Ask Lemmy

I am from the southeast US. I don't necessarily believe any of these dishes are unique to my area, but I really enjoy them.

1. Grits. Sort of like oatmeal but corn. There are plenty of ways to make it, some make it sweet, some make it savory, some do a little of both. Shrimp and grits is a popular dish, but I think it's more associated with Louisiana specifically.
2. Divinity. A very rich, sugary treat. I haven't had many chances to have this, but it's very good. It's the sort of treat I associate with big family dinners on Thanksgiving from family members who "haven't seen [me] since [I] was this big" who have long since passed away.
3. Reindeer Mix and Diddly Doos. These are two winter treats my family makes. I don't believe they're local dishes or anything, but because my mom makes them I do consider them cultural. Reindeer Mix is essentially home made Chex Mix you mix a few forms of Chex cereals with other ingredients and drizzle a savory sauce over it and bake it. Tastes best warm. Diddly Doos are basically cheese biscuit/crackers. Think "cheese straw" but shaped in a disk. I think some people call them cheese doodles.

From Bulgaria, banitsa, it's a bit difficult to describe, but it's sorta like layered dough with cheese and eggs, though this description really doesn't do it justice...

Gallo Pinto. Start with white rice and black beans and go from there.

I recently tried the Caribbean version of Rice and Beans which has coconut oil in it, but I don't like it quite as much. Fun mix that I hadn't had before though.

This may come as a surprise, but it's Kaiserschmarrn. I'm from Austria btw.

Hmmm. I will extend it to anything Norwegian. "Pinnekjøtt" usually a Christmas dish.

Cured (salted and/or smoked) sheep ribs. (Often lamb)

The ribs are then separated to individual ribs.

You water it for 16 hours, changing the water once. Or they will be too salty. Then you steam them until the meat releases from the bones (3ish hours)

Serves with mashed swedes, sausage, and potatoes, using the water as a sort of gravy (it's full of fat)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnekj%C3%B8tt

Louisiana, US - Crawfish Étouffée.

From Almeirim in Portugal, there's "sopa da pedra", translates to "soup of the rock". It has several kinds of meat, beans, potato, and it's usually eaten with bread (some say even a specific local bread type, but I'm not picky on that). It used to come with a stone in it traditionally, but for higiene reasons restaurants are not allowed to anymore. Some people at home still do it, I believe.

With it there is an old tale:

There was once a poor friar that was traveling. Once it came time to rest, he knocked on someone's door and asked for their hospitality in exchange for a soup. His hosts let him in and they see the friar pulling an old smooth stone from his pocket and putting it in a pot, along with water.

"Some seasoning would make this soup better... Do you happen to have any chouriço?" [best translation I've got is "meat", or maybe "sausage"] asks the friar. And so his hosts find him some chouriço that they throw in the pan.

"It's looking great! Now this soup would really improve if we could thicken it up a little. Do you happen to have some potatoes or beans leftover from yesterday?" And some potatoes and beans have indeed been leftover from yesterday. The friar adds it to the soup.

The friar asks for a few more spices, olive oil, and soon there is a delicious smell coming from the pot. What a nice soup!

They eat and once the soup is finished the friar fishes out the stone, washes it and puts it back in his pocket. Tomorrow he'll knock on someone else's door along the way ;)

I love my local dish: crab cakes. I hate my local seasoning: Old Bay. Never bought a can in my life.

Portuguese tipical dish: Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá Pure Bliss 😀✨

From China, boiled dumplings/water dumplings. Preferably stuffed with pork and garlic chives with a little bowl of black vinegar and sesame oil to dip in.

My favorite food of all time. If it was possible to have dumplings every meal and be healthy I 100% would.

Swedish meatballs, brown cream sauce, lingonberry jam and mashed potatoes. Vegan in my case, but doesn't matter, it's fucking great either way.

Also, Semla.

