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MDGs visit to the US has made me think about regional foods. He travelled across the ocean for White Castle sliders, and that was something that I grew up with. Here are a few that I can think of.....

1. Juicy Lucy- A beef hamburger with cheese in the middle of the meat patty. A savage burn danger, but a regional favorite. I think there are two famous bars in the Twin Cities that popularized these things.

2. Periogi (sp)-I totally mis-spelled it, but in the UP and top of Michigan I ran into these. Basically a dough wrapped mix of cheese, meat, and vegetables all baked together into a croissant like package. Perfect for a quick lunch with no utensils needed and great for picnics and work lunches.

3. Hot Dish- A regional name for a casserole, made in a pyrex-style baking pan often with a binder like Cream of Mushroom soup and the like. The most famous is Tater-Tot Hot Dish, but I prefer a dish called simply Hamburger, Corn and Rice. A very simple mix of browned hamburger, cooked yellow corn, and White rice heavily salted and peppered mixed with some sort of "Cream of" soup bind, preferably Cream of Mushroom. A childhood favorite and dead easy for anyone to make fast.

Our version of White Castle on the west coast is In and Out. It’s a bafflingly popular burger chain with a famous “secret” menu.

We also have the California burrito, which is a normal burrito with French fries inside, and a good half dozen variations on the San Francisco burger/melt. Also, slap an avocado on something and it, too, attains Californication. We also have a ton of fusion restaurants and “healthy alternative” restaurants, but those are more stereotype fuel than beloved local cuisine.

I’m struggling to think of anything especially Kentish. As the Garden of England, it was once famous for the quantity and quality of Hops grown here.

Gypsy Tart, I suppose. A very sickly pastry made using condensed milk.

Round my way a Juicy Lucy was a popular cocktail in student bars around the time I was at university.

Start with a base of vodka, Taboo, Blue Curacao, orange juice and topped up with lemonade to make a pint. It's bright green and just tastes of fruit juice. You can then add most other things to it and it still just tastes of fruit juice. Each student bar used to have it's own recipe. Strongest I ever had contained 16 shots (if you were friends with the barman!) and still just tasted of fruit juice. You could get horrifically drunk on them.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m struggling to think of anything especially Kentish. As the Garden of England, it was once famous for the quantity and quality of Hops grown here.

Gypsy Tart, I suppose. A very sickly pastry made using condensed milk.

You have a thing called Huffkins… with a name like that, it doesn’t actually matter what it is

https://www.essentially-england.com/a-taste-of-kent.html#:~:text=Kent%2C%20often%20called%20the%20Garden,going%20back%20to%20Tudor%20times.

As a New Yorker, even upstate, need to shout out to NYC style pizza.

I spent a number of years in Louisville, home of the Hot Brown. Open face hot turkey sandwich with bacon, tomatoes, mornay sauce (bechemell white sauce w/ cheese) finished under the broiler to get it hot and melty.

And mint juleps, which are a horrid thing. Traditional for Derby (which is this Sat) but I’ve never met someone who actually likes the things. People who like bourbon generally thing there is too much other crap in it, and if you don’t like bourbon, there is too much of that. But they are cold on a hot day, go down well, and come in souvenir glasses.

Apparently my state (Indiana) is known for pork tenderloin sandwiches. A piece of pork is pounded thin (actual thickness varies), breaded, and then fried. Some restaurants also do blackened or grilled as an option. Often they will include lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and mayo as toppings.



BEHOLD THE MAJESTY

Looks very schnitzel adjacent this is a good thing

Here in Texas, chili "officially" has no beans and generally no tomatoes (although tomato paste is often used). Texas BBQ can't be so easily pinned down. Brisket and sausage are traditional, but the wood used, the seasonings used, and the sauce (or lack thereof) change between parts of the state.

Where I'm from, we have Cincinnati-style chili, served on either spaghetti (as a three-way, four-way or five-way)...


... or on a hot dog topped with grated cheddar cheese (as a cheese coney)


For breakfast (and a lot of other meals as well} we have goetta.

