I've never gotten the whole concept of "Home Cookin'" (as if that's a good thing). Not that I'm trying to knock anybody's abilities, but, I much prefer "Restaurant Cookin'", uh, that is, if they have a fer-real chef doing the cooking. I don't care who they are, amateurs never measure up to what a real pro can do. And I've even seen restaurants that advertize that their food is just like you'd get at home. To which I can only say "HUH?" If I'd a wanted a home-cooked meal, why the hell did I go out to eat?
Anyway, for regional cooking the PNW is probably most noted for seafood, though I can't think of any particular thing that's region-specific. Oh, we've got some oddities that are pretty good. Geoduc is about as tasty a shellfish as God ever created. And Dungeness Crab is pretty good stuff. Yeah, we've got King Crab too, but I've never been all that taken with it, Dungeness being much tastier. Other than that we've got a pretty eclectic mix of styles. Classic French and Italian is pretty common as is Thai and Vietnamese. I guess the only really regional food thing we've got going is our coffee, though Starbucks is hardly worth the effort IMHO.
For steak, I think the soutwest has got a definite edge. The best steak I ever had in my life was at an old restaurant ('Lil Abner's Tavern) just outside of Tucson. Lordy, they raise some good beef around those parts.
The upper Mid-west, where I come from, doesn't have anything I can think of to distinguish itself. Maybe Pasties? Dunno.
And if there is a hell, I'm quite sure I'll be spending my meals there eating butter beans, collard greens, poke salad, and the other slop that all those sweet southern ladies tried to feed me when I lived down south. Lord have mercy! Somebody help those people!
Oooh Chas! I had totally forgotten about American Chop Suey! My Mom used to make that a lot!
Something else we used to get in Michigan, that I've not seen elsewhere (Maybe it's around, but I haven't seen it)-- pickled bologna.
Thinking about it, I can taste it now!! LOL!
Actually, I don't see ring bolgna, pickled or not, sold either here, or in MD
And in Michigan, we ATE smelt, in MD they never heard of EATING smelt-- it's BAIT!! LOL!
Peanut butter on pancakes--my in-laws thought I was sick or something when I asked for peanut butter when we had pancakes on a camping trip with them-- they actually asked me what was "WRONG" with me! Yet when I go to Mi to visit my family, they don't think twice when ya ask for peanut butter in a restaurant when ya order pancakes-- SO THERE!! LOL!
HA! You just reminded me of another food here in New England...
Ice fishing weather is approaching and I've seen many a-hut set up by the driveway, as the manly-men get ready to place it on the lakes when they freeze over, so they can catch....
SMELTS!
My dad would cook them by breading them and frying them (after they were cleaned, of course). I couldn't get past the smell or the tiny little bones - ewww! But I've never seen them anywhere else...
Cane syrup (my great grandparents had their own plant)
If you can get making the proper roux for each type of dish, you'll have a blast in a Cajun Kitchen.
I grew up sitting on somebody's porch with "all the wimmin" shucking, shelling or peeling something to be frozen, canned or preserved. Awesome memories, but I don't think I'd ever go to that much trouble on my own. Ahhhh....the "good ole' days"
My x-mother-in-law made fried corn -- she was from Alabama.
She'd melt butter in a pan, throw in a can or frozen corn, and add sugar. Then cook it down for a while until it got real soupy. I think she may have added some water or whatever - it was really good.
I loved a lot of Southern cooking - I made catfish and hushpuppies for hubby one night because he'd never tried them before. I could eat fried okra like it was popcorn - love that stuff!
But then there's things like eggs and brains, or Poke salad, that I wish I'd never heard about.
And GRITS -- gawd, I almost gag just thinking about them.
Fried smelt - oh man, there is nothing better!! Like eating french fries - crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, but healthier. And Pasties would definitely be regional here - except I can only get them in the Upper Peninsula - no one downstate makes em. :(
Chas, my youngest loved grits when he was a baby. He wouldn't eat baby cereal, but he could put away the grits. Go figure! lol He went from that to middle eastern food. LOL
I don't know if this a Jersey thing or not, but two things I liked growing up are mashed potatoes with hamburger gravy and throwing some leftover mashed potates in a frying pan (kind of like french fries, only softer).
One of my first memories as a small child in Oregon was catching smelt in a lake or river up in the mountains with my parents and their friends. They brought back tons of the slimy little things and couldn't give 'em away. I think I can still remember the smell. There were so many of those little fish that you could just walk up to the edge of the water and pick 'em up.
