There’s a bar here that sells the frozen WC sliders as something to get since NY has a no drinks without food rule. They do heat them up for you.
I believe anecdotally that fish sticks used to be a more popular dinner in America a few decades ago when fish was cheaper. Although it could just be me because now that I make my own dinners I just never choose to partake in them, while we’d have them once every couple months growing up in the early 80s, and they were popular enough back then to have ads for them and I can’t remember the last time I saw them advertised.
I think that was true too, I don’t see parents getting them as a routine thing for kids any more. Then again, the cheap ones were some kind of heavily processed stuff that probably included rays as ‘fish’, the fish sticks that I see in a grocery store today seem to be a lot higher quality.
We used to eat fish fingers - a dubious food. Fish cakes, a cheap mixture of fish and potato, were a little better.
Fish in itself has gone up up lot in price in the UK too - fish and chips is not a cheap takeaway these days. And often the cod you buy there isn’t really cod, but nobody cares.
I’m not sure how companies like Birds Eye manage to still sell fishfingers made from 100% cod fillets. It’s not so much the “cod” part that surprises me, because if chip shops can get away with it then there must be a way of using the word “cod” that is more widely applicable than you’d expect, it’s the fillet part. And they’re still very cheap, and actually quite good to eat.
I suspect they’ve been largely supplanted by chicken nuggets. I don’t remember chicken nuggets being a thing when I was growing up in the 70s.
Fish sticks are widely available in pretty much every grocery store in Texas and Arkansas. I still purchase them on occasion.
You can certainly get them in the Greater Toronto Area, along with different types of frozen breaded fish filets and fish cakes. I buy them 3–4 times a year.
Bill Engvall on white trash Barbie (starts at 4:10):
Ken: (Belch) What’s for dinner?
Barbie: Fish sticks.
Ken: Fish sticks? Is it our anniversary again?
Fish sticks are available and palatable only if enough spice and “seafood sauce” is added. Fish cakes are now more upscale (and way better) than the old High Liner variety. Higher quality filets and frozen fish is much healthier and often surprisingly cheap. Of course, I’ve talked elsewhere about the (shocking, to me) cost of canned salmon.
Square (detroit style) pizza.
Almond boneless chicken.
When visiting Charleston SC three summers ago I asked in vain for Tabasco sauce. It’s like if I’d asked for salt and pepper and they’d replied, “Sorry…”
And I was 1500 miles closer to New Iberia than I’d ever been in my life.
Are you sure? Looking at the picture in @kayaker’s post #208, those look like what’s sold in this country as “pork 'n beans” and are available in just about every grocery store. As a kid, a cold can of pork 'n beans (pronounced “pohk’n’beanz”) was a favorite cheap dinner or snack. I preferred* Van Camps Pork 'N Beans, but Campbells and Heinz both sell them, as well. Van Camps also sells them with cut-up hot dogs, as Beenie Weenies.
*Oh, who am I kidding, I still like a can of pork 'n beans. I have grown out of Vienna sausages, potted meat, and fried baloney, thankfully.
Yes, the baked beans look the same, but the sauce is a bit thinner, less cloying.
They are the same in that they use the same beans. That’s about it. There is no pork in British beans, for one. The ingredient list is a lot shorter, for another.
In Canada, most canned beans are generally cooked with molasses or maple syrup, sometimes with minuscule amounts of pork. Many stores have a “British style” with half the sugar and a bland tomato sauce as described. (5g sugar vs. 10-12g per serving).
so basically you hate Imos pizza and White Castle (which is not local)–do you also hate Gooey Butter Cake, toasted ravioli?
Before I was diabetic I loved both gooey butter cake and T-Ravs as we called them. Nowadays I can only remember gooey butter wistfully, and enjoy an occasional T-Rav, but only 1.
Just really, really not a fan of provel. Nor cracker-ish crust. Nor of heavily sugared marinara as was common on the Hill.
STL style BBQ is another big hit with me. As is Schlafly beer. I could go on.
In all, I’m not some too-cool-for-STL snob. Not that at all. I enjoy going back when I can and visiting old haunts and eating good chow, enjoying good people, & hearing good music. Some things you just need to grow up with to fully “appreciate”. That’s true for most local cuisines nationwide.
thanks. were you there when we had Hodges chili? their slinger would hold you all day,
Yeah. Great stuff. Hodak’s was a favorite too.