Unique Regional Cuisine Defined by Location

quote:

Originally posted by canoodle

Oh..Fargo is too "cosmopolitan" to find these things other than in peoples homes. The small town cafes serve a lot of these as does the state fair and ethnic festivals. I must admit I won't eat a lot of these "delicacies".

Since I might find my way back to North Dakota, can you make any recommondations on small town cafes where I might find these "delicacies" especially lutefisk! Never had it before, and can't wait to try it

quote:

Originally posted by wanderingjew

quote:

Originally posted by canoodle

Oh..Fargo is too "cosmopolitan" to find these things other than in peoples homes. The small town cafes serve a lot of these as does the state fair and ethnic festivals. I must admit I won't eat a lot of these "delicacies".

Since I might find my way back to North Dakota, can you make any recommondations on small town cafes where I might find these "delicacies" especially lutefisk! Never had it before, and can't wait to try it

Wanderingjew: Minnesota is a place to find Lutefisk, especially in church basements on Sunday afternoons as we get closer to Christmas. Many of the small town restaurants serve this "delicacy" around the state. Try the Kaffe Stuga in Stacy or in Braham try the Park Cafe. I won't eat the stuff, but what do i know? I'm Italian!! By the way, while in and around Minnesota and Nort Dakota, remember to start every sentence with "so" and end it with "Then". They'll take you for a local. So, you want some Lutefisk then?

quote:

Originally posted by wanderingjew

My final stop (for now) on the culinary journey is Rhode Island. In a nutshell Rhode Island is seafood, Italian, Portuguese with a little bit of Yankee and French Candian thrown in. First of all every bar/tavern/restaurant will always have stuffies (stuffed quahogs) on their appetizer menu. Quahogs for those who are not in the know are huge clams. Baked Scrod is also big, but it's also big in Boston too. Clam Cakes and chowder are also popular and most restaurants will offer New England Style (creamy white) Rhode Island Style (red with a little cream thrown in) and Clear (broth only). Although most Rhode Islanders think Calamari is regional, it is not, so I won't include it. Fish n Chips are served at many restaurants on Fridays and don't forget to generously spritz the malt vinegar on your fries, pouring ketchup over them would be an abomination. Snail Salad is another Rhode Island treat, found at most deli counter supermarkets. Johnny Cakes and Coffee Milk for breakfast or perhaps some Chourice or Linguica Sausage with your eggs, and yes Rhode Island is definetly the Donut Capitol of the nation. Bakery Pizza or Pizza strips are popular in the Central part of the state. Bakery Pizza which can be found at most Italian Bakeries are square cuts of Pizza served with at room temperature with a dusting of Romano or Parmesan cheese. No Mozzarella or Provolone on these babies! They are delicious and addicting too. French Canadian meat pies can be found in the northern part of the state as well as the Roast Chicken Dinners which come with minestrone, antipasta, ziti, french fries, and spumoni. Portuguese Kale Soup you'll find in the Eastern part. Finally dough boys at ice cream shops, seafood shacks and local fairs and festivals.

WANDERINGJEW: I found your Rhode Island post very informative, and I'm wondering if you can help me out. We'll be taking a trip to New England soon with 2 senior citizen ladies in tow. We'll be landing at the Providence airport right around lunchtime. We'll all be hungry. Can you recommend a nice sit-down restaurant not too far from the airport where we can get a bite to eat? It would be great to try some regional specialties. Many thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by spadoman

Originally posted by wanderingjew

Originally posted by canoodle

By the way, while in and around Minnesota and Nort Dakota, remember to start every sentence with "so" and end it with "Then". They'll take you for a local. So, you want some Lutefisk then?

I think my Long Island twang might get in the way. However I saw "Fargo" enough times to make a halfway decent attempt..."Ya, sure you betcha!"

quote:

Originally posted by KimChee43

[quote
WANDERINGJEW: I found your Rhode Island post very informative, and I'm wondering if you can help me out. We'll be taking a trip to New England soon with 2 senior citizen ladies in tow. We'll be landing at the Providence airport right around lunchtime. We'll all be hungry. Can you recommend a nice sit-down restaurant not too far from the airport where we can get a bite to eat? It would be great to try some regional specialties. Many thanks.