Later we lived in Ohio. My favorite regional food memory is my mom's blackberry cobbler. We kids would take all the plastic containers we could carry and pick blackberries for hours, just to be rewarded with that yummy cobbler.
Lake Erie perch is another fave. It's got much better flavor than ocean perch.
We have a lot of Polish folks in Cleveland, and they know how to cook! Kielbasa and pierogies and stuffed cabbage. I used to go to a big depression glass show every year--not because I collect depression glass because I don't, but because the little old ladies at the Ukrainian church where they held it made the most incredible pastries and roast beef sandwiches.
My regional food "sense" comes more from my mom's upbringing in Arkansas and later California than from Ohio, though. On one end of the spectrum we ate things like kidney beans with sugar sprinkled over them (weird, huh?) and on the other end we ate tamales and enchiladas.
My dad's mother was English, so at her house we ate very plain meat and potatoes meals. In fact, neither my grandmothers nor my mother (Brits on both sides of the family) used much in the way of spices. I don't think I had fresh garlic until I left home!
Chas, they're these things that "exotic dancers" use. I don't know how that fits down here or why you'd want to freeze them, though. Kind of defeats the purpose, don't it?
Shell, how many can you make?? Or easier, you could give me your recipe! :)
They are pasties (short a) not pasties (long a). It is meat. potatoes, onions, carrots baked inside a pastry shell. Sort of like a calzone, but different. Sort of like a pot pie, but different.
Sushi---------My wife was born in Queens but raised in "Joisey" She,too, makes that dish with mashed potatoes, hamburger and gravy. It's been awhile since she made it but I think she adds a small amount of green beans too. It's very filling. She calls it shephard's pie. Right at the end she turns on the broiler and it puts a bit of a crust on it. She also has an unusual way of making cornbread. The recipe includes canned creamed corn. cheddar cheese(grated) and diced jalapena peppers (canned). It is much moister than the southern style and the baking seems to tone down the heat of the peppers while accenting their flavor. I don't know if that's regional but I know I'm always ready for seconds(sometimes thirds) :)
Abi, the pastie making is a fund raising project I get involved in every year. We do 4-5 baking days, depending on requests and they are great sellers specifically because,as you said, they can't be found locally, not the real ones.
I'll also try to get you the recipe. We make a HUGE amount of the mix and dough, so I'm not sure about figuring it out in smaller volumes. I'll ask the lady that does that part.
We can also leave yours uncooked if you'd rather do that yourself. I order ours that way and we serve them with cheese, gravy or just plain. Even Kelly likes them!
My dad's mother was English, so at her house we ate very plain meat and potatoes meals. In fact, neither my grandmothers nor my mother (Brits on both sides of the family) used much in the way of spices. I don't think I had fresh garlic until I left home!
Did you know that the most popular dish in Britain now (according to lots of "surveys") is said to be - curry!
And Britain has spawned a number of curry-type dishes that are unique to Britain, not known in their original cultures.
And anyway, it's what you do with the meat and spuds that matters. Brits aren't known by their French friends as "les rosbifs" (the roast beefs) for nothing!
Now... freshly picked runner beans, steamed, straight off the plant... with or without butter and with or without black pepper... mmm-mmm.
Cod (in crispy batter) and chips (french fries). Not the mushy peas, though (yeuk).
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coolchef
chas dod't forget red hot dogs!!!
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George Aar
Just an aside,
I've never gotten the whole concept of "Home Cookin'" (as if that's a good thing). Not that I'm trying to knock anybody's abilities, but, I much prefer "Restaurant Cookin'", uh, that is, if they have a fer-real chef doing the cooking. I don't care who they are, amateurs never measure up to what a real pro can do. And I've even seen restaurants that advertize that their food is just like you'd get at home. To which I can only say "HUH?" If I'd a wanted a home-cooked meal, why the hell did I go out to eat?
Anyway, for regional cooking the PNW is probably most noted for seafood, though I can't think of any particular thing that's region-specific. Oh, we've got some oddities that are pretty good. Geoduc is about as tasty a shellfish as God ever created. And Dungeness Crab is pretty good stuff. Yeah, we've got King Crab too, but I've never been all that taken with it, Dungeness being much tastier. Other than that we've got a pretty eclectic mix of styles. Classic French and Italian is pretty common as is Thai and Vietnamese. I guess the only really regional food thing we've got going is our coffee, though Starbucks is hardly worth the effort IMHO.
