I’m from Texas and recently learned about foods other regions in the USA have like crab Louie, Italian beef, chocolate gravy, fried green tomatoes, etc and I’d like to learn more. Please list your state and foods that are from that state.
I’m from Texas and recently learned about foods other regions in the USA have like crab Louie, Italian beef, chocolate gravy, fried green tomatoes, etc and I’d like to learn more. Please list your state and foods that are from that state.
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Frito pie.
California Burrito 🌯
Fried okra.
Boiled peanuts.
Fried green tomatoes.
Peanut brittle.
Tomato sandwich.
I could go on…
Arizona:
Chimichangas, Sonoran hot dogs, Navajo tacos/other frybread variations, prickly pear margaritas, pretty much any Norteño food, tons of actual indigenous dishes
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Illinois
I’m sure I’m missing a lot of stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever had a horseshoe.
Minnesota has tater tot hot dish 😋
California (Bay Area) – Sourdough Bread
Italian Beef
Deep Dish Pizza
Hot Dog Dragged Through The Garden
Giardiniera
Malort
Brunswick Stew, Virginia ham on a biscuit with honey or jelly, peanut pie, all paired with a nice cigarette for that real VA experience
I grew up in southeast Missouri. Pork steak. It’s a St. Louis thing.
Ny,
Chicken riggies, Utica Greens, salt potatoes.
New Jersey is a lot like New York with a lot of very similar foods inherited by the same waves of immigration: bagels, pizza, Italian food, and so on. We have a big population of 1st and 2nd generation Indian immigrants these days, so Indian food is on the rise.
Jersey sweet corn and Jersey tomatoes are also top notch. Our tomatoes are flavorful enough to be a sandwich on their own with just a little salt, pepper, and a light smear of mayo.
Diner food in general. We’re the diner capitol of the world.
And, of course, Taylor Ham (or pork roll if you’re from South Jersey). It’s kinda like Spam; processed leftover pork bits except instead of being shoved in a can it’s put into sausage-like casing that can be sliced. It goes crazy on egg sandwiches. Taylor Ham, egg, and cheese on a Kaiser roll with salt, pepper, and ketchup straight off the griddle at a deli is a life changing experience.
Buffalo wings, garbage plates, beef on weck, salt potatoes, chicken spiedies.
Nashville Hot Chicken, Memphis-style BBQ.
California is the only place I’ve ever been that eats beef Tri-Tip. I refuse to go look this up: I think it’s the bottom sirloin? It’s triangular shaped just to make it hard to cook and it’s a tough piece of meat as well, so you have to cook it and cut it in particular ways. I’ve gotten quite good at them despite me laughing at what a crazy cut of meat it is every single time. They are relatively cheap and often pre marinated at the butcher I buy from. California loves it. It’s California’s “brisket.” If your restaurant does beef it almost certainly contains an entree and a sandwich of tri-tip. It’s fine. Cooked well it’s good. Nothing super special honestly, but it is a delicacy here.
North Jersey here.
Disco fries = poutine in Quebec. Fries with gravy and cheese curds or melted cheese.
Taylor Ham is a cured meat called “pork roll” by those weirdos who live south of Trenton. Popular on a roll or a bagel (oh the irony) with egg in the morning.
An “Italian hot dog” is not remotely Italian but popular in the northern half of the state. Basically a fried hot dog on Italian-style bread with bell peppers and onions.
Tomato pie is very popular around the state capitol of Trenton. Thin crust pizza with cheese at the bottom and a mess of chopped tomatoes on top.
Skyline Chili
Fluffernutter. In particular, a peanut butter and fluffernutter sandwich.
Michigan:
Coney Dogs
Detroit style pizza
Mackinac fudge
Pasties
Superman ice cream
Tart cherries
Fried perch sandwiches
Wet burritos
Paczki
There are so many crab dishes from Maryland.
Crab soup
Cream of Crab Soup
Crab dip
Crab Mac and cheese
Crab pretzel
Crab salad
Crab Cakes
Crab Imperial
Soft shell crabs
Just to name a few.
We also have Smith Island cake, Berger cookies, coddies, pit beef, white potato pie, Lady Baltimore cake etc.
