Local Delicacies

9 Great Small Food Towns

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 14th 2011 @ 11:30AM

Of course you can find great food in New York, Chicago, and L.A. -- big cities mean diverse populations, and culinary finds are sure to follow. But what about small towns? The Daily Meal has a list of nine places off the beaten path where you can find great food. From the deftly cooked seasonal cuisine in Ashville, North Carolina to the fresh seafood in Edgartown, Massachusetts, these spots prove size isn't all that matters.

See if your town made the cut.

Filed under: Food News, Local Delicacies

Real New Yorkers Don't Toast Bagels

COMMENTS 20

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Feb 16th 2011 @ 12:00PM

untoasted bagel Photo: Mark H. Anbinder, Flickr

Maybe you don't give bagels much thought -- grab one from the freezer, give it a quick toast and a smear of cream cheese and you're set. But for New Yorkers, bagels are a source of local pride, and they take them very, very seriously. 'To toast or not to toast' is one of the city's great debates. Over at The Daily Meal, native New Yorker Arthur Bovino has come out swinging, arguing that toasting a perfect bagel -- one fresh from the oven -- is a travesty.

Find out why he says "Toasting a good bagel is bastardizing a beautiful thing" at TheDailyMeal.com

We want to know: Do you toast your bagels?

Filed under: On the Blogs, Local Delicacies

The World's Most Bizarre Food Museums

COMMENTS 0

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Feb 9th 2011 @ 3:00PM

Spam museum mascot Photo: stgermh, Flickr

Spam-o-lot could be the nickname of Austin, Minnesota, the home of the SPAM Museum, described as "16,500 square feet of SPAM artifacts, history, and fun." SPAM artifacts? You'll have to go to see for yourself what lurks inside the shrine to canned spiced ham.

But don't stop there; see 7 more must-visit food-museum oddballs at The Daily Meal.

Filed under: Local Delicacies

Regional Foods You Don't Know About

COMMENTS 2

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Feb 8th 2011 @ 3:00PM

Cioppino fish stew from San Francisco Photo: Food Thinkers, Flickr

One of the greatest things about eating in America is the wealth of regional specialties. Seems like every city has something brag about, from gumbo in New Orleans to cheese curds in Green Bay. Some have spread across the country (who hasn't sampled a version of a Philly cheesesteak?) but others have stayed under the radar. AOL Travel has two lists of regional foods you might not know about, from Rhode Island's creamy Coffee Milk to Buffalo, New York's savory Beef on Weck -- and all of them are worth a road trip.

Want to see if your local delicacy made the cut? Check out both lists on AOL Travel.

Filed under: Coffee Shops, Local Delicacies

Chicago - X Marks the Spot

COMMENTS 7

by Mark Ellwood, Posted Jul 20th 2010 @ 11:00AM

Photo: radloff, Flickr

If one thing defines Chicago's tastes, it's meat. "Our food is hearty and fatty and greasy and doesn't leave you hungry after eating it," says local food blogger Marcee Manglardi. Steve Dolinsky, the ABC 7 reporter dubbed the Hungry Hound, agrees. "This is not a vegetarian town at all – they're the sad step sister here." It's all thanks to the city's history: the south side of Chicago hummed with meat processing and packaging plants, the Union Stock Yard known as the Yards, from the 1860s until the 1970s. For much of that time, it processed more meat than any other place in the world; the only perk for the immigrant workers in those often-grueling conditions was the cheap offcuts they could take home – leading to the city's obsession with hot dogs and beef sandwiches.

The reason Chicago became such a meatpacking mecca was simple: it was the nexus of the country's railway system during the industrial boom years of the 19th century. Hogs and cattle could be brought in cheaply and easily for processing – and that wasn't the only thing. "People joke about flyover country, but Chicago was never that – it was fly-through country. Because we were a hub, every good product came through here: you can read menus from the 1940s, and there were oysters on there," notes Dolinsky, "Chicago was always a must-stop if you were going across the country – every celebrity on their way between New York and LA dined at the Pump Room."

That historic openness and access to ingredients is the reason, he believes, that Chicago today is synonymous in America with Rube Goldberg-like molecular gastronomy. The love children of Einstein and Julia Child, Grant Achatz at Alinea and Homaro Cantu at Moto break rules by turning shrimp cocktail into an atomizer that's squirted into your mouth, or goat cheese turned into 'snow' using a paint sprayer. Of course, since it's Chicago, they don't skimp on meat in their menus either: only here, it's welded together with a 'meat glue' or flash-frozen on a contraption Achatz himself invented known as the Anti-Griddle.

Read on about Chicago's meaty offerings and more, after the jump...

Filed under: Local Delicacies, Features

Sauerkraut Balls -- Taste of Cleveland

COMMENTS 13

by Kristine Hansen, Posted Jun 22nd 2010 @ 2:00PM

Photo: BigEd Stites, Flickr

Heard of sauerkraut balls? Unless you're from Ohio, probably not.

Born in the Cleveland area -- it's said they were invented in Akron, Ohio -- they're a beloved dish in the Buckeye State.

Sauerkraut, cooked ground pork, diced onions, bread crumbs, cream cheese and an egg are rolled into balls that about the size of meatballs. They are then fried and served as a snack or first course, even bar or picnic food.

McGarvey's in Vermilion, Ohio, used to be the place to order sauerkraut balls. Sadly, it closed in 1989, capping off several decades of preparing sauerkraut balