My mother's father was very anti "crap food"....she wasn't allowed anything with artificial coloring no pop little candy but home made etc. I was not allowed any soda-pop but occasionally a 6 oz bottle of 7-up and a spoonful of rootbeer in my milk. The only boxed cookies were "social teas" a very simple not too sweet and not very fat cookie.I was not allowed Grandma's fudge, but was allowed her divinity and only a very small piece of her penuche.

But we had a wonderful bakery and we regularly had an assortment of rolls and cheese bread and at Christma,s Pfeffernuss, springerlie etc.

However things like scrapple were regularly on the table...but one of my favorite things was Taylor ham....also called Taylor Pork roll....and I suspect that is in the lexicon.

When I moved to Iowa, a Maid Rite was the thing....patented name for a chain of sandwich shops, but has come to mean any "loose meat" sandwich.

Love the picture! I think all of our regional junk food is well known because we have such a big populace. The packet of potato chips, like you'd get in a school lunch, was invented here. The walking burrito, which dates back before my mother, isn't actually junk. It's farrmhouse food. On the farm range would always be a warmer with tortillas (usually wheat, as is common in the North), a pot of chili and a pot of beans. Anyone in need of a snack, could grab a tortilla, dump a spoon of chili and a spoon of beans in the middle, fold-roll in the classic burrito style and walk out with a belly warmer. They sell basically the same thing, individually wrapped and frozen to be zapped (or heated on your engine block). So maybe the frozen walking burrito? Or the same kind of thing off a pushcart or taco truck?

I think yoou are confusing a walking burrito with a walking taco....which is somethig else entirely. And truely junk food.

I always make a point to eat some fried cheese curds when I visit my brother in Wisconsin. The popularity seems to have expanded somewhat recently as a few places offer them now around here but they are not as good as up north.

Squeaky cheese or curd is popular in neighboring Quebec and has a serious following here. From the local convenience store to the artisanal cheese store. BTW having a local artisanal cheese shop is a huge change from my childhood.

Another category of food is relatively normal or common food that I only experienced in it’s school food version. I still have to be reminded that homemade chicken pot pie can be delicious.

For heaven's sake, Linda, I know the difference between a burrito and a taco!!! Do you??? I've also lived here all my life and know my neighborhood. They do not sell individual tacos. All the stuff would run out. At least, I've never seen them. Frozen burritos are everywhere. "Walking" refers to something one can hold in one's hand and walk out to the fields or down the street, as opposed to something that needs a dish and utensils. Burritos are fully enclosed until you bite them, and the density of the beans and/or chili stays hot and warms your tummy.

If you were questioning "fold-roll", That's how you make a burrito, you fold the top and bottom over then roll it up. If it was the "junk" part, while being more nutritious by far than a twinkie, I posit that anything you buy and zap at any old gas station likely qualifies. :)

ETA: Ah. Google helps. The chip bag with taco fillings in it is a Midwest thing. Not SoCal. We're talking regional here. I've never heard of your version. A real walking taco is something they fry up in the street, where they stick together the edges of the tortilla but then open up one end to put the salad stuff in and it's a disgusting greasy mess that falls apart if you actually do try to walk. They're not popular here.

Wasn't the title of this thread "Local junk food enters the dictionary"?

no JC it is not strictly a MW version. It is a quick, inexpensive MW fund raising mechanism that is priced for raising funds for charitable causes; of course chip bags and taco fixins are used... cheap to make for causes. it is also popular at hs football games ...

Linda, my reaction was to the word "confused"--I was not at all confused about the burrito!

Having now seen the Midwest fund raising "walking taco", I'm wondering if the English "walking burrito" isn't derived from that, since it's what I've heard more recently. When I was a kid, it was just a "burrito", and a big plated and sauced thing was often a wet "burro". In Spanish (or Spanglish), I've heard the classic burrito I described called a road burrito or a strolling burrito, or a street burrito.