If you’re ever in Madison you have to try Curd Girlcurds. Best I’ve ever had. They won both awards at the recent Curdfest.
Poi for Hawaii, but it tastes like library paste, so that’s probably a big reason why it’s never caught on elsewhere in the US. Actually, when I was living there, I don’t think it was very widespread at all. Seemed to be more of a tourist thing, served up at “authentic luaus.” (Although at a potluck gathering once, a lady who had lived in Tahiti brought some Tahitian poi she’d made, and that was good. Tasted like banana pudding.)
Ahi is the Hawaiian name for yellowfish tuna, and I have seen “ahi” served at mainland restaurants.
Nitpick alert; Washington, Oregon and Idaho are the top three mint producers (each over 1 million pounds of oil annually). Indiana and California are a rather distant 4th and 5th.
Georgia “owns” four, I think: peaches, peanuts, Vidalia onions, and pecans
Northwest Florida: fried mullet. Mullet is all over the gulf coast but it’s generally considered
not edible. They have “mullet fries” in the northern Florida gulf coast. They love it.
Louisiana owns a LOT of foods, not just crawfish. Also jambalaya, boudin, shrimp etoufee, just to name a few.
hehe
I don’t think most people are understanding the request of the OP.
If the food you listed is made up of more than one item, it probably won’t count.
Texas brisket, for example. I could make it in California and nobody would be the wiser.
One could make an argument for San Francisco sourdough bread, as it’s the location that gives the taste a unique flavor. Making a sourdough in Boston wouldn’t taste quite the same.
My first thought was Maine/lobsters, Maryland/crabs.
Hawaiian macademia nuts.
I know everyone is going to jump in to tell me they have them everywhere else, but I’m always surprised when people from out of state [Wisconsin] tell me they’ve never even heard of cheese curds. “It’s squeaky? What? Gross.”
Iowa - loose meat sandwiches. Specifically, a Maid-Rite. Anything else is cow shit on a bun.
Good one. I also think of pork tenderloin sandwiches, but Indiana’s got that one, too. (Then again, I think loose meat sandwiches do cross the border into Minnesota, but Iowa owns it.) Then again, the OP does not appear to be looking for completed dishes.
Let’s see. The first that came to mind was the Montmorency cherries from Door County, Wisconsin, but Michigan also comes to mind for those sour cherries. Love those things.
For Illinois, I would go for Mirai sweet corn, perhaps.
I would give that to California.
Maine Lobsters
Washington Apples
Oregon truffles.
Maine also has the soft drink Moxie … because no other state is stupid enough to claim it.
Find a good Shoofly Pie outside of Pennsylvania. I dare you.
And coffee! Very good coffee too. Isn’t Hawaii the only state that grows coffee beans?