# local food traditions around the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 8, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699 "2013-08-08T13:03:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/61 "2013-08-09T21:15:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Also, the stew known as [burgoo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgoo) is another regional dish popular in that area, although it exists in other places in the US. That sounds a lot like [Brunswick stew](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_stew). I suspect both derived from Native American stews. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/62 "2013-08-09T21:26:32Z")
I have friends from St. Louis who introduced me to Gooey Butter Cake. Check your family history of diabetes before attempting this. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/63 "2013-08-09T21:32:06Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > That sounds a lot like [Brunswick stew](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_stew). Yep, they are very similar and, in fact, I’m not entirely sure if there’s any universally agreed-upon difference between them. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/64 "2013-08-09T21:46:40Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Hardly local to Houston; they’re a Czech pastry, and are common all over Texas where there are Czech communities, including places like Caldwell, Snook, College Station, West and Ennis, and really most of Central Texas. I had never heard of them until I dated a girl from Belton, Texas and visited her parents. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/65 "2013-08-09T22:12:41Z")
Not much Michigan representation, so I offer: [The Coney Dog](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EU9ulAuhGhw/Tl_1ZqspPvI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/kIcK5pbGBeY/s400/Coney+Dog.jpg) [The paczki](http://paperbackfool.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/paczki.jpg) (a pre-lenten treat, pronounced POONCH-key) [City chicken](http://robinsrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/moms-city-chicken-400x260.jpg) (I may be wrong about its regionality) [The Boston Cooler](http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/550x/1c/c2/bc/1cc2bcb11b17c9fcecffd9b7e925eae6.jpg) (Vernors & Ice Cream, invented near Boston St. in Detroit) And, I have heard that a dish sold in Chinese restaurants, [almond boneless chicken](http://kams-express.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ABC-31-845x561.jpg), is specific to (or originated in) Detroit. This is news to me. Can anyone confirm? mmm ---
**Author:** ![sylmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sylmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylmar)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/66 "2013-08-09T22:14:41Z")
As for beverages, [Moxie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moxie_soda) in New England ( Lore has it one of the secret ingredients is burnt pumpkin) and [Big Red](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Red_(drink)) in the South … ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/67 "2013-08-09T22:20:58Z")
> [@sylmar](#): > > As for beverages, [Moxie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moxie_soda) in New England ( Lore has it one of the secret ingredients is burnt pumpkin) Nonsense. The secret ingredient is carbonated evil. Ugh. My husband, who grew up on it, loves it. Not me. ---
**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:** [August 10, 2013, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/68 "2013-08-10T01:17:35Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Not much Michigan representation, so I offer: > > [The Coney Dog](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EU9ulAuhGhw/Tl_1ZqspPvI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/kIcK5pbGBeY/s400/Coney+Dog.jpg) > > [The paczki](http://paperbackfool.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/paczki.jpg) (a pre-lenten treat, pronounced POONCH-key) > > [City chicken](http://robinsrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/moms-city-chicken-400x260.jpg) (I may be wrong about its regionality) > > [The Boston Cooler](http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/550x/1c/c2/bc/1cc2bcb11b17c9fcecffd9b7e925eae6.jpg) (Vernors & Ice Cream, invented near Boston St. in Detroit) > > And, I have heard that a dish sold in Chinese restaurants, [almond boneless chicken](http://kams-express.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ABC-31-845x561.jpg), is specific to (or originated in) Detroit. This is news to me. Can anyone confirm? > mmm You guys also got [Detroit-style pizza](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit-style_pizza), which I love, oddly enough, as I tend not to like thicker styles. ---
**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:** [August 10, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/69 "2013-08-10T02:55:15Z")
Another New Mexico specialty is [Hatch chiles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_chile). Specifically, Hatch green chiles. The entire state goes gaga over them, and rightly so. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/70 "2013-08-10T07:52:42Z")
Representing San Francisco: cioppino sourdough bread Joe’s Special (a dish of ground beef, spinach and eggs that was invented by Original Joe’s restaurant) There’s a type of dry salami that’s made by several different companies in the Bay Area (notably Molinari). I don’t know whether this should count, though, since it’s really just a take on a type of Italian salami. Dungeness crab is very popular in the S.F. Bay Area. For some families it’s become part of their Thanksgiving tradition. I don’t know whether I would call it a San Francisco food, though - it’s very popular along most of the Pacific coast. The Mission burrito originated in San Francisco, but it’s not restricted to there. You could say the same about Irish coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/71 "2013-08-10T11:18:33Z")
