# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/141 "2008-10-14T18:22:21Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > Happy to, Drain Bead. Let me rustle through my various recipe files–some paper, some electronic, disorganized mess and I suck–and I’ll e-mail it to you. Me too! Me too! Um, PLEASE? I’ve never had Cincinnatti chili but try to keep an open mind. The key to enjoying odd versions of dishes you like is to pretend it’s called something else. I’m ready for it, though, because my daughter, at an experimental age, has taken to adding allspice to spaghetti sauce. _shrugging_ It works fine. And a local Chinese restaurant used it surprisingly often (one owner was Chinese and the other was Polish). Worked real well there, too. My wife refused to tell me what was in mole poblano until had I tried it. ---
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/142 "2008-10-14T19:39:35Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Abominably delicious… > > Tony Packo’s Restaurant’s: > > **Chili Sunday** -A sundae you eat before dinner! Tony Packo’s world-famous chili, sour cream, and shredded cheddar cheese, all layered into a sundae glass, and served with warm taco chips on the side. > > **Fried Green Pickles** - Tony Packo’s Original Pickles & Peppers hand-breaded and deep fried! Served with ranch dressing, Tony Packo’s Salsa, and Tony Packo’s Spicy Ketchup for dipping. > > Packo’s is basically a Hungarian Delicatessen… nothing like it. The Chili Sundae looks a little incongruous, it’s like a savory chili parfait or pudding. The pickles are quite the twist on deep fried dill pickle slices because they are spicy, pickled with just enough heat from Hot Hungarian Banana Peppers. Really nice breading. Ah, Packo’s. When arguing against going there for lunch during work, a friend described it as “drunk food”. Greasy, with meat, pickles and cheese. I’ll eat it, but it’s not my favorite ever. Personally, my favorite semi-gross food is Jackson coneys. A hot dog with meat (ground cow hearts) with mustard and onions on top. Supposedly the cow hearts are what set them apart from all others. A proper coney like that is amazing. I haven’t had one in far too long. Normally if you offered me ground cow hearts I’d tell you to go screw yourself, but these are just too tasty to be ignored. Just make sure you eat them before the grease from the meat soaks through the bun, and eat over the plate, as some of the meat WILL fall off. Also, when I was younger I remember the local roller rink selling frozen pickle juice in a cup. I always thought this was gross, but then again I hate pickles. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/143 "2008-10-14T19:50:10Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > 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_ I’ve discovered that it’s love it or hate it (Imo’s,) no middle ground! I happen to love it! ---
**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, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/144 "2008-10-14T19:51:28Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > my daughter, at an experimental age, has taken to adding allspice to spaghetti sauce. _shrugging_ It works fine. And a local Chinese restaurant used it surprisingly often (one owner was Chinese and the other was Polish). Worked real well there, too. Allspice actually makes some sense in Chinese dishes. Allspice and anise are an accepted substitution for star anise, although anise is usually more expensive than star anise. That said, the spicy note allspice adds is not what I would consider oddball in Chinese cooking, although it depends on how forward the flavor is. In spaghetti sauce, I might find it a little more odd, but I tend to be a spaghetti sauce purist: the freshest tomatoes, olive oil, and basil. Maybe some onion or garlic and hot pepper flakes. Not much else (well, unless you start going into puttanesca territory, but I’m talking straightforward tomato sauce here. Oh, I guess an anchovy wouldn’t hurt, either.) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/145 "2008-10-14T20:07:02Z")
> [@SomeBodyUK](#): > > Some people in UK eat fish scraps, which are basically bits of batter lying at the bottom of the fish-fryer at the end of the day. Yes, and they are goooooooood. 🙂 If it’s British food you want to pick on, forget about the black pudding (only a problem to the overly-squeamish) or mushy peas (think condiment, not menu item), and move onto the doner kebabs. One average portion of ‘meat’ which contains more than a man’s recommended daily calories? Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/146 "2008-10-14T21:05:31Z")
