HALLIE EPHRON: I’m just back from Paris where I spent a wondrous week teaching a class on writing mystery and suspense for WICE Paris (Where Internationals Connect in English.) My daughters came along and we filled our free time with (pause… suspense… what would we have spent our free time doing?) EATING.
I had forgotten what a croissant is supposed to taste like. The aroma. The tissue-thin layers of yummy. And available freshly baked every morning at any of the half-dozen cafes and bakeries within walking distance of our AIRBNB.
What’s your favorite (and at its best only truly available in one place) goody, what makes it so special, and where’s the one place you’re guaranteed to get it perfectly prepared?
RHYS BOWEN: The one thing you should add about croissants in France is that they only cost a Euro, not five as they do here.
In September I’ll be going to John’s sister in Cornwall, something we have done every year. It’s a different world, slower pace, lovely people.
Oh, and I stay in a manor house! And eat.., cream teas with the best clotted cream ever, fish and chips and Cornish Pasties.
The first thing we do when we arrive is to eat a pastie.
We have our favorite bakeries in several villages. And for those who don’t know pasties are pie crust around meat and vegetables. They were made originally for the miners to take their lunch down the mine. Thus they have a rim of pastry around one side so the miners could hold them with dirty hands and not spoil their meal.
Simple but delicious served hot!
LUCY BURDETTE: I know I can be a food snob, but I won’t eat a croissant unless it’s in France. I went to La Maison d’Isabelle a couple of years ago in Paris–they won best croissant in France in 2018–and I still dream about those flaky, buttery layers.
But if I have to move on from pastry, I would say Key West pink shrimp. They are caught near the islands so are perfectly fresh and gorgeous. They are heads and tails more delicious than frozen or imported. Yes, more expensive too, but a good treat once in a while!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I think part of the answer has to do with pizza.
I can’t really quite articulate it, but there’s a certain kind of pizza that tastes like real pizza, and then there are a whole raft of different categories that are not necessarily terrible, but not real pizza.
There’s like, yuppie pizza, with things like prosciutto and balsamic vinegar, which is delicious! But it’s not really pizza. Real pizza has thin crust, and tangy tomato sauce, and chewy cheese that strings out when you try to cut pizza and oregano.
And oil on the top? Somehow? It just tastes like good old street pizza. It probably has pepperoni. I also think it has to do with the brick ovens.
I don’t really connect with New York, although I bet that’s what it is. Anyone have any ideas?
JENN McKINLAY: Hallie, I love the scene in Hacks when Deborah tells Ava that you haven’t eaten bread until you’ve visited a boulangerie in France. So true.
I ate my body weight in bread while I was there!
And, Rhys, I love pasties. Of course, I haven’t been to Cornwall (yet) and have only the local Cornish Pasty Co in Old Town Scottsdale to judge by – although, I did have a pasty in Victoria Station once that was very tasty.
Anyway, all that to say, there is no pizza like New Haven, CT pizza – which I’ve mentioned before and Roberta will back me up. I’ll be there this weekend and am already anticipating a white clam pie!
As for home, in AZ there is nothing like a Sonoran hot dog (it beats the Chicago dog, sorry not sorry). It’s wrapped in bacon, served on a bolillo roll and loaded with pinto beans, jalapenos, tomatoes, onions, and mayo. Best dog ever!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: You are all killing me! Jenn, I want that hot dog! And so many other things!
I do love pasties. I remember the revelation of first eating one in Cornwall on my first solo trip to England years ago.
Hallie, you've reminded me that our bakery just down the street makes fabulous croissants, but I don't usually buy them. (Probably a good thing, especially as I like to slather them with butter and orange marmalade…)
But what I would really love is a PROPER scone, loaded with strawberry jam and then clotted cream. (Yes, jam first, so that you can get on more cream.) What are usually called scones in the US are sometimes good (see local bakery, above) but they bear no relation to a real English scone. Even in places–sometimes even chef-y places) that claim to offer a real afternoon tea, the scones are not the same. Maybe Rhys can tell us why.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I live in Maine, on of those places where we do have our own, iconic, it'll never taste as good as when you have it here food, and of course, it's lobster. Part of the reason is because you'll never get it as fresh as you can when you're near the coast of Maine - the crustacean you're enjoying for dinner will have been landed that morning.