Teriyaki
Someone will say, “cedar plank salmon” or something but it’s Teriyaki.
Florida (Keys:) cracked conch, conch fritters, key lime pie, turtle soup (can’t eat sea turtle any more but the recipe remains.)
Missouri: Fried Ravioli, Springfield Style Cashew Chicken, Pig Snoots.
Pennsylvania:
Hoagies
Cheesesteaks
Scrapple
Chow Chow (not the Southern condiment-more like a pickled salad.)
Sweet Lebanon Bologna
Schnitz and knepp
Soft Pretzels
Water Ice
Jimmies- chocolate and rainbow.
Dippy eggs
Alabama white sauce, great on barbecue style chicken, turkey, or pork as a sauce instead of a red barbecue sauce.
Not exhaustive but trying to hit on the big ones that either originated here or have some significant regional variation…
Carne adovada: pork marinated in red chile and slow cooked till it falls apart
Sopapillas: a puffy fried bread eaten with honey or stuffed with meat and chile
Fry bread: another type of fried bread typically eaten with meat and chile (Indian taco style)
Pueblo pies: a thin kind of stuffed fruit pastry, prune is a specialty
Roasted piñon nuts: eaten like sunflower seeds
Biscochitos: kinda like a sugar cookie
Carne seca: extremely thin cut beef jerkey with almost a potato chip or cracker like crunch
Chicos: dried corn, usually eaten with pinto beans
Blue corn: a Pueblo variant of corn, used to make corn tortillas
Papitas: cubed up fried potatos
Also enchiladas here are stacked not rolled, can be served with a fried egg on top.
Crawfish, boudin, king cake, gumbo, étouffé, jambalaya, beignets, red beans and rice, muffaletta, po boy, pralines, andouille sausage
If you couldn’t guess, Louisiana.
Or from my home state:
Tater tot hotdish, goulash, wild rice, juicy Lucy, various jellos salads – Minnesota
Hot buttered lobster rolls
Steamed cheeseburgers
New Haven style brick oven pizza
White clam Pizza
The last may sound odd until you learn it’s a thin crust pizza with olive oil. oregano, clams, fresh garlic, and Pecorino Romano cheese. Not a red sauce and mozzarella cheese that would completely drown out the clam.
Dollar Slice
BEC
Knish
Dirty Water Dogs
Egg Cream
Bagels
Buttered Roll
Manhattan Clam Chowder
Zeppole
Pastrami on Rye
Cheesecake
Black and White Cookie
Jojos, red bull smoothies, geoduck, salmon, blackberry anything, rainier cherries
Michigan
Pasties.
Detroit style pizza
Coney dogs
Teriyaki, espresso, hot smoked salmon, Seattle dog, Aplets and Cotlets, Almond Roca
gumbo beignets crawfish shrimp bread pudding crab claws drive thru daiquiris king cake
Pastrami burger
Fry sauce
Apple beer
Postum
Funeral potatoes
Dirty soda
Aggie mint chip ice cream
Colorado green chili, rocky mountain oysters, carne asada fries
Hatch Chile.
Biscochitos.
Green Chile cheeseburgers.
Blue Corn Atole.
Posole.
Calabacitas.
Indian Fry Bread.
Piñon.
Prickly Pear.
Head toward Minnesota, Upper Michigan, Wisconsin, and you’ll find Finnish and Scandinavian random foods from when they’re ancestors arrived 100+ years ago that they still make.
Pork Steak; Oberle sausage; Bootheel watermelon; KC BBQ; provel cheese; gooey butter cake; snoots. Mostly eastern Missouri cause that’s where I grew up.
Wisconsin:
Booyah,
Bratwurst,
Cheese curds,
Fish fry,
Fish boil,
Frozen Custard,
Kringle,
Beer Cheese soup,
Butter burgers,
Milwaukee style pizza,
Cranberries,
Door County Cherries,
Cream Puffs,
Brandy old fashioned
West Virginia—pepperoni rolls and ramps
Western Pennsylvania—fries on sandwiches (Primanti’s) but also the Pittsburgh salad sold in many restaurants with fries on a salad.
