Steve

Every region has it's own, unique culinary offering. I'm interested in what Fodorites have to say about the best of these. I came from the Midwest, so I was raised on a hearty beef and potato diet. When we visit ofther areas, we always enjoy sampling the local food.

What say you all?

Larry

Being from the Midwest as well, I understand the beef metality. That's why we alwasy try to spend vacation time near a coast, in order to sample the best in seafood. It's tought to argue with East coast seafood fare. Maine lobster rolls are great, and found (like they make them) nowhere else.

xxxxx

You simply cannot beat green chile grown in Hatch, New Mexico.

bennie

My favorite foods from Boston/New England are:

fried clams
clam chowder
steamers
In my family this is refered to as the clam trifecta if eaten as one meal.

Italian sub with everything on it (provolone cheese, genoa salami, mortadella, capicolla in a sub roll topped with tomatos, pickles, onions, hot peppers and olive oil, sprinkled with oregano, salt and pepper). Its a heart attack on a roll but boy is it good. I'm not sure this is a strictly New England sandwich. Everywhere you go there are variations of the same thing.

Can't wait to read more replies.

Arthur

Well,Burger and fries are the only american foods that is universal but also regional...
American food is burger.

Lenore

Another midwesterner here, and I haven't enjoyed a good ear of sweet corn or a New Year's sauerkraut and pork roast dinner since I left there. I really enjoyed the flavorful food of New Orleans and a low country boil of South Carolina.

stellaky

ever tried a Kentucky Hot Brown or Burgoo? What about spoon bread? These are KY regional favorites...

Steph

I love key lime pie - even though you can get it in most states, it always tastes better in Florida!

Paul Revere

Real Boston Baked Beans, real brown bread to go with them, Indian Pudding, "sugar on snow" (hot maple syrup poured over packed snow, served with a dill pickle and a plain doughnut), lobsters served outside at the ocean with lots of melted butter, beer, and napkins. Guess where I'm from?

George

It's almost impossible to find a superb hoagie outside the Philadelphia area. But get in that neck of Penn's woods, aaahhh... And we're not talking mayonnaise on the roll here, folks. Cheese steaks here, as well.

Soft-shell crabs in the Chesapeake Bay area. Gotta be in season, and same-day fresh. The locals know how to cook them.

Susan

Having just returned from New Orleans I think I could eat gumbo every day. My mother is from New Jersey and every time she goes home to visit she packs hoagies in her suitcase for all of us, yum. Cioppino and sourdough bread tastes like home here in SF. And macadamia crusted ahi always tastes best with a mai tai and a warm Hawaiian breeze.

food

My favorites -

Pacific Northwest Salmon (and Halibut)

New Orleans cajun (and the bisque is great down there).

Chicago deep dish pizza (sorry NY, Boston, and all the others, but Chicago's is simply the best)

chuck

From the Carolinas . . .

There are more, but the ones that come to mind are:

1. Pork Barbecue--chopped or sliced, sandwich or plate, Eastern or Western Style (or even, for the thick-skinned, with a SC mustard-based sauce), always cooked slowly for a long, long time over a wood fire. Usually with slaw, hush-puppies, and very sweet iced tea.

2. Three-vegetable plate with nearly any combination, so long as at least one is fried (preferrably the okra or squash), one is some less-than-healthy style of potato (e.g., mashed and fortified heavily with butter and salt), and one is something you can put vinegar or chow-chow on (e.g., black-eyed peas, turnip or mustard greens, cabbage). Oh yeah, the obligatory cornbread doesn't count as one of your three vegetables.

You can usually get a decent example of either of these staples at a place with one or more of the following in the name--soul, country, and a first name reference (e.g., Mert's in Charlotte). If the building is cinder-block construction and it sits on a 2 lane road, that's another good sign.

Enjoy!

sandy

A New England voice-
chowdah, steamers, lobster (steamed or boiled) and corn on the cob!!

Former

Crab Quiche, naturally, but only with in-laws from Texas. We never had this when I was a guest at Tara.

Scarlett

Oh la dee dah, I miss eatin fried catfish,creamy cole slaw, hush puppies and buttermilk biscuits on a steamy summer night in the South...no way can I find anything like that in NY.

Rachel

Reporting from buffalo, NY....our ever famous chicken wings (although after you hit about 40, you can't eat them anymore without getting heartburn); beef on weck (roast beef on a kimmelweck roll-hard roll with caraway seeds and ksher salt on the top- with some great horseradish to clear your sinusus; and charcaol grilled Sahlens hot dogs with Webers horseradish mustard. When do we eat?

Former Native

Having beem transferred to North Carolina 6 years ago, people always ask us what we miss about California.

SAN FRANCISCO SOURDOUGH FRENCH BREAD!!!!

Nothing like it in the world. It's even better when eaten IN San Francisco.

Former Native

CornFed Gal

Ohio sweetcorn!

Bec

I must expand on Chuck's BBQ -

Mustard based BBQ is mostly in the midlands (Columbia area) of SC (and few places near Charleston) but my favorite is the vinegar based BBQ of the low country (Scranton or Kingstree depending on if you like it chopped or pulled!)