In Edinburgh? I’d say it’s Chippy Sauce.

That to me IS a chippy tea. It elevates even a poor chippy to a decent one, and what it does to an Excellent Chippy is quite possibly entirely unholy. But so, so worth it.

Is a chippy a type of cooked potato shard? I have no idea what that has to do with tea.

Chip Shop Tea. Chippy Tea. Chippy.

See your meals are….

Breakfast

Dinner*

Tea

Supper

*Luncheon is for soft southerners. Probably. I can’t defend that without further nonsense jingoistic drivel.

I live almost perfectly in between Kansas City and Saint Louis, and both have their own regional faves. Kansas City is, of course, known for barbecue, and you'll find a LOT of barbecue places there (and in my hometown too). Saint Louis is the birthplace of Panera Bread (which was originally called the Saint Louis Bread Co., and still is called that in the city), as well as Imo's Pizza (they make a very thin crust pizza that I kind of have to be in the right mood to enjoy). I'm pretty sure that type of thin crust pizza is generally known as "Saint Louis style".

Pierogi are a traditional Polish dish. I wonder if you had actual pierogi in the US (not impossible, all the immigration considered) or a local counterfeit.

I discovered the other year that Michigan also have Cornish pasties (apparently they imported a bunch of Cornish miners at some point); got them in a farm shop in Wisconsin and they were pretty authentic.

Being from Leicestershire, I get to claim pork pies and stilton cheese. One thing that I don’t know how common it is in the rest of the UK is that pork pies here are often eaten with mustard?

Cyel wrote:
Pierogi are a traditional Polish dish. I wonder if you had actual pierogi in the US (not impossible, all the immigration considered) or a local counterfeit.

That’s a question for pretty much all American cuisine.

We are a nation of immigrants. And while often describes as a "melting pot” where we take all the different backgrounds and melt it down into something American, we are more of a chunky stew. So while we have the overall blended flavor, you can still find bits of the source culture.

A lot of what we do and eat is no longer “authentic”. Some of that is we’ve got our own tastes, some of it is access to ingredients and influences not found in the old country. Recipes evolve. But also you have isolated pockets doing things the old way. It’s great!

--

Pierogi are on my list of things to try to make. A few of my friends are of Polish decent, and would wax enthusiastic about them. My friend Phil especially, who’s extended family would gather once a year for a holiday and make a ton of them. They are in the dumpling genre, which can be found in so many cultures and are always delicious. Take dough, wrap it around something yummy, cook and eat. So many different riffs on that theme across the globe.

 Jadenim wrote:
I discovered the other year that Michigan also have Cornish pasties (apparently they imported a bunch of Cornish miners at some point); got them in a farm shop in Wisconsin and they were pretty authentic.

Being from Leicestershire, I get to claim pork pies and stilton cheese. One thing that I don’t know how common it is in the rest of the UK is that pork pies here are often eaten with mustard?

Howdy neighbour ;-) Absolutely, or with cheese and Branston pickle for a truly decadent experience

Cyel wrote:
Pierogi are a traditional Polish dish. I wonder if you had actual pierogi in the US (not impossible, all the immigration considered) or a local counterfeit.

Pretty sure it is a local counterfeit. I am sure they adapted the original to what was available locally. A close-but-not-actually-authentic variant somewhat unique to the Upper Michigan area. Supposedly, back in the day it was THE meal for miners and loggers.

From the deep south, Seafood boil or a Cajon Seafood boil. I remember those though we only had a few of them. I'd also say maybe Gator but it's very hit or miss so I wouldn't bother with it.

Being "from" the deep south it would be easy and lazy to just say BBQ. That's hit or miss unless you are doing it yourself. It's hard to get a decent smoked chicken from one of the chain restaurants but I've managed to get quite good at it. The smoker was totally worth it.


From my time living in Germany for nearly 10 years.


We'd go to a restaurant chain called Wienerwald for their roast chicken and was amazed that we could each get like half a bird.
So smoking chicken as mentioned above was a must.

