# Abominable local cuisine **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322 "2008-10-10T14:28:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/121 "2008-10-14T03:23:59Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Hmmm…Maybe something is lost in the travel, then. They sell fresh durian at some of the Asian markets here, and I bought one, only to be severely disappointed in its lack of offensive stench. I mean, it was stinky, but it was hardly the stinkiest food I’ve ever eaten (that award would go to surstromming, fermented herring. I love fish sauce. I love herring. But this shit was orders of magnitude beyond either.) All in all, the durian was pretty yummy. Kinda banana-y, tropical, creamy, onion-y, maybe a background hint of cheese or something. I remember it being pretty heavy–a little went a long way. After having it fresh, I’ve also had it in sticky rice, (at a restaurant here called Sticky Rice, which specializes in Northern Thai cuisine and has insect dishes on the permanent menu), and it was awesome in that. Again, my theory is they don’t dare export the real stuff. Do you mean Northeastern food? Insects are not really a feature of northen-Thai fare; that’s more the Northeast. And, too, sticky rice is a staple in the Northeast, not the North. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/122 "2008-10-14T03:29:26Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Oden > > Take things you wouldn’t be too keen on eating fresh (turnip, pressed fish paste, taro root, another pressed fish paste) and leave them sitting in a pot boiling intermittently for, oh, about a month. Serve from a wooden pushcart only taken out at night when the health inspectors are gone. > > It’s a fraction the price of regular dishes, and can be easily found at 3am when you’re dead drunk. Gasp! While certainly not haute cusine, I find oden to be quite tasty. It’s salty and the texture can be a little strange, but I do like them, especially when drunk! They’re basically the Japanese version of 7-11 hotdogs, which I also find to be tasty (although a bathroom closeby is a good idea). ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/123 "2008-10-14T03:33:44Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Again, my theory is they don’t dare export the real stuff. > > Do you mean Northeastern food? Insects are not really a feature of northen-Thai fare; that’s more the Northeast. And, too, sticky rice is a staple in the Northeast, not the North. I can only tell you that they advertise themselves as Northern Thai. You can see the menu for yourself [here](http://chicago.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=65&restaurantid=13351&home=Y). From my understanding, it’s Isaan Thai, which looks like Northeast Thailand on the map, but the restaurant just says “Northern” on the menu. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/124 "2008-10-14T04:09:46Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I can only tell you that they advertise themselves as Northern Thai. You can see the menu for yourself [here](http://chicago.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=65&restaurantid=13351&home=Y). From my understanding, it’s Isaan Thai, which looks like Northeast Thailand on the map, but the restaurant just says “Northern” on the menu. Isaan is definitely the Northeast, never used to refer to the North. The name comes from an old kingdom in that region about 1500 years ago. Today, the word Isaan is used interchangeably with Northeast. It’s historically the poorest region of Thailand. The restaurant made an error listing it as northern Thai. It’s spelled diferent ways – Isan, Issan, Esarn – but I always use Isaan, which seems the most common in our alphabet. See [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isan). I lived in the North for some years; that’s Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son, that area, from about Nakhon Sawan on up. A different cuisine, even different-looking people. The northern Thai are the Thais’ ideal of beauty, because they have the lightest skin and are the most Chinese-looking; the northeastern Thai are considered extremely ugly, because of their dark skin – being the poorest, they’re outdoors eking out a living in the hot sun the most. Because farangs (Westerners) like dark-skinned ladies, those are the girls many farangs go after, convincing the Thais of the addle-mindedness of your typical farang. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/125 "2008-10-14T04:14:26Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Oh come off it. Flour tortillas are a specialty of some Northern regions of Mexico and the United States. Tex-Mex cuisine has long history going back to well before the American west was under the control of the United States. It was created by Mexicans, on Mexican soil, and continues to be enjoyed by Mexicans in a place that is deeply culturally influenced by Mexico. Seriously. At this point, flour has been a part of their diet and culture for over 300 years…are you going to stand there and tell me that all your favorite regional foods are more than 300 years old? Re: Cincinnati Chili: Get the Fuck over yourselves. It’s not chili, it’s spaghetti with meat sauce. The rest of the world knows this, so why have you refused to acknowledge it? In all honestly, though, there’s not that much abominable cuisine from my region (New England/Vermont.) If there is any, I was certainly never exposed to it, AFAIK. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/126 "2008-10-14T04:19:23Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Weird that a muscle like a heart would be more tender than a gizzard. A cardiovascular muscle would get more of a workout than a digestive one, I would think. It does more work, yes, but they are different types of muscles. Hearts are cardiac muscle, while (I’m assuming) a gizzard is composed of smooth muscle. Smooth muscle is what lines arteries and the digestive tracks. It has a very different composition compared to skeletal or cardiac muscle., and is tougher to cut and chew. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/127 "2008-10-14T04:41:53Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > You can see the menu for yourself [here](http://chicago.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=65&restaurantid=13351&home=Y). I checked out their menu, and it’s funny, but they’ve thrown together some northeastern AND northern – and even a few standard dishes not specific to any one region – and just labelled it all northern. For instance, I see “Northern Thai Larb” (or “lap” as I spell it), which is strictly northeastern. You will not find it in the North, except maybe at an Isaan restaurant in a larger city like Chiang Mai run by an enterprising northeasterner who’s moved there. (Northeasterners being the poorest, they’re the most itinerant, wandering all over the country to work on construction projects, and a few of their fellow northeasterners will usually follow along to open up restaurants featuring northeastern fare for them.) On the other hand, they do have “Northern Thai Sausage,” or “sai ua” as it’s called, which is strictly northern. And “Kow Soy” (or “khao soi”), which is also strictly northern. Actually, khao soi is not even Thai, it’s Burmese, but it’s popular in the North. (The North has been heavily influenced by the Burmese, having passed back and forth between the two countries over the centuries.) I’ve found one place in Bangkok that has consistently good khao soi and heard rumors of one or two other places, but otherwise it cannot be found outside of the North. Haha! Just saw the Thai omelette with ant eggs. Yep, that’s Northeast. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/128 "2008-10-14T05:00:48Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I agree, javanese ketjap is quite different from the american tomato-based condiment. Any reason why the name was adopted? The Indonesians (well Malays as a whole) [used it first](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/683/how-come-they-call-it-ketchup-sometimes-and-catsup-other-times). ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/129 "2008-10-14T05:21:10Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Haha! Just saw the Thai omelette with ant eggs. Yep, that’s Northeast. I’ve also seen jîing kêung thâwt as a special there (looks like grasshopper or something similar), depending on the time of year. I wanted to get the deep-fried caterpillars last time I was there, but I wasn’t sure how the rest of the table was going to react, so I skipped it for next time. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/130 "2008-10-14T05:51:28Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > Actually Cincinnati chili is simply a fast-food spin on the Greek staple [pastitio](http://stage-recipes.ksl.com/recipe-12895i.php). No suprise since the Skyline franchise was started by [Greek immigrants](http://www.skylinechili.com/story.php). > > The spices aren’t all that unusual in meat dishes: Mexican moles, German sauerbratens with allspice, etc. They sure aren’t to everyone’s taste though.[/SIZE] I had cinnamon spiced meatballs in Quebec City one freezing evening. Old school Quebécois cooking. Not bad, actually. Of course I love Skyline, too, so there you go. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/131 "2008-10-14T08:28:05Z")
I live in Norway. I am married to a man who insists that lutefisk _does not smell._ I love him anyway. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/132 "2008-10-14T08:54:19Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > No mention of Spain? Basically all pig, all fried, all the time, and the only raw vegetable anyone will get near is iceberg lettuce. Completely flavorless to an American palate, and full of such delicacies as pig’s feet, jellied pig’s blood, pig’s brains, and other things better left unsaid. I have to say, some of the ‘salads’ we were served in Seville were eye-opening. A big heap of meat stacked up on two leaves of Iceberg. But yummy all the same. That, along with the presence everywhere of advertising for [Nerdic Mist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Mist), was quite amusing. Somewhere I have a photo of the big plastic menu board above the counter at the local curry/kebab shop where I lived in whitechapel. It featured ‘Brain Masala’. I was never brave enough to try it… ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/133 "2008-10-14T10:06:01Z")
