So CA Desert. We have many high end restaurants here, but the locals love CA MEX. If it doesn't have Jalapenos in it, it doesn't qualify!! And if it isn't made with fresh ingredients, it doesn't qualify! Carnitas, Guacamole (not that stuff easterners make with lemons!!) Limes, baby, limes!! Fresh corn/flour tacos made the day you eat them! Artichokes fresh from the fields, and Oh the citrus!! And if the Tequila isn't made with 100% Agave, it doesn't qualify!

Here in Chicago it is deep dish pizza and dogs. Mind you our dogs are kosher, steamed and placed ina steamed poppy seed bun and topped with yellow mustard, neon green relish, chopped onion, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices and a good shake of celery salt. NO KETCHUP, that's for babies only.

I really want, no need, to go to this place. French fries done in duck fat.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot Dog goes gourmet

Peppi one of the best dogs that I have had in a long time was on Navy Pier in Chicago when we were there a few years ago exactly as you stated. I still remember the taste and loved it:)

Daylily, I'll have to check out Rocko's. In Lakeland?

I love a good Chicago hot dog--I guess that's redundant!

As I have always known, I live in a culinary wasteland.
The highlights among locals are the "biscuits as big as a plate" at Betty's Hungry House and maybe, shrimp and grits, while good are only at upscale restaurants.
I just don't like collard greens at all and plain cooked meats and threes are so boring.

Well, having lived on the east or west coasts for most of my life, I was caught off guard when faced with Rocky Mountain Oysters when we moved to the high desert West. I adore seafood -- oysters, clams, crab, scallops, salmon and other seafood. I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT ROCKY MOUNTAIN OYSTERS were! They're a favorite around here and Hubby Dubby Do got quite a laugh when I ordered them the first and only time after moving here!
Annie1971

Since I am in Baltimore (aka Bawlmer), I have to chime in with Crab Cakes made the Maryland (aka Murrlin) way: Mostly crab, very little filler, Old Bay and not much else, broiled or fried, your choice. I am not a native, but the folks here are ex-treme-ly par-tic-u-lar about their crab cakes!

cherigw, I did forget the watermelons and a few others...the world's largest calf fry festival in Vinita. Man, I lived up on Grand for 14 years and have been there more than once....the rodeo too. Then there is the pecan festival in Okmulgee...think they made the world's largest peacan pie a few years back. Yep, I'm in OK and a huge Sooner fan...I hope you join in here more often when time allows! THis is a great group!

David

How could I forget pork roll (aka Taylor Ham), egg and cheese on a hard roll eaten in a diner at 3 am :-)

Oh Malna! LOLOL!

ANYTHING eaten in a Diner at 3 AM counts! LOL! When I lived in Portsmouth NH there were a couple of greasy spoon places that made the best 3 AM food! Gilleys Chili Dogs (served from a trailer with a screen door LOL) and the truck stop Sausage, Gravy and Biscuits were my favs... but I dont think I can count them as "local" delicacies from seacoast NH! LOLOLOL!

Alexa

OMG Alexa, I'll second the vote for Gilley's in Portsmouth, NH Chili Dog or any of their dogs for a greasy late night snack! Haven't been in years...

amck - Yup lobsters, clams and NE chowder are definitely on the list as are Great Bay smelts and oysters in season. (Side note: Are you tbe BA/UNH mom amck?)

Lisa - Boston baked beans on a Saturday night with hot dogs and brown bread is a tradition in our area. My family won't eat it every week like I did as a kid but I do bake beans about once every 6 weeks for a Saturday night supper.

I have to ask... What is "meat and threes"? Never heard thatterm until this thread.

Prairielove, I totally forgot about walleye! Some would say it's best fried, but I like it steamed or baked, myself! And ND hot-dish must be different than MN hot-dish, because here the term "hot-dish" just means a casserole, the tater tots are not a requirement! LOL

Linda

Linda

I was wondering what 'meat and threes' was too! I don't know, but what I would just guess at: Cornbread, baked beans and coleslaw! Am I close?