San Diego has [carne asada fries,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carne_asada_fries) which are just now starting to catch on outside southern California. Up here in the northwest the most unique local food tradition I can think of is the special sauce that most mom-n-pop restaurants or small local burger chains put on their hamburgers - it’s basically a mix of mustard and tartar sauce, sort of like if you made Thousand Island with mustard instead of ketchup. I don’t think there’s a standard name for it - Egan’s/Big Tom here in Olympia calls it ‘goop’, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![MN\_Maenad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@MN\_Maenad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MN_Maenad)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/72 "2013-08-10T16:47:37Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > South central MN has a pocket of eastern European immigrant communities and Montgomery, MN celebrates Kolachke Days annually. Here they are stuffed with dried apricots or poppy seeds. My gramma was Czech (Bohemian, specifically), and my dad still loves the poppy seed version. Also head cheese. Hell yes to both smelt fries and bullheads - love them both. Every winter my mom’s family gets together to make lefse, a potato-based flatbread that’s cooked on round griddles ~18 inches across. AKA the delivery vehicle for butter and brown sugar. 😃 Is liverwurst a thing outside of the upper midwest? Love the stuff, even though I generally don’t like organ meats. Hotdish! 😃 DH and I joke that any casserole is hotdish. And they’re always cooked at 350 for 30 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/73 "2013-08-10T17:49:27Z")
When I lived in Colorado I encountered [Rocky Mountain Oysters,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_oysters) breaded and deep fried calf testicles. They actually were somewhat reminiscent of fried oysters. They’re found in many of the Great Plains and Mountain States. > [@Paintcharge](#): > > Upstate New York has [speedies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiedie). I used to enjoy these when I lived in Ithaca in the early 1970s, but thought they were specific to a particular restaurant rather than being regional. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/74 "2013-08-10T19:26:50Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > I had never heard of them until I dated a girl from Belton, Texas and visited her parents. THE place to get them that I’m aware of is in West (the place where the fertilizer blew up) on I-35. The Czech Stop has very good kolaches and klobasniks (klobasniki?) and a bunch of other stuff including some pickled jalapenos from some Doper’s family who lives nearby in McGregor (that’s what the jar says anyway). ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/75 "2013-08-10T21:36:49Z")
Friday night fish frys in Wisconsin. They also have Cornish pasties and brats. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/76 "2013-08-10T22:17:03Z")
Utah and neighboring areas are the only place I’ve encountered fry sauce, a mix of mayo and ketchup that they serve with everything. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/77 "2013-08-10T23:21:27Z")
> [@August\_West](#): > > In my area of the state there is [Booyah](http://www.classicwisconsin.com/features/goodbooyah.html), which is a chicken (usually) stew cooked in large kettles. It’s derived from recipes from immigrants from the BeNeLux region. Unsurprisingly, some of the town names in this area are Belgium, Luxemburg, Brussels, Denmark, Walhain (See also Walloon), etc. I grew up in Green Bay, which was primarily settled by Belgian immigrants (the biggest section of the phone book when I was a kid there, in the 1970s, was “V” – Van den Xxxx, Van der Xxxx, Van de Xxxx. 🙂 ) Booyah was omnipresent in Green Bay; if you went to a church picnic (GB was, and probably still is, heavily Catholic), there would undoubtedly be booyah served. All of the local bar-and-grills offer it, too. I only had it once, and didn’t like it – it’s really an acquired taste, I suppose, and it’s often made with some of the less-than-desirable bits of the chicken. Given how predominantly Catholic the city historically was, it’s not surprising that Friday Night fish fries are still extremely popular (especially during Lent). Two other items which come to mind when I think about food from Green Bay / northeastern Wisconsin: - Cheese curds, either fresh (at which point, they may be called “squeak cheese”, due to how they squeak against your teeth when you bite into them), or breaded and deep-fried - A “brat burger” – a hamburger in which the patty is made with meat from a bratwurst (removed from the casing and patted out into a burger shape). Commonly offered in a double-decker sandwich, with one brat patty and one beef patty ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/78 "2013-08-11T03:33:16Z")
From Central NY Spiedies: Just finished the 30th Annual Spiediefest here in Binghamton. City Chicken: I’ve seen this in Scranton & Pittsburgh as well. A holdover of a time when pork and veal were cheater than chicken in city markets. Supermarkets here sell city chicken kits, with the little wooden skewers. Salt Potatoes: Cornell Chicken: Created by a Cornell professor in Ithaca. Chicken Riggies: Rigatoni cooked with chicken and hot peppers in a spicy tomato cream sauce. Rarely seen outside the Utica/Rome area. [Utica Greens](http://www.ridiculousfoodsociety.net/2009/12/utica-greens.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/79 "2013-08-11T03:45:41Z")
When I lived in Philly as a small child, I remember whenever my parents took me downtown, there was someone selling soft pretzels. And when we moved to Ohio when I was 16, I was disappointed there were no Tastykakes that far West. ---
**Author:** ![catnoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@catnoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catnoe)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699/80 "2013-08-11T04:30:21Z")
For a while, we in NC were the only place to get the traditional Krispy Kreme doughnut. Moravian sugar cake Grits Lexington style Barbecue Banana pudding We also do the tenderloin biscuit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-food-traditions-around-the-us/665699.md?page=5)