Lobsters are kept alive until they reach their ultimate destination, but the other seafood you can pick up at the fishmongers or order at one of our award-winning restaurants is also, if local, fresh out of the ocean, so do try some!
The other reason lobster never tastes quite as good as it does when you're visiting my state is because of where you're eating it. An overstuffed lobster roll at a clam shack, sitting outside on a weather-beaten picnic table watching the water and the blue sky overhead. A perfectly steamed whole lobster on the deck of an ocean-side restaurant, with boats coming in and out of the harbor and the seagulls wheeling overhead.
Hey, tourist season has barely begun, and we're a lot closer than France and England. We also have 180 independent breweries and four James Beard Award restaurants to tempt you...
HALLIE: So, if we were coming to YOUR neighborhood, what would be the A-1 MOST FABULOUS LOCAL AND FOUND NOWHERE ELSE THIS GOOD thing the rest of us should seek out to savor?? Fried chicken?? Cherry pie?? Barbecued ribs??? I'm getting very hungry...
Yum . . . this is making me hungry!
ReplyDeleteIt's a toss-up between a pork roll breakfast sandwich [pork roll, eggs, cheese] and salt water taffy . . . .
oooh, I forgot about salt water taffy. We used to get it from a stand whenever we went to Pacific Ocean Park near Los Angeles. In retrospect I think it's an acquired taste.
Delete...as Pepto Bismal is to my mother's kitchen (she really was not a great cook)
ReplyDelete...as overcooked steak doused with ketchup is to a UFC cage fight
...as white lightning is to a Klan hanging
...as a really tart key lime pie is to Heaven
...as a chocolate meringue (as opposed to chocolate cream) pie is the Hell
...as fried clam strips (as opposed to the full belly, Ipswich clams) is to library paste
...as decaf coffee is to sad brown water
...as the Jungle Red Writers are to the NYT best-seller list (one hopes)
Should I go on? I am a person of specific tastes.
HA HA HA! Jerry, you're nailing it. So many interesting threads in this... a virtual memoir in 8 lines.
DeleteIt's almost lunchtime here in Bern, and each of those photos above made me salivate more! I'm not coming up with a local food from Bern itself, but what is superb all over Switzerland (although some restaurants do it much better than others, of course) is game. Autumn is game season in Swiss restaurants, and I look forward every year to tender venison medallions served in a mushroom cream sauce, along with the traditional side dishes: red cabbage cooked with apples, Brussels sprouts drenched in butter with cubed bacon, poached pears filled with cranberries, and a huge pile of tiny homemade dumplings (späzli) first boiled and then fried in butter. My birthday is in October, and the menu is always the same! Not that I cook all this myself, of course — we eat out!
ReplyDeleteGame! Who knew?!? When I think of Switzerland of course I think of that cheese that gets melted by the fireside... not in the summer, I would imagine. Gruyere cheese, maybe?
DeleteGruyere is great when it's melted, but the cheese that traditionally gets melted by a fire is called raclette, and in the days when Swiss summers didn't get up to 90 degrees, it WAS eaten in the summer, often out of doors. Cheese fondue, however, is always eaten in the winter!
DeleteKim, I'm not going to believe you if you tell me that Bern is the only city in Switzerland where the chocolate is not just out of this word amazing! I know I can buy the big Swiss brands here in Tokyo, but they're not as fresh, and never taste as good as if I'm walking down a cobblestoned street, guiltily dipping my hand into a bag and promising myself, well, maybe just one more... And arg, I think I just gained five pounds lusting after the scones and pasties and croissants and gulf shrimp and pizza, so it's a good thing I'm about to admit the first thing I do when I land in Tokyo is eat a whole package of this fresh tofu called yuba. As you can guess by how fervently I was jonesing after all the Reds' faves, I never considered myself a tofu kinda girl...until I ate fresh tofu in Japan. It's as different from the bland blocks of virtuous vegan protein I'd had in the US as fresh burrata is from those rubbery balls of plastic-wrapped supermarket mozzarella. Fresh tofu is like a cross between ricotta and burrata, and eaten with just a little soy sauce and wasabi and ginger? I NEED A BIGGER SPOON!
