Regional foods

[grommet]

Building off Gerald's travel thread, what are some foods that you consider a must-try or a local's favorite for a certain area?

I'll start - While Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC share many things in common, such as high per-capita Starbucks coffee shops, and a love of the outdoors, one where they differ is that if sushi is your thing, Vancouver, with over 600 establishments, wins hands-down. You can't walk around any district or mall without running into several sushi restaurants.

San Francisco, in Chinatown. Fried bitter melon, and also beef tendon. Bitter melon tastes bad on its own but the bitterness cuts through the grease in the frying and makes a wonderful combination. Most people who are not Cantonese do not know about it.

Beef tendon. I did not want to even try it but when I did it became one of my favorite foods. It is made in a seasoned broth that gives it the most wonderful flavor and the tendon is very tender. It is hard to stop eating. I am sorry if describing an animal part is upsetting for some people. I was not sure if I should but people eat different foods.

Jook is really good too if you can find it well made. It is rice porridge. Rice is boiled with a lot of water and seasoning. you can add lots of things to the jook, it tastes good with almost anything but it is hard to find really good jook. Some make it too watery but that is still better than the ones that are too thick and start to seem dry. It has to be just right. My friend told me so many times how good a cook her mother was but the only food she would not make at home was jook because hers was bad.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

A regional food in the upper Midwest left over from the logging days is a Fish Boil, done to feed logging crews. Whitefish, Potatoes and Corn, boiled and at the end the cook flares up the fire so that the oils in the foam overtop the kettle and are removed. Very popular in Door County, Wisconsin. Where I am in Northern Michigan we have lots of good freshwater fish, Walleye, Yellow Perch (not the inferior Zander Perch), and Lake Trout. All my neighbors hunt deer, and letting them hunt across my 40 acres I do not even need to take out my rifle to get a freezer full of venison.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Wife goes to dutch store about once a month is about as close to regional food as I can get. Some of her German and English culture show through.

 

[grommet]

A regional food in the upper Midwest left over from the logging days is a Fish Boil, done to feed logging crews. Whitefish, Potatoes and Corn, boiled and at the end the cook flares up the fire so that the oils in the foam overtop the kettle and are removed. Very popular in Door County, Wisconsin. Where I am in Northern Michigan we have lots of good freshwater fish, Walleye, Yellow Perch (not the inferior Zander Perch), and Lake Trout. All my neighbors hunt deer, and letting them hunt across my 40 acres I do not even need to take out my rifle to get a freezer full of venison.

You can hunt them from your porch? I wanted to live somewhere where I could do that.

 

[TBRS1]

You can hunt them from your porch? I wanted to live somewhere where I could do that.

I live at about the same latitude as @Gerald Wilgus, but across the state. We have a trail cam in the back yard and get a group of about 6 deer every night.

We don't hunt though. We just look at them. However, there are way to many of them. They are entering urban spaces around Detroit. Hunting is the best way to manage the herd.

The deer there and the deer here are all considered part of the same herd.

 

[Mary Terry]

I live at about the same latitude as @Gerald Wilgus, but across the state. We have a trail cam in the back yard and get a group of about 6 deer every night.

We don't hunt though. We just look at them. However, there are way to many of them. They are entering urban spaces around Detroit. Hunting is the best way to manage the herd.

The deer there and the deer here are all considered part of the same herd.

My husband has trail cameras and sees deer all the time. He showed me a video of 12-point buck last week. While he could, he doesn't shoot them from the porch. He says it's not sportsmanship-like.

 

[Judge]

My husband has trail cameras and sees deer all the time. He showed me a video of 12-point buck last week. While he could, he doesn't shoot them from the porch. He says it's not sportsmanship-like.

A major reason that I love the proximity of my apartment unit to raw desert right outside my front door and living room. With all the wildlife that comes with it. Though the rabbits are only now beginning to come out again, after a terrible blight in the last few years.

Luckily I don't think any of us locals every considered them as a food source.

https://www.avma.org/resources-tool...fare/animal-health/rabbit-hemorrhagic-disease

 

[Mary Terry]

@Judge - If you ever see a jackalope, please take a picture of it!

 

[Judge]

@Judge - If you ever see a jackalope, please take a picture of it!

Ohhhhhhhhkkkkkaaaaaaayyyyyyyy.

I may have seen a few neighbors with horns from time to time, but no rabbits or hares so far.

Yeah, I had to look it up...lol.

 

[Outdated]

Though the rabbits are only now beginning to come out again, after a terrible blight in the last few years.
https://www.avma.org/resources-tool...fare/animal-health/rabbit-hemorrhagic-disease

Our CSIRO jumped on that virus as soon as it appeared. They spent a decade studying it and slightly genetically modifying it before releasing it. Unfortunately they gave the Australian public 12 months notice of their intentions, they have officially stated that they'll never make such a stupid mistake ever again.

Pet owners in Sydney and Melbourne formed lobby groups and vets offered free vaccinations for pet rabbits - regardless of whether or not the pet rabbits were desexed. This only happened in Sydney and Melbourne where people believe everything they see on TV instead of going outside and having an honest look at the world they actually live in. In every other state the great majority of the population understands the problems and will kill rabbits on sight.

So we wiped out a lot of the rabbit populations but at the same time irresponsible pet owners in the eastern states were still reintroducing them. Yes, a surprisingly large number of the human population DO just dump animals when they don't want them any more. Somehow letting the animal go in the wild appeases their sense of guilt even though doing so is a far worse crime than killing the animal.

The CSIRO are still genetically modifying that virus, they want it to affect foxes too. They have admitted that this will also wipe out many of the smaller breeds of lapdogs that a lot of people like but they're going to do it anyway when they're satisfied that they've got it right. And they've reiterated a few times that this time around there will be no notification before releasing the virus.

 

[Judge]

Our CSIRO jumped on that virus as soon as it appeared. They spent a decade studying it and slightly genetically modifying it before releasing it. Unfortunately they gave the Australian public 12 months notice of their intentions, they have officially stated that they'll never make such a stupid mistake ever again.

Pet owners in Sydney and Melbourne formed lobby groups and vets offered free vaccinations for pet rabbits - regardless of whether or not the pet rabbits were desexed. This only happened in Sydney and Melbourne where people believe everything they see on TV instead of going outside and having an honest look at the world they actually live in. In every other state the great majority of the population understands the problems and will kill rabbits on sight.

So we wiped out a lot of the rabbit populations but at the same time irresponsible pet owners in the eastern states were still reintroducing them. Yes, a surprisingly large number of the human population DO just dump animals when they don't want them any more. Somehow letting the animal go in the wild appeases their sense of guilt even though doing so is a far worse crime than killing the animal.

The CSIRO are still genetically modifying that virus, they want it to affect foxes too. They have admitted that this will also wipe out many of the smaller breeds of lapdogs that a lot of people like but they're going to do it anyway when they're satisfied that they've got it right. And they've reiterated a few times that this time around there will be no notification before releasing the virus.

Interesting. Also reminds me as well of some occasionally contrasting wildlife conservation policies between California and Nevada.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Alligator tail, stewed turtle, fried conchs.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

You can hunt them from your porch? I wanted to live somewhere where I could do that.

Not really. Deer around me are very wary about houses. I have an unfenced garden near the house and no critters have ever bothered it. My friends who live near Traverse City where deer are not hunted have them coming into their yards and munching on vegetation unmolested.

 

[Judge]

Not really. Deer around me are very wary about houses. I have an unfenced garden near the house and no critters have ever bothered it. My friends who live near Traverse City where deer are not hunted have them coming into their yards and munching on vegetation unmolested.

Reminds me of our local laws here pertaining to discharging firearms or projectiles of any kind within 1000 feet of any dwelling. All kinds of wildlife willing to mingle at close range with humans and their habitats.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I live at about the same latitude as @Gerald Wilgus, but across the state. We have a trail cam in the back yard and get a group of about 6 deer every night.

We don't hunt though. We just look at them. However, there are way to many of them. They are entering urban spaces around Detroit. Hunting is the best way to manage the herd.

The deer there and the deer here are all considered part of the same herd.

What is nice is that there is a deer head collection box at our Township Hall. The DNR takes these and tests them for Chronic Wasting Disease to let the hunters know if their deer is safe to eat. I want nothing to do with Prions. Because of the orchards around me there are a lot of doe tags to be had. They can do a lot of damage to orchard trees.

 

[TBRS1]

What is nice is that there is a deer head collection box at our Township Hall. The DNR takes these and tests them for Chronic Wasting Disease to let the hunters know if their deer is safe to eat. I want nothing to do with Prions. Because of the orchards around me there are a lot of doe tags to be had. They can do a lot of damage to orchard trees.

NOBODY wants prions. Remember to never eat the brains of your dead relatives.

 

[Captain Caveman]

A major reason that I love the proximity of my apartment unit to raw desert right outside my front door and living room. With all the wildlife that comes with it. Though the rabbits are only now beginning to come out again, after a terrible blight in the last few years.

Luckily I don't think any of us locals every considered them as a food source.

https://www.avma.org/resources-tool...fare/animal-health/rabbit-hemorrhagic-disease

View attachment 148761

Isn't that a hare?

 

[Judge]

Isn't that a hare?

Could well be given the tall ears. We have both desert cottontail rabbits and hares in the same ecosystem, just outside my apartment. Also squirrels, quail, owls, an occasional coyote and lots of great basin collared lizards that at times seem indifferent to humans. Though California king snakes and more elusive rattlesnakes tend to stay away from us two-legged folks.

 

[JayLapointe]

In the Atlantic provinces coming from Halifax, Nova Scotia originally we have the Donair. The Donair is apparently a very modified Greek Gyro. From what I remember a Greek immigrant wanted to make gyros but the cost of lamb was prohibitive, so he started using a mixture of beef and pork instead. Then as well realizing that tzatziki sauce was not something most locally born were used to he created an alternative sweeter sauce, and the Donair was born. Normally it is donair meat/sauce, diced onions and tomatos wrapped in a pita. Personally I like mine without the tomato, I've also seen it some times served with lettuce which is alright but not what I consider standard.

 

[Outdated]

In the Atlantic provinces coming from Halifax, Nova Scotia originally we have the Donair.

We have the entire range in Aus. Pronounced "donair" but spelled Doner Kebab is the eastern Mediterranean version, Turkiye, Syria, Lebanon, etc. In Greece it's called a Yiros. Move a little further west and in regions around Hungary it's known as a Souvlaki.

They're all basically the same thing but with different meats and slight variations in the sauces and flavours.