Pepperoni rolls (which Ive never had but it is a regional favorite)

Pawpaw bread

Home-fries with ramps

Strawberry rhubarb pie

Germany: Kesselsknall. Imagine a potato cake with bacon and sausages, baked in a cast iron casserole.

Vegemite on toast is just good.

Foreigners always fuck up the ratios.

"Braaibroodjie" - South Africa

It's a Toastie made on a wood fire, usually containing tomato, onion, cheese and buttered on all sides

The Bobbie from Delaware, USA!

Delaware is a small state on the Delaware River on the east coast of the United States, just south of Philadelphia and across the bay from New Jersey. For the comic fans, Gotham is somewhere near Cape May, NJ and Metropolis is near Lewis, DE.

Another great treat from this area is scrapple. Don’t look it up before you eat it. It’s deliciously horrifying!

So I'm from North Carolina, for the uninitiated this is one out of fifty of the United States of America, which is a nation located on the continent of North America bordered by Canada to the North and Mexico to the South. If you were paying close enough attention you might have heard of us in the news recently. North Carolina is located on the Eastern coast, that's adjacent to the Atlantic ocean, you'll find it just across the Northern border of South Carolina, to the South of Virginia, and to the East of Tennessee. We also share a relatively short stretch of border with Georgia to the Southwest. You might find us after a few hours examining a globe.

North Carolina is almost as famous for our barbecue as we are for our barbecue. Two distinct styles of pork barbecue emerged in North Carolina, the Eastern style characterized by smoking a whole hog prepared with a dry rub and served with a spicy, thin, vinegar-based sauce, and the Western style characterized by smoking pork shoulders basted with and served at the table with a sweeter tomato based sauce.

In both cases, shoulder meat will be coarsely shredded simply by pulling it apart with forks or bare hands, done right it's more tender than cooked hamburger. Piled high on an inch roll slathered in barbecue sauce and topped with coleslaw and you've got a pulled pork sandwich, serve it with a side of hushpuppies.

Fun fact: A candidate for North Carolina governor once lost the race because he was heard saying he was getting sick of barbecue. Nope, you don't get to be chief executive Tarheel like that. That ain't gonna work.

Germany
Gaisburger Marsch
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaisburger_Marsch

UK, we are the butt of many a joke and several post here talking about our traditional fast food. I will submit that a well cooked roast dinner is the equal of any other national dish, for me its either pork shoulder, skow cooked, or chicken, with parsnips, leeks in cheese, carrots, peas and maybe bread sauce, along with those roast potatoes, crunchy in the outside, soft and milky on the inside, just the right amount of salty crunch with the star of the show, a rich gravy. Even without the meat this would still be an incredible tasty plate of food.

Most of the US is a culture pot so the food I like is not really local.

The only things I can think of as a state famous thing is that San Francisco, California is known for sourdough, and Seattle, Washington is kinda known for the Seattle (Hot) Dog.

Steak and cheese sub. Yeah, you can get one in a lot of places, but I haven't had a good one outside of New England.

I'm Belgian so only one answer is allowed

Belgian fries with mayonnaise and Flemish stew

I grew up in interior Alaska. The hometown food I miss the most is saltine crusted Northern Pike. Very bony but so tasty. Though to be honest a lot of that may be nostalgia as it was something we'd eat camping as an extended family when the fishers in the group had a good haul. Pan fried moose heart and tongue is a simular situation.

If we do the United States instead of my home state I'd say key lime pie for sweet and shrimp and grits for savory.

Dish born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands: the "Kapsalon"

Italy: It's really hard to beat pizza, maybe a good lasagna or a "cacio e pepe" pasta depending on the mood.

Finland: only had it a couple of times 'cause it's expensive, and takes long and is tedious to make, but loimulohi (fire salmon). It's salmon nailed to a plank and then heated up by an open fire. Very tasty.

Pretty much any big enough fish can be made like that, but I've only had salmon.