ReplyDeleteI would definitely try that Jonelle!
DeleteLong ago when I lived in Japan, there was a cold tofu dish fixed as you say, plus a sprinkle of scallions. SO good and refreshing when it was hot. I feel like the name translated to Spring Tofu or something but I forget the Japanese name.
DeleteI will have to put that top of the list for our next visit to Japan. (With a son living there I anticipate there will be a next time.) I just made a version of Okinomiyaki this week and while it certainly wasn't as good as what I had there, it was pretty special. And I'm hoping I can improve it with repeat tries.
DeleteFresh tofu!! Writing it down. I wonder if it's possible to get it in the town neighboring mine, Quincy MA, which has a fabulous array of Asian restaurants and the population to support them.
DeleteYum, Jonelle. I would definitely try that!
DeleteWe ate pasties in Frankenmuth, Michigan. We also had beignets there. We ate gelato all over Italy. The best, and cheapest, place we tried was in Venice.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of foods from other states just like the people are from other states here in Central Florida. And they all say whatever it is isn’t as good as “back home”. I haven’t eaten any but gator is a thing here that you can’t get a lot of other places.
In Minnesota it would be lutefisk and lefse. True Norwegians love them both.
You have to find a Lutheran Church that still has the big lutefisk dinners.
DeleteBrenda, your comment takes me back to my years as a Prairie Home Companion listener!!
DeleteWhat Susan said!
DeleteBeignets: New Orlans! And I went to a lutefisk dinner once upon a time. It was an *experience* more than a *culinary* experience, as I recall.
DeleteGood way to put it, Hallie. LOL
DeleteBrenda, I have eaten gator, but it tastes very metallic to me. Not a fan.
Oh my goodness, such temptations! I agree about baked goods in France, especially a warm baguette and some excellent butter.
ReplyDeleteRight here in Amesbury you can get the best ice cream in New England from Hodgies - so creamy and perfect. And now that we're starting summer produce season, in a month or two you can feast on sun-warmed heirloom tomatoes from my garden and tender, crisp, just-picked corn from one of the two small farms a mile from my house in two directions!
The Parisians at the WICE conference were unanimous in their adoration of French butter.
DeleteNo hesitation: Il Baccio Ice Cream in Danbury, Connecticut. Heaven in a dish… Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteSounds like it's worth a detour en route to/from Brooklyn
DeleteAbsolutely, Hallie! Just not on a Monday as they are closed. ;)
DeleteI love this topic! I'm with Jenn on the pizza, but it's not just New Haven, it's the whole state.
ReplyDeleteMaine for 🦞 lobsters. There isn't anywhere else like it!
UCONN Dairy Bar for ice cream. U of Connecticut began as an agricultural school and they raise their own cows, flavors change but creamy..oy!
My cousins drove me to the Upper Penninsula yesterday where they gleefully purchased pasties. It wasn't Cornwall, but delicious nevertheless! I fly home tonight!
Judy, did you have anything made with cherries during your stay in Michigan? Or whitefish? When I visit my daughter in Traverse City we get whitefish every chance we have, and I seek out whatever cherry-centric dish is on any menu. Cousin Jenny's in Traverse is the place for pasties in that area, and we usually get a big bag of them for dinner one night, if we stay long enough.
DeleteIt's early in Michigan for fresh cherries, the lilacs were still blooming up here.
DeleteI saw whitefish on display at the pasties shop but my cousins were unmoved by its presence and I was just along for the ride.
And Jenn we waited in a long line outside to get New Haven pizza! 🍕 It was worth the wait.
ReplyDeleteI would say our local lobster at the very first of the season when the waters are cold and the lobsters are full and juicy. Then it has to be cooked at home in salted water, and served with butter. Some people put beer, and buns on the table, and some weirdos add salad. Nope, just the lobster, and the butter.
ReplyDeleteAfter that they never taste as good (but I will still eat them!). On our first wedding anniversary, Jack took me to a spiffy restaurant in Montreal where it was served as lobster Thermador. That decided for me, that lobster was only meant to be eaten as we serve it in May, and to never order it in a restaurant again. The youngest about to be daughter in law wanted it served our way for their wedding. In September. Lobsters are not in season. We managed it, cooked it in the big pot, and so it was served to all the dicky-doo-ed up guests (100 of them) – with French fries from a food truck! Delightful and so much fun.
