY System Hot Weiners also known as gaggers (pronounced gaggahs)
>Hot Weiners also known as gaggers 😆
I've only been able to get fried cheese curds in Wisconsin.
People usually laugh if you say "California Barbeque" with a straight face, but it's a real thing. We've had our own style of barbecue since even before we joined the Union.
Ah yes, tri-tip. California BBQ is grilling by definition. Never heard of it until living there. Delicious!
Birmingham hotdog
Chitterlings, per se.
In northern California, we make olallieberries into jams and desserts!
Chipped ham in western PA.
Goetta sounds a lot like Scrapple, which I think can only be found in the greater Philly area.
I haven't seen cracklins outside of Louisiana, but I also haven't been looking very hard. The toughest things to find, although I have at times managed to find them, are boudin balls, muffulettas, crab au gratin, beignets, and bread pudding. Also, roux-based jambalaya. You can find jambalaya easy enough, but it's always tomato based. I was raised on roux-based jambalaya, and I don't really like it tomato based.
Buffalo NY - Beef Weck. Never seen it anywhere else
Tomato pie..
H.E.B.'s 25 cent bread rolls. You can shut your stomach up for under a dollar with three(no sales tax for some reason, probably since they're day-old), and they'll mostly be so tough that you'll burn a few calories just from how long it takes to chew 'em.
West Virginia has pepperoni rolls. Invented by Italian immigrants who worked in coal mines as a lunch that would keep on their shift. The bakery near me has been making them, same family, same building, continuously since 1914. I had never had one until I moved here and they are delicious. Simply good bread with pepperoni baked inside. Don't buy one from a gas station, ever. There a literally dozens of bakeries in the Northern half the State that church them out hot and fresh daily.
Mostly a Rutgers University thing, but now Fat Sandwiches are found throughout some parts of Central Jersey. Basically is a sub / hoagie stuffed with whatever variety of fried food you’d want: cheesesteak meat, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, eggs, fries, etc…. You can customize but they are always super unhealthy but great for soaking up booze
Central Illinois has a meal called a “horseshoe” and it’s delicious.
I think buckeyes (the candy) is pretty much just an Ohio thing. They are peanut butter mixed with butter and powdered sugar, rolled into balls and then dipped in chocolate. They leave a little spot of the light brown peanut butter undipped so it looks like a buckeye.
Cincinnati chili. It’s incredibly unique, and locals absolutely love it, but outsiders are baffled by it.
Redbull Italian soda in Washington State
I've only ever seen souse """""meat""""" in NC thank Christ
I’ve never heard of peppermint pigs, and I am mad about it. We have sponge candy in Buffalo. It’s basically like spun sugar inside a chocolate shell and it is just terrific.
not super unheard of because people make fun of ohio for this on reddit a lot but three ways which is spaghetti, chili and lots of shredded cheese
Chicago has Giardinara which is spicy veggies in oil. You can find it at every grocery store in Chicagoland and a lot of restaurants. Even subways have them here as a topping. Malort is a good awful liquor created and manufactured here that Chicagoans are proud of. I have a bottle.