8 Regional Foods You Might Not Know

Mental Floss ^ | 2/3/11 | Miss Cellania

[MissTed]

Many sites featured the map, and the comments were full of consternation and alternatives. Sure, Hawaii produces the pineapples, but the people who live there eat Spam. All over the world, people think fried chicken when you say Kentucky, but it’s not a particularly native dish nor all that popular in the state. There are foods listed that some state’s lifelong citizens had never heard of! So I looked up some of those obscure regional foods to see what they are all about.

1. Skyline Chili (Ohio)

Some of the confusion came because a food was attributed to a state when it is associated with one city. Cincinnati has a very particular way of eating chili, made famous by Nicholas Lambrinides, who opened Skyline Chili in Cincy in 1949. His Greek chili recipe includes spices not seen in American chili recipes elsewhere. The restaurant’s recipe is secret, but those who made Cincinnati chili at home use cinnamon, cocoa, and/or allspice. The chili is served over pasta, and toppings are added depending on the diner’s taste. Two-way chili is served over spaghetti. Three-way chili is served over spaghetti with Cheddar cheese on top. Four-way chili is also topped with oyster crackers, and five-way chili sees the addition of kidney beans -which are not in the chili recipe itself. Image by Flickr user Susy Morris.

2. Toasted Ravioli (Missouri)

Toasted ravioli is unfamiliar to many Missourians who live outside of St. Louis. The origins of this dish are in dispute, as several chefs in St. Louis’ Italian neighborhood claimed to have originated the dish in the first half of the 20th century, although it may have traveled from Sicily. The ravioli is breaded and deep-fried, then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and served with marinara sauce for dipping. You’ll find toasted ravioli featured at several St. Louis restaurants or you can make your own with this recipe.

3. Loose Meat Sandwiches (Iowa)

Loose meat sandwiches were not invented for the TV series Roseanne, which surprised me. The sandwich is described as a sloppy Joe without the slop, or a hamburger that falls apart. It is also called a Tavern sandwich, as it was served by Ye Olde Tavern Sandwich Shop in Sioux City, Iowa, beginning in 1934. The Maid-Rite chain has been selling loose meat sandwiches since 1926, so there is some controversy over the sandwich’s origin. In Iowa, even national chains such as Dairy Queen serve loose meat sandwiches. If they aren’t served at a restaurant near you, you can try them at home with this recipe.

4. Knoephla (North Dakota)

Spelled knoeplah in the map, this is actually knoephla, a dumpling of German origin that is used with chicken, potatoes, and spices to make knoephla soup. This picture is of knoephlah soup made by RoadFood forum member MTFoodie, from a combination of recipes posted in the same thread.

5. Benne Wafers (South Carolina)

Benne is a Bantu word meaning sesame. Sesame was brought from East Africa by slaves and planted in South Carolina, where it flourished. The seeds were used by the Gullah communities for many foods, including crackers and cookies. Benne wafers is a term used to refer to both sweet cookies and savory crackers, depending on the recipe used.

6. Chislic (South Dakota)

Chislic is deep-fried meat served on a skewer or toothpick. The name is believed to be derived from the German schaschlik or Russian shashlik, which were derived from the Turkich shish kebab. The meat can be beef, mutton, venison, or other game meat. It was introduced to South Dakota by a Crimean immigrant named John Hoellwarth in the 1870s. The reason this dish is not well known outside of South Dakota may be because other regions call it shish kebab. Image by Wikipedia member Gomboc2008.

7. Pasties (Michigan)

Michigan citizens cried foul when pasties were assigned to Michigan, as the dish is mainly popular in the Upper Penninsula (UP). Immigrant miners from Cornwall brought the delicacy with them in the 1800s, but other immigrant ethnic groups brought variants on the recipe. Cornish miners valued pasties because they were so portable, therefore easy to take to work for lunch. A fresh-baked pasty would stay warm for hours, even deep in the copper and tin mines. Pasties are made with a pastry shell resembling pie crust, folded over meat and vegetables and baked in portion sizes easily held in one hand. Ingredients vary, so here are several traditional recipes.

8. Jelly Pie (Arkansas)

The item that seemed to cause the most confusion and/or outrage was jelly pie for Arkansas. Many native Arkansans had never heard of it. But the Food Timeline has a recipe for jelly pie tied to Arkansas.

Jelly Pie (Arkansas) 4 eggs 1/2 cup currant jelly 1/2 cup butter 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon lemon juice Cream the butter and add the sugar and beat well. Add well-beaten yolks and jelly, and fold in the whites of eggs. Add lemon juice and bake without upper crust.” —The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Sheila Hibben [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 368)

I found another recipe in the November, 2002 issue of the Sandyland Chronicle from the 1944 Hempstead County Home Demonstration Clubs Cookbook. It differs in that it doesn’t specify any particular type of jelly, which leads me to wonder how varied the resulting pies would be. Another recipe calls for strawberry jelly. It came from “an old copy of Southern Cookbook” which might possibly be from Arkansas. A commenter at the recipe page said the exact same recipe in her cookbook dated back to 1947. A grape jelly pie recipe is said to be from “an old food magazine,” but it doesn’t specify how old, or whether there’s any connection to Arkansas. However, most recipes that found by searching for “jelly pie” were for peanut butter and jelly pie, a sweet variant of peanut butter pie. The picture used for the map is clearly a slice of peanut butter and jelly pie, which is not particularly connected with Arkansas. Arkansas jelly pie appears to be a delicacy that has gone into history.

[melissa_in_ga]

As a native of St. Louis, I can tell you that toasted ravioli is to-die-for. We used to get it at Rich & Charlies.

Now I buy a bag of frozen ravioli, dip in egg, then italian bread crumbs, and use the deep fryer for 2 minutes or so. With marinara sauce, these go pretty fast at my house!

[FreedomPoster]

I will look for those the next time I go to Beaufort.

[Vicki]

My former in-laws decided to change our Christmas Eve dinner to knoephlah soup. Obviously they didn't know how to make it. There was no chicken in it, nary a dumpling to be found.

I always described it as dishwater. Everyone always went home starving. What is pictured here looks good and filling.

[PeterPrinciple]

Never heard of the Sioux City Ye Olde Tavern,

---

Orig from nw Iowa. We always called them taverns at home or the local restuarant. Old joke was iniviting your new pastor out for taverns, he thought you were asking him to go out drinking.

[IronJack]

I’ve never heard a loosemeat called a “maidrite.” Course, that could be because I was born and raised not two blocks from Ye Olde Tavern. A loosemeat (or tavern) is a sauceless Sloppy Joe.

And my aunt (nice German spinster from South Dakota) used to make knoepfla all the time. Not for the diet-minded ...

[Free Vulcan]

The Maid-Rite company started in this side, the east side of the state. No doubt that lended to the name here but apparently it only went so far west. Then again those people tend to root for ISU too so obviously there some issues in the area of the state. :-D

[PalmettoMason]

I envy you for living in Savannah.

My wife and I have always gone there about four times each year since we were dating. Whether we're just strolling along River Street, sharing a shaker of martinis at Conrad Aiken's grave in Bonaventure Cemetery, or enjoying a slice or two at Vinny Van Go-Goes, we LOVE Savannah. Too bad the Obama economy has made it hard for us to go as often as we used to.

Oh, and to get back on the subject of the thread, the Benne Wafers in Savannah are amazing.

[BenLurkin]

“Sesame was brought from East Africa by slaves”

How is that possible? They were dragged over here naked and in chains.

[IronJack]

I actually ATTENDED ISU ...

By the way, I was told on good authority that “knoepfle” is German for “nipple.” Those wacky Germans ...

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I dunno what those are in the picture for #7, but they don't look like the pasties that I grew up eating.

[expatguy]

That is not chili, it is some pasta and meat sauce thing, but it is not chili.

Don't know why they keep calling it that.

[Conan the Librarian]

We visit Vinny’s on occasion. :) Just remember to bring Cash!

[DeFault User]

I ran across a similar chili dish in Lexington, KY some years ago. At least what I had was served on pasta but it tasted much like regular chili. Lexington is fairly close to Cincinnati so it might have migrated. For some strange reason they also served the dish with crackers. This was long before tortillas and tacos moved north. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the real thing either.

[boop]

The 5 way is best. Empress Chili offered a “6-way”. I always wondered what the 6th ingredient was.

[RowdyFFC]

Your chili sounds good and very similar to mine...sans the pint of tequila, but I have found that a double shot straight up makes things taste of everything a lot better sometimes, lol

[ncfool]

Every opportunity I get to eat T.R.’s I take it. In Kansas City you can buy them frozen or at IMO’s Pizza or Garozzo’s Ristorante which has multiple locations in KC.
But in St. Louis they are a staple in every Italian Resturant.

[ncfool]

Looks like Steak & Shake Chilli Mac to me!

[Cloverfarm]

My mom still calls them “maid-rites,” and the lunch ladies at my elementary school made them, too.

A lot of school lunch/nutrition problems would end if the lunch program were given back to blue-haired grandmas

[msmft]

You are so right about the blue haired grandmas. In my schools we had had them and the lunches we very tasty and healthy. You had meat, vegtable, and potato dishes not just some junk pre=prepared foods with lots of salt and calories. Of course you eat more than pizza, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets/fingers, and hamburgers I cant believe kids now this is all they seem to eat. Ok I will step down from my soap box now and chime in on the maid rites supper yummy we still have one of the original Maid Rite resturants close by I stop by for a treat ever so often.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

By any chance do you cook them, or is this like steak tartare?