Do you have an interesting local recipe?

[djm]

I'm surprised no-one has volunteered polk salad.

djm

[dwest]

I'm surprised no-one has volunteered polk salad.

djm

I knew a girl who loved that...Annie I think

[hyldemoer]

Not a one of you, even ElPollo, has stuck to the criteria of the second part of the question.

Rules:
It has to be a local dish (not seen outside region and/or country), and it has to be something that usually only the locals like.

Btw, even this Chicago gal knows Polk salad is delicious if you know how to properly prepare the Pokeweed,
otherwise it either kills you flat out or makes you wish it would go ahead and finish the job instead of taking its time.

[Ronbo]

Just because us Americans came from all over the globe doesn't mean we haven't developed our own unique dishes!

Chicken Fried Steak (be sure and smother the friend steak in white gravy if you truly want authenticity): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_fried_steak

Burnt Ends (a Kansas City gift to the food world - but you need a smoker/true barbeque pit - grills won't do): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_ends

Just about anything Cajun/Creole:
Gumbo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumbo
Jambalaya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambalaya
Crafish Etouffee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89touff%C3%A9e

That'll keep you busy for a bit...and now I'm really hungry.

Eric

Sounds like good eating. But, if you want to do cajun food right, you need to get a local Louisiana recipe, preferably one that you have to fight them to get . Otherwise, you just get that pap that is circulating the country. If you eat cajun food in cajun country, it is worlds different than if you find it anyplace else. It don't seem to travel well, for some reason. Brits will not appreciate this, as they seem to have genetic taste deficiencies.

[Ronbo]

What about that southern flea market specialty of boiled... I mean bald peanuts.

I never did learn to make a proper pan of southern corn bread.

And you never will, up in minnesota. It is "Bawled" peanuts, not bald peanuts, fer cryin out loud.

[dwest]

Not a one of you, even ElPollo, has stuck to the criteria of the second part of the question.

Rules:
It has to be a local dish (not seen outside region and/or country), and it has to be something that usually only the locals like.

Hayman Potatoes are available in Chicago?

[Nanohedron]

I don't think you see fried okra outside of the Southern U.S.
It's one of my favorite dishes, when done well (it's easy to screw up).
Basically, it's sliced okra, breaded with a cornmeal-buttermilk mixture
and deep fried. Mmmmm. You can do the same with squash or zucchini,
but I think okra takes to it the best.

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/sidedish/so ... -okra.html

I've had fried okra up here in Minneapolis, but it was whole, and the batter didn't include cornmeal as I recall. There wasn't enough of it.

But yeah, it's not at all commonplace.

I'm trying to think of truly local dishes or foods, and right now I'm stumped. Maybe cream of wild rice soup...

Made properly with extra bonus bits like carrot and meat du jour (no fish, please. That's just wrong), it should come out looking like the dog's lunch.

[The Weekenders]

Cioppino was supposedly invented in my immediate area, either in San Francisco, or my hometown of Martinez (as was the disputed Martini). The Wiki article says North Beach, but we had a huge tomato canning plant right near the wharf in Martinez and the same families that fished from SF also came into Martinez (like Joe DiMaggio's family, Aliotos, Tarantinos, etc).

It's basically whatever seafood you have on hand with a fresh herb and tomato sauce base. It's multi-ethnic. It sounds Italian, but was supposedly invented by Portuguese OR Italian (most likely Sicilian) immigrant locals, as both immigrant groups occupied similar labor niches of fisherman, dairy and beef. The story goes that it was after the markets had closed and it was dinner time and these guys are standing there with the crab pots on hand and leftover fish so they came up with an ultra-quick recipe.

The other Weekender, who is 100% ethnic Italian from San Francisco, makes killer cioppino. It's pretty easy to make; most of the work is prepping the seafood itself because you start with live crabs, live clams, mussels scallops etc. It's good to throw in some kind of fish too, of course, like bass or something in boned fillet form. The tomato sauce, which is basically garlic, onion, fresh herbs and fresh-made or canned sauce, comes together in 20 minutes or so. I'm sure there are recipes but it's one that it done by memory. The most important thing is to not overcook the seafood.

In my hometown of Martinez, cioppino feeds were pretty common for the social clubs. It's truly one of the finest dishes you can ever enjoy, and what makes it special is our local Dungenness crab, which i prefer over lobster any day (it's tangier).

[Walden]

Local foods here include fried potatoes. They're not deep fried, but fried in a greasy skillet, maybe with onions. It differs from hash in starting with raw potatoes.

Fried okra is a standard food, but it needs to be cooked a long while. All vegetables are cooked longer here than people from northern places cook them. This is why they think they don't like some vegetables. I don't like them either, if they don't cook them any better than that.

Poke salet and eggs is another one. It is absolutely essential to boil the poison out of the pokeweed first or you will get sick.

My grandma used to make tremendously good fried yellow squash. It's rolled in a cornmeal and flour mixture, the same as okra, but the squash is sliced paper thin, and then it's fried to a crisp in an iron skillet.

[Walden]

Another thing I think is mostly local to this region is peanut patties. It's plain sugar pralines with Spanish peanuts and usually dyed red.

[hyldemoer]

Not a one of you, even ElPollo, has stuck to the criteria of the second part of the question.

Rules:
It has to be a local dish (not seen outside region and/or country), and it has to be something that usually only the locals like.

Hayman Potatoes are available in Chicago?

and if we didn't, if I had to come over to your local to get them, are you saying I, as a nonlocal, probably wouldn't like them once I tried them?

[Innocent Bystander]

Not a one of you, even ElPollo, has stuck to the criteria of the second part of the question.

Ahem!

[Steamwalker]

Not local here but being that my mom is from the Philippines (where I was born), a Filipino thing that I loved growing up of which people don't think sounds too appetizing is Avocado Milkshakes. Easy to find the recipe by googling it. Very tasty and refreshing!

[fearfaoin]

I never did learn to make a proper pan of southern corn bread.

It's all about the bacon grease.

[Walden]

Not local here but being that my mom is from the Philippines (where I was born), a Filipino thing that I loved growing up of which people don't think sounds too appetizing is Avocado Milkshakes. Easy to find the recipe by googling it. Very tasty and refreshing!

Another thing I liked in the Philippines was deep fried kangkong. The leaves were battered in a very light batter.

I'd recently been pondering the avocado milkshake thing, and it seems to me a bit like how Americans sweeten pumpkin and cinnamon for use in desserts, whereas these may be used in savory dishes in some other countries. Filipinos tend to sweeten avocados, whereas Americans usually use them unsweetened in salads or savory dips. We had an avocado tree in our yard, when I was 12-years old and living in the Philippines. It would get loaded with wonderful avocados of a large size that is not seen in the grocery stores here.