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Rhode Island is like a gourmet Galapagos, a tiny patch of water-hemmed land that's evolved a separate culture from its surroundings. There are state-specific brands like Del's Lemonade and Autocrat Coffee Syrup, Rhody recipes for jonnycakes and stuffies and even localized tweaks on American staples; only in Rhode Island could clear clam chowder come with an add-to-taste jug of heavy cream to placate visiting Bostonians.
Given locals' culinary passion, it's no wonder this is where the diner was invented by Walter Scott in 1872, who piled up a horse-drawn wagon with pies and sandwiches and stationed it in front of the Providence Journal offices.
How did the smallest state in the union -- barely 1,000 square miles of land -- develop such aggressive, idiosyncratic tastes? In part, thanks to its origins.
"We have this very independent spirit; it's historic, going right back to Williams," explains Linda Beaulieu, author of "The Providence and Rhode Island Cookbook." Indeed, Roger Williams founded the outpost as a rebellion against the Massachusetts Bay Colony's hardline conformism, and that rebellious independence has ricocheted down through Rhode Island's history -- and menus. "Chain restaurants don't do well here at all. In fact a year or two ago, the Red Lobster closed -- people just didn't support it."
Stuffies and quahogs, anyone? Explore more of Rhode Island's culinary offerings after the jump.
Rhode Islanders were locavores before there was a word for it. When it comes to food, they think, eat, buy and cook local. Here's a rundown of some of the state's idiosyncratic eats. Please to add to the list in the comments below.
Autocrat Coffee Syrup
The key ingredient in coffee milk -- Rhode Island's official state drink -- is this sweet syrup that can be also be glugged over ice cream.
Visit autocrat.com
Rhode Island Eats
Local Brand
Autocrat Coffee Syrup
The key ingredient in coffee milk -- Rhode Island's official state drink -- is this sweet syrup that can be also be glugged over ice cream.
Visit autocrat.com
Local Brand
Del's Lemonade
Founded in Cranston, the purveyors of this frozen lemonade claim it's a direct descendant of a recipe from Naples more than 100 years ago. Whatever its origins, the slushy mix is delicious. Dotted around the state, you'll spot branches of Del's via its roadside lemon signs.
Visit dels.com
Local Brand
Glee Gum
It's an all-natural, sweetener- & preservative-free gum first introduced just over a decade ago, made from chicle tree sap the old-fashioned way. It's harvested sustainably from Central American rainforests and even the packaging is biodegradable.
Visit gleegum.com
Local Delicacy
Pizza Strips
These ribbons of dough are meant for dipping in marinara sauce, sans cheese.
Local Delicacy
New York System Wieners
These short, slow-cooked hot dogs, served with a garlicky, ground beef sauce spiced with nutmeg, are usually known as "hot wienies." Order them "three all the way," so they come in a trio slathered in almost every condiment on the tabletop.
Try some at Olneyville New York System.
Local Delicacy
Quahogs
The rest of the world may call them hard-shell clams, but stick to Quahogs here. They're best enjoyed as a stuffie -- a quahog stuffed with bread crumbs and extra minced clam, then baked. Another option is sinkers, which are deep-fried chopped clam cakes. Their mecca is Flo's Clam Shack in Middletown.
Make stuffies at home. Try our Stuffed Quahogs recipe.
Local Delicacy
Jonnycakes
This patty is made from cornmeal, salt and water like a silver dollar pancake and though once known across New England, it's largely a Rhode Island staple now. Here, the patty is sometimes sweetened with molasses, a legacy of the state's clearinghouse role on the slave trade circuit. Make some at home using meal and recipes from the historic mill, Kenyon's. They're delicious sopping up the juice from baked beans.
Visit kenyonsgristmill.com and try our Rhode Island Jonnycakes recipe.
Local Delicacy
Cabinets and Milkshakes
The rest of the world call this a milkshake. Linda Beaulieu says the name is down to the old-fashioned soda fountains where the machine that made the shakes was housed in a wooden cabinet. "I guess people would gesture over and say I want one of those, and that somehow turned into 'Get me a cabinet!'" A "milkshake" Rhode Island-style comes sans ice cream.
