Strange Foods Across America
 

After travelling throughout the US for work, I noticed that there are some strange delicacies in some parts of the country. Strange is one way to describe it but the taste is usually pretty good. Here are some of my examples...Boudin (sp) Sausage in Lafayette, Louisiana. It tasted good but when I found out what was in it.....
-Fried Cow Brain Sanwich in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was kinda weird but tasted good. The pickles and mayo helped the taste.
Anyone else?

JJason: RE: "boudin"-- do you mean classic French blood sausage? Or the "boudin" one finds in a lot of Cajun Country grocery stores, which is simply a spicy pork and rice dressing, in a sausage casing? That's the one I used to find a lot when my folks still lived in Louisiana (we're all from there). Neither one is my favorite Louisiana delicacy.

The fact that Mexican restaurants here (southern CA) always have menudo (a thick soup with tripe as its "meat) on the menu on weekend mornings-- well, that's my local delicacy I can do without (after all, CA *was* part of Mexico...).

Boudin as the blood sausage. And yes, I've had tripe too. I beleive it was at a Vietnamese Soup called Pho. It tasted kinda chewy but the broth helped mask any nastiness.

I'm not big on menudo either, but pozole is great - same soup, but with beef or pork rather than tripe. We always have it for New Years.

J-- Pozole ROCKS! I love that stuff.

In fact, now I want a bowl.... And some fish tacos afterward! It's GOOD to live so close to Mexico! :)

Last summer while at a nephews baseball game in small town Wisconsin, I encountered "Nachos in a bag"

Take a small bag of doritos, put in a scoup of meat (probably the same as their bbq sandwiches), tomatos, lettuce and whatever else appropiate may be available. Served in the bag with a plastic spoon.

You did ask for strange...not necessarily good, right? This is the same small town place that also sells beer at their youth sports activities.

Nachos in a bag reminds me of Frito Pie, which I had at many festivals growing up in Texas.

Split open a small bag of Fritos, pour chili inside, top with onions and cheese. Proceed to eat with plastic fork.

My mother always makes a dish called Rolly Bollies.. it's really just deep fried bread. Take hot roll mix, and let it rise overnight, you pull a generous handfull of dough out, then stretch it into a weird lumpy shape, then deep fry it in...yep.. you guessed it, Lard!... serve hot with powdered sugar and maple syrup.. they are so amazing.. but only once a year for those arteries... my mom is from MA by the way, and swears this is some old New England or Eastern Native American thing.

I find it amazing how Southern people find new things to fry. Up until recently, the Memphis deep fried pickle was oddest I had encountered. At recent Texas fairs, they sold deep fried oreos and deep fried twinkies.

I personally found the popularity of Midwestern lemon rice soup to be a mystery.

I have lived in the deep South now for 24 years and I have yet to understand the attraction of boiled peanuts.

Now, I think I could really get into a fried twinkie!!!!! Whoa, watch out!!

Thyra.. during many years in the Aleutians, the Aleuts made fry bread similar to what you described and called it alladix. Must be wired into all Americans from the beginning of time- take a staple like flour, then sweeten it up to make it dessert! We also enjoyed octopus dip(chewy, and the dressing was basically ketchup, mayo and seasonings. Kippered salmon is heaven. Also, as a kid growing up on a homestead here in Alaska, I remember my mother making snow ice cream, a little milk and vanilla. My 9 yr. old enjoys it now.. the simple things:)

Blood sausage isn't an American thing though. They eat it in Spain and Mexico among other places.

Thyra, my best friend, who is Dutch, makes the same thing for New Years except hers have little pieces of fruit in them. She's told me it's a traditional thing among the Dutch and they call it Olie Bollen. That might be where it originated.

I've consumed muktuk and other eskimo dishes and have been in the same room (briefly) but did not partake in two Yup'ik yummies - "old fish" (put fish in ground, exhume months later, eat. Or not.) and seal blood soup - title tells all.

someone mentioned rocky mountain oysters a few days ago on the europe board... just the thought.....

Chicken fat sandwiches?

In Kentucky, I found a Hot Brown: From the plate up:
White bread
Sliced Turkey
Sliced ham
Cheese sauce
Bacon

Absoutely delish - Have made it at home, too

This isn't in the US, but in Canada, specifically Quebec. It's called poutine - French fries with gravy and cheese curds on it. The thought of it makes me ill, but lots of people love it!

As a former midwesterner I have never understood the mystique of that New York treat, the roasted chestnut. I tried some once and found they tasted like a warm art gum eraser.

In South Carolina I have been fed boiled okra -- sort of like library paste mixed in with snail goo. They cook green beans on the back of the stove for a week or so, then ladle out the slime as a big deal.

Country ham in red-eye gravy is a genuine heart-stopper, especially served over grits for breakfast. And their biscuits are about like eating white hockey pucks. My dog wouldn't eat them -- so you know they are toxic.