Duane

Any Texans familiar with Freebird's burritos?
Yeah, there's one pretty close to where I work but I never go there, I'm not a burrito fan. My friend's son worked there a couple of summers though. :)

dreamhouse,
I'm in Meyerland (near Bellaire). Kinda far from you but I hope we can meet some time!

Meat and three refers to the custom of offering you three vegetable side dishes with your choice of meat. And there us usually a wide range of choices, too, and bread would not count, but mac n cheese counts as a veg. No green salads, either. Most all are cooked and not raw.

From a Memphis girl....

Great thread! If I still lived in Pa. the list could be endless! Bread, pizza, hoagies, scrapple (sorry Alexa) only ate it as a small child, but it was good if cooked the right way!!! Also porkroll!
But here in Eastern NC, not so much!!!! I don't care for their BBQ, collards, biscuits and gravy, okra! We do have very good fresh shrimp. But right now that's all I can think of! Gina

Another New Englander here, posting from Maine. The lobsters/clams are most definatly the number one picks when visiting the region. Those and Moxie, for the very brave. Hehe.
Lori

The term "meat and three" can refer to a type of restaurant. It can also refer to the type of meal sushipup describes. You get a choice of one meat and three side dishes. Many of the sides are vegetables, but a number of them are not. Usually there are a lot to choose from.

From a Yankee boy who discovered Southern food late in life.

Jim

grits, blackeyed peas, cream corn, okra, mac n cheese, tomatoes in various forms (love the cuke/mater in vinegar), turnip greens. My mouth is watering. I leave off the meat and just have extra sides. (I say this from memory, it's been a long time.)

Alexa, LPink and Gina have covered most of the popular foods around here. I like my cheesesteaks "wit", too.

There are many PA Dutch food items, too, like chow chow and red beet eggs and lebanon bologna and funnel cake. I could do without all of them except funnel cake.

Also, porketta (from John's down on Snyder Ave in S Philly). Of course don't forget Philadelphia soft pretzels with mustard.

Theh Philadelphia area is a foodie heaven from Pat's Steaks (which I can stand) to Le Bec Fin (which I can stand!).

Southern California Desert. The Locals love CA MEX! If it doesn't have jalapenos or Tequila in it, it doesn't qualify!! We love hand made tortillas filled with meats shredded and kicked up with jalapenos/tomatillos/onions/garlic. You know the drill........ Topped with guacamole made with fresh jalapeno (some seeds included), fresh avocado, fresh cilantro, fresh red onion, fresh tomato, fresh garlic, fresh Mexican Oregano and true LIMES, not the overused lemon.

We also love Shrimp or Fish Ceveche. Again. Made with limes!!

I am the BA/UNH mom. Technically, a former BA mom and a longtime UNH hockey fan. I know I've mentioned hockey in the TGIF posts, but I don't recall making a BA reference on the forums as I've just recently discovered them, and it's been quite a while since my kids were at BA.

Here in Milwaukee its anything that goes with beer. That would include food- large quantifies, preferably fried, and calorie ladened.

Here is a link that might be useful: Traveling and cooking with grandpa

"Another New Englander here, posting from Maine. The lobsters/clams are most definatly the number one picks when visiting the region. Those and Moxie, for the very brave. Hehe. Lori"

Well, where I lived in Maine it was Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes! We got plenty of lobster but from my friends parents who came up from Bath and brought them to us. LOL!

And for all the people who live where they can get Big Red Soda, I'm completely envious. I love that soda and it is not sold where I live.(

Oh yes, and potatoes!! Sorry:] I live on the York/Cumberland county border, so I live a bit farther south than "potato country". Dixie, were you in Aroostook county?
I bet if we asked my brother, who lives in Jackman,Me, he might tell us it's moose or venison. There aren't many seafood restaurants up there. He lives less than 15 minutes from the border crossing into Canada.

Yup, I believe you and I talked one other time before. I lived in Aroostook County in Limestone. I looked at the border crossing to Canada from my apartment window. I worked in Presque Isle at the local bank. Ex was stationed at Loring AFB which is now closed.

Busylizzy:
You are busy !!!!!