Cheese dip
Fried pickles
Philly. cheesesteaks. Soft pretzels. Scrapple. Tasty kakes. Water ice. Peanut chews. Hoagies. Jimmies
Filberts
Marionberries
Corndogs
Tater tots
Jo jos
Cincinnati style chili. Skyline is the most well known one.
She crab soup
Frogmore stew (Lowcountry boil)
Shrimp and grits
Tomato pie
Liver pudding
Fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese
Divinity
Hoppin John
Mustard base BBQ sauce
“Ham” boiled peanuts
I’m from Illinois supposedly. But I’m from just north of Chicago (suburbs but I still had jury duty downtown). And Chicagoans tend to have very little interaction with the rest of the state. We kind of are our own little state. So:
Deep Dish Pizza-
One of my favorite foods of all time, I would say that this shouldn’t really be thought of as pizza. I also very much enjoy regular-ass pizza and when I want deep dish it is a completely different craving/interest than pizza writ large. Our deep dish is better appreciated as some sort of lasagna on a butter crust. Fantastic, decadent, last meal material. Nowhere else really even bothers trying to do our pizza. If you’ve ever had something described as “Chicago style deep dish,” for example and it has the cheese on top, that’s an instant giveaway that it’s not even going to try. Ours has thick peeled stewed tomatoes on top with a massive layer of cheese in the middle. If you elect to get sausage you get an inner layer that’s an entire sausage patty the size of the pizza.
“Tavern Cut” pizza-
I put that in quotes because we never called it that. It seems to be a new entry into parlance. Our thin crust is usually squares cut out of a super thin round pizza, the crust is on the crunchier side but not quite as crunchy as similar styles like St. Louis. Cheese is a bit on the salty side and I have so many great memories of thin crust at birthday parties and stuff like that
Mostaccioli-
A really simple but weirdly ubiquitous pasta dish that just seemed to be everywhere when I was a kid. It wasn’t until I grew up and travelled that I learned it wasn’t everywhere. It’s just basically penne in meat sauce except the pasta doesn’t have ridges like penne.
Italian beef-
Our sandwich now made famous by the Bear, it’s pretty spectacular. I haven’t eaten red meat for years and it’s the one thing that could tempt me. Basically a dry knobby roll with shredded beef and that’s it. But you get it wet…au jus. Just swimming in the beefy juice. They’ll give you a cup of it on the side if you like. The dry boring roll suddenly becomes one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Typically served with the condiment I’ll describe below
Giardiniera-
I’m told this word just means salad in Italian and that in many places you’ll find products referred to as giardiniera, but ours is a different and specific thing. It’s vegetables marinated in a spicy, tangy oil. Diced carrot, celery, and cauliflower…I think there’s other stuff in there too, maybe pimentos, some sort of sport peppers or something. Hard to say. But it’s spectacular and greasy and spicy and goes well with just about anything savory.
Hot dogs-
The Chicago hot dog is one of our most famous and most specific things. The bun has to be a poppy seed bun. A few brands are common but I grew up always having the S. Rosen’s Mary Ann buns. The dog either has to be a Vienna Beef dog or it can be made in-house as is the case with my all-time-favorite Superdawg. Ketchup is strictly prohibited. You can of course have ketchup on a hot dog but if you do it’s not a Chicago dog. Yellow mustard, a pickle wedge, tomato wedges, this weirdly neon green relish we only have at home, sprinkle of celery salt, optional diced onions, and a single sport pepper. They used to call it “Dragged through the garden,” because it was so stuffed.
Garret’s Popcorn-
A brand of popcorn famous for their mix which is just caramel popcorn and cheese popcorn together. I thought it sounded gross the first time I had it but it’s amazing and super addictive. Big fan
Eli’s Cheesecake-
Brand of cheesecake that was pretty ubiquitous when I was a kid
Lenell Cookies-
Gone but not forgotten, this was a now closed local cookie company. If I’m being honest I never liked them; They specialized in those crunchy buttery cookies in many different iterations. I was never a crunchy cookie guy. But they were a standard and staple Chicago thing until they shut down so my own personal feelings aside, they’ll be missed.
Goose Island Beer-
A local brewery with a couple restaurant locations, Goose Island is one of my favorite beers that you can’t seem to get outside Chicago. Fairly ubiquitous with all its different beers generally appearing in an ice tub at a lot of parties you’ll end up at or on the menu at a lot of restaurants.
