Most iconic food from each state

Cafe Society
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New jersey has some of the best quality blueberries in the country, and also produces a huge quantity of them.

Department of Agriculture | NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE HIGHLIGHTS JERSEY FRESH BLUEBERRIES.

Blueberries in New Jersey for 2023 had a production value of $92.1 million, making it New Jersey’s highest selling crop. New Jersey annually ranks in the top six in the U.S. in the production of blueberries. Farmers in the Garden State harvested 50 million pounds of blueberries on 10,800 acres last year.

It’s not the top producer of blueberries in the US (that’s, huh, Washington. I don’t usually see WA berries on the East Coast)

Blueberry Production by State 2024)

But it’s the largest cash crop in NJ, and NJ grows some of the best blueberries, unless you favor the little wild ones, in which case you’ll likely be getting them from Maine.

(Yeah, I’m a blueberry snob. The Southern rabbiteye blueberries just aren’t as good.)

Wisconsin has surpassed MA in cranberry production.

Total cranberry production U.S. by state 2023 | Statista.

Wisconsin was the top cranberry producer in the United States in 2023, at about 5.01 million barrels, followed by Massachusetts with 1.97 million barrels of cranberries in that year. In the United States, cranberries are often consumed dried or in sauces.

NJ is third, but it’s a distant third. This is a little out of date, and shows NJ forth, behind Oregon.

The U.S. cranberry harvest explained in four charts)

And sorry, the pilgrims ate their venison and turkey with cranberries in MA. :wink:

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As I said in my other post, “NY Pizza” is exotic/foreign in OH. I belong to some Facebook local pizza lovers groups and I am not exaggerating that 90% of the people have very negative reactions to most pizzas that have a ring of crust, are “doughy”, pie cut, and/or have visible cheese (where are the toppings?). Ohioans also never learned the definition of “squares” and “triangles.” I also remember growing up on the East Coast, but not NY, a lot of pizza shops (and certainly chains where NY is NOT the default style - why else do places like Dominos, Pizza Hut, and Papa Johns all have New York or Brooklyn style options which are not part of their default/regular crust offerings?) would advertise a NY style or crust. Some would have thin and crunchy, pan, “regular” ( a little thicker and not as foldable), and NY. NY was also something sold by the slice on a paper plate and could be folded while a lot of the default round pie-cut mom and pop pizzas were certainly not like that.

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Wild Maine blueberries are far superior to any farmed blueberries from a supermarket, especially those grape-sized frankenberries with no flavor. A bakery near us makes wild Maine blueberry pies which are divine.

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I’m not sure what’s driving the recent grape-sized blueberries. Maybe it’s less labor for the farmer?

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I’m having a hard time thinking of any pizza place, local or chain, whose default pizza isn’t foldable, doesn’t have visible cheese, and doesn’t have a ring of crust outside of the toppings. Again, that’s the norm for pizza, everywhere in the country. Nor have I ever seen any pizza place outside of New York advertising a “New York style”.

There is no such thing as “New York style pizza”, and nobody outside of New York even thinks there is.

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Our local chain in New Hampshire offers two styles of pizza, New York or Sicilian.

Menu (pdf)

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There’s a little visible crust and a little visible cheese, but you can see how the platonic ideal wouldn’t show either. And there’s no way you’ll be folding this puppy:

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What are you talking about? NY style is definitely a style and people outside of NY are really the ones referring to it as NY Style, as in New York, it’s just pizza. Our thin crust here in Chicago is definitely not New York style, and of all the various styles we do well here, I really haven’t found something I’d identify as a good NY slice here. There’s just something different about it.

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New York style is definitely a thing and it’s not the same as what Domino’s or Pizza Hut serve. NY pizza is a crust that’s thin but not crispy, cooked in a coal-fired or electric oven (but not wood-fired), with large slices that hang over the edge of a paper plate, a thin spread of tomato sauce with a distinct flavor of crushed chilies and oregano, with shredded full-fat mozzarella that leaves a layer of grease best blotted off with a napkin or two before eating, and it should be orderable by the slice or by the whole pie.

For the record, I have never been to New York.

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WTAF? Chedder Cheese on Apple Pie? How the fvck does that work, sounds horrible.

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I’ve still yet to hear anyone describe just what makes “New York style” pizza distinctive, though. If you order a “regular pizza” from Pizza Hut or Dominos or Little Caesar or Georgio’s or Donato’s, you’ll get something with a foldable crust, with tomato sauce and greasy mozzarella cheese on top of it, that doesn’t extend all the way to the edge. You can get pizza like that by the slice and served on a paper plate in any food court in the nation, and the quantity sold or the plate it’s sold on hardly constitute a “style”, anyway. Sure, there are other styles of pizza out there, like thin crust or white, but you have to specify those: They’re not the default.

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For New York, or at least NYC, I think the egg cream (an iconic beverage originating from the Jewish neighborhoods of the Lower East Side.) is most iconic and distinctive to the area.

234

And Pennsylvania should be allowed to claim 5 iconic foods: cheesesteaks, hoagies, scrapple, shoofly pie, and Tastykake.

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You are very, very wrong. A slice of nice sharp cheddar sets off a slice of apple pie beautifully. I live a couple of miles from the premiere apple growing area of SoCal and cheese is always an option at the local cafes and pie “shoppes” up in the orchards.

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I’ve seen a cheesy frosting on apple pie. Not my favorite style but not awful. Do not at all see the point of combining sharp cheddar with apple pie but you do you.

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Why? A fruit ‘n’ cheese tray is common.

Think of brie baked and served with apricot or fig preserves, as another example.

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I don’t want to combine sharp cheddar with apple pie any more than with any other sweet dish. It’s my preference. If sharp cheese with sweets suits you then feel free. I haven’t had brie with fruit that I recall, but it’s not a sharp cheese.

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Buyers’ psychology. “They’re bigger so they got to be tastier.”

It’s also led to the modern ‘Delicious’ apple.