As for other food – bagels are only good fresh in Montreal, and I avoid croissants – just don’t appeal at all. If you really want to salivate – homemade ice cream – best made with just fresh eggs, whipping cream, sugar and vanilla – better fresh-made than with a custard base. Add grapenuts. Be sure to lick the wooden paddle.
I agree on lobster. EXCEPT that I have a wondrous recipe for lobster bisque made with what's left after you've steamed and eaten your lobsters. There's still a ton of flavor and, it turns out, bits of meat left and NO ONE makes a descent lobster bisque like it these days.
DeleteLobster rolls, the Maine way, meaning dressed only with a bit of good mayo. Not warm butter (sorry you misguided Connecticut folks), no lettuce or other fillers. Just sweet main lobster on a top-split bun.
ReplyDeleteI agree, hold the butter if the lobster's cold.
DeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteBe sure to grill the buns nice and toasty with butter.
DeleteYummm. What a way to start the day. I would add Oregon strawberries--the Hoods are the most famous, but the Sweet Sunrise variety are just as good. And fresh Dungeness crab. Yum!
ReplyDeleteDecades ago I had a boyfriend who grew up in Butte, MT. He was of Irish extraction, but he learned to make Cornish pasties growing up--and he used to make them for me. Butte was a copper mining town, and attracted miners from all over the world. Immigrants formed both Irish and Cornish communities, and pasties were popular among all the miners. (for a lovely historical novel about Butte, try Ivan Doig's Work Song)
DUNGENESS CRAB!!!! Yes yes yes. And our Oregon strawbs got me remembering Rainier cherries. Purchased at one of the cherry farms on the ascent.
DeleteI love to visit Portland, because they have the best coffee shops. And one can't forget VOODOO DONUTS!! It is a crazy, wacky place and so much fun to visit.
DeleteI totally agree, Gillian, local Hood strawberries are the best! After a childhood spent eating Hoods in western Oregon, I had been totally spoiled by the time I moved to Southern California and ate what they had there. The strawberries were big, but they tasted like plastic. Thankfully, I retired back to Oregon and can now indulge in Hoods at the local farmstand. I even wish Lincoln City had a Burgerville so I could get their famous strawberry milkshake made with local berries. Yum! Also agree with you on the fabulous Dungeness crab available, and lots of other seafood too, especially halibut and salmon. I love small-batch locally smoked salmon. A final thought: marionberry pie! For those unfamiliar with marionberries, it is a blackberry on steroids with a tart, intense flavor. It is fabulous in a pie, served a la mode with vanilla Tillamook or Umpqua ice cream. Now I am sooo hungry! -Maggie in Lincoln City, Ore.
DeleteCentral Ohio has a candy, the buckeye, that is pretty famous. A center of chewy peanut butter flavored dough dipped in chocolate, leaving the peanut butter filling poking through the top so it resembles the buckeye nut. You can buy a version in many stores and they're pretty good, but the homemade ones where someone has taken the time to dip them by hand are much better.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that anyone outside of Ohio thinks of us as a state for strawberries, but since we are right in the heart of strawberry season here I will attest that our locally grown berries are pretty awesome!
When in Chicago, I'm a big fan of their deep dish pizza. I don't eat that style of pizza any other time, but it is uniquely, wonderfully Chicago to me.
Mmm, in season strawberries are amazing.
DeleteI’ve never eaten a better corn on the cob than from a Quebec local producer. Unfortunately they are only available a few weeks a year.
ReplyDeleteFor a few years we had a local bakery run by a pastry chef immigrated from Paris. They had fabulous baguettes, croissants and desserts as beautiful to look at as they were to eat. Sadly, even if they loved living here, they had to move to a bigger city to make more sales and live from their business.
Hallie, I didn’t know that some of your books were translated in French. At my public library’s yearly sales, I found « Le Mensonge « translated from Never tell a lie. I bought it and I intend to reread the original before reading the French version for comparison. I almost always prefer the original but I’m curious.