Thought I'd put in a Photo of a Philly Cheese Steak.
This my Style but it's like Pat's and Gino's.
It is on a Toasted, half of a small Italian Bread

I used Sirloin Sliced thin ( not chopped like Hamburger )
Fried fast.
Cooked Onions, Tomatoes, sprinkled with Parmesan, Garlic Powder, Oregano, Black Pepper, etc.

Instead of Tomatoes you can use Ketchup and for a CheeseSteak lay on Sliced Cheese,
of your choice and put it in the Toaster Oven to melt the cheese.

Lou

They cooked whole pieces of Steak way back when.
Now it is chopped, more like a Hamburger Steak.

What Bri said! Plus Hood River apples and pears, Tillamook or Bandon Cheese, cranberries. We have several local wineries and most non-tropical produce grows here.

We grow lots of grass seed. Ya can't eat it, but I'll bet lots of you have a 'little bit of Oregon' in your lawns!

And Oregon Myrtlewood! Unique to Oregon although somewhat similiar to varieties that grow in Mediterranean regions.
Cant' eat it either, but makes a fantastic cutting board or bowl.

Deanna

I forgot, Frito pies. We them for dinner last night. I like mine w/lots of chopped onions and healthy squirt of mustard.

When I was a kid and went to the HS football games, they would just slice open the side of a Frito bag, drop a spoonful of chilli in and hand you a spoon - that was good 'fast' food on a cold night in the bleachers!

Lowspark, would love to meet sometime!

amck,
Send me an email via the link in my profile. I'd email you but you don't have a link. My daughter was BA class of 2007 and I'm a UNH alum. You never mentioned BA but there is a BA mom from class of 2007 that went but the email amck so I thought it might be her.

Lizzy:
Funny my friends never mentioned Waffles and Chicken.

Our Firehouse has a Breakfast.
They serve Pancakes , Ham, Italian Sausage, Eggs, Potatoes, Juice, etc. and Coffee
You can have seconds.
It's on every first Sunday of the month.
When is your's. I'll have to try it.
Waffles and Chicken ?????
- - - - - - - - - -

Forgot who mentioned the Blueberries in the Pocono's
dissapearing.

When I first moved here the Rifle Range was loaded with Blueberries.
You had to be careful, because the Bears like them.
While on the Shotgun Range, one stood up while we were shooting, and just gave us a stare.
, as if to say " what the h**l are you guys doing? "

Don't think there are many Blueberries left but the Bears are still here.

Lou

I live in the Portland Oregon area and we are known for our microbrews, in fact in a recent poll of the 25 best beers 3 were from Oregon. Rogue River Blue cheese has won many awards. Marionberries are bred in the Willamette valley, we have blackberries, raspberries and strawberries which are sweet but don't travel well. Oregon vineyards are becoming well known especially pinot noir. Harry and Davids is from Southern Oregon (although I believe someone else recently bought it) but they specialize in pears and apples from Oregon. As someone mentioned hazelnuts and we do have a lot of salmon and other fish on the coast.
There are probably other things Oregon is famous for -food wise but it's a start.

Lpink gave a good summary of the food in the lehigh Valley area of PA. I'll add chicken corn soup, which is often sold by the quart as a fund raiser for fire companies, churches, granges, etc. At least 80% of fruit pies will have a crumb topping rather than a top crust.

If you go into a diner or 'family restaurant' and order filling from the menu, your plate would arrive with Potato Filling, a combination of bread stuffing blended with mashed potatoes and baked outside the bird.

Our area is a land of plenty for locally grown meat and poultry and their products using every part of the animal, literally from head to tail.

I am always amazed when I meet people who have never shopped for food in our region other than at grocery stores or Sam's Club, etc. We have farmers' markets, independent specialty markets and ethnic markets all around us and it makes me wonder if other areas do too but the average consumers haven't ferreted them out.

Chesapeake Bay Crabs - anything Crabs - Steamed - seasoned w/ Old Bay or JO seasoning piled high on a paper covered table, also Crabcakes, crab imperial, crab fluffs, cream of crab soup, spicy crab soup, deviled crab, crab dip, anything stuffed with lump crabmeat like flounder, shrimp, lobster, on and on. We love our crabs!

