You know you are guilty of this. What regional foodstuffs do you crave from outside the region you currently live? What stuff do you mail order/Amazon because you just have to have it?
Inspiration for this thread: Dorothy Lynch salad dressing. I was first exposed to the stuff at a diner in Palco, Kansas while working the old family farm. Craved it ever since, and once I discovered that Amazon carried it, I was a happy camper. The immediate cause was me sitting at the computer dipping Bugles into a cup of the dressing and nom-nom-noming.
My cravings usually go back to New England. I’m not going to count foods from outside the country, because I think that’s not what the OP is after, and that would definitely be TL;DR.
Steamers. You just can’t get them here in CA.
Clam Chowder. There are a few decent places here, but typically it’s thick as concrete and has lots of green stuff in it. I’m actually partial to the RI style, which is very similar to Boston style, but a little thinner. Clam chowder at the Clark Cook House/Black Pearl in Newport. That’s the stuff for me.
Steve’s ice cream. I don’t even know if the still make it, and I know it was bought out decades ago, but when I was living there, it was simply the best ice cream you ever had.
Maple sugar candy. The real stuff. We usually got it in New Hampshire.
Lobsters with claws on them.
Outside New England: I used to do some business in OK/TX and the BBQ there is something else. I used to think I didn’t like beans until I had them with BBQ there. We have a few pretty good places here, but nothing like the real thing in that area (I’ve not had real BBQ in other places famous for it).
Love them. Saw them on sale at the local Meijer just today actually and found the mint version at Walmart once. Tunnock’s tea cakes on the other hand I have to get via Amazon. Penguins also come to think of it. And Kinder Hippos.
Every year I order Bomba rice, Spanish chorizo, and pequillo peppers from a Spanish importer to make paella. It’s nearly impossible to find this stuff locally. For the uninitiated, Spanish chorizo and Mexican chorizo are worlds apart.
At one point, I was really jonesing for Katz’s pastrami and ordered some from the website at a ruinous cost. Sadly, it just wasn’t the same as the meat you get in NYC.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the smoked red salmon packed in olive oil from Prime Select Seafood in Cordova, AK. I think they sold out to a Seattle outfit, but the recipe is intact. Best smoke anywhere.
I live in the Cincinnati area, and ex-patriates typically crave and order Skyline Chili, Grater’s Ice Cream (which is INCREDIBLE) and Goetta. These are the foods Cincinnati is known for, like them or not.
I know that Cincinnati chili is a love/hate thing for many. It’s perfect on cheese coneys with mustard, but I pass on that watery-ish shit being ladled onto spaghetti with beans and onions. I mean…it’s okay, but nothing to write home about.
Wisconsin brick cheese. The stinky Germanic stuff, not the bland variety you can find all over the Midwest…but still can’t find in New York. This goes onto sour rye or pumpernickel with thin-sliced onions, with plenty of Pilsener beer.
Cleveland Stadium mustard. When Cleveland Municipal Stadium was still standing, Indians and Browns and hot dog fans would bring jars and sneak mustard home out of the dispensers. Since the ‘80s, you can buy it in stores, but only in Cleveland.
Vernor’s ginger ale. A Detroit thing. Makes you sneeze if you’re not careful drinking it, it’s THAT strong. Oddly enough, makes the best Boston Cooler (ginger ale & vanilla ice cream).
John Mace:. You’re nostalgic for New England food, but you thought you DIDN’T LIKE BEANS? My brain just broke.
Maine-raised Steuben yellow-eye beans baked for hours with mustard and molasses and salt pork and onion, in a good old fashioned brown-glazed Maine bean pot, is the acme of beandom.
I haven’t eaten them in Maine in years, because the places we go got too fancy for beans, but I have two pots (a gallon one and a half-gallon one) bought at yard sales and antique stores that I’ve scrubbed and Cloroxed and sanded out, and now do me good service for Saturday nights.
I miss a few things from upstate New York – Spiedies from Binghamton, Widmer’s Lake Niagara wine from Naples, and Sal’s/Country Sweet/ Smitty’s sauce on chicken.
Fortunately, my local supermarket actually sells spiedie sauce (I just used it a couple of days ago), and I can order Boss Sauce over the internet. But Widmer’s wine, which I used to be able to buy in Masachusetts (if I really looked for it) seems to be gone from here.
