THE PACK Message Boards

What are some foods that are native to your area

Around here it's Poutine (sp? my french sucks) anything with salmon and Dulce

Used to live in Buffalo so it was chicken wings. Now that I'm in Rochester its Garbage Plates

Marionberry anything is a big one, they're blackberries big enough to stick your thumb into grown in Marion County (about an hour north of here). When they're in season, truffles (the fungus) and chanterelles are big. So are Dungeness crab and of course, steelhead. Pears and hazelnuts make winter soooooo worth it. We also have four gourmet chocolatiers in the area.

The nice thing about us is this is an agricultural community, practically everyone that isn't in an apartment has at least one fruit tree or a vine for grapes or raspberries. For the rest of us, blackberry bushes grow everywhere and a lot of people keep strawberry pots. We can find fresh pretty much everything year-round if we know where to look; many homeowners keep a greenhouse or a coldframe in their back yard.

What's a real Truffle like!!! Iv'e only ever had the chocolate variewty..which I might add, is VERY moreish

I have always imagined them to taste, abit err .. Mushroomy?

Actually the white truffles are somewhat apple-y. And you NEVER cook them. Wash them, brush with a soft mushroom brush, shave them thinly over pasta or add them at the last minute to risotto.

Black truffles do taste mushroomy but I like mushrooms and they have a kind of...I don't know...yummy quality. The Japanese discovered another taste that they call "umami" which is savoury. Meaty, nutty, tasty, like meat, soy sauce, nuts, mushrooms, cheese and other fermented dairy, et alia. I remembered it by the mnemonic device, "Umami is a taste that makes you go 'Oooooooooh, MOMMY!'"

vrikasatma wrote:Marionberry anything is a big one, they're blackberries big enough to stick your thumb into grown in Marion County (about an hour north of here). When they're in season, truffles (the fungus) and chanterelles are big. So are Dungeness crab and of course, steelhead. Pears and hazelnuts make winter soooooo worth it. We also have four gourmet chocolatiers in the area.

The nice thing about us is this is an agricultural community, practically everyone that isn't in an apartment has at least one fruit tree or a vine for grapes or raspberries. For the rest of us, blackberry bushes grow everywhere and a lot of people keep strawberry pots. We can find fresh pretty much everything year-round if we know where to look; many homeowners keep a greenhouse or a coldframe in their back yard.

Those blackberries sound tastey!

Local foods- well I'm right by the LA border and my mate is cajun, so it's lots of crawfish and budain for me!

*licks chops*

The most (in)famous local dish is the muttonbird. I wouldn't recommend it though... the things stink to high heaven.

Hmm...what would that involve?

(mutton is tasty, but unfortunately a rarity in my area)

In the area I moved to, Albuquerque New Mexico, there are a number dishes that are considered "New Mexican Cuisine". It's a lot like Mexican food, except they use the red and green chili peppers that only grow in this state. They taste spicy, but also very sweet. That mix of flavor enhances every Mexican dish you can think of. Why have you not tasted, or heard of, New Mexican Chili Peppers? Because the state's residents buy up the harvests before anyone anywhere else can get to it.

El Pinto's Handmade New Mexican Salsa. Best on the planet. When I move back to Texas, it's the one thing I'll miss from this state. *sigh* Wait... I have a jar downstairs. RAAAR! *Opens jar and glugs it, shoveing chips down really fast.* My mouth! It's on fire... and I love it!


Cook the salsa into scrambled eggs. It's called Huevos Rancheros. Oh my GOD! Breakfast of champions.

No mutton unfortunately (it would be a lot better if it did!). I think the basic idea is a sooty shearwater chick, salted and preserved in its own fat. I prefer to avoid having anything to do with them.

Ick. I have the digestive tolerance of a coyote and that sounds grody even to me... You lost me at "preserved in its own fat". *gag*

Just checked Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sooty_shearwater - and it doesn't mention that bit so I might be confusing it with something else (or something pre-refrigeration). Doesn't stop them smelling bad though.

About ten years ago I was in Albuquerque while following Crash Worship on tour. Someone in the crowd gifted them with a New Mexico food basket because there's a number of foodies among them.

One of the goodies in the basket was pecans rolled in cayenne pepper and coated in chocolate. Oh my god, that was a treat.

I haven't been back to New Mexico since '99, but next time I go I'm huntin' some of those babies down.

MMmm?? Local food, I'm not quite a fan of the local food ways were I live... but I know of a few kickn' recipes from other adventures my soul has taken ^_^. Most can easily be altered to accommodate meat, or can be placed w/ a meat itself. Personaly - I'm a great fan of brown rice with almonds, topped with lightly stir fried asparagus and napa cabbage (a type of Chinese cabbage). My good friend tells me that this goes really well with fried orange chicken so ^_^.
<~Stir-fry's food like a hyper little Asian woman she is at heart ^_^:kasa:
There's always the bean stew - but the spice I use in it is rather hard to find.... yeast extract... and the sucker takes almost 48 hours of preparation....
If your curious - I'm always out to try to create new foods off the top of my head ^_^, just can't promise they'll all work... hehe