Maybe your friends are the Joisey or New York transplants Lou, lol.
Come on down for boo berries here, I have a semi secret place, the lady is in her 80's, friends help her out on the acre booberry patch, grown organically..no irrigation anymore, so the water is up to Mom nature.
Unfortunetly only open Monday and Friday, I get up at dawn, take my bucket a go pick. I have to get faster, can only pick average of 7-8lbs an hour before work.
But, boss lets me slide on the check in time if I get his wife a bucket...can't beat the price 1.15 a lb.

Well, I'm in Orlando which is really not known for much other than The Mouse. But besides Mustangs strawberris and Daylily's citrus, we do have some pretty awesome Zellwood sweet corn which comes in May. This area also grows a large portion of the country's cucumbers and celery.

Further south, there's stone crab claws, conch fritters, and conch chowder. And there's always Margaritaville!

Linda,

My very favorite walleye is pan fried with a parmesan crust. The best I've ever had was at the Shoreham Hotel at Lake Melissa - right next to Detroit Lakes. But here's the amazing part. Turns out they bring their walleye in from Canada! Since then I ask and almost every restaurant I've been to in ND and western MN brings their walleye from Canada. Blows me away when we have so many in our lakes here.

As for the hot dish, you can get quite a hot argument going if you ask a room full of "true" North Dakotans about the tater tots, LOL. Me, I'll just pass on the hot dish with or without the tater tots.

Ann_F

Lizzy:
On my Grandfathers Farm in Joisey they grew some Blueberries in one section.
I think they had a tool of some kind to pick them.
Like the small Garden hand rake, only made of wire.
Ask around!!!
Lou

Kathy, Have you been to the Zellwood Corn Festival? I've been wanting to go for years.

Frito Pies!!! I love frito pies.

When I was a kid and went to the HS football games, they would just slice open the side of a Frito bag, drop a spoonful of chilli in and hand you a spoon - that was good 'fast' food on a cold night in the bleachers!

Yup. Same here.

Nowadays I get them at James Coney Island, or sometimes, if I'm really feeling like being bad, I'll buy a can o' hormel, some fritos and make my own at home. YUM.

dreamhouse,
Send me an email through gardenweb, (I can't send you one). We are planning a Texas get together so maybe you can come!

Ann, there was a big news story not too long ago that the walleye served in restaurants is not really walleye at all but a similar fish called Zander. I believe that is the fish brought in from Canada and sold as walleye.

I don't understand it, either with walleye so plentiful here.

That's funny about the tater tots! LOL What part of ND are you in? Must be near the MN border, huh?

Linda

Linda, that's very interesting. Zander, I'll have to look that up. Sure tastes the same as the walleye DH catches.

I'm in Grand Forks, so right on the border. My parents have a time-share in Detroit Lakes so I have gone there for a few days most summers, that's why I know the Shoreham Hotel.

Do any of you remember that Dave Barry visited GF in 2002? He had written a column making fun of ND and GF and the mayor responded by inviting him to visit - in January. The city named a sewage lift station after him and had a ceremony for it, and he attended the Frosty Bobber - ice fishing competition, and so forth. And they had a community supper for him. The city was divided into three sections, each assigned what to bring. One section brought hot dish, one section brought jello, and the third section brought bars. It was very humorous. Here's a link to one of his articles.

I guess that means our "dishes" are hot dish, jello, and bars.

AnnF

Here is a link that might be useful: Dave Barry column

Cathy, we've gone a few times and it's mostly a country fair type of thing. Usually they have a few country singer type concerts, crafts, some rides, livestock. I think you can eat all the sweet corn you like...but there's only SO much of that a person can handle at one time. Ahem. It's very similar to the Plant City Strawberry Festival.

Usually we just drive out to one of the farms and buy our corn and skip the festival.

Kathy, I appreciate the critique. I'll just go to the Strawberry festival. I came in second in the Strawberry Festival Queen competition, I think I'm over it now and I'll go this year.

