Local Delicacies

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by Hanzo, Mar 29, 2015.


  1. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++

    Please share your local delicacies. Tell us where and what and how you like it.

    It just so happened, that I am having an afternoon snack of pickled mango. It is quite popular here in Hawaii. I think it is tart and delicious.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427675884.828500.

    This morning, I had leftover spam musubi and chicken katsu for breakfast. This particular musubi was just a piece of spam on some rice, wrapped with nori (dried seaweed). I nuked it with a wet paper towel over it to soften the rice and it was all good. Then all gone. Chicken katsu is a Japanese fried chicken cutlet. We didn't have any sauce, so I made a simple one with what we packed over so far. It was quite good.

    Both the musubi and katsu have distinctive Japanese origins. But so popular and so good here.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427676120.348091.
     
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  2. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++

    Also, anything li hing flavored is a big hit here. Like these li hing lemon drops I got as part of my coach's gift.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427686884.804218.

    My monkey has already popped a couple.
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2015
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  3. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    I have no idea what my local delicacies are. We have nothing as exotic and pretty as you. I have always wondered why Spam is so popular in HI. I saw the movie 50 first dates and they talked of Spam plus you did above. I don't think I have ever seen Spam on a menu, even the truck stop doesn't.
     
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  4. shaman

    shaman Monkey++

    Back when Germans outnumbered everyone else in Cincinnati, we were all shoved up into a slum north of the Miami Erie Canal, which is now Central Parkway. The area became known as Over The Rhine. Fredrich Gerstacker wrote a book about his travels in America back in the late 1830's to the early 40's. His descriptions of Cincinnati at that time included the observation that every little hovel in OTR had a front room that doubled as an Inn. You could walk in off the street and get food served to you by occupants. One of the most common things served was Mock Turtle Soup. It is usually made from beef, not turtle, and the traditional dish was made from calf's head. The reason being that you want the jowl meat, because it stands up to long cooking times . This stuff is to-die-for good.

    Mock Turtle Soup Recipe - Food.com

    I was raised on the stuff, and it used to be a regular thing on everyone's menu. The last definitive Mock Turtle Soup I know of is served daily at Mecklenburg Gardens, est 1865. Some of the local butcher shops carry it as well.

    The other local delicacy is Cincinnati Chili. It's a Greek dish, and the stuff is ladled over spaghetti and topped with a choice of beans, onions, and cheese. Chilli and spaghetti is called a 2-way, Adding cheese makes it a 3-way, etc. This dish also capitalizes on the toughness of the beef jowl for extra long cooking times. I know one chili operation cooks its chili for 27 hours-- another for 36. As a result, most head meat east of the Mississippi gets shipped to Cincinnati for our chilli. Most Cincinnati natives have a favorite: Skyline, Gold Star, Empress, etc. These are all chains of chili parlors started by Greek families. The actual original dish was served at a small restaurant next to the old Empress Theatre (long gone), and the recipe survives at at place called Camp Washington Chili. Empress Chili changed its recipe a couple of generations ago.

    My favorite is Dixie Chili-- a relative newcomer from across the river in Northern Kentucky. It is spicier than the others.

    My favorite venison recipe is ground venison prepared with the Gold Star Seasoning mix available at the supermarket.

    A third local delicacy I would not have mentioned ten years ago. The problem is I'd never had it done right. Then I finally got a taste of it prepared the correct way, and I fell in love. This is Goetta. It's meat, pin oats and spices made up into a breakfast sausage. I'm hooked on the stuff. They sell chubs of it in the supermarkets around here and I flatten it out, and pop it into a waffle iron (with the smooth side of the plates) or panini maker. About 15-20 minutes later, I open the lid and eat. It is kind of like mixing oatmeal and sausage together and then frying it up. When my Mom used to make it, she didn't cook it enough. You need the outside crisp.
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2015
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  5. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Tho' Philadelphia is NOT exactly next door, the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich is more than slightly popular in this area. There seems to be no standard recipe other than bread, thin sliced beef from anywhere off the cow, and your choice of cheese. The standard cheese is provolone, but you can have what you want if the shop just happens to have it. Additional "stuff" runs the gamut of onion (cooked or not) peppers (green, red, cooked or not) garlic and any number of dips or sauces that the shoppe might happen to have handy. You have to shop around to find the place that does them the way you might like, it's an adventure.