Local Delicacy
Awful Awfuls
This subset of a cabinet, made by Newport Creamery, is straw-bendingly thick and artery-cloggingly tasty.
Visit newportcreamery.com
Local Tweaks
Clam Chowder
Local foodies can't even agree on a statewide recipe. In the northern part, chowder is red ("Italians and Portuguese put a tomato in almost everything they make," chuckles Beaulieu) while to the south it's clear ("A mouthful of salt water is almost what it tastes like"). Either way, the soup is cream-free, a sacrilege to fellow New Englanders. So much so, Beaulieu says, that in the past restaurants would offer a small jug of cream on the side to calm chary Bostonians.
Make Rhode Island-style chowder at home. Try our Rhode Island Quahog Chowder recipe.
Beaulieu also suggests that Rhode Island's dominant foodie credo, "Any flavor as long as it's coffee" dates back to that time, too. "When people didn't have much money, they wouldn't even throw away the coffee grounds, they would recycle them," she explains, "And that's how coffee milk started -- it was a way of flavoring the milk."
Diner historian Richard Gutman isn't so sure. "Coffee as a syrup or flavoring became popular in the late 1800s, in soda fountains, but I have a book of recipes from Boston, 45 minutes away, and they don't offer coffee milk."
Either way, coffee-something was a staple here long before it reached the rest of America. Bristol-based historian Joan Roth recalls her first road trip after World War II when she asked a Southern diner waitress for coffee ice cream. "She said to me 'You want coffee and ice cream?'" Roth chuckles, recalling how the server brought dished-out vanilla and a coffee on the side.
Ice cream is yet another patriotic part of Rhode Island's foodie identity and the best example of the ferocious pride placed in culinary traditions here. There was an outcry recently when local chainlet the Newport Creamery -- which has 11 stores in the state and is known for its straw-clogging Awful Awful milkshakes -- moved production facilities away from Middletown.
"When a local place does pull up its roots and go somewhere else, that is scandalous. People don't like it at all," Gutman notes. But where did the Creamery's ice cream factory move? Just a few miles away -- across the state line, to southeastern Massachusetts.
Mark Ellwood writes for the New York Times, Travel + Leisure and the New York Daily News and is the author of several Rough Guides. His next installment explores the culinary delights of the Greater Cincinnati area.
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9-15-2009 @6:33PM faylor said... RI also has delicious pizza strips, which are made from a soft pizza crust baked with a tangy, generous marinara sauce on top, without cheese, and cut in strips rather than wedges.
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9-15-2009 @9:28PM CosetTheTable said... I've gotten such strange looks when I brought pizza strips places-- even just an hour or two north-- although it may be available in NYC, I've heard rumors.
One day I was watching Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali on the Travel Channel, visiting a small Italian Bakery in New Jersey. I turned to a friend from Indiana, and asked her why this was on TV. To me, it was like televising a trip to the drugstore. Her look reminded me that RI's strong Italian American presence really has affected it. Every birthday party I went to as a kid had cold cheese-less pizza strips for the kids and cold sliced calzones for the adults.
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9-16-2009 @7:09PM Allen said... Rhode Island is the biggest small town in the country. Have had some of the best seafood, best coffee (my ex worked at a place called coastal roasters, so good, roasted on premise, at most a week old if that), and best sailing (so it's not food but it's important too) ever.
But with that said I would not live there. Southeastern CT is close enough to those crazies.
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9-24-2009 @5:36PM rlfa1 said... Rhode Island is a culinary treat for so many reasons. I am a RI native who moved to California and sorely miss the wonderful food.
Seafood is certainly a treasure. Fresh lobster, bay scallops, swordfish, and flounder are things that California cannot get right. Fish and chips pale in comparison to what places like Richard's Pub and similar restaurants offer (also a French Onion soup to die for).
Italian food is another local treasure. Drive about Federal Hill and find plenty of places to get fresh baked breads, handmade pastas, and fresh sausage. Pizza to satisfy every preference can be found and hard to beat when you go to places like Caserta's (also famous for their Wimpy Skimpy - a spinach calzone marvel) or Al Forno's.
I cannot wait to get back.
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