I have the biggest craving for a hot roast beef sandwich right now. Smothered in gravy and with a side of mashed potatoes. But it occurs to me that there is probably no restaurant in this city that has that on the menu. Very strange. I was able to get it in NYC last year, but I can’t get that here.
And outside of KFC, which is hard for me to get to, a traditional fried chicken dinner is unavailable as well.
Even odder is that I live in a coastal city, but decent seafood is hard to get. I can get sushi, but I’d have to travel to the other side of the city to get a basic boiled lobster. Crab is next to impossible to find.
And as Ralph124c pointed out, German food is barely an option here.
In Little Rock, AR, I can’t get (delicious) Korean or German food, and there is not really a vegan/vegetarian restaurant, although someone has started a food truck. There are, on the other hand, about 10e55 Mexican places, whether I want Mexican Mexican or American Mexican.
I’m in Iowa. Can’t get some varieties of fresh meat – corned beef, brisket, flank steak, beef heart, tongue, and chicken hearts. If I want chicken liver or beef liver, it’s only available frozen. I could get all that stuff when I lived in Seattle.
I used to get chicken hearts from a local guy who raised chickens. Nobody else wanted them. But with the price of corn so high, he’s stopped raising chickens. Said he’d have to charge $20 apiece for them.
Not much. If it exists as a food or cuisine on the planet, there is probably a store or restaurant catering to it in Southern California. That said…there is a dearth of Jewish deli food in the area. The real deal: schmaltz on the table. The sort of place Zero Mostel was thinking of when he said “Jewish-Romanian food has killed more Jews than Hitler.” Fresh bagels. New York pizza.
German food is out of fashion, there used to be 3 or 4 German restaurants and there may still be one, somewhere. I haven’t seen Liederkranz cheese in years, either.
Popeyes Chicken is a no-go. KFC has this town locked up.
No Long John Silvers, either. The commercials are shown. If there was one closer than 50 miles away, I’d be there once a week, at least.
Normal is in the eye of the beholder. To complain that you can’t get XYZ outside of the region where XYZ is common, and further declare that such an absence is somehow abnormal is just … ignorant.
I’m from Boston too, and think that you haven’t looked hard enough. I’m not saying roast beef or fried chicken are plentiful (and indeed, good seafood is harder to find than it should be) but just do a Google search and things will pop up. Even better, go to Greater Boston Chowhound and search for the food you are craving. From my house, I can walk to a restaurant that serves every food you’ve mentioned.
Also good Polish food. When we go up to visit my family in Northern New Jersey they have lots of Polish delis where you can get pierogi, kielbasa, potato dumplings and cabbage and noodle dishes. Down here it’s Mrs. T’s frozen pierogies and some pre-packaged kielbasa.