# Food From Nowhere to Everywhere **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271 "2010-01-17T02:44:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/21 "2010-01-17T22:52:03Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Chicken Maryland is at the very least rare in Maryland. I had never seen it on a menu in Maryland when I encountered it on one in England twenty years ago. It’s either an old-fashioned dish that hasn’t been common for decades or possibly one limited to the Eastern Shore: > > [Chicken Maryland - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Maryland) I’ve never heard of Chicken Maryland, but the description prompts me to include chicken-fried steak in the “nowhere to everywhere” food list. I am sure it’s always existed as a regional specialty, but now it’s ubiquitous. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/22 "2010-01-17T23:01:57Z")
Yogurt as a common snack. Fajitas. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/23 "2010-01-17T23:10:19Z")
Sticky toffee pudding. Went away from the UK in the early nineties, came back for a vacation a few years later, and it was on every single menu ever. (And not without reason…) ETA: > [@Zsofia](#): > > “California” foods came in in the 90’s - sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and goat cheese were on _everything_. The first two I’d categorize as Italian rather than Californian; the third, Greek. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/24 "2010-01-17T23:32:30Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I’ve never heard of Chicken Maryland, but the description prompts me to include chicken-fried steak in the “nowhere to everywhere” food list. I am sure it’s always existed as a regional specialty, but now it’s ubiquitous. Really? It’s pretty ubiquitous in the South, and I assume it would be in the Midwest as well. I’m pretty surprised, if true. I don’t like it, for what it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/25 "2010-01-17T23:40:29Z")
I suspect, although I can’t be sure, that chicken-fried steak has become more common outside the South recently: > **[Chicken-fried steak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_fried_steak)** > > Chicken-fried steak, also known as country-fried steak, (CFS) is an American breaded cutlet dish consisting of a piece of beefsteak (most often tenderized cube steak) coated with seasoned flour and either deep-fried or pan-fried. It is sometimes associated with the Southern cuisine of the United States. It is breaded and fried with a technique similar to the more common fried chicken, hence "chicken-fried". When deep-fried, it is usually referred to as "chicken-fried steak". Pan-fried versions ... ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/26 "2010-01-18T00:04:46Z")
There’s the whole deep-fried movement. There was deep-fried food when I was a kid but it was just a handful of items: french fries, battered chicken, battered fish, battered onion rings. Now we have meats being directly cooked in hot oil like turkies and chickens and a vast expansion of the foods that are being fried in batter. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/27 "2010-01-18T01:34:07Z")
Things that have gone out of fashion include what I think of as “cruise ship food” - beef Wellington, baked Alaska, Green Goddess dressing, etc. Which is a shame, because I love Green Goddess dressing. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/28 "2010-01-18T01:44:27Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Things that have gone out of fashion include what I think of as “cruise ship food” - beef Wellington, baked Alaska, Green Goddess dressing, etc. Which is a shame, because I love Green Goddess dressing. Anyone who has ever watched a single episode of Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” knows that (in Ramsay’s kitchens at least) beef Wellington is still alive and well!!! 😉 ---
**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:** [January 18, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/29 "2010-01-18T01:53:55Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Later, chipotle. Yeah, this is the first one I thought of. It seems like sometime in the late 90s/early 00s chipotle peppers were put into pretty much everything. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/30 "2010-01-18T01:57:15Z")
Bottled salad dressings in general have a way of coming out of nowhere to be ubiquitous and then vanishing. I come from a time when chicken nuggets (or fingers or the equivalent) didn’t exist (it looks like McDonald’s introduced them in 1980). ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/31 "2010-01-18T04:13:27Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Things that have gone out of fashion include what I think of as “cruise ship food” - beef Wellington, baked Alaska, Green Goddess dressing, etc. Which is a shame, because I love Green Goddess dressing. To that list, add [chicken a la king](http://www.goodcooking.com/recipes/chixalar.htm). This used to be a fairly ubiquitous restaurant entrée from the 1940’s to the 1960’s. However, it’s nearly impossible to find it now. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/32 "2010-01-18T04:37:54Z")
When I was a kid in the 50s the only Chinese restaurants were in Chinatown . . . and there was a Chinatown in every decent-sized city. And when was the last time anyone ordered chow mein or chop suey? ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/33 "2010-01-18T14:46:09Z")
Rice. When I was a kid, you usually only had it when you went to a Chinese restaurant (although my mom did make a mean rice pudding occasionally, and liked to use up the leftover turkey after Thanksgiving and Christmas by making a curry served over rice, and of course, she did make cabbage rolls), but to have rice was rare at dinnertime – it was usually potatoes. Now, rice is everywhere. Where before you only saw it in Rice A Roni or Zatarains or things made by Chun King or La Choy, supermarkets are now filled with rice side dishes by a myriad of manufacturers. To have potatoes with a meal has now become somewhat rare in comparison to how it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/34 "2010-01-18T15:27:15Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Anyone who has ever watched a single episode of Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” knows that (in Ramsay’s kitchens at least) beef Wellington is still alive and well!!! 😉 Not any more - last season’s menu didn’t have it!:eek: ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/35 "2010-01-18T16:20:51Z")
Ciabatta bread. I’d never heard of it before 2000. Now, even Jack in the Box is using it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/36 "2010-01-18T20:40:11Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > Rice. > > When I was a kid, you usually only had it when you went to a Chinese restaurant (although my mom did make a mean rice pudding occasionally, and liked to use up the leftover turkey after Thanksgiving and Christmas by making a curry served over rice, and of course, she did make cabbage rolls), but to have rice was rare at dinnertime – it was usually potatoes. > > Now, rice is everywhere. Where before you only saw it in Rice A Roni or Zatarains or things made by Chun King or La Choy, supermarkets are now filled with rice side dishes by a myriad of manufacturers. > > To have potatoes with a meal has now become somewhat rare in comparison to how it used to be. Other than frozen fries, hash browns, etc., potatoes are labor-intensive to prepare and cook. I only cook them at big meals during holidays, myself. Rice out of a box is comparatively fast and simple to cook, no one has time to peel, boil, and mash potatoes any more. More’s the pity. I’ll add to the everywhere list baby lettuces/greens. Iceberg lettuce with oil and vinegar was the only salad my mom ever made when I was growing up. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/37 "2010-01-18T22:15:29Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > Rice. When were you a kid? I’m in my mid-40s (please don’t tell anyone) and I can’t remember a world without rice. Not only was it our side dish at home at least twice a week, it was the fall-back restaurant side (usually in pilaf form) in the days when baked potatoes were only available after 4 p.m. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/38 "2010-01-18T22:43:22Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And when was the last time anyone ordered chow mein or chop suey? Most Chinese take-out restaurants around here still have chow mein on the menu. Not sure about chop suey. Someone must be ordering it. ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271/39 "2010-01-18T23:02:25Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Most Chinese take-out restaurants around here still have chow mein on the menu. Not sure about chop suey. Someone must be ordering it. I have never seen chop suey at all ouside of a La Choy can on the supermarket shelf but our local Chinese buffet still sets out “chow mein”. That’s not saying much because it is in Kansas which is years behind the rest of the country in all trends be they clothing, philosophy or food. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-from-nowhere-to-everywhere/525271.md?page=1)