I have to add : maple syrup from Quebec is the best
DeleteDanielle - THANK YOU for getting that French edition!
DeleteIn San Diego we love our fish tacos. Rubio's Fish Taco Restaurant is a popular taco shop throughout the west. The first one opened in the early 1980's in Pacific Beach in San Diego by a college student (Ralph Rubio) who went on spring break with friends to San Felipe in Baja Calif, Mexico where he first tasted fish tacos and later started his own restaurant. Unfortunately the chain is now corporate owned. But there are tons of other places which have yummy fish tacos.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of England I love, love, love their clotted cream and scones in the Cornwall area. And tea in England is the best. I've bought English lose leaf tea to have at home but it is never as good. Maybe it's the English milk or water?
We have a French restaurant in our neighborhood (run by a French couple) who have their croissants shipped from Paris to their restaurant - but just for Sunday. So wonderful!
Speaking of ice cream - Most commercial ice cream now substitutes milk and cream for oils and other chemicals. It is a shocking difference when you first taste it. Blaaaa! I love the ice cream in Paris and gelato in Italy.
There are great fish tacos in Key West, too.
DeleteYes there are so many great food places in Key West. I focused most of my calories on Key Lime Pie.
DeleteAnon, many, many years ago I lived around the corner from the original Rubio’s - and never ate there once! (The thought of fish in a taco was too strange to consider.) A couple of years after I’d moved away from PB, a work colleague bought some for lunch and let me have a taste. Omg, I have been a fan ever since!
DeletePlease share the name of the French restaurant in your area! — Pat S
Searcy County, Arkansas, is the chocolate roll capitol of the world. There are signs proclaiming this as you enter from either side. (US 65 is the main road through.) my husband worked over there for a couple of years, so we learned abt chocolate rolls—pie crust rolled up with a chocolate sauce inside. I’ve been to cook offs and bought the rolls in gas stations and at the drive in (the only theater in the county), so I know some are better than others. This is not a well-known specialty because I lived 100 miles away and had never heard of them until my husband taught there. From Mignonne in Fayetteville, Arkansas
ReplyDeleteBTW, Springfield, MO, considers itself the cashew chicken capitol of the world! From Mignonne in Arkansas
ReplyDeleteA glacier sat on us up here on the south shore of Lake Erie for quite some time, producing some great soils. As a consequence, we have fabulous apples, wines (yes, wines), and summer produce is wonderful! Apples have made a huge comeback from commercial varieties (red delicious, etc) and now you can pick (literally) from many heirloom and new varieties.
ReplyDeleteHere in the South, obviously it's PEACHES! When I was a child, my mother used to make homemade peach ice cream. There was not a custard base but milk and peaches and sugar. We had an old fashioned ice cream churn, not electric, but hand cranked. My sisters and I would take turns cranking away until it became too hard for us and then our father would take over and finish. Almost the best part was licking the paddles after we got the ice cream out. I can taste it now.
ReplyDeleteAtlanta
So the "signature" food in Pittsburgh is the Primanti's sandwich - which is the sandwich fixings, coleslaw and french fries all between two slices of thick Italian bread. You can feel your arteries hardening as you eat.
ReplyDeleteHowever. As a WNY native, the thing I'm going to say you can't get "this good anywhere else" (unless it's being prepared by a former WNYorker) is chicken wings. Not "buffalo wings." Good meaty wings - drums and flats, not the whole wing. Fried crispy. Tangy sauce made of Frank's Red Hot, butter, garlic, and cayenne to your heat level. I'm sure the garlic parmesan, bbq, or fancy flavors are fine, but not for me.
And yes, I can make a very good chicken wing. In fact, I have a t-shirt christening me the "Wing Queen" of our local VFW post.
Liz, I had a boyfriend once from western NY and he took me home with him for a visit. I think it might have been Dunkirk/Fredonia? He took me to a bar for chicken wings and I've never had any as good as that since. Amazing!
DeleteYep. Almost anywhere within a 50-mile radius is good. People are amazed that I've never been to the Anchor Bar, where wings were "invented." But really, every other corner in any town in WNY has a good wing place, so there really isn't a need to into Buffalo to experience good wings.