> [@Ro\_Carter](#): > > Ah, Packo’s. When arguing against going there for lunch during work, a friend described it as “drunk food”. Greasy, with meat, pickles and cheese. I’ll eat it, but it’s not my favorite ever. Can’t beat a Packo’s dog. Unfortunately their Hungarian Sausage isn’t what it used to be since they went commercial. It used to have a distinctive crunch and snap… it was a smaller batch, fresh, coarse ground sausage. Now, it’s meat paste and collagen. They have the best Chicken Soup in Toledo though, A bowl of that with pickles is very healthy. It was one of my favorites as a kid because they had Magicians and Jazz, Packo’s was home of Toledo legends, [The Cake Walkin’ Jass Band](http://jazzforthepass.org/Cake-Walkin-Bio.htm). ---
**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, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/147 "2008-10-14T21:19:18Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > One average portion of ‘meat’ which contains more than a man’s recommended daily calories? Ouch. One large doner kebab has one wineglass of fat. That’s real drunk food… ---
**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, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/148 "2008-10-14T22:04:48Z")
> [@badbadrubberpiggy](#): > > 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. You know I grew up in the Chicago area, and while Chocago is well known for its deep dish pizza, it also has phenominal thin crust pizza. Just like in St. Louis, it is cut into squares, not pie slices. What both styles of pizza have in common though, is great Wisconsin mozzerala cheese. That’s right, Chicago owes it’s pizza production to the cheese heads up north. Whenever I make pizza at home, I always make sure to lay down the big bucks for quality cheese, because anything else makes substandard pizza. I’m not kidding when I say my freinds had to convince me not to take the half eaten Imo’s pizza back for a refund. I was pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/149 "2008-10-14T22:32:44Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Pupusas are all over L.A., and it’s easy to get a bad one, but they can also be really good. A pupusa has to be fresh, and you have to know exactly what it’s filled with. > > One “local” cuisine that I find almost always bad is Caribbean food. As Naipal said, it mostly consists of “ground provisions” (starchy root-like things) and boiled meat, which nobody ever thinks to season. It’s bland and unmemorable. > > For this reason it always makes me laugh when someone in the States opens a restaurant with “Cuban cuisine.” It’s only because few North Americans ever go to Cuba and eat there that they can get people to patronize the place. They hope people will think the food is “exotic.” That’s amazing to me. I cook an extensive variety of Caribbean food. It’s some of the most incredibly varied and flavorful food in the world, a perfect combination of French and African spices and absolutely delicious if done anything close to authentically. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/150 "2008-10-14T22:45:36Z")
> [@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. Ya know, I try to follow Bourdain’s example and never turn down food that’s offered to me when I’m someone’s guest. Anyone who would serve that, though, obviously has no consideration or value for their guests; so I think offending them by adamantly declining would just even out. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/151 "2008-10-14T22:50:33Z")
> [@Lama\_Pacos](#): > > Actually, Afghan was similarly a letdown (though overall better)-- like a bland mix of Indian and Mediterranean. Either would have been better, in both cases. I’ve only ever had Afghan food once, at a place in San Diego. It was _wonderful_. Very similar to Indian, but with distinctly different flavors. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/152 "2008-10-14T22:53:49Z")
Chitlins. I gag just to think about them. My mama won’t cook or eat them, and thought of them as food for the lowest class of people. I love okra, and I’ve had people tell me that if I’ll eat okra I should be able to eat anything, but chitlins are too damn much for me. ---
**Author:** ![MadPansy64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@MadPansy64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPansy64)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/153 "2008-10-15T00:19:58Z")
> [@FallenAngel](#): > > Ya know, I try to follow Bourdain’s example and never turn down food that’s offered to me when I’m someone’s guest. > > Anyone who would serve that, though, obviously has no consideration or value for their guests; so I think offending them by adamantly declining would just even out. Well, I do have to live here, and would rather not piss off the _entire_ state just yet. 😉 I get the impression that Hot Dish is the official ND State Food. After all, it’s my own fault I ate it. I was curious, and tried it without duress. Hot Dish isn’t quite as nasty as a Slim Jim “food” stick, but it’s in the top ten of the Disgusting Foods category. ---
