8 Regional Foods You Might Not Know

Mental Floss ^ | 2/3/11 | Miss Cellania

[MissTed]

Many sites featured the map, and the comments were full of consternation and alternatives. Sure, Hawaii produces the pineapples, but the people who live there eat Spam. All over the world, people think fried chicken when you say Kentucky, but it’s not a particularly native dish nor all that popular in the state. There are foods listed that some state’s lifelong citizens had never heard of! So I looked up some of those obscure regional foods to see what they are all about.

1. Skyline Chili (Ohio)

Some of the confusion came because a food was attributed to a state when it is associated with one city. Cincinnati has a very particular way of eating chili, made famous by Nicholas Lambrinides, who opened Skyline Chili in Cincy in 1949. His Greek chili recipe includes spices not seen in American chili recipes elsewhere. The restaurant’s recipe is secret, but those who made Cincinnati chili at home use cinnamon, cocoa, and/or allspice. The chili is served over pasta, and toppings are added depending on the diner’s taste. Two-way chili is served over spaghetti. Three-way chili is served over spaghetti with Cheddar cheese on top. Four-way chili is also topped with oyster crackers, and five-way chili sees the addition of kidney beans -which are not in the chili recipe itself. Image by Flickr user Susy Morris.

2. Toasted Ravioli (Missouri)

Toasted ravioli is unfamiliar to many Missourians who live outside of St. Louis. The origins of this dish are in dispute, as several chefs in St. Louis’ Italian neighborhood claimed to have originated the dish in the first half of the 20th century, although it may have traveled from Sicily. The ravioli is breaded and deep-fried, then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and served with marinara sauce for dipping. You’ll find toasted ravioli featured at several St. Louis restaurants or you can make your own with this recipe.

3. Loose Meat Sandwiches (Iowa)

Loose meat sandwiches were not invented for the TV series Roseanne, which surprised me. The sandwich is described as a sloppy Joe without the slop, or a hamburger that falls apart. It is also called a Tavern sandwich, as it was served by Ye Olde Tavern Sandwich Shop in Sioux City, Iowa, beginning in 1934. The Maid-Rite chain has been selling loose meat sandwiches since 1926, so there is some controversy over the sandwich’s origin. In Iowa, even national chains such as Dairy Queen serve loose meat sandwiches. If they aren’t served at a restaurant near you, you can try them at home with this recipe.

4. Knoephla (North Dakota)

Spelled knoeplah in the map, this is actually knoephla, a dumpling of German origin that is used with chicken, potatoes, and spices to make knoephla soup. This picture is of knoephlah soup made by RoadFood forum member MTFoodie, from a combination of recipes posted in the same thread.

5. Benne Wafers (South Carolina)

Benne is a Bantu word meaning sesame. Sesame was brought from East Africa by slaves and planted in South Carolina, where it flourished. The seeds were used by the Gullah communities for many foods, including crackers and cookies. Benne wafers is a term used to refer to both sweet cookies and savory crackers, depending on the recipe used.

6. Chislic (South Dakota)

Chislic is deep-fried meat served on a skewer or toothpick. The name is believed to be derived from the German schaschlik or Russian shashlik, which were derived from the Turkich shish kebab. The meat can be beef, mutton, venison, or other game meat. It was introduced to South Dakota by a Crimean immigrant named John Hoellwarth in the 1870s. The reason this dish is not well known outside of South Dakota may be because other regions call it shish kebab. Image by Wikipedia member Gomboc2008.

7. Pasties (Michigan)

Michigan citizens cried foul when pasties were assigned to Michigan, as the dish is mainly popular in the Upper Penninsula (UP). Immigrant miners from Cornwall brought the delicacy with them in the 1800s, but other immigrant ethnic groups brought variants on the recipe. Cornish miners valued pasties because they were so portable, therefore easy to take to work for lunch. A fresh-baked pasty would stay warm for hours, even deep in the copper and tin mines. Pasties are made with a pastry shell resembling pie crust, folded over meat and vegetables and baked in portion sizes easily held in one hand. Ingredients vary, so here are several traditional recipes.

8. Jelly Pie (Arkansas)

The item that seemed to cause the most confusion and/or outrage was jelly pie for Arkansas. Many native Arkansans had never heard of it. But the Food Timeline has a recipe for jelly pie tied to Arkansas.

Jelly Pie (Arkansas) 4 eggs 1/2 cup currant jelly 1/2 cup butter 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon lemon juice Cream the butter and add the sugar and beat well. Add well-beaten yolks and jelly, and fold in the whites of eggs. Add lemon juice and bake without upper crust.” —The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Sheila Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 368)

I found another recipe in the November, 2002 issue of the Sandyland Chronicle from the 1944 Hempstead County Home Demonstration Clubs Cookbook. It differs in that it doesn’t specify any particular type of jelly, which leads me to wonder how varied the resulting pies would be. Another recipe calls for strawberry jelly. It came from “an old copy of Southern Cookbook” which might possibly be from Arkansas. A commenter at the recipe page said the exact same recipe in her cookbook dated back to 1947. A grape jelly pie recipe is said to be from “an old food magazine,” but it doesn’t specify how old, or whether there’s any connection to Arkansas. However, most recipes that found by searching for “jelly pie” were for peanut butter and jelly pie, a sweet variant of peanut butter pie. The picture used for the map is clearly a slice of peanut butter and jelly pie, which is not particularly connected with Arkansas. Arkansas jelly pie appears to be a delicacy that has gone into history.