Ritter Sport chocolate. Took a field trip to their factory one time. They had such a vast variety of flavors added to their chocolate. I can hardly find them in the US and even there it's like all of 3 choices if I'm lucky to find them at att. It still hurts knowing there should be a lot more choices and they would sell.

I saw some random chocolate bar at a discount store earlier this ween labeled "The worlds best chocolate". It made me very sad.

I've ordered Gingerbread Lebkuchen ever so often around Christmas. Such a treat.
If you've only ever had Gingerbread cookies as a n American they probably came from one of the many big box stores or name brands you grew up with in the Us. These are a completely different cookie. I order them over Amazon and they shipping has always been silly fast. I'm tempted to try to bake them at home. I've made jelly filled Gingerbread cookies once before and that was decent.

On the melting pot, My wife grew up eating a German Potato salad served hot. Years later she'd find it some where served cold and was quite surprised. I guess that could have been regional or just years later they had refrigeration where before they didn't.

We eat it hot. It's fantastic.

I love regional foods, especially those originating from immigrants. Whilst not necessarily “the real thing”, the necessity of creativity to adapt to unavailable ingredients and local tastes to ensure wee start ups are profitable, helping immigrant families find their feet.

Just wonderful stuff, and by no means inauthentic.

So, foods like fish and chips?

Yup. That’s definitely a Fusion Food.

Fried Fish being a Jewish tradition of course, as so many excellent foods are.

As a Floridian, our standout is probably Cuban Sandwiches and Deviled crabs.

But the most regional delicacy I can think of is sweet tea. Properly made, you fill a pitcher with boiling water, add 4 or so tea bags, and sugar until the sugar stops being absorbed by the water and creates a crunchy layer on the bottom. It is not available regularly in central Florida, so I always joke you have to go North to get to the South. You will know you've found it if you order iced tea, and are immediately asked if you mean sweet tea. If they serve you iced tea with sugar packets, then you are in the wrong place.

Wouldn't be Philadelphia without a cheesesteak.

Though word to people visiting - everyone talks about the two big cheesesteak places that are famous and rivals and all that garbage. Don't fall for the hype, find a smaller local shop in whatever part of the city you're in.

 Gitzbitah wrote:
As a Floridian, our standout is probably Cuban Sandwiches and Deviled crabs.

But the most regional delicacy I can think of is sweet tea. Properly made, you fill a pitcher with boiling water, add 4 or so tea bags, and sugar until the sugar stops being absorbed by the water and creates a crunchy layer on the bottom. It is not available regularly in central Florida, so I always joke you have to go North to get to the South. You will know you've found it if you order iced tea, and are immediately asked if you mean sweet tea. If they serve you iced tea with sugar packets, then you are in the wrong place.

Yep. Last July I was on vacation seeing my Brother and his family in North Carolina. We're out having lunch one day. My Brother orders a sweet tea. When it arrives he has one taste and says no, I ordered a sweet tea. The water seemed extremely confused and offers up some sweetener. My brother declines and gets something else. I tell him. Sir, We're from the south.

Apparently the US state I call home claims the invention of the Teriyaki restaurant, IIRC, it was some place in the Seattle area? Or was it Tacoma? I dunno, I just see plenty of reminders online that it was this area that invented it.


And with our proximity to major bodies of water, our seafood game is pretty good. Since I moved to my area, the number of sushi joints has exploded (with varying degrees of quality, the good ones stay open), and there's still a good number of seafood specialty restaurants, or regular joints with amazing seafood on the menu.

 Ahtman wrote:
Apparently my state (Indiana) is known for pork tenderloin sandwiches. A piece of pork is pounded thin (actual thickness varies), breaded, and then fried. Some restaurants also do blackened or grilled as an option. Often they will include lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and mayo as toppings.



BEHOLD THE MAJESTY

Spoiler:

Ther german in me screams in utter rage against this culinary warcrime.

Consider yourself warned!

not going to lie tho it looks good