> [@Ice\_Cream\_Conquest](#): > > TATER TOT CASSEROLE > > 1 (32-ounce) package frozen potato rounds > 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream > 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese > 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup > 1 (6 ounce) can French-fried onions > [@MadPansy64](#): > > Add another can of soup, and substitute a small can of tuna in oil for the sour cream to turn it into Hot Dish. ☹ > > The absolute worst thing about living in Minot, North Dakota. Add half a pound of ground beef instead of the sour cream and you get what my mom made and my dad loved. Yay!, vomit that is crispy on top. I went to bed hungry. Baked macaroni and cheese is not much better. I can swallow it, but it’s still crispified mush. How do people make (and share!) these dishes? Seriously, please stop making them. So that really is chili in Cincinnati? I’ve had a variation of it, I thought it was basically not very spicy spaghetti. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/134 "2008-10-14T13:21:43Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Seriously. At this point, flour has been a part of their diet and culture for over 300 years…are you going to stand there and tell me that all your favorite regional foods are more than 300 years old? OK, I’ll back off on the flour tortillas. I eat the hell out of big giant burritos, after all. My objection is really that corn tortillas are nearly absent around here and the flour ones used are the Wonderbread of the flat round food world. In all seriousness, how prevalent is wheat as a crop in Mexico? I don’t see much in south Texas. All said though, none of this changes the fact that Mexican food in Oklahoma is shit. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/135 "2008-10-14T13:30:37Z")
There is always that fake cheese they put on pizza in St. Louis. The locals think it is great. I nearly demanded a refund when I got pizza in the area the first time. Provel chese is like cheeze wiz with less flavor. Imo’s is awful pizza. ---
**Author:** ![doublehelix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@doublehelix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doublehelix)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/136 "2008-10-14T14:22:30Z")
I have had a lot of really horrible local food. In Rouen, France I had salmon in crock which was raw salmon in oil with raw onions. No spice, no citrus, no flavor at all. Outside of Venice, Italy I had some kind of canned tuna/penne pasta/tomato paste dish which was nearly indelible. In Kiel, German I had a flounder which tasted like they just took the entire fish, boiled it and slapped it on a plate. Yuk. I guess the moral here is don’t eat the fish. But the worst of all was a local Acadian dish in Yarmouth, Canada called, rappie pie, with was absolutely, indescribably disgusting. It was a mixture of mushy grated potatoes, shredded chicken, and salt pork. Not one iota of flavor. It was exactly like eating paste. And one other local food tip: the pasties in MI are WAY better than the pasties in the UK. Horrible local food is ubiquitous. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/137 "2008-10-14T14:34:01Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > The worst is when you get a jar of gefilte fish, eat a couple, put the rest in the refrigerator, and try to eat more later. That’s when it really starts to congeal. It’s like eating snot. Mmmmm, fish flavoured snot;) With mushy peas ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/138 "2008-10-14T14:52:16Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > There is always that fake cheese they put on pizza in St. Louis. The locals think it is great. I nearly demanded a refund when I got pizza in the area the first time. Provel chese is like cheeze wiz with less flavor. Imo’s is awful pizza. Yes. My husband likes it, but he’s from here. I think it tastes like someone opened up a bunch of those plastic-wrapped cheez slices & threw them all over the pizza. I have no problem with the thin crust, though. It’s the provel I find foul. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/139 "2008-10-14T16:24:01Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > There is always that fake cheese they put on pizza in St. Louis. The locals think it is great. I nearly demanded a refund when I got pizza in the area the first time. Provel chese is like cheeze wiz with less flavor. Imo’s is awful pizza. How did I forget this? Four years living in St. Louis-- I must have blocked it from my memory. My husband called it cheez whiz on a saltine. Not a compliment. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/140 "2008-10-14T17:07:37Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > The Washington, DC area has a huge Salvadoran population, and Salvadorans’ favorite fast food appears to be Pupusas. I tried one once; it was a beef gravy sandwich. Whatever that was, it wasn’t a pupusa. Somebody punked you. A pupusa is a thick flatbread made of corn flour and in the middle is a thin layer of filling – bean paste, pork, cheese, or a combination. It’s topped with pickled cabbage and a thin, red chili sauce. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322.md?page=8)