Worldwide Food & Drink specialties (where you live or where you've been)
 

I've been lucky enough to live in a number of places that had great food and/or drink.

Grew up in Louisiana - food paradise! Crawfish, jambalaya, etoufee, gumbo, fried okra, fried pickles, hush puppies....and on and on. Dixie Beer is pretty good too.

Malta had lots of good food too: Pastizzi was my favorite - means cheesecake, but its not what you would imagine. It is a flaky bread like pastry with Ricotta cheese inside (yum) or with mashed peas (better than it sounds. Also, lots of good Italian type food and lots of good cheese (oooh Gbejna sheep’s milk cheese) wine and beer (Cisk).

Belize had a great blend of Creole and Mexican style foods; food that made you want to lay on the beach and rub your belly. Lots of fresh juices (mango, papaya, pineapple, coconut, etc). I must admit though, I ate more beans than I'd like to remember. Rum (all kinds) is cheap as hell and smooooth!

Chicago is the greezy spoon city. Everything you eat is really good, but not really good for you. Best pizza, burgers, gyros, etc.

Seattle I'll have to report on in a month or so.... How 'bout you good folks?

Seattle is famous for seafood (specifically salmon and Penn Cove Mussels), coffee, asian and pan-asian fusion, coffee, sushi, coffee, microbrews, salmon, coffee and then some coffee to round it out. And herbs. Lots and lots of herbs in EVERYTHING, especially rosemary (yummay). Except maybe the coffee. :cowboy:

And we have what is almost universally regarded as the best steak on the west coast at the Metropolitan Grill. (Voyd, TravelPunk & The Boss and I dined there last fall. :drool: )

Hm Chicago. The city built around food. God I miss it.

Phoenix, Well what can I say about food in phoenix? How about Sand does not go well with anything. :dry:

Well, here in Maryland, we are famous for our crabs. Not the fine toothed comb and special shampoo kind, but the kind that crawl around the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.

Crab Cakes, Crab soup, Crab Imperial, Crab everything.


And Old Bay seasoning. God, I love that stuff. Its interesting when a chef from the Midwest comes in and doesn't understand why we put it on everything from fries to steaks ;)

As for other stuff, Rockfish (otherwise known as Striped Bass outside of the Old Line State) is a local favorite. Hell, with the Bay in the backyard, seafood in general is pretty damned big here.

San Francisco:

Sourdough, which became a staple via the miners of the gold rush. They'd stake a piece of land and stay on it for weeks/months at a time, and they'd live off of sourdough bread by taking a little bit of starter with them and making bread whenever they got hungry. Nowadays it's served at just about any restaurant in SF short of the Asian places. After a visit to SF, you'll either be addicted or sick of it.

Dungeness crab, while not the largest nor meatiest, is IMO the tastiest, as far as natural flavor goes. If you like seafood, you can't eat in SF without having some dungeness crab.

Ghirardelli chocolate. It won't give the Belgians a run for their money anytime soon, but they do have certain varieties that may as well be brown, ooey gooey crack.

Beer. While the pacific northwest might be the overall champ of microbrew in the public's eyes, Northern California's truly on top of the craft brew game. You can't spit in San Francisco without hitting a brewery, and while quantity usually doesn't mean much, I can say with confidence that the quality is all there.

Fine dining/wine. Ok, so this isn't really one item, but SF's crazy number of restaurants and proximity to the countries premier winemaking regions makes for a mind-boggling array of choices, perfectly paired with choices from extensive wine lists.

Oh - and nobody here eats Rice-a-Roni. San Francisco treat, my ass!

im going to comment on the west country

cornish pasties
scones with fresh clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam
cheddar cheese
some of the best fish restaurants in the world can be found in the west country too
not to forget cider afterall Bristol is home of Blackthorn cider

:ninja: :starwars: I live in Alaska , up here the grubs are Moose (any way you can make it) , Caribou, Reindeer, and the natives make all kinds of neat things out of the sea mammals.. like whale casserole, and this stuff that tastes like ice cream with berries in it, but it is actually whale fat with berries in it... right now they are having the walrus hunt, so i imagine walrus will be on the menu too... havent had any native food yet, but i've heard that walrus tastes great!! oh and it seems a lot of the urban alaskans have a penchant for crack rocks... not my thing... hot pockets and crack... best thing pass through anchorage as quick as possible...

What about Salmon, PF?


:D

Wisconsin - what it is steretypically known for:

Cheese. There are cheese shops everywhere with a huge variety of flavors and types. Cheese curds rock.

Lefse & Lutefisk. We've got lots of Norskies.

Beer. Tons and tons of micro breweries. Every kind of beer you can think of. There's one bar in my hometown that has over a hundred kinds of beers. You can drink really cheap there too.

