Each City's signature dish?

[MarketStEl]

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Nebraska (or maybe just Lincoln?): runza sandwiches

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Que?

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Clickety

=R=

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Those look like they'd be really easy to make at home.

Anyone have recipes?

[markovitch]

Portland Oregon (i didn't see a note about OR vs ME)--dungeoness crab cakes.

see, we've got great ingredients--mushrooms, salmon etc, but crab cakes are the only really common 'dish'

of course, i'm sure this'll be debated. just my .02

[markabauman]

Saratoga Springs (and the surrounding Capital District):

The potato chip is said to have originated at Saratoga Lake

Pie a la mode is alleged to have been first served at the nearby Cambridge Hotel (now closed)

The Scudder (a local type of sub/hero). The originators were the Scuderi's, hence the name.

Freihofer's cookies

products of the Saratoga Brewing Company

The Peppermint Pig- confection from Saratoga Sweets

[Flocko]

<snip>

Nebraska (or maybe just Lincoln?): runza sandwiches

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Que?

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Clickety

=R=

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Thanks Ronnie!!

I make them all the time (the cabbage ones) as piroshki, but had never heard of runza.

Best,

Bill

[ronnie_suburban]

<snip>

Nebraska (or maybe just Lincoln?): runza sandwiches

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Que?

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Clickety

=R=

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Thanks Ronnie!!

I make them all the time (the cabbage ones) as piroshki, but had never heard of runza.

Best,

Bill

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Heya Bill!

Honestly, I'd never even heard of them before I read the post upthread -- and I even spent some time in NE a few summers back -- so I looked them up and now that I did, I really want to try one myself (or a few ).

=R=

[bigkoiguy]

Baltimore - blue crab, definitely.  To elaborate on that - steamed with Old Bay seasoning, crab cakes, crab cake sandwich, cream of crab soup, Maryland crab soup (tomato based), crab imperial.  Also - peach cake, fried oysters.  As a native I'm not familiar with lemon sticks unless that's the lemon with a peppermint stick stuck in it.

Honolulu - poi, lomi lomi salmon, pit-roasted pig, shave ice

Does anyone have any ideas for Alaska cities?

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A few dishes come to mind for Alaska cities....

Valdez -- batter-fried halibut

Anchorage -- King crab, salmon, halibut tacos

Fairbanks -- reindeer sausage (made in my hometown of Delta...!)

[nocturnalsunshine]

I didnt see the Dallas Texas one...

But since the corn dog was introduced at the State Fair of Texas which is in Dallas, I would have to say the Corn Dog is our dish.

Then a close second has to be Chicken Fried steak.

To totally make it Texan, I know a place that serves it as "Texas Chicken Fried steak" instead of gravy its covered with Chilli and Jalapeños.... *looks both ways* Best. Breakfasst.Ever.

[nocturnalsunshine]

Im curious about Arkansas as well. I was born there in Stuttgart. It was actually mentioned in The Man Who Ate Everything, by Jeffery Stiengarten for a little barbecue place. It has since burned down, but was really good according to my parents.

They grow lots of rice and do tons of duck hunting there but I dont recall any hands down Arkansas dishes. I remember when I was younger eating thinly cut fried venison steaks for breakfast.

[jsolomon]

Those look like they'd be really easy to make at home.

Anyone have recipes?

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I have several. They really aren't much of a recipe, though. Just guidelines, very similar to making loose meat sandwiches.

And, more correctly, runzas aren't sandwiches. Sandwiches are assembled after the bread is baked. Runzas are assembled from raw dough and cooked ingredients.

Anyway, at their simplest, runzas call for 5 ingredients.

bread dough

cooked ground meat (hamburger is good, I like pork better, I've never tried turkey, but it would work in theory)

cooked onion

cooked cabbage/potato (depending on your family)

salt/pepper

Usually the meat and the vegetables are cooked together and then drained. Mix them. Cool them. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Roll the bread dough thin, to between 1/4 and 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 8x8 inch squares. Place between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of the meat/veg mixture inside. Fold over to a 4x8 inch rectangle and seal the edges by pinching, or egg wash.

Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool. Enjoy.

Oftentimes, my family will make a bunch, say 20-40 runzas and after they are baked and cooled, we will package them in freezer bags and microwave them for lunches.

Personally, I like using a whole mirepoix with the onion.

[ludja]

Although I grew up in CT, here is something I just heard about this old-fashioned cake in the last year:

Hartford Election Cake

article

The cake is actually a classic English fruitcake or plum cake. The original cakes included molasses, spice, raisins, and currants were used in this cake. Later brandy was added. Also known as oak cake, Hartford Election Cake, and training cakes, because another name for Election Day was Training Day.

1771 - They were baked to celebrate Election Days at least as early as 1771 in Connecticut, before the American Revolution of 1775. The Election Cake, as all cakes baked in colonial homes, was yeast-leavened, as there was no commercial baking powder, and they were baked in brick fireplace ovens. Colonial women vied with each other as to who baked the best cakes as families exchanged visits and treated their guest with slices of this cake. Historians feel that the recipe for Election Cake was adapted from popular period English yeast breads.

1830 - The cake became known as Hartford Election Cake when politicians there served it to men who voted a straight party ticket. While waiting for election result, it was a New England tradition to serve these huge Election Cakes (each cake weighing approximately 12 pounds each). Housewives established their reputations as socialites and hostesses on the quality of their cakes.

...

Recipe: click

[Philanthrophobe]

The subsistence diet of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area of Alaska, still relied upon in varying degrees in the villages of Toksook Bay and Tununak:

salmonberries, gathered during the summer and whipped with animal or vegetable fat and sugar

seal

the occasional walrus

the occasional whale

salmon

herring, and herring roe

various waterfowl

wild greens

(today's Fun Facts to Know and Tell)

[MarketStEl]

To totally make it Texan, I know a place that serves it as "Texas Chicken Fried steak" instead of gravy its covered with Chilli and Jalapeños.... *looks both ways* Best. Breakfasst.Ever.

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Now that might make me try making Chicken Fried Steak again...

[Blanche Davidian]

Re: Runza

In my family, Runzas are called strudels and I've also heard them called bierocks/bierrocks. We fill our (slightly sweet) dough with ground beef, onion, sauerkraut and TONS of ground black pepper. Like tamales, strudels are a Christmas thing, to be made and eaten in large quantities. Leftovers are frozen for later. I'll see if I can't dig up my grandma's recipe.

[jsolomon]

To totally make it Texan, I know a place that serves it as "Texas Chicken Fried steak" instead of gravy its covered with Chilli and Jalapeños.... *looks both ways* Best. Breakfasst.Ever.

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Wowzers... that sounds like a breakfast that needs a beer to wrestle it down!

[Batuta]

Totally serious about the cream of mushroom soup casserole. It's an Iowa classic. You can't go to someone's home without being served a green bean/cream of mushoroom soup/onion ring casserole or "Chinese Casserole" with hamburger, cream of mushroom soup, and soy sauce topped with crunchy chinese noodles that look suspiciously like canned onion rings. I could go on, but you get the picture.

And the loose meat/Maid Rite sandwiches, for some reason, really are quite good (maybe it's the memories that come with them). Somehow, they only taste right if you're sitting at a formica countertop at the Maid Rite - you can't duplicate this simple dish at home.

Edited April 26, 2006 by Batuta (log)

[Blanche Davidian]

I think a pork tenderloin sandwich would give green bean casserole a run for its money in Iowa. It's like a chicken fried steak sandwich only with pork! And, you know, Iowa = hog farms.

[MarketStEl]

Totally serious about the cream of mushroom soup casserole. It's an Iowa classic.

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I have no doubt about that.

I'm sure there are also black people in Iowa too. Mostly in Council Bluffs and Des Moines, I reckon.

I'll wager you won't find Green Bean Casserole on their tables.

--Sandy "yeah, I can get away with this, 'cause Mom was born in Omaha and raised in Horton, Kan., and I grew up in Kansas City, so between us we've almost got Iowa surrounded" Smith