Regional Food Specialties

[Pick]

We've got quite a few here in the Cleveland/Northeastern Ohio area.

1. Fresh Lake Erie Perch and Walleye!! Best tasting fish in the world. Available year round, more plentiful in the summer. The best "Fish Houses" are in Grand River and Fairport.

2. Lake Erie Wines. Many small wineries in the Lake and Ashtabula county area. Some are winning International awards.
Best Riesling in the world is from Markko Vineyards, Conneaut, Ohio. Anything from Ferrante Winery, or Virant Winery in Geneva is on top of my list.

3. We have cheese too! Middlefield, Ohio has TWO cheese factories, famous for their swiss cheese. We also have a big cheese processing center called Great Lakes Cheese, in the county. The Middlefield area is also has a big Amish population.

[nds]

Originally posted by maxandgeorgia
nds-you asked about "loose meat" sandwiches. The ones we have loved for years were from a franchised Maid-rite.

But, what are they?

[overlander64]

After re-reading all of the posts, I realized that one of my favorite Bar-B-Ques was actually something of a regional treat. In Southern Illinois, there are two establishments that feature a very unique and tasty Bar-B-Que - - Shemwell's (Alexander County - - in Cairo) and Dixie Bar-B-Que (Union County - - in Jonesboro). In both cases, the Bar-B-Que is Pork shoulder that has been hickory smoked, sliced paper thin and served with a home-made Bar-B-Que sauce. The sauces are similar yet slightly different - - Shemwell's tends to be a bit "hotter" while Dixie's tends to be a little "sweeter". The hot vs. sweet seems to be a function of the amount of horse raddish used in the sauce - - or at least that has been the speculation in my family.

Kevin

[norbert]

maxandgeorgia,
i was in the navy with a guy from bayou la batre....cant say i had any gumbo there...but i got the cooks tour from a native son...quite an interesting little town...thats where shrimpin started i believe......
norby

[overlander64]

Greetings nds!

But, what are they?

Loose Meat sandwiches, Maid Rites, or Steamburgers all have a common presentation. It is basically a sandwich of "crumbled hamburger". Unlike sloppy joes, these sandwiches do not have a tomato sauce binder; in fact there is no sauce involved. The meat is "steamed" until done and crumbled - - the steaming element varies - - some use chicken broth - - others use beef broth - - others use plain water. To the "steaming" base, the cook usually adds a compliment of seasonings and spices. Most cooks also add onions and some add a taste of galic. The bun is usually toasted and served with a heaping portion of the loose meat with the normal compliment of hamburger compliments - - catsup, mustard, mayonaise, etc. I like to add a couple of slices of crisp bacon to mine as well as some sharp cheddar cheese.

Kevin

[john hd]

Originally posted by nds

But, what are they?

can't really say for sure...

BUT, i did see a show on our local pbs station that explained what they are.

the show is called "sandwiches that you will like" made by WQED.

it is available for sale. -or- you can check your local pbs station to see if they are airing it.

it covered maidrite, loosemeat, grinders, poboys, horseshoes etc.

here is a link for it....

http://www.wqed.org/tv/natl/sandwiches/

john

[john hd]

here is the maidrite page from the above link....


http://www.maidrite.com/

has a pretty good description of what "loosemeat" is.

john

[Moonshot]

In North Carolina there are "fish camps" or "fish houses" where you can get some excellent freshwater fish or seafood.

Our favorite is Harward's in New London, NC. Off the beaten path for sure but good eatin'. Another good one from years ago was Cap'n Wendy's near Gastonia. At least to a young boy Cap'n Wendy seemed like an honest to gosh pirate, what with a wooden leg and all!

What sets a fish camp apart from other restaurants is that seating is usually done indoors on wooden picnic tables and instead of napkins you get a roll of paper towels!

Scott

[norbert]

All these years...and i finally know what a fish camp is! When i would work down south as a young lad...i used to think man there sure are a lot of sportsmen down here.....
you made my day...
norby

[markdoane]

Norbert:
Just til the new year, could you drop the Lutefisk comment. . . .
This is the season to be generous; and non-judgmental.
Don, in Minnesota.

[Davydd]

Don,

I've been in Minnesota 33 years and have yet to try Lutefisk (sober). In fact I haven't met anyone yet claiming they like it.

I joined the Sons of Norway (not a drop of Norwegian blood in me) one year mainly because their headquarters was across the street from my office and had a bar that served 50 cent beer to members. They should just about now be having their annual Christmas dinner where everything served is WHITE! Potatoes, hominy, cauliflower, lefse, lutefisk, etc. I'm sure I must have ate normal broiled cod that night.

[Davydd]

We always make a pastie stop first thing after crossing the Mackinaw Bridge on the way back to Minnesota. Then we stop a couple of miles down the way and have a short picnic on the white sand shores of Lake Michigan.

Is Pittsburgh the only place where they garnish their hamburgers with french fries? The best cookies ever were the ones we bought from an Amish street vendor on the Strip in Pittsburgh.

Chili in Cincinnati? Must be a new thing. Never heard of that claim back in the 60s when I went to college there.

I adhered to vegetarianism for 7 years until our sons wedding in Massachusetts. Then I succumbed to fresh lobster all along the coast of New England from Gloucester to Bar Harbor. Forgot what fresh lobster was truly like since our days in Newport, RI. It ain't the same anywhere else inland even if it is alive in those mossy restaurant and supermarket tanks.

White Castles? Com'n those gut bombs, sliders or whatever else you want to call them are all over the midwest--Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and elsewhere east to New Jersey. When I grew up, eating out with the family was going to White Castle and buying them by the sack for 10 cents each or a dozen for a dollar. In college they were 3 AM sober pills.