Fine dining-
Chicago has a famous food scene that specialized in gastronomy early on. Our most famous for a long time was probably Graham Elliot because he had been on a bunch of cooking shows, but the one I’ve still never been able to book a reservation for is Alinea. Supposedly one of those best meals you’ll ever have kind of places, Michelin stars, the whole deal. All I know is the gastronomy and fine dining scene is kind of a unique thing
Ed Debevic’s-
Weird throwback diner with a theme of the wait staff being in character and specifically being snarky to you. I don’t remember the food all that well, kind of more of a shtick
Ann Sather’s-
Breakfast place with these massive amazing cinnamon rolls
There’s tons more but those are just some of the most Chicago things I can think of
Salmon, wild blueberries, moose, maktak.
WI
Cheese curds
Lots of popular distilleries
Fish fry Friday. Usually with beer battered cod
Custard
Ruben rolls
More beer
I don’t think we have food my state is known for.
We have bourbon.
Oh, and hot brown
Derby pie
And lots of bourbon
WV: pepperoni rolls and hot dog stands
Green chilis, Palisade Peaches, Rocky Mountain Oysters (aka beef testicles).
Colorado
Oregon: Salmon, Marionberries, Dungeness crab, Hazelnuts
Representing Louisiana north, central, & south plus New Orleans
Boiled, fried, grilled, blackened seafood,
fried catfish, po boys, boiled Shrimp,
Seasoned boiled crawfish, with potatoes, & corn on the cob and whole garlic bulbs, whole onions, large whole mushrooms boiled with the crawfish
king cake, filled & not filled
seafood gumbo, chicken& sausage gumbo with potato salad,
on Monday (clothes washing day) red beans & rice with Jiffy corn bread & sausage,
black eyed peas & rice with tomato relish,
beignets (French square donuts doused in powdered sugar), chicory coffee,
Popeyes chicken, Raisin’ Canes chicken,
divinity, really very sweet iced tea,
Cochon de Lait,
café au lait coffee,
Hubigs hand pies,
Again black eyed peas & cabbage on New Years for luck & wealth,
muffulettas,
roast beef on French bread smothered in Debris,
large Snoballs covered in sweetened condensed milk,
jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, heirloom tomato sandwiches, fried turkey for Thanksgiving, grilled oysters,
bread pudding, banana pudding, macarons
Ummm.. so yeah, we like our food. & now I’m hungry.
South Dakota is the home of Chislic
Originally it was just mutton, but it’s evolved to be just about any red meat and even some fowl. I’ve had lamb, beef, deer, buffalo and goose chislic. It’s been described as being “ugly delicious” and some have compared it to steak tips, but it’s not the same as it’s not marinated and there is no sauce. It’s just fried meat with some spices.
It’s hard to find outside of South Dakota, so if you ou ever get up this way, you really need to try it.
Cheese brats potatoes booze. What do you mean booze ain’t a food? I’d rather chop off my ding dong than admit that!
Utah
Mormon Funeral Potatoes
Fry Sauce
Green Jello (we didn’t invent it but it’s everywhere)
Pastrami Burgers
Drive thru tator tots
Mormon muffins
Utah scones
Colorado: Bull balls (AKA Rocky Mountain Oysters)
Johnsonville bratwurst and the best cheese in the world.
Livermush, Barbecue with “Dip”, Red Coleslaw, Cheerwine, Texas Pete (Spoiler Alert: it’s not made in Texas.)
Colorado isn’t really known for a lot of foods. If I had to pick anything I would say Green Chili (which we share with New Mexico) and Rocky Mountain Oysters (which most people won’t eat).
Maybe also Rocky Ford Cantaloupe, Palisade Peaches, and Olathe Corn, but those aren’t as nationally known.
Teriyaki is a Seattle institution. You can’t find it the same anywhere else.
Runza, Cheese Frenchee, Kool-Aid…all from Nebraska.
Knoephla soup (North Dakota). A chicken broth and cream-based soup with tender potato and little dough dumplings called knoephla.
Try it and thank me later.
Haas avocados, almonds, CA roll, sourdough bread, ranch dressing, crab Louie, fortune cookies, Ghirardelli, In-n-Out… ❤️
California: Avocados, See’s Candy.