DeleteWhen I find a place in other cities that has good wings, the owner/chef is almost always a WNY expat.
BTW, I pass the exit to Dunkirk/Fredonia off the I-90 every time I go back to Buffalo for a visit.
DeleteAlso, Hallie, I meant to say what a treat to have your daughters accompany you for the week!
ReplyDeleteHow fun for you and your daughter to spend a week in Paris, Hallie! We were offered croissants and pain au chocolat nearly every morning in Porto and everywhere we went in Spain, some much better than others. In Portugal the pastel natas are fabulous, little custard tarts.
ReplyDeleteHere in Cincinnati the hands-down local winner is the 150-year old Graeter's Ice Cream. Which you can sometimes find in grocery stores around the country now. It is pricey, but worth it. They still use the traditional French pot way of making it, in 2.5 gallon copper vats, slowly churning their rich custard (18% butterfat) into a dense, creamy treat. If the flavor you choose is a chocolate chip one, it incorporates big chunks of their housemade dark chocolate, too. The most popular flavor is Black Raspberry Chip, made with black raspberries from Oregon.
Local Ohio tomatoes are starting to be featured in the farmers markets, and they are hands-down better than anything from the supermarket. Like Edith, I grow my own, but if I didn't, I'd go to any of our weekly markets and load up.
Hank, I agree with you on the pizza! The one you describe is what we ate when I was a child, hot from any of the pizza places in Hamilton, Ohio, where several Italian immigrants had bakeries and pizza restaurants. Isgro's was two blocks away, and my parents would get a pepperoni pie every once in awhile. Heaven.
Oh, that’s wonderful! Yes, when pizza is good it is so so so so so so fabulous! And when it is not good it is still fine :-)
DeleteI haven't heard of Graeter's Ice Cream but a local southern Cal cafe serves Graeter's so I'll be trying it out today!
DeleteHope you enjoy it, Anon!
DeleteIn the St. Petersburg-Tampa area Cuban sandwiches are big with many discussions about what ingredients are used to make a “proper” sandwich; in Spring the Plant City strawberries are the best and year-‘round we enjoy fresh fish and seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. (Barbara C)
ReplyDeletein Boston there’s a big controversy over whether a lobster roll is hot with butter, or cold with mayonnaise. I could actually go either way. But I get through about one and a half bites of lobster roll before I think OK, full.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know this is strange, but is it the Hilton or the Marriott that gives you chocolate chip cookies when you check in? I have to say, those cookies are fabulous. Maybe it’s because I’m starving from flying, but I don’t think so… I think they are empirically good. They’re also used to be a fabulous blueberry muffin that they made at the department store Jordan Marsh. Shoppers would come from miles around. Neither store nor muffin exists anymore.
ReplyDeleteOh, and wasn’t there a Neiman Marcus chicken salad?
Oh my, Hank..Yes! Who could ever forget those delicious Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins! I treasure all the wonderful memories I have of taking the train into Boston with my mother the day after Thanksgiving, starting our Christmas shopping at Downtown Crossing and taking a mid-morning break at Jordan Marsh for coffee and a blueberry muffin.
DeleteHank, I don’t think it’s the Marriott because I didn’t get any welcome chocolate chip cookies at the Bouchercon hotel last September. — Pat S
DeleteHi! Elementary my dear Pat! (Or in this case, alimentary.) It might be the Westin? But I don’t think so. Somebody look up Hilton cookies .
DeleteDoubleTree a hotel chain owned by Hilton. They still offer the cookies, we stay in one of their hotels in Santa Monica.
DeleteRecipe is on their website.
DeleteYes, Hank, Helen Corbitt created the famous chicken salad recipe for the Neiman's cafe in the 1950s. I can remember my mother taking me to the downtown Dallas Neiman's for lunch at the Zodiac room where we had the chicken salad. Kayti and I made a pilgrimage to the Zodiac Room last year, fearing the downtown Neiman's would close--which alas, it is. End of an era. But here is the recipe for the famous chicken salad: https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/neiman-marcus-chicken-salad
DeleteI found the recipe for Newman’s cookies a few months ago in an old recipe tin. And then I found out it’s on the internet (because, of course it is)! — Pat S
DeleteI'd have to say Boston's food history is synonymous with the following ~ Boston Cream Pie (Created by a French Chef in 1856 at the Omni Parker House {Hotel}, Boston Baked Beans (Why do you think they call Boston "Beantown"? :-) ), "Lobstah" rolls and New England Clam "Chowdah" (Spoken in my best Bostonian accent)
ReplyDeleteBoston Cream Pie!!!!