I'm curious about another food idiosycracy. I spent a lot of time in Philadelphia back in 1971 working on a design/build project--31 nights to be exact. Every restaurant had a soup of the day and always "Snapper" soup as the other choice. As I remember snapper soup was not the red snapper fish but snapping turtle and all the turtles were imported. When I ask now I get a, "Huh?" Did it die away with the turtle supply?

Peoples' fear of family members dying in Minnesota is really a fear of "hotdish" from supportive neighbors. That is casserole to others. It is probably as reviled as fruitcake. But then I was never turned off by fruitcake as long as it was marinated liberally with rum.

When traveling to the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota a must stop is always Betty's Pies. The restaurant is new, bigger, relocated and under new management but the tradition still holds and the pie variety is huge.

A lot of foods have a mystic. Coors beer was the smuggle in beer of choice in Indiana. White Castles do get shipped frozen all over. Krispy Kreme was the donut of the stars and unavailable a short two years ago in Minneapolis. Now we are inundated with them and they are being sold in Target Stores and Holiday gas and convenient stores everywhere. Now they are not so hot. Woullet's Bakery is the place to go for a donut. Rest in peace Lincoln Del and Bernie's delicatessen where donuts were absolutely fabulous. That was before the muffins and scones crowd muscled them out. Thank god Krispy Kreme brought the donut back.

[donnall]

Hot Springs Ark, wet BBQ ribs at McLards

Hoxie Ark, Fried cat fish, home made sweet rolls, & ice cream at Fiddlers.

Jonesboro, Ark, BBQ salad at Couch's BBQ

Lake View Ark, sunday buffet at Gastons resort on the White River.

Bald Knob Ark, real cajun food at Who-Dats

Just a few of my favorie local (to me) places in Arkansas.

Don

[CanoeStream]

Even 'Minnesota Nice' fails us on the topic of lutefisk. Cultures of Italy and Portugal enjoy their baccala. Usually blended with tomato and other flavors, baccala tends to be a slivered form of what we relish (mmm-m-m-m!) as lutefisk. It begins with a humble dried codfish. The necessary reconstitution may be a tad smelly for the workers involved in putting it into cold cases in our groceries. The result is only one part of a dinner plate and quite comparable to what other areas of the country enjoy in a good fish chowder.

The question at our annual Lutheran church's lutefisk dinner is, "Swedish or Norwegian?" After laying the blue glassy filets on a mound of potatoes, you are offered cream gravy or butter over the top to satisfy the nationality question. This is what took our elders through the winter and into the bumper harvest of tofu and craisins in the summer (mixing our metaphors, aren't we?).

I can refer you to www.olsenfish.com for a wealth of information on this misunderstood protein source. (Though I confess I once duped a young niece into happily eating a piece of "Christmas Fish" -- no complaints there!) For the best results one had better hope for a good family source to experience lutefisk. I do not think many restaurants would do it justice. Minnesotans pride themselves about their roots -- I only married into it (My multi-great-grandfather and source of my given name lies interred in the State Cemetery on the capital grounds in Austin, Texas). Yet our Philadelphia members could tell you the earliest Scandinavian settlements in the country forced William Penn to relocate upriver before he founded the home of the Liberty Bell, great soft-shell crab dinners, and the USS Olympia.

Humble farmer roots lie behind the reputation for white-colored food -- rice pudding, potato dumplings (called either krop kakor or potato klub), and lutefisk of course. Top it off with a bit of lingonberry and your savory Yule dinner would be welcomed by anyone. Scandinavia roamed the seas with as much reach as the Dutch East India Company. Spices from the world figured into cosmopolitan cuisines in Stockholm and Oslo. Witness the rise of Marcus Samuelsson and Andreas Viestad -- though I don't think I will be emulating them anytime soon in a campground.

The response to this topic is great indeed -- keep it coming and I will post an index document of specialties by state! But I guess I will have to privately relish my own serving of lutefisk on Thursday.... Sköl!!

[CanoeStream]

Davydd -- Hominy? Minnesotan? (Though the treatment with lye as a preservative is quite similar to lutefisk, hominy is revered by itself, as grits, or as pozole in Mexico)

On the white-food subject Cream of Wheat's home always was in Nord'east Minneapolis I guess.

Judy's Cafe in Two Harbors has had krop kakor one night a week in my experience...

[Davydd]

Okay, okay, it must have been a southern lapse on my part. After 33 years I still don't understand why you can't get grits for breakfast anywhere in Minnesota. It's hell trying to find black eyed peas for New Years day in Minnesota as well.

This week I interviewed a lady from Texas for an admin job. She remarked to me that she could understand me because I talked slow compared to everyone else. Yes! yes! I still have it after 33 years! But, I'm not perfect. When I go to my high school reunions my "Fargo" accent is commented on.

[markdoane]

Davydd:
Can't believe you were in Cincinnati (my hometown) and never tried Skylini Chili!
They add cocoa to give it a unique flavor. The highest you could go was a 7-way.

[norbert]

my,my....such passion for a vile food brought on by such an innocuous little blurb.....the old swedes are gone...they took with them to their graves, the knowledge that made the dish palatable......i for one shall never eat it again....tradition has it that the codfish is started soaking on santa lucia day(dec 13) for consumption on christmas eve....a meal now only a memory...potatis skorv with cream horseradish sauce so simple yet so exquisite....and many other dishes of name i know not, will never be again....
norby

[qqq]

In Lyon (France), frog legs & snails in garlic sauce

Hart

[wahoonc]

Cuban Press Sandwiches, best place is a little hole in the wall store near the Clearwater, FL airport, gotta wash them down with a beer. Mother in Law's Sweet Potatoe Casserole and COOKED Banana Cream Pudding I'll come home from any where! for those two dishes

Aaron