About 2 1/2 miles from the airport on a side street off Post Road (rt 1) is the Crows Nest Restaurant. It's a little tricky to get there because you have to go through a Rotary. They have fantastic stuffed shrimp, a better than average lobster roll and is very popular with "the gray haired set". Their website is www.eatatcrowsnest.com

You have a lot of guts to want to try lutefisk! I can't get past the smell of it cooking. I have always called it the Yuletide attrocity. Blech
http://www.hostfest.com/events/food/food.html Here's the link to our local festival. I end up volunteering for 1 day during the festival. Tens of thousands of people come from all over the US and Europe to attend this Norweigen (and Scandinavian) event.
On the local scene, we have a great restaurant called The Speedway (which I should review for Roadfood) that serves Fleishkeuckla for lunch. I know the DairyQueen in Beulah ND serves it also. In Minot and Bismarck you can get FK and Nephla Soup at Krolls Diner. If you ever get to Grand Forks..try Widmans Chocolates-Home of the Chocolate covered potato chip. They have wonderful handmade chocolates also. The rhubarb desserts can be found at most small restaurants.
The jams,jellies and condiments can always be found at farmer's markets and tourist shops. I must admit to buying mine at the Farmers Market. I've become too lazy to make chokecherry jelly. And I'm also a Fleishkueckla snob. I like my mothers the best ,fresh out of the fryer...but I usually can manage to poke down a few in a restaurant.
I am not partial to Norwiegen food being that I am 2nd Generation German (from Russia). There's a large population of Germans from Russia here in ND. We have a unique regional cuisine that I've never seen before. It's a mixture of German,Russian, and Black Sea cookery. Thank God I wrote down most of the recipes that my mother and grandmother made. The youth today don't know about these treats. So sad! Most recipes are still made in small (and I mean small) town churches, cafes, and homes.
http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/outreach/activities/gfrclass3.html
http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/outreach/activities/gfrclass2.html
I can't believe I left out kuchen. My mother made THE BEST! I need to write down that recipe too. And Borscht..it's not always made the traditional Russian way.
http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/history_culture/recipe/
http://www.prairiepublic.org/features/schmeckfest/gallery.htm pictures of GFR food AKA:food porn to me. LOL The "wedding schnapps" was featured at my wedding. It's Everclear and burned sugar flavored with anise!!!!
Most Germans from Russia on the northern plains are not Volga Germans, but rather Black Sea Germans, and they have their own characteristic foods. None of these have crossed over into mainstream American pop culture, but three of them have reached the threshold of regional recognition. These are Knoephla soup (spelling varies), Fleischkuechle (again, spelling varies) and Kuchen. I don't know just why these three items have emerged as signatures of German-Russian cuisine, but they are the ones that appear frequently on café menus and are known to non-German-Russians.

Knoephla soup is a variant of cream-of-potato soup that has fluffy dumplings floating around in it. This is the ultimate comfort food of the German-Russian heartland in the Dakotas. Fleischkuechle are patties of seasoned meat wrapped in pastry and fried in fat. These are a main dish. Kuchen look like pies, but they aren't. The crust is a yeast dough, and the filling is a cheesy custard with some kind of fruit in it. Prune is traditional; I like rhubarb.

Sorry for the long post..but I forgot to add that at this link: http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/history_culture/recipe/index.html on the right hand side are newpaper articles on where you can find some of these dishes.

quote:

Originally posted by canoodle

You have a lot of guts to want to try lutefisk! I can't get past the smell of it cooking. I have always called it the Yuletide attrocity. Blech

Canoodle, thanks for the leads . Actually I don't think lutefisk could be any worse than gefilte fish, which actually goes very well with red horseradish

here is some regional cuisine from rural south carolina: pickled pig's feet, fried pork rinds, and chitlings. and the only one of the three of those i like are the pork rinds, especially homemade one's from a local flea market or fair. the pig's feet, i just don't have the heart to partake in, and the chitlings i won't touch. if you don't know what a chitling is, you aint missing anything. basically, it is the stewed guts of a pig, served with rice,typically. rural churches sell plates of it for fundraisers, and the people who like it, really like it alot. i can tell you, it smells horrible cooking, smells just like what it is

OMG- you do like smelly fish! Here's recipe to make your own *shudder* Lutefisk in case you can't find it already prepared and ready to cook:
Take two lbs. of stockfish (dried fish, preferably cod, lincod or saithe caught in early summer) and cut each fish in three pieces. Place the pieces in a wooden tub and soak them for a week in water (which should be changed daily). Remove the pieces, clean the tub, and cover the bottom with 1/4 lb. of slaked lime. Prepare a lye from 1/3 lb. of washing-soda (WARNING do not utilize caustic soda or natriumhydroxide) (2 lbs. of
birch ashes will also do) add enough water to cover the pieces, and pour the lye over the fish pieces. As they swell, add more water to keep them covered. When the pieces are soft enough to allow a finger to penetrate easily (after about a week), remove and rinse them, clean the tub, replace the pieces and soak them in clear water for another two weeks. During the first week the water should be replaced daily. Cook in boiling salted water at simmering temperature for about 20 minutes. Drain well and serve with melted butter with freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Allow 1/3 lb per serving.
The texture is something like a firm pudding. The butter makes it even more slimier which helps it slip down your throat so you don't have to "really" taste it. LOL

Canoodle - loved reading your posts. They were very interesting like Wanderingjews always are.

