regional food

so glad to see you self corrected bar-be-que to bar-b-que. I vote for Carolina vinegar sauce, my own self.

I'm from Virginia where we are known for peanuts and ham. Yes,the salty kind. We know it will kill us, but we don't care. We like it like that. Virginia is also known for blue shell crabs and THE best crab cakes. I'm awfully fussy about my crab cakes. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

While skiing in Mont Tremblant we came across a regional food surprise. Poteen ( I guess I'm spelling it right: say Poo teen), not to be confused with Poontang .

Poteen is french fries with some kind of white cheese chunks on it, drowned in brown gravy. Yummy! I will admit we just about fell out when we first saw it. But we ordered it everyday from then on with every meal.

Another little eating tip. I always try to order whatever is the special of the day, unless it is liver and onions. The chef has probably spent a long time messing with it and wants it to be good.

I have to dispute your statement that Virginia's known for the best crabcakes. I may live in Virginia now, but I come from Maryland, which everybody knows owns the crabcake. Virginia can have ham and peanuts.

Maryland is also know for a particular kind of biscuits -- beaten biscuits AKA Maryland biscuits. If you haven't had the pleasure of eating these delicacies, I'll try to convey their unique nature. They get the name "beaten" because when making the dough, one is instructed to take an axe handle (or similar implement) and beat the dough. Literally. You wail away at the dough. When the one-and-a-half-inch orbs are cooked (I'm not sure what method is used; it may be similar to how a bagel is cooked), they are incredibly dense. I haven't had them for years, and I'm not sure where I'd find them. I think my grandmother used to make them, but by the time I came around she was all done with that. My father would buy them on his rounds selling tobacco, candy, and sundry dry products to the county's mom-and-pop stores, bars, snack bars, and I don't know what all (owned a wholesale candy and tobacco business). I may have to look into where to find them via Google.

Ahhh...Poteen - something that looks vile but tastes like heaven...yumm...havne't had any since I was in Montreal two summers ago (food heaven)...

Being from Ohio, we haven't got too much in the way of regional specialty foods, except for Lake Erie Perch (don't eat it if you're pregnant!) and a fabulous candy called "Buckeyes". These are balls of peanut butter and powdered sugar (about the size of a quarter in diameter) dipped in chocolate. A small amount of peanut butter is left to peek out of the chocolate ball, hence the name, because they look like the inedible nuts that fall off the buckeye tree.

For M*A*S*H fans, Ohio is home to Tony Packos, of the famous hotdogs. (Which are pretty darn tasty).

GF
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Is one word that brings peace. ~ Buddha

Now, see! I learned something. Someone made me a batch of buck-eye candy/cookies one time, they were fabu btw, and told me that they were named after buck (deer) eyes. Gross. I like your explaination much better.

I found the only producer of Maryland beaten biscuits, so for everyone's edification and delight, here's a picture:



Don't they look just yummy? You can read all about them here.

Re: regional food

HRH Gracie wrote:

While skiing in Mont Tremblant we came across a regional food surprise. Poteen ( I guess I'm spelling it right: say Poo teen), not to be confused with Poontang ...

Poutine, je pense.

Quote:

Poteen is french fries with some kind of white cheese chunks on it, drowned in brown gravy.

Yep, sounds like poo for teens.

For a recipe: http://www.thumper.net/tlkmag/archive/fun/poutine/