For steak, I think the soutwest has got a definite edge. The best steak I ever had in my life was at an old restaurant ('Lil Abner's Tavern) just outside of Tucson. Lordy, they raise some good beef around those parts.
The upper Mid-west, where I come from, doesn't have anything I can think of to distinguish itself. Maybe Pasties? Dunno.
And if there is a hell, I'm quite sure I'll be spending my meals there eating butter beans, collard greens, poke salad, and the other slop that all those sweet southern ladies tried to feed me when I lived down south. Lord have mercy! Somebody help those people!
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likeaneagle
Black Angus beef from VIrginia is awesome...very tasty..
my home cooking brings me to little Italy in CHicago
Homeade Speg sauce
sautee' onion in o/o, and green pepper,garlic
add ground chuck and italian seasonings
in a different pan, cook italian mild or hot sausage (link or bulk)
drain
marry together
In sauce add more seasonings, 2 bay leaf and a chunk of pork neck bone.
add 1/4 of wine
simmer long
for heaven's sake, do not put oil in pasta while cooking..it causes the sauce to slide off pasta.
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doojable
I NEVER put oil or butter on pasta to keep it sticking. I only put a bit of sauce on it.
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socks
Crabs. Season just opened!
Salmon. Local salmon right off the boat - great.
Gilroy garlic - really tasty.
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Psalm 71 one
Oooh Chas! I had totally forgotten about American Chop Suey! My Mom used to make that a lot!
Something else we used to get in Michigan, that I've not seen elsewhere (Maybe it's around, but I haven't seen it)-- pickled bologna.
Thinking about it, I can taste it now!! LOL!
Actually, I don't see ring bolgna, pickled or not, sold either here, or in MD
And in Michigan, we ATE smelt, in MD they never heard of EATING smelt-- it's BAIT!! LOL!
Peanut butter on pancakes--my in-laws thought I was sick or something when I asked for peanut butter when we had pancakes on a camping trip with them-- they actually asked me what was "WRONG" with me!
Yet when I go to Mi to visit my family, they don't think twice when ya ask for peanut butter in a restaurant when ya order pancakes-- SO THERE!! LOL!
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ChasUFarley
HA! You just reminded me of another food here in New England...
Ice fishing weather is approaching and I've seen many a-hut set up by the driveway, as the manly-men get ready to place it on the lakes when they freeze over, so they can catch....
SMELTS!
My dad would cook them by breading them and frying them (after they were cleaned, of course). I couldn't get past the smell or the tiny little bones - ewww! But I've never seen them anywhere else...
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mstar1
Way
I had to read this twice to make sure my eyes werent deceiving me
from Geo
whoa, whoa, whoa-timeout
Geo?
do mine eyes deceive me?
That surely must be some amazing shellfish..
Im definitely gonna have to try me some of that
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Belle
Southern Soul Food!! Ain't Nuthin' Like It!
Everything was grown in the garden in our backyard and then fried or covered with gravy! LOL!
Then on the Cajun Side of the family:
If you can get making the proper roux for each type of dish, you'll have a blast in a Cajun Kitchen.
I grew up sitting on somebody's porch with "all the wimmin" shucking, shelling or peeling something to be frozen, canned or preserved. Awesome memories, but I don't think I'd ever go to that much trouble on my own. Ahhhh....the "good ole' days"
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ChasUFarley
Belle --
My x-mother-in-law made fried corn -- she was from Alabama.
She'd melt butter in a pan, throw in a can or frozen corn, and add sugar. Then cook it down for a while until it got real soupy. I think she may have added some water or whatever - it was really good.
I loved a lot of Southern cooking - I made catfish and hushpuppies for hubby one night because he'd never tried them before. I could eat fried okra like it was popcorn - love that stuff!
But then there's things like eggs and brains, or Poke salad, that I wish I'd never heard about.
And GRITS -- gawd, I almost gag just thinking about them.
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likeaneagle
I smelted off Lake Michigan once..haha...drop the line and bring those pups in..I wont eat what I catch...Im a little city and a little country..