Just when you think the entire country has been Wal-Marted, you learn about so the many regional diversities.

I think I would have to study to be able to go up there and pronounce all of those names.

(but I don't think I would like th smelly fish)

btw - I recently read a novel, "The Master Butcher's Singing Club",that was set in North Dakota ( or was it Nebraska?). It was based upon the true story of the author's great-grandfather who came from Germany as a master butcher and built his life there.

Binghamton, NY. Spiedies. <pronounced spee-dee> It is cubes of marinated pork, beef or chicken, and sometimes lamb. They are cooked on a skewer and eaten with a slice of italian bread. You take the meat off the stick by using the bread slice as a glove. Roodfood has reviewed the resturant "Sharkey's" in Binghamton. They claim to have invented the little item, although the Lupo family & Salamida family argue over which one of them developed the sauce. People are religious about them in this area, and spiedies are virtually unheard of 75 miles away.

quote:

Originally posted by wanderingjew

quote:

Originally posted by KimChee43

[quote
WANDERINGJEW: I found your Rhode Island post very informative, and I'm wondering if you can help me out. We'll be taking a trip to New England soon with 2 senior citizen ladies in tow. We'll be landing at the Providence airport right around lunchtime. We'll all be hungry. Can you recommend a nice sit-down restaurant not too far from the airport where we can get a bite to eat? It would be great to try some regional specialties. Many thanks.

WANDERINGJEW: Sounds like just the place we're looking for! Thank you so much for your help!

About 2 1/2 miles from the airport on a side street off Post Road (rt 1) is the Crows Nest Restaurant. It's a little tricky to get there because you have to go through a Rotary. They have fantastic stuffed shrimp, a better than average lobster roll and is very popular with "the gray haired set". Their website is www.eatatcrowsnest.com

WANDERINGJEW: I messed up on my previous post. Again, many thanks for your recommendation. It's perfect. Have a great day.

quote:

Originally posted by canoodle

OMG- you do like smelly fish! Here's recipe to make your own *shudder* Lutefisk in case you can't find it already prepared and ready to cook:
Take two lbs. of stockfish (dried fish, preferably cod, lincod or saithe caught in early summer) and cut each fish in three pieces. Place the pieces in a wooden tub and soak them for a week in water (which should be changed daily). Remove the pieces, clean the tub, and cover the bottom with 1/4 lb. of slaked lime. Prepare a lye from 1/3 lb. of washing-soda (WARNING do not utilize caustic soda or natriumhydroxide) (2 lbs. of
birch ashes will also do) add enough water to cover the pieces, and pour the lye over the fish pieces. As they swell, add more water to keep them covered. When the pieces are soft enough to allow a finger to penetrate easily (after about a week), remove and rinse them, clean the tub, replace the pieces and soak them in clear water for another two weeks. During the first week the water should be replaced daily. Cook in boiling salted water at simmering temperature for about 20 minutes. Drain well and serve with melted butter with freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Allow 1/3 lb per serving.
The texture is something like a firm pudding. The butter makes it even more slimier which helps it slip down your throat so you don't have to "really" taste it. LOL

Ack! looks like a science experiment gone really, really wrong! I wonder if it is combustable? And if so, how can our military put it to use? Most people here buy it at the grocery store and just boil the snot out of it. It's traditionaly served with meatballs and gravy. I order the meal and tell 'em to hold the lutefisk.

quote:

Originally posted by wanderingjew

quote:

Originally posted by canoodle

You have a lot of guts to want to try lutefisk! I can't get past the smell of it cooking. I have always called it the Yuletide attrocity. Blech

Canoodle, thanks for the leads . Actually I don't think lutefisk could be any worse than gefilte fish, which actually goes very well with red horseradish

Dont bet on it!!!

quote:

Originally posted by RockyB

Binghamton, NY. Spiedies. <pronounced spee-dee> It is cubes of marinated pork, beef or chicken, and sometimes lamb. They are cooked on a skewer and eaten with a slice of italian bread. You take the meat off the stick by using the bread slice as a glove. Roodfood has reviewed the resturant "Sharkey's" in Binghamton. They claim to have invented the little item, although the Lupo family & Salamida family argue over which one of them developed the sauce. People are religious about them in this area, and spiedies are virtually unheard of 75 miles away.

Sherkey's may CLAIM to have invented the speidie but i dont think so---the word means---"grilled" in Italian and they have been served in Umbria---a distict in the hills to the north and east of Rome for a LONG time---like for about as long as umbrians have been around.They may be the first to SELL them THAT area but i know a few Umbrians that would argue the "invented" point. For a killer,"Classic" recipe--check out Mary Ann Espisito's cookbook-"Cio Italia in Umbria"

LOL @TIKI ! Have you tried this stuff? I think lutefisk is the sole reason the Vikings left Norway!

