Spring is upon us and with that brings cookouts. Being originally from Maine, there are three things I miss horribly that I have had no luck finding since moving to Atlanta:
Humpty Dumpty potato chips - they not only had the best BBQ chips in the world, but also produced my other favorite, Sour Cream n’ Clam. For a short time, one was able to buy said chips by the case and have them delivered to your home, which I took advantage of a couple of times, but since their acquisition by a Canadian corporation (* shakes fist * damn Canadians) it seems that they have stopped production on the Clam chips and the shipping has gone way up on their BBQ.
Along those lines, clam dip. I see it for sale, but it can only be shipped during cool parts of the year, which is not the best time to enjoy it. I know I can make my own, but it isn’t the same as picking up a container of Heluva Good brand or whatever is available up there. All the supermarkets down here have Onion dip and not much else (even a good bacon and horseradish is hard to find).
Lastly, and the one I’ve pined for for a long time, are hot dog ROLLS. Not the standard kind you see that are browned on either edge, but instead these are like a small rectangular cube of bread, browned only on the bottom, with a slot on top for stuffing with wiener and condiments. We have BBQ rolls down here which are similar, but they are too large and are covered in sesame seeds. Again, trying to find them online to have sent (would they even be fresh by this point?) is futile.
Do any of you have any particular regional foods that are still in production that are just impossible to go to, and have you considered a road trip just to get them (as I had just for the rolls).
Well, for now they are quite easy for me to get, since I’ve never left the area, but the Baltimore region has three particular foods that I have heard are difficult to get elsewhere in the country:
Utz potato chips. They apparantly do exist to some degree along the east coast, but they’re largely Maryland, as far as I’ve heard.
Berger’s cookies. Shortbread piled high with RICH chocolate (made in part with chocolate liquor). They are far more regional than the Utz.
Chesapeake Bay blue crabs, steamed. Probably the most unhealthy of them all, as part of the taste is the unique estuary, a hard to find mix of salt and fresh water. The other part of the uniqueness is the fact that the water has not been kept the cleanest over the course of the past 350 years or so. The pollution may actually help the taste (I’m reminded of the fish guts in Vonnegut’s Slapstick). Steaming them (with Old Bay seasoning, which I hear may also be tough to find outside the state) seems to be a largely local thing, though it works well enough to use Louisiana crabs in their season, when nothing else is available.
Yeppers. They’re made in Hanover, PA (tours of the plants were a desparation rainy day activity when I worked at a camp near by). That area sure does artery-clogging snack foods better than anywhere else. I miss them.
Soft pretzels. Auntie Anne’s don’t count, nor do the leathery SuperPretzel things.
Philly cheesesteaks are certainly a local thing but can be recreated decently so long as steak rolls are available. I’ve yet to find acceptable rolls in Minnesota.
Tastykakes. These are the only thing that I really stock up on when I make a Pennsylvania trip. It’s possible to order them online - but it’s probably just as well that I have limited access.
Eat any other crabs other than those out of the Bay? There’s not enough Old Bay in the world to make them taste right.
I grew up eating Carl’s Frozen Custard. There’s only one place you can get it - and that’s at Carl’s Frozen Custard stand on Princess Anne Street in Fredericksburg, VA. It is closed from October to March - and the day they reopen is the marked on every calendar within a 50 mile radius of town. Luckily, I live in Richmond and can make the trip in about an hour. I do, several times a summer. I’ve had to wait in line as long as an hour, but it is ALWAYS worth the wait (weight?).
Make mine a giant hot fudge maple nut sundae with nuts.
Spiedies (also spelled in other, mutant ways) Marinated meat cooked on a skewer and served on a bun. Meat, skewer, and bun you can get anywhere, but the Spiedie marinade used to be impossible to get outside of the Binghamton-to-Rochester line.
Rochester-style Hot Chicken – Smitty’s, Country-Sweet, Sal’s Birdland, Boss Sauce. Nobody sells these outside Rochester. It used to be that some stores would sell them through the mail, but they kept changing.
Both of the above are now available over the Internet (in fact, one site I’ve found has both).
I agree with Kakofonus about the Philly soft Pretzels and Tastykakes. I’m originally from NJ, and miss both. But I’ve found that Tastykakes have a surprisingly broad distribution range. Yoiu can get them in DC, for instance. You can even find some Tastykakes in New England, although not all of them.
This may not help, BUT, when I was growing up outside the New Engalnd area, my local grocery store stocked New England style hot dog rolls. There were several companies that made them, including Freihoffer, Sunbeam and Wonder. Generally the bread man only dropped off a small number of packages, because they weren’t very popular. I remember a time or two my mom brought them home instead of the “normal” hot dog rolls because the “normal” ones were sold out. How we would whine and complain! (now that I live in Boston, I buy NE style exclusively and can’t imagine going back to the other style - can’t stand them anymore! ).
You might try asking your local market(s) what day(s) the bread man comes,a dn try hanging out & waiting for him. In the supermarket I used tow ork in, the bread man had ultimate control over what went on the bread shelves. The store managers could place requests for things, but the bread man decided if he would actually put it on teh shelf. If the breadman has some NE style rolls in his truck he should be able to give them to you to buy at the register, and in some cases can sell them to you directly. You may not be able to talk him into stocking them on a regular basis, but you could arrange to meet him periodically to get your fix.