**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 15, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/154 "2008-10-15T02:18:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > 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. This is reminding me of some years ago when I was in Changchun, China, near the North Korean border. There was a local restaurant that featured “local” fare. It was all insects and slimy creatures of indeterminate species. I remember the silkworms being absolutely disgusting, but the scorpions were not bad. Kind of buttery. I could imagine kicking back on the couch with a bag of those fried scorpions and watching a movie. As for Thailand, the rule of thumb is if it involves an insect, it’s northeastern. All of the other Thais tend to look down on northeasterners for eating that stuff. Contrary to what seems to have become a common conception in the West, most Thais would never put an insect in their mouth. My wife is not prone to looking down on anyone herself, but being a Bangkok girl born and bred, just the thought of eating an insect makes her want to puke. If you want to find bugs in Bangkok, a good place is near the bar areas. There’s a bug cart set up right in the middle of Soi Cowboy. There’s another one always near Nana Plaza. This is because most of the girls working in these farang-oriented bar areas are northeastern girls, since as I said, farangs go for the dark-skinned beauties. The girls buy them up in droves. It always amuses me to sit outside of Sam’s 2000 or Tilac Bar and watch the girls buying up all of these bugs and think of the poor sucker tourist who’s going to be taking her home later that night and deep kissing her, never suspecting what all she’s been chewing up. You won’t find any bug carts near the naughty venues that Thais like to frequent, though, because the girls there are not from Isaan. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/155 "2008-10-15T11:31:50Z")
> [@BaneSidhe](#): > > I noticed that as well. Not every place though, but a lot of them. However, this is balanced out by the beauty that is Southern Style Iced Tea. It has to be the water because anywhere else, it doesn’t taste like it does down South. > > For those of us whose bodies can’t tolerate too much greasy crap, it IS interesting afterwards to see what your GI tract is going to surprise you with :eek: Wow, we are total opposites on this matter. I love just about anything fried in black iron with Grease of Pig, but Southern style iced tea --bleeeeuuch! It is tea-colored sugar syrup to me, and I’d almost rather drink chilled dishwater. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/156 "2008-10-15T11:40:02Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > The food wasn’t crappy, just bland. Bland food _is_ crappy food. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/157 "2008-10-15T15:05:56Z")
> [@DLuxN8R-13](#): > > Bland food _is_ crappy food. I am always mystified by the fact that airlines offer a list of meal options, one of which is ‘bland’. How the hell can something be blander than normal airline food? And why is there never an option for ‘tasty’? ---
**Author:** ![deball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@deball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deball)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/158 "2008-10-15T20:45:04Z")
If you’re ever hanging around Lima you can ask one of the cabbies to take you to a _cui_ joint. You won’t find one in the tourist area. _Cui_, of course, is deep fried guinea pig, complete with head, teeth and claws. It is actually pretty decent… ---
**Author:** ![unstrung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a698b9/32.png) [@unstrung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unstrung)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/159 "2008-10-15T23:10:43Z")
Has anyone mentioned boneless chicken feet yet? If not, they should definitely be added to this list. I tried them on the recommendation of a Chinese girl I was dating at the time (we were in Boston, but she brought me to a place in Chinatown that supposedly had the best Cantonese cuisine for miles). I don’t know which was worse, the gristly texture, the bizarre gamey taste, or the fact that my girlfriend enjoyed them sooooooooo much. I’d like to think this incident wasn’t responsible for the ultimate demise of the relationship, but thinking back, I’m honestly not quite sure… ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322/160 "2008-10-15T23:35:12Z")
I give you the central Connecticut specialty that is the steamed cheesburger. [http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/01/hamburger-america-steamed-chee.html](http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/01/hamburger-america-steamed-chee.html) I’ve never actually had one, but people either swear that they love them or that they are disgusting with no real middle ground. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abominable-local-cuisine/467322.md?page=9)