The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is an Indiana staple, and some insist it was invented here. It seems to have originated with the large German immigrant population throughout the Midwest. Essentially schnitzel on a bun.
The tenderloin must be pounded thin so that it is roughly the size of the plate it’s served on. Bonus points if it is larger than the plate. Breading varies, but my favorite version used saltines. Regular hamburger bun must be dwarfed by it on all sides. Toppings are a matter of contention and possibly led to duels. I ate mine with onion, pickle, and mustard. Heaven on a plate.
Found this primer with pictures and a video.
https://midwesterner.substack.com/p/ask-a-midwesterner-understanding
Chicken and sausage gumbo. Boiled crawfish. Boiled shrimp. Étouffe. Andouille. Crawfish Monica. Crab Yvonne. Shrimp and merliton casserole. Crawfish bisque. Crab bisque. Shrimp bisque. Redfish courtboullion. Sauce piquante. Fried alligator. Roasted doves. Fried frog legs. Smothered potatoes. Field peas with rice and gravy. Jambalaya. Fried speckled trout. Oysters (all the oysters). Barbecue shrimp. Red beans and rice. White beans and rice. Lima beans (butterbeans) and rice. Baby butterbeans. New potatoes. Buttermilk biscuits with Steen’s cane syrup. Tea cakes. Duck gumbo. Green beans with salt pork. Cucumber and tomato salad. Corn soup. Mustard greens. Po boys. Pralines. Bread pudding with rum sauce. King cake. Doberge. Beignets. Nectar cream snowballs. Rum punch.
Oh wait. Drive thru frozen daiquiris.
Stone Crabs, Key Lime Pie, Grouper sandwich, Florida Tiger Shrimp
For California we have:
Chili burgers
Cobb salad
The French dip sandwich
Fortune cookies
Mission style burritos
Santa Maria–style barbecue
The Dodger Dog (GO BLUE!)
Cioppino
Hangtown fry
Carne asada fries
Oregon
Marrionberry pie
Jojo’s (this one may he regional but as a Californian I didn’t know what they were when I moved here.) They are just quartered potatoes seasoned with skins on and fried.
Cathead biscuits and white gravy. Fried catfish. Barbeque. Hot chicken. Whiskey. Moonshine. Moon Pies.
Olive burgers
Lobster, blueberries, potatoes, fiddleheads
key lime pie
cuban sandwich
BBQ ribs
boiled peanuts
Pizza capital of the world. Steamed cheeseburgers. Warm lobster rolls. Enjoy.
Utah: Pastrami burgers (originated in CA but immediately came to Utah and became a staple sandwich here), funeral potatoes (a creamy hash browns casserole commonly brought to Mormon funerals), “dirty soda” (the dumbest thing. Whole shops exist that mix regular commercial sodas like Coke and Sprite together and sell them for a huge upcharge). We also have “fry sauce,” which is a Utah-created version of the ubiquitous mayo-with-ketchup based condiment sold throughout the world. Fry sauce is available at almost every burger joint in the state, chain or independent.
Key lime pie
Gator tail
Cuban sandwich
California. We have everything everyone else has. However, it is all just a little better than theirs
Kansas – chili served with cinnamon rolls.
Kansas….Bierocks
Fried cheese curds
Cream puffs
Friday fish fry
Brandy Old Fashioned
Frozen custard
Some of these I know you can get elsewhere, especially in other parts of New England, but they’re everywhere in Massachusetts.
North shore 3 way roast beef sandwich (this is the most important one and almost exclusively available in the north shore area of Boston.)
Steak tips.
Split tip hot dog buns.
Whoopie pies.
New England Clam Chowder.
Fluff.
Chinese chicken fingers. (I just googled this and apparently we have several Chinese dishes that are unique to New England, or otherwise not widely available in other parts of the country.)
I just read that steak and cheese subs (not Philly cheese steak) are not common everywhere which just blew my mind.
Lots of seafood, lobster rolls (“Connecticut style” hot buttered or “Maine style” with cold mayo,) fried clams, etc.
For some others; I went to college in Rhode Island and they have this awful thing they call pizza which is just sauce on thick pizza crust. Also coffee milk.