Regional Delicacies / Specialties Of Your Area

[mikethompson]

What kinds of food are specific to where you are, and can't be bought anywhere else?

I cant speak for Ontario exactly, but recently it came to my attention that the following items were unavailable in the US, and may be Canada only.

1. Ketchup Chips

2. All Dressed Chips



3. Vernors (a regional thing in Southwestern Ontario, think Ginger ale with more punch)

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

What kinds of food are specific to where you are, and can't be bought anywhere else?

I cant speak for Ontario exactly, but recently it came to my attention that the following items were unavailable in the US, and may be Canada only.

1. Ketchup Chips

2. All Dressed Chips

View attachment 112019

3. Vernors (a regional thing in Southwestern Ontario, think Ginger ale with more punch)

Vernors is from Detroit (the plant was on Vernors Ave.), along with Detroit style pizza, coney dogs, Faygo, Better Made potato chips, and middle eastern and polish food.

Detroit was the potato chip capital at one time, but Better Made was the only major survivor.

 

[tbradsim1]

Turducken!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Ketchup

Those and the Cherry Blossom Rice Wine chips have been at Kentucky Wal-Marts.

I guess Ale-8-1 soda and Ruth Hunt Candies are all we have here though I think they've branched out in recent years.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

White barbeque sauce, started at Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, Alabama, in the 1940's, but you can now buy it in any Alabama grocers. It is a vinegar and mayonaise barbeque sauce used on barbeque'd chicken, mmmm mmm good.
Boiled peanuts... the caviar of the South. Don't knock it, till you've tried it.
Fried Okra... if you have never tried okra, then you have no idea what you are missing.
Fried Green tomatoes... people down here love them, but they give me the runs, so...
Grits, I love when friends from up North or abroad tell me that they think grits is gross, but then go on and on about polenta... it's the same thing!!! We use lye to turn the corn to hominy, and then grind that into cornmeal, and the larger particles are filtered out to make grits/polenta.

 

[scloyd]

Mrs. Fisher's Chips have been making potato chips in Rockford, Illinois since 1932.

From their website - Our 3 Route Drivers deliver our chips to customers in a 25 mile radius of Rockford. We also have four distributors that take our chips into Wisconsin, the Chicago land area and as far south as Joliet, Illinois.

You can even buy them in a 5 pound bucket.


It's my favorite chip.

 

[scloyd]

Grits, I love when friends from up North or abroad tell me that they think grits is gross

I had grits for lunch yesterday. The Quaker Oats instant grits. I like them on a cold day. Better than oatmaeal.

 

[rajangan]

Saskatoon pie

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I had grits for lunch yesterday. The Quaker Oats instant grits. I like them on a cold day. Better than oatmaeal.

I have never eaten them for breakfast, but some do. I prefer them buttered with shrimp or porkchops, and I will cook them with lima beans. I think of them more as a starch for dinner. But, yeh, many love them at breakfast time.

 

[tbradsim1]

Jambalaya!

 

[tbradsim1]

Little kiddie enjoying boudin!

 

[scloyd]

We spent many vacations in Michigan's UP and eating pasties was a treat. If I remember correctly, they were meat, potato and carrots in a dough like pocket. The story goes that miners years ago cooked them in their metal hardhats and ate them for lunch. Not sure if that's a regional thing or if they're even available anymore in the UP.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

View attachment 112027
Little kiddie enjoying boudin!

I did a crawfish boils for my oldest daughter when she turned ten. I added some alligator sausage to the boil, and a lady was standing over the huge pot, asking me, "what did you just add?"
I told her that it was alligator, and she leaned in closer to take a look. So, I grabbed her, and said, "It'll getcha!!" and that woman screamed bloody murder. Ha ha. Some of the kids didn't eat the crawfish, but just played with them like little dinosaurs. But, it was my daughter's request. So...

 

[mso489]

Barbecue is incredibly regional. Each quadrant of each state has its own version, to which the inhabitants are usually intensely loyal. Eastern North Carolina barbecue is slow cooked chopped pork barbecue basted with vinegar and red pepper flakes and often served with coleslaw and the local version of hush puppies. There are still a few restaurants that serve the classic version, but fewer as the years go by, though it is still a standard for group picnics with a caterer doing the roasting in a pit made out of a big oil drum on trailer wheels behind a pickup truck. The most recently opened chain barbecue restaurant near me is based around Texas barbecue, a whole different theme. The old time traditional pork barbecue restaurant downtown, for years would only take cash and has only recently accepted plastic.

 

[jpmcwjr]

We spent many vacations in Michigan's UP and eating pasties was a treat. If I remember correctly, they were meat, potato and carrots in a dough like pocket. The story goes that miners years ago cooked them in their metal hardhats and ate them for lunch. Not sure if that's a regional thing or if they're even available anymore in the UP.

They are certainly available in Cornwall, where, I reckon, they were "born".

 

[jpmcwjr]

If you pay enough, you can get them shipped anywhere. But Dungeness crab is a delicacy and pretty local to Northern CA waters. Though maybe Oregon gets in on the feast.

 

[jpmcwjr]

What kinds of food are specific to where you are, and can't be bought anywhere else?

I cant speak for Ontario exactly, but recently it came to my attention that the following items were unavailable in the US, and may be Canada only.

1. Ketchup Chips



2. All Dressed Chips



3. Vernors (a regional thing in Southwestern Ontario, think Ginger ale with more punch.)

Vernor's was available in Illinois in the 70's...

No mention of poutine??

 

[scloyd]

Vernor's was available in Illinois in the 70's...

I remember my dad having Vernor's under the bar in our basement...it was the '70's.

 

[trouttimes]

Rocky Mountain Oysters

 

[scloyd]

Rocky Mountain Oysters
View attachment 112036

That's what I had for lunch about 15 years ago when we visited The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo.

On the menu it states If you think it's seafood, go with the shrimp.