Damn, damn, damn! I was going to say Utz potato chips! Especially the Carolina barbeque ones…I brought a whole trunk full of them up to Niagara Falls for football season, and they were quite popular with my friends here.
Cal, I’ve seen Spiedie marinade sold in Western PA, DuBois to be exact. My dad often makes them for barbeques.
The other thing I miss from PA is a well-made funnel cake. Something’s just wrong with the types sold here at county fairs. I suppose, when I move away from here, I will say the same about Buffalo wings.
The Carolina BBQ are addictive, but nothing beats using the classic salted chips as a means to scoop tuna or alongside a big, drippy homemade burger during picnics.
Wow, I’ve never even suspected that one. I have never had trouble finding them anywhere in Maryland. Including down here around DC and on the eastern shore down at the ocean. The classic peanut butter tastykakes are something I will have to buy in bulk if I ever move.
Plnnr, I just had some LA blue crabs shipped up to MD a few weeks back, and with enough Old Bay, they were certainly more than just edible. Then again, maybe I’m a little starved. It had been since October or so that I’d had my last fix of the real stuff.
When I was living in North Carolina with a bunch of friends and I came back to northern New York for a visit, I would buy a bunch of bags of Jax cheese curls to bring back and I would eat at Jreck Subs* every day that I was home during the visit. One of my roommates would ask whoever was going home to NY to bring him back some Archway Brownie Bars. While they had Archway cookies in Raleigh, they didn’t have the brownie bars available there.
*Now that I live no where near a Jreck Subs, I do the same thing when I visit my parents. Gotta get my fix, ya know? And everyone I know that has moved away does the same thing.
Deep Fried Cheese Curds - A gastronomic delight from Wisconsin that will turn your ass into saddle bags with the lightning speed of Oprah and Delta Burke having an eating contest.
Jay’s Potato Chips - Their sour cream and onion is the best. Also a Midwest entity, I think.
Living near St. Louis, we have some great eats, but nothing compares to Taylor Ham. That stuff is awesome. I grew up in NY near the water gap next to NJ and a slice of the ham fried up between to pieces of white bread is pure heaven. I’d love to find a supplier.
Foods I miss from Tulsa:
Sonic Lime Aids. No Sonics in this area of the country. Nothing like a Sonic Lime Aid when it’s hot outside.
The jalapino pickled carrots served at El Chico. Wrapped in a warm corn tortillia with butter. ummmm.
Fry Bread from Rexx’s Fried Chicken. Almost don’t need honey.
BBQ from Knotty Pine. Actually, any southern BBQ. Just 'cause you cook the meat on a GRILL and throw on some sauce, doesn’t mean it’s BBQ.
Braum’s Ice Cream. Chunky Chocolate Chip.
Foods I’m Glad I can Find:
Chesepeake crabs with lots of Old Bay, which are even better at an All-You-Can-Eat Crab Fest. Heaven. Simply heaven.
Butterscotch Krimpets.
Snyders Pretzels, the thick ones.
Cole Slaw at the Brownstone Cafe in Middletown, PA. Cole Slaw to die for (and I’m not a cole slaw fan!).
Oysters. Fried.
I suppose none of you US inhabitants will know what this is, but I’ve become addicted to Irn-Bru since moving to Scotland. It is a very sweet soda - tastes something like bubblegum I suppose (at least thats how other people sometimes describe it, and that seems close enough). It is difficult to find anywhere outside of Scotland, though. Until only a few years ago, it outsold Coke in Scotland as well! I, of course, forgot to bring any back with me to Sweden during my break, so I have now consumed about 1.5l since getting back to Glasgow a few hours ago.
On a side note, I did manage to find it in Sweden, and naturally bought a can of it immediately and was very excited. Then after taking a sip, I realized something was wrong. It just didn’t seem quite right. So, I take a closer look at the can - it was made in Sweden. They obviously didn’t get the recipe down quite right. It wasn’t sweet enough. Oh, well. Now, I can at least get my hands on it again.
I miss lots of stuff from the US as well. Mostly candy. Airheads, twizzlers, nerdsrope, EasyMac (great drunk food), butterfingers, etc… For this I use my web of american acquantances to get a hold of (my sister and my ex gf).
When I’m not in Sweden, I miss the candy from there as well. Hmm…seems like there is a pattern forming here. I don’t even eat that much candy either. But, that seems to be all that I miss…strange.
I miss fried dough, covered in lots of powdered sugar. Yum. It’s a relative of the funnel cake but not as fluffy. Every time a carnival came around or we did our yearly 4th of July celebration on the common, there would be a fried dough booth. (I’m from New England.)
Marshmallow Fluff- though I just saw it in a store here in Alexandria. Shocking. I didn’t know it had made it down to VA. I still have 3 tubs at the moment. Mom helped me stock up!
Hoodsies. Somedays you just want that little cup of ice cream with the wooden paddle/spoon thing.
Plnnr I hear you on the Carl’s thing. I went to Mary Washington and went to Carl’s about once a week. We made it a point to freeze our butts off every opening day. (They usually reopened just in time for Valentine’s Day.) I’ll take a vanilla malt please.
It most certainly is. We used to have to ship boxes of it out to my cousin in Colorado because all he could get was that godawful marshmallow creme. I had my mom ship an emergency box down to me at college when I went to the store and couldn’t find any to make my fluffernutter with.
).