    Me? Gimme cheddar, raw onion and a sauce of some kind. Subway does NOT do it my way.
     
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  6. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++


    It's on menus here.
     
  7. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++


    Never had turtle soup, but have had slow cooked jowl. It was very tender.

    Who else hates autocorrect? Glad I saw what it did. Jowl got changed to Joel.
     
  8. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++


    I likey Philly cheese steak!
     
  9. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Red King Crab, Large Shrimp, Halibut, Yellow Eye RockFish, and Salmon in season.... all within 5 miles.....
     
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  10. AxesAreBetter

    AxesAreBetter Monkey+++

    Blackened catfish. Po Boys! Muscadines. All good things.
     
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  11. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Sorry, @shaman , but I can't stand that chilli. It all comes with cinnamon in the mix, and I can't get it without it. (All premixed and shipped to the stores). cinnamon has no place in Chilli.:sick:
     
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  12. shaman

    shaman Monkey++

    Yes, a lot of them do have Cinnamon. You hear all sorts of strange ingredients. Supposedly, some of them have chocolate. You have to remember that Cincinnati Chili is not like other chili. At its foundation, it is a Greek dish, and if you sit down to a bowl of Cincinnati Chili it's. . . well, it's different. Some people hate it. Others think it's the only chili out there. I probably have a bowl of it once a week. I don't like the noodles, so I get a bowl with cheese and onions. We make a pot of it using venison every weekend in the winter and usually eat it while watching the NFL.

    It is also hard to get outside of River City. I have eaten at a Gold Star south of Somerset, KY. That may be the farthest away I've seen it.

    EDIT: Nope! Skyline has locations in Florida now.
     
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  13. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    There are several skyline chili's here in Columbus, and I avoid them all, because EVERY chili has it, and I can't order it without. (Prepackaged)
     
  14. shaman

    shaman Monkey++

    Growing up a Cincinnati Krauthead, chili was ubiquitous. You either ate it or you had to deliberately stay out of its way. They serve it in the schools. It was not a matter of liking it or not. It was a matter of which one you liked more. If you got hooked on one of the little independent places, you'd find yourself making pilgrimages to get a fix decades after moving out of the neighborhood. You could lose a girlfriend if she was Gold Star and you were Skyline.

    My personal favorite is Dixie. However, I have to go over the bridge to KY to eat it now. The Cincinnati locations I used to frequent closed.
     
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  15. shaman

    shaman Monkey++

    I was dating this lawyer from Philly, and she introduced me to cheesesteaks as part of our fling. Penn Station had just opened up in downtown Cincinnati. I was an instant convert. I've probably had at least one a month since 1985. She was a corporate shark, worked for one of the local companies, and used to overthrow small South American regimes as a hobby. She'd call me up to talk dirty and remind me to record her appearances before congressional committees.

    Count me in for Provelone, fried onions, and either pizza sauce or plain.
     
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  16. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Steak escape, is much Better. I used to live on them when I worked in a boilerroom making cold calls.
     
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  17. Tracy

    Tracy Insatiably Curious Moderator Founding Member

    Filberts (known as hazelnuts to everyone else)
    Huckleberries
    Marionberries
    Mushrooms - (chanterelles and morels)
    Geoduck - "gooey duck" (mud clam) (ick)
     
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  18. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++

    Today's delicacies.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427852867.346813.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427852879.379751.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427852889.029923.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427852898.314709.

    Rainy tai chi today.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427852919.466368.

    Will probably be a rainy soccer practice.
     
  19. AxesAreBetter

    AxesAreBetter Monkey+++

    Forget me, I totally forgot to throw, well, any meat that will fit into a smoker or b-b-q pit.
     
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