[MissTed]

#3 pretty please!

[Conan the Librarian]

#5

I don’t know about South Carolina, but, I do know they grow some really fine Benne Wafers here in Savannah.

You can get them from the Byrd Cookie company.

[jimt]

As a 28 year naturalized Texan, I can unequivocally state #1 is a spaghetti dish, not “chili” of any sort.

Might taste good, but it ain’t chili.

[smalltownslick]

I made ‘em two nights ago!

[Free Vulcan]

We don’t call them loose meat sandwiches in Iowa, we call them maidrites, after the chain. Never heard of the Sioux City Ye Olde Tavern, everyone has always attributed them to Maid-Rite.

Don’t know their recipe, and they are made a number of ways. How we make them.

1 lb quality hamburger

Add ketchup, mustard, and real mayonnaise to taste. Onions and relish if you like.

Serve on buns, I like kaisers myself.

[MissTed]

Which one?? :)

[Free Vulcan]

And if you can get them, serve them with these:

[Moose4]

Benne wafers are very much a South Carolina Lowcountry/coastal Georgia thing. I’d never heard of them before I moved to Columbia and only then saw them at a craft show, being sold by an excellent little bakery out of Charleston. They are AMAZING.

Reading that article’s made me hungry!

}:-)4

[samanella]

I was hoping to see WV pepperoni rolls!

[mad_as_he$$]

That is a Sloppy Joe in Maryland.

[Free Vulcan]

That’s pretty much what they are. Maidrite just has their own secret sauce.

[smalltownslick]

The one you said - #3! Some of those others sound really gross!

[vpintheak]

I know #1 and eat 3, 4, 6, & 7 fairly regularly. Mm-Mm good!

[RowdyFFC]

#1 is not chili...it’s a pasta meat dish. Especially if it has beans in it, it isn’t chili. Chili is served in a bowl by itself topped with cheese, or not, with perhaps pico de gallo or onions, and tortillas, corn or flour with butter and/or picante sauce. Or in crispy taco shells with lettuce tomatoes, onions, avocado and sour cream.

The maidrite is just a sloppy joe, looks good. The toasted ravioli looks interesting, but the crisplic doesn’t do a thing for me, the chicken and dumplings stand alone...no potatoes, thanks. Mom used to make the meat pies and put grilled potatoes and onions in there with them, we could even dip them in brown gravy...or fruit pies, with pineapple, lemon, or chocolate stuffing.

Now I’m hungry, think I’ll go across the street and get some Haberneros chicken nachos, with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, onion, refried beans and fajita chicken, with the best red picante in Texas...mmmm...mmmm...mmm..

[reg45]

It’s the kind of chili you would expect from a state that voted for 0bama.

[Darth Reardon]

We don’t call them loose meat sandwiches in Iowa, we call them maidrites

Maybe it's a regional thing. The local IA Alumni group folks call them loose meat sandwiches with a very occasional reference to taverns. I'd never heard them called anything but maidrites before that.

Not sure why they went with maidrites, though. Maybe they're more centralized. I would have chosen that sandwich you can get anywhere in the Tenderloin Belt without even looking at a menu.

[Publius Valerius]

To No. 1: Four-way chili is also topped with oyster crackers

A Four Way is topped with onions, not oyster crackers. Those are served on the side. A Four Way is delicious. And is definitely chili.

[ssaftler]

#1 is not chili...it’s a pasta meat dish.

You got that right. The only chili dish I make contains no beans, no tomatoes, no onions, just meat and about 3 types of chilies, in a beer and beef broth. Then there is the pint of tequila, which goes into the cook while making the chili, but that's another story.

Being Super Bowl weekend, we should be making it tomorrow night, but family issues have intervened this year, unfortunately.

[MissTed]

Now I’m hungry, think I’ll go across the street and get some Haberneros chicken nachos, with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, onion, refried beans and fajita chicken, with the best red picante in Texas...mmmm...mmmm...mmm..

That seriously just made my mouth water. YUM!!!!

[KarlInOhio]

Four-way chili is also topped with oyster crackers, and five-way chili sees the addition of kidney beans -which are not in the chili recipe itself.

Yes, yes, I know, the Texans will be shouting "That's not chili" from their icy candlelit houses. The four-way is with either beans or onions and the five-way adds the other. Oyster crackers are never counted.

Cincinnati - just about the only place you can ask your waitress for a three-way and not get slapped.