One of the most delicious (and educational!) aspects of the forthcoming New Orleans Roadfood Festival is the opportunity to compare and contrast different variations on culinary themes, foremost among them barbecue. This year, the Louie Mueller rolling pit will be serving Texas beef in the form of brisket and sausage, and Central Barbecue is coming from Memphis with pork in the form of ribs and pig sandwiches. Zesty sauce and cole slaw are essential elements of a pig sandwich (pictured above, as made by Central Barbecue), but in Texas smoke parlors, they are about as welcome as ketchup on a Chicago hot dog.

The carnitas taco, filled with a combination of succulent meat and crispy pork fat, is one of the best in San Diego.

If you plan to visit the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame this winter, we have a great dining suggestion for you. Across the street from the winter-sports shrine and cattycorner from a boring Pizza Hut, you will find Ralph's Italian Deli. It is anything but boring; it is an Upper Peninsula gem.

From the house bakery come sweet rye, cardamom loaves, and Italian breads as well as enormous frosted apple-cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The butchers in back make sausage of all kinds, including the local fave, cudighi. Pronounced cud-a-gee with a hard G, it is such a specialty of Ralph's that there is a map posted on the back wall of the dining room where pushpins indicate all the places in the U.S. and beyond to which the butchers have shipped their sausage. The map is titled "Where has all the cudighi gone?"

A cudighi (sandwich) is available made with a grilled patty of mild, medium, or hot sausage on a house-made white or whole wheat roll. Standard dressing at Ralph's is mozzarella, mustard, ketchup, and onion. It's a strange combination of condiments, but somehow on this dense, crusty-edged sausage with perfumy seasoning, it works. For those interested in reducing their calorie intake, Ralph's makes turkey cudighi.

Of course, the menu offers pasties. They are juicy enough that they need no gravy, although the waitress will supply some if you ask. Their savory crust, reminiscent of a good, sturdy pie shell, encloses shreds of beef and onion and little cubes of potato and rutabaga. It comes with a fork, but would be easy to eat out of hand like ore miners of long ago might have done on lunch breaks.

Back by popular demand at the forthcoming 2012 New Orleans Roadfood Festival, March 23-25: Vaucresson Creole hot sausage po boy. Can you say OMG?

This Gruyère-filled croissant contains optimal amounts of flaky crust and flavorful cheese. It is absolutely and positively addictive!

Tucked away in Jacksonville, IL, just about 40 miles West of Springfield -home of the Horseshoe Sandwich is the Luau Grill where the pork, chicken, and links are tended by proprietor Roger Davis in his smokers just outside the kitchen door. This is BBQ with a Hawaiian tilt, from the Huli Huli chicken to the Big Kahiki (incredible baked & stuffed potato), to the Kalua pork Nachos and we've not even gotten to the moist and smoky pulled pork, the not too tender ribs, or the brisket (possibly the best restaurant brisket I've ever enjoyed). Seating is fair weather only, as it is outside, but there is a drive by window and you can call your order in, so it will be ready when you arrive. There isn't much room at the order counter, but if it's slow, you can stand there, enjoy your BBQ, and talk BBQ with Roger. I have eaten here several times and have yet to be disappointed. The food is very good and reasonably priced.

The indentations in this waffle hold massive amounts of syrup and butter. There is no efficient way to judiciously apply either. Not that that is a bad thing!

Since 1963, Pie ‘N Burger has been feeding Pasadena residents and CalTech students primarily two staples extolled in their name: superior pies, at least a dozen baked fresh daily, and thin, crispy-edged burgers, perfectly grilled and topped with fried onions, pickles, and housemade Thousand Island dressing in the classic California style. Little has changed inside the spacious restaurant since the ’60s: the Formica counter, old-timey stools, and tables have held hundreds of thousands – possibly millions – of customers. Since they’ve never installed a modern soda fountain, the wait staff will whip up a cola from syrup and seltzer, or maybe you’re feeling like a cold glass of buttermilk?

The pies deserve special attention. Seasonal fruit pies sport fragile crusts and ultra-flavorful fillings, like blueberry, cherry, and the curious olallieberry (a blackberry hybrid). The meringue pies stand tall against the pull of gravity with such rarities as peanut butter, butterscotch, and banana. Pie ‘N Burger also carries mincemeat pie during the wintry months, that wonderfully aromatic, old-world jumble of apples, raisins, and spices, its crust topped with a dollop of hard sauce for a British touch. Hearty breakfast plates are popular, though we’ll be satisfied as long as burgers are always available. Pie ‘N Burger is open Monday-Friday, 6 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday 7 a.m.-10 p.m., and Sunday 7 a.m.-9 p.m. And don't forget: cash only!

In the kingdom of pizza, the folded-over phylum knows no bounds. Stromboli, calzone, and pizza pocket are all similar versions of fried or baked dough enclosing sauce / cheese / veggies / meat. If you are from New Jersey (or Apulia in Italy), you know we left out one of the most delicious versions, the panzarotto. Panzarotti are made of puffy dough and deep fried. Among panzarotti baker elite are the Tarantini family of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, who will be bringing their panzarotti to the 2012 New Orleans Roadfood Festival.

This thick pork filet is generously seasoned and wrapped with smoky bacon. If there is better pork in Iowa, we almost don't want to know!