Beer cheese soup (who'd a thunk?)

Now I'm living in Chicago, but mostly know it's ethnic restuarants (my all time favorite Mexican restaurant is here). My in laws still love Chicago style hotdogs ("dragged through the garden.") The deep dish pizza rocks. Finally tried it a few years ago and fell in love.

oh oh! I feel the need to post here...although I am having a very hard time thinking of any signature "Southern Ontario" dishes...there seems to be lots o' Canadian content here so maybe someone can help me out?

Just a list of personal favs:

Best Pizza - Wisconsin - it is definitely the cheese...soooo good.

Best Poutine - Montreal - french fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds...say no more :thumbup:

Best Curry - London - never tried curry from India...must try!

Best Streetmeat - Toronto! - nothin' like it after a night of drunken debauchery :cheers:

Best Beers - Belgium - hands down :worship:

Cheers

I don't know dude, for pizza, its gotta be Chicago, and Sicily as a runner up! :) And beer, Belgium has good beer, but there are lots of really good beers out there. What about Scotland? Germany?

Must...go...to...Chicago! Never tried it there. I agree there are lots of beers out there. I always try new beers...can't let the ol' taste buds get bored! I find German beers too bitter :mf_tongue: lol...just my personal taste though. Scottish beers I find a little unfinished-tasting...don't really know how to describe it...it's like there was one final step in the brewing process that they missed...

There's something very clean about Belgian beers...clean, but not lacking any flavour :happy: mmmmm

Unfortunatly California is not known for its local food specialties like some of the other less health concious areas of the country. We do have good sushi here though.

Well, here in Buenos Aires you'll taste the best asados (bbq) ever!!!! Well, here anything with meat is just the absolut best!!!

Also we have something called dulce de membrillo, which is this red jelly thing made out of membrillos.

And another personal favourite: dulce de leche!!!!!!! Some Americans say it tastes like caramel... but no way!!!!! It's this delicious thing we use for: desert, cake filling, bombons filling, in creppes ("panqueques" yum!), mixed with whipped cream, we have dulce del leche ice cream, as a filling in croissants and other baked things!! Its kindda like a spread, so u can put in on french toast... or just about on anything. :drool:

http://www.mercadolibre.com.ar/org-i...07574_5509.jpg

http://www.dulcedeleche.co.uk/Using%...de%20Leche.gif

And well.... pasta is great here too... :thumbup:

Oh!! how could i have forgotten about empanadas!!!!

They come in meat, spicy meat, jam and cheese, roquefort, vegeteables, chicken, tuna, corn, cheese and onions, and for desert: dulce de membrillo, de batata and of course... dulce de leche!

http://www.casadelanonna.com/Fotos/Empanada.jpg

Atlanta

Being in the dirty south we have fried everything. We also put gravy on everything.

Best Foods here:

Sould Food - A little place here called "Daddy D'z" that has the best soul food around. Fried chicken, collard greens, mac n cheese, BBQ, the usual stuff. It is all cheap and excellent.

Steaks - There are a ton of great steak places around. Be prepared to shell out some money but the general rule is the more it costs the better it is. I have found no exceptions in my 4 years here...

Ethnic Restaurants - We have a HUGE migrant population and there is this one road "Buford Highway" that has sectons: Chinese, Peruvian, Mexican, Korean, etc. I have been to a few and they are all excellent and family run. I tried to get a job at a bank on that road a second language was REQUIRED!

We also have great bars around of all types. I have been know to be found in one every other day or so! :cheers:

Foo

:cheers:

thats not an empanadas thats a bloody pasty :blink2:

is it true outside of wales argentina has the largest welsh population?

I was going to say that BBQ down here is the best but in truth every state in the south claims their the best, it’s a very important and heated subject. So important that it has forced me to be rude and over step the claim that Buenos Aires has the best BBQ (asado), sorry but unless you live in an area where people have spent more money on a grill then on the truck that pulls it. No joke, one of my friends dads as a grill built on a trailer about 10 feet long and something like 12 feet tall, it’s a very serious statement to make. Watch now tpunks from Kansas and South Carolina are going to jump on my shit for saying Texas has the best.

Yup, those are empanads de carne alright... (meat empanadas) :thumbup:

And ur right... the welsh comunity here in Argentina is pretty big, they've settled in the south mostly (when princess Diana came to visit she went down there and even had tea at one of the tea houses. They've settled in Gaiman, in the province of Chubut. I havent been there but my parents say its great. Look it up in google, there are some great scenes.
Anyway... they make excellent fruit cake, though they call it welsh cake. :chef:

:mf_w00t2:

hahah, i just looked up "pasty" on google images... i had never heard of it in my life!!!! but it looks like (ugly) empanadas!!! what is it and where are they from!?!?!?!?