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Abigail
Fried smelt - oh man, there is nothing better!! Like eating french fries - crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, but healthier. And Pasties would definitely be regional here - except I can only get them in the Upper Peninsula - no one downstate makes em. :(
Chas, my youngest loved grits when he was a baby. He wouldn't eat baby cereal, but he could put away the grits. Go figure! lol He went from that to middle eastern food. LOL
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Sushi
I don't know if this a Jersey thing or not, but two things I liked growing up are mashed potatoes with hamburger gravy and throwing some leftover mashed potates in a frying pan (kind of like french fries, only softer).
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Shellon
Abi, we're making pasties in jan/feb/march. Let me know how many you want.
I'll freeze them for you until we meet up.
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Linda Z
One of my first memories as a small child in Oregon was catching smelt in a lake or river up in the mountains with my parents and their friends. They brought back tons of the slimy little things and couldn't give 'em away. I think I can still remember the smell. There were so many of those little fish that you could just walk up to the edge of the water and pick 'em up.
Later we lived in Ohio. My favorite regional food memory is my mom's blackberry cobbler. We kids would take all the plastic containers we could carry and pick blackberries for hours, just to be rewarded with that yummy cobbler.
Lake Erie perch is another fave. It's got much better flavor than ocean perch.
We have a lot of Polish folks in Cleveland, and they know how to cook! Kielbasa and pierogies and stuffed cabbage. I used to go to a big depression glass show every year--not because I collect depression glass because I don't, but because the little old ladies at the Ukrainian church where they held it made the most incredible pastries and roast beef sandwiches.
My regional food "sense" comes more from my mom's upbringing in Arkansas and later California than from Ohio, though. On one end of the spectrum we ate things like kidney beans with sugar sprinkled over them (weird, huh?) and on the other end we ate tamales and enchiladas.
My dad's mother was English, so at her house we ate very plain meat and potatoes meals. In fact, neither my grandmothers nor my mother (Brits on both sides of the family) used much in the way of spices. I don't think I had fresh garlic until I left home!
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ChasUFarley
Okay, what's a pastie?
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Belle
Chas, they're these things that "exotic dancers" use. I don't know how that fits down here or why you'd want to freeze them, though. Kind of defeats the purpose, don't it?
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Abigail
Shell, how many can you make??
Or easier, you could give me your recipe! :)
They are pasties (short a) not pasties (long a). It is meat. potatoes, onions, carrots baked inside a pastry shell. Sort of like a calzone, but different. Sort of like a pot pie, but different.
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waysider
Sushi---------My wife was born in Queens but raised in "Joisey" She,too, makes that dish with mashed potatoes, hamburger and gravy. It's been awhile since she made it but I think she adds a small amount of green beans too. It's very filling. She calls it shephard's pie. Right at the end she turns on the broiler and it puts a bit of a crust on it. She also has an unusual way of making cornbread. The recipe includes canned creamed corn. cheddar cheese(grated) and diced jalapena peppers (canned). It is much moister than the southern style and the baking seems to tone down the heat of the peppers while accenting their flavor. I don't know if that's regional but I know I'm always ready for seconds(sometimes thirds) :)
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Shellon
Abi, the pastie making is a fund raising project I get involved in every year. We do 4-5 baking days, depending on requests and they are great sellers specifically because,as you said, they can't be found locally, not the real ones.
I'll also try to get you the recipe. We make a HUGE amount of the mix and dough, so I'm not sure about figuring it out in smaller volumes. I'll ask the lady that does that part.
We can also leave yours uncooked if you'd rather do that yourself. I order ours that way and we serve them with cheese, gravy or just plain. Even Kelly likes them!
:)
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Abigail
Cool, Shellon! You have yourself a new customer. Uncooked, naturally. Then I can freeze them and bake them when I want. :)
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Shellon
You've got it. First baking day in January I think. It'll be a great reason for us to get together for lunch somewhere, to get them to you.
Then let me know how you like them for the next baking. Will keep you posted.
And yours will be uncooked, in my freezer 'til we make a date to meet.
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mommy1968
In S. Carolina pimento cheese is quite popular. There are a lot of folks I meet that just don't like it or never heard of it. :)
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Twinky
And Britain has spawned a number of curry-type dishes that are unique to Britain, not known in their original cultures.
And anyway, it's what you do with the meat and spuds that matters. Brits aren't known by their French friends as "les rosbifs" (the roast beefs) for nothing!
Now... freshly picked runner beans, steamed, straight off the plant... with or without butter and with or without black pepper... mmm-mmm.
Cod (in crispy batter) and chips (french fries). Not the mushy peas, though (yeuk).
Toad in the hole, anyone? With bubble'n'squeak?
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