In Las Vegas they like

Shrimp Cocktales
and
Prime Rib (of course).

quote:

Originally posted by canoodle

LOL @TIKI ! Have you tried this stuff? I think lutefisk is the sole reason the Vikings left Norway!

I think you may be right---actually it was the first Scandanavian food i ever ate--and danged near the last!!!! Had it served at a family friends house when i was young--in my family, if simeone offered you food it was REALLY impolite to turn it down---darn near a moertal sin!!So i ate and kept my shut---aven had seconds since i was too scared to turn it down---whne i saw how it was made i thought-"this has to be a recipe for paint stipper!!!!

peppertree, I love those little .99 cent shrimp cocktails at the Four Queens downtown.

Anyone ever eat a carnita? I had them at a restaurant in Tijuana (across from the racetrack). The name of the restaurant is U Ru Guapan. I forget the spelling. This is THE roadfood spot in Tijuana. Orange picnic tables, Mariachi music (live) in the evening. A meal there is under $10. Includes Carnitas, pork skin that you can pull right off of the overdone pig and Mexican beer.

Anyone ever eat there?

quote:

Originally posted by Lone Star

peppertree, I love those little .99 cent shrimp cocktails at the Four Queens downtown.

The Golden Gate (Hotel and Casino) in downtown at Fremont and Main boasts the original shrimp cocktail. The hotel has been around for about 100 years.


Another NYC favorite (of olde) Egg Creams.

Scandinavian food served daily along with great PIE! try Osseo, Wisconsin's Norske Nook. They have a couple of other locations in Wisconsin but are not a Franchise chain. I had Lefse there last weekend with a great piece of pie for desert. osseo is 88 miles from the Minnesota border on I-94 in Wisconsin.

spadoman- I have their cookbook! It is extremly fun to read. It's more literature for me than recipes.

Dearfolk,
This jumps a ways back - clear to the Louis Jordan part of the thread. Not too long ago, I met Sonny Burgess, the legendary Sun rockabilly singer from Newport, Arkansas. "If it wasn't for Big Joe Turner, I'd have never gotten into music," he remarked. "What about Louis Jordan?" I asked. "I always wanted to meet him just to thank him for the great records he made. After all, Brinkley, his hometown, isn't too far from where I grew up." - It was gratifying to find a Southern rocker who openly acknowledged the debt that rockabilly musicians have to blues performers.
Back to Nestlerode Pudding, thanks a million for those three recipes. I'm gonna turn someone I know on to them directly and we'll let you know what transpires.
Dadgum it, today is Thursday - that means I missed Chicken Mull Day at The Gateway Cafe on North Avenue. Well, God willing, I'll traipse over there next week....
In The Trenches (Always A Trencherman), Ort. Carlton in Well-Fed (My Part Of It, Anyhow) Athens, Georgia.

quote:

Originally posted by peppertree

Anyone ever eat a carnita? I had them at a restaurant in Tijuana (across from the racetrack). The name of the restaurant is U Ru Guapan. I forget the spelling. This is THE roadfood spot in Tijuana. Orange picnic tables, Mariachi music (live) in the evening. A meal there is under $10. Includes Carnitas, pork skin that you can pull right off of the overdone pig and Mexican beer.

Anyone ever eat there?

LOVE Carnita's----when my wife was in grad school in San Diego we went to a restteraunt in Tijuana that specialized in carnitas---you order the meat by the kilo and they supplied all the fixins you could eat along with it" Fabulous stuff and dinner for 4 adults with appeties--with tip--$20---mexico is the only thing about San Diego that i miss!

quote:

Originally posted by RockyB

Binghamton, NY. Spiedies. <pronounced spee-dee> It is cubes of marinated pork, beef or chicken, and sometimes lamb. They are cooked on a skewer and eaten with a slice of italian bread. You take the meat off the stick by using the bread slice as a glove. Roodfood has reviewed the resturant "Sharkey's" in Binghamton. They claim to have invented the little item, although the Lupo family & Salamida family argue over which one of them developed the sauce. People are religious about them in this area, and spiedies are virtually unheard of 75 miles away.

RockyB---You mention the Lupo family. My Grandmother on my Mothers side was a Lupo, (or came here with the Lupo family). I'd better check that out! Anyway, they were Sicilian. Grandma and Grandpa came to this country in the very early 1900's and started an ice cream shop in Hanibal, MO. Moved to Chicago around 1920 or so.

Hey, Spadoman! See you hail from Howard Lake. I grew up in Buffalo. Nothing like good old Wright County road food, eh?