DeleteAnd oh, the Parker House dinner rolls! Those were incredible as well
DeleteThe original chocolate chip cookie was created by Ruth Wakefield (any relation Celia?) in Whitman MA.
DeleteFor many years there was a restaurant called the Toll House Inn which featured the cookie and called Toll House cookies. Nestle heard about their chocolate chips being used in the recipe and got permission from Ruth Wakefield to include it on the chocolate chips bag.
I have read that Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins were available at Jordan’s furniture at some locations in MA. I don’t know if that is still true.
The real New England lobster only exists in New England. You can get them elsewhere but they are not the same . My nephew who lives in Portland OR has lobster at least twice a day when he comes to Boston. He will eat it as a roll, boiled or any other form.
You can see the lobsters waving their claws goodbye when he leaves and they know they are safe again.
New Orleans: beignets, Cajun and Creole dishes
Switzerland: chocolate, all sorts of pastries, light and flaky, Black Forest cake. I have had many of the baked products elsewhere in the US but they don’t taste the same. When many bakers emigrated to this country after WW II, they brought their talented baking skills with them and you could find their products in local bakeries in the Boston area.
Since those people are no longer around, there are fewer bakeries and what they make now just doesn’t taste the same. This also includes Danish pastry from Denmark and what passes for Danish pastry here.
Some experts claim it is the flour, some say it is the water or the soil in which the ingredients are grown that affects the quality or flavor.
Trader Joe’s imports a lot of products from other countries. Right now they have the Portuguese egg custard tarts available in their frozen food section. I think they are pretty good and reasonably priced but I have never been to Portugal so I don’t know if they are comparable.
My mouth is watering! Croissants and macarons in Paris, for sure! Pizza in Naples, Italy - best in the world! Gnocchi in Como. Steak in Florence. Duck in Paris. Clam chowder on the pier in San Francisco. Bagels in NYC.
ReplyDeleteI grew up eating Dungeness crab with my mom and sister in the SF Bay Area when my Dad was away on a trip (he didn’t like the work of getting the meat out of the shells). Yum!
ReplyDeleteAs enjoyable - and mouth watering - as this topic is, I am enjoying the “it’s-Monday-so-it’s-JRW-day even more. It feels so good to see all of the familiar names contributing. See you Thursday! — Pat S
Aw, thanks, Pat! It's a treat for us, too!
DeleteI'm a transplanted East Coast native and I now live in a suburb of San Francisco and close to Napa and Sonoma. It's a major foodie region and I'm trying to answer Hallie's question. When I moved here, what struck me as distinctive food? Sourdough loaves of bread perhaps. Irish coffee? Sand dabs (fish)? But I miss a perfect lobster!
ReplyDeleteI got carried away with scones and didn't mention Texas food, but that is such a huge basket that it's hard to choose one thing. I guess it would be barbecue. We have a barbecue restaurant a few block from us that is one of the tops in the entire state, and their brisket is to die for--and it would probably kill you if you ate it all the time... But I go as much for the sides--fried okra, brisket beans, coleslaw--as the beef.
ReplyDeleteI love a good pastie! (Short 'a' - not stripper attire!)
ReplyDeleteHere in the upper Midwest, we could probably live without our seasonal fish fries, but we wouldn't know what to have for dinner on Friday nights!
Kolaches in Texas. How I love them! Yeasty rolls filled with fruit. Yum. For authentic muffalettas, go to Central Grocery in the French Quarter of New Orleans. There is no better!
ReplyDeleteAnother testimonial, Pat D, for the Central Grocery's muffalettas!
DeleteWhen my daughter lived in Charleston oysters, especially smoked, were almost as big a draw as the she-crab soup and shrimp and grits. Then she moved to Miami, and stone crabs were a family favorite.
ReplyDelete