Regional Foods

Cincinnati Chili is a wild ride. At first it sounds pretty decent, chili with spaghetti can’t go wrong, right? but then you look at an actual picture, the textureless sauce, and the obscene amount of cheese. To be honest, the first few times I had it I was pretty dissapointed… but eventually I came around!

Roast Pork, Ham, Swiss Cheese, Pickles and Mustard pressed between buttery bread. It’s so good they made a movie about it

I never would have thought of this combination, until the guide who was giving us a tour of Little Havana took us to a bakery with these. The floral guava flavor and sweetness paired amazing with the salty Farmer’s cheese. I could definitely see myself regularly getting these for breakfast if I could find them. Later on that tour, I also had some excellent Guava-Cheese ice cream that was a bit more on the sweet side.

A Chinese-Irish dish that has recently gone semi-viral. It’s essentially a bag of fried chicken, fries, and onions, and peppers, tossed in a 椒盐 seasoning (sometimes translated as ‘salt-and-pepper’ in english, but really salt + a number of spices). I tried a bunch of different versions while I was in Ireland, including from Chinese takeout restaurants and super authentic Chinese restaurants. They were all satisfying in the way deep fried food is, but also all too low of a chicken-to-fry ratio for my liking, especially since I was already eating so many potatoes otherwise in Ireland.

Fries, gravy and cheese curds. Pretty ubiquitous in Canada; even Costco has a version

A Maryland tradition. I have fond memories of sitting around a table covered in brown paper, slowly working my way through a pile of crabs covered in a thick layer of Old Bay. I went to a AYCE crab place once Freshman year, and I remember the waiters eventually stopped asking if we wanted more crabs because of how many we had already had.

I grew up in Eastern PA, so would regularly pass through Philly and get a cheesesteak. There is a lot of debate on the best toppings. I personally go for provolone with onions sometimes sweet or hot peppers too. Never ketchup.

A variety of soft pretzel shaped in a figure 8 instead of the classic pretzel twist. Otherwise pretty similar to other soft pretzels. I didn’t realize they were a Pennsylvania thing (like calling sandwiches “hoagies”); turns out they originate with the Pennsylvania Dutch (i.e. German). I used to eat these these super often, since my high school would sell Philly Soft Pretzel Factory pretzels for breakfast and during events.

Photo: Philly Pretzel Factory (phillypretzelfactory.com)

I had only had (Latin?) American style churros dipped in cinnamon sugar before, so I was really excited to try the original (the origins are unclear, at least on Wikipedia) Spanish style churros with hot chocolate. The chocolate they serve it with is really thick extremely dark, but the bitterness goes really nicely with the fried, sweet dough, similar to how coffee goes nicely with pastries or tea with Chinese breakfast. Speaking of Chinese breakfast, they also had this variation called a ‘porro’, a thicker, airier fried dough (bottom of the basket above), that almost exactly resembled 油条 (youtiao), which is a really common Chinese breakfast, though usually served with congee rather than chocolate. I asked the waiter at the restaurant, apparently many Chinese tourists comment on the similarity.

It doesn’t look very appetizing; it’s very beige on beige. But the one I had was suprisingly good. The bread was nice and crusty, the squid was perfectly fried, and the mayo + lemon added a little tanginess.