Everything that Bri,Deanna and Theresa said with a big emphasis on the seafood. There is nothing in the world to compare to our local strawberries. They don't keep and they don't travel and they are usually nearly gone by the time you get home. It's hard to keep them long enough to make jam. Actually all the berries here are incredible.

That said; DH/DC still gets dewy eyed about a hot dog he had outside Wrigley Field fifty years ago.

Another Oklahoman here. Familiar with Porter peaches, though I grow my own. In Bartlesville there's a little restaurant where people love to eat. It's nothing fancy. Last time I was there, the surfaces of the tables were worn looking and mine even had a hole in it. But people wait in line at noon to eat. What do they order? The Hot Hamburger. It's a hamburger, what can I say? The difference in the dish is that it comes with a huge plate of french-fries covered in brown gravy. Now, I never saw the charm of this dish because I don't like gravy on my fries.

In Tulsa, there's a little cafe-style restaurant called "Claud's" that was written up several times in the local newspaper as making the "best burger in Tulsa". Claud is now deceased and his wife Wilma is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's. But some of the kids run the place, and use the same methods and recipes. The favorite dish from there is an onion hamburger. They grind their own beef, pat it out thin, smear one patty with chopped onion and top with another patty. Throw it on the grill and fry it up. The grill is where you can watch, if you want.

The NE section of Oklahoma is known for beef, peaches, pecans, all what David said (lakeguy). We have a lot of lakes and boy do I love that crappie! Biscuits and what "northerners" call "cream gravy" is standard breakfast fare in every restaurant. You also cannot have a meal that includes any kind of fried meat unless you also have gravy and mashed potatoes. Chicken fried steak is big here, though I don't really care for it.

We like sour cream on lots of things. And we put cheese in and on almost everything.

Yes, I too remember getting Frito chili pie at the concession stands during ballgames. Ever since, whenever I make chili I always want Fritos in mine instead of crackers. Does anybody remember the potato bars that were so popular in the '80's? We had a restaurant downtown that catered to the office workers there. Huge baked potato with your choice of all sorts of toppings. My favorite was bacon, sour cream, lettuce, shredded cheddar.

Now we have a Starbuck's. I notice lots of cars in the parking lot.

Around here almost every menu has country fried steak and gravy. Some have chicken fried, but it's mostly country fried. And yes, it's one of my favorite foods.

And lots of pulled pork barbecue that you can't get anything like it outside the deep south. Roasted all night on an open pit over extremely low heat hickory coals. A sauce of vinegar, salt and cayenne papper poured over it. NEVER any tomatoey, ketchupy stuff or any fancy peppers, just cayenne. Tastes like pure hickory smoke!

Where I'm from there is a local delicacy called salt rising bread. It is found only in two or three other regions of the country.

Salt rising bread is strange, but very good, stuff. It uses no yeast or baking powder and only a pinch of baking soda. Its rising has nothing to do with salt. It rises because of gas produced by fermentation but not a yeast fermentation. The fermentation is bacterial but not by lacto bacillus as with sourdough. Salt rising bread has no resemblance to sourdough bread. Starter is not maintained. A new starter is created for each batch from Clostridium perfringens found in corn meal. Salt rising bread is known to be finicky. It sometimes fails for no obvious reason. It also is notorious for the terrible stink it makes while baking. But it is loved for its delicate, distinctive flavor when finished.

Salt rising bread has a soft, fine crumb. It is best eaten toasted and buttered. The delicate flavor and aroma of the toast are indescribable and hugely evocative of home. Whenever I or one of my siblings visit our home town, we purchase loaves for ourselves and the others. I've never tried to make salt rising, but I intend to.

Here is a link that might be useful: Salt Rising Bread

Jim, salt rising bread is my absolute favorite. When I was growing up, we lived in SE Michigan and it was available at certain bakery's on Tuesdays. No point in trying to find a loaf on other days...:(

Over the years I have tried to make it many times, without much success. Then I found an article that mentioned that the cornmeal had to contain the germ in it. A couple of years ago, I was finally successful. It had the right smell and flavor. All those years trying and all I was doing wrong was in not knowing about the cornmeal.

Nancy