Culinary Chauvinism:Your Kind of Town

[maggiethecat]

A dear friend of mine blindsided me last night, saying that whether I talked about Montreal, Quebec City, LA, NO, Ottawa or Sweet Home Chicago, I emitted snotty, elitist chauvinist prejudice about sourcing, cooking or dining out. Kinda weird, because the level of culinary skill in some of the towns eclipse the sweet sourcing opportunities in others, swamped as they are with Tim Horton's.

My response was, to make it sound civil, prickly. As far as I knew, I had never done a head-to-head comparison with food in his city, which might be called an aspirational but still second-tier food burg. (Not that I've eaten there or anything! Sorry Babe.)

But this spat got me furiously to think. What part of our civil culinary pride --or shame -- is a reflection of what we've read, how many Best Chefs of 2008, how many stars or organic greenmarkets? Local dishes? Sleb chefs? Dollar to bliss ratio? And how much is civic love and pride?

The longest stretches in my life have been spent in two cities always spiking the culinary EKG -- Montreal and Chicago. Am I obnoxious to others because I take that kind of quality for granted? Am I just plain chauvinist because I love both these cities so much?

I'm interested in how you might feel: is it a culinary duel between Fort Wayne and Indy? Pierre and Grand Falls? (Forks?)How much is somehow verifiable and how much is love?

Montreal, mon amour. And my kind of town.

[Marya]

Having spent 19 years in Chicago, I second your enthusiasm about food, either readymade or in raw form, that is available there. My husband probably thinks I'm obnoxious, too, but I often cite a particular restaurant or food purveyor in Chicago as being the best. I've lived in the Portland, OR area for 11 years and, while the locally sourced foods are some of the most varied, best and freshest I've ever had in the States, I still long for the amazing restaurants in Chicago. There may be a little lore attached to those longings, but visits usually confirm that my impressions are correct. We do, however, have some of the best bakeries in the country.

[Kouign Aman]

And how much due to stereotyping?

San Diego is always getting dissed as a food town, even by those who live here.

And even in comparison to that amorphous beast, Orange County.

I find it odd.

We're not at the top of the heap (not a Chicago, NYC, Napa),

but we've got some excellent 'classic' restaurants, great fish,

excellent produce (Chino Farms, take a bow), lots of Asian and Latin American markets.

Granted, we have more than a reasonable density of chains of varying quality, still

we are far from a dismal slum in terms of the food available to residents or visitors. There's no need to go hungry when here, but that seems to be the way people think of it.

Local boy represents USA in 2007 Bocuse d'Or: Gavin Kaysen, El Bizcocho Chef de Cuisine - Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego, California

This incarnation of Nobu is a recent arrival: Nobu San Diego

At the other end of the price spectrum, Rubio's was founded here, bringing the fish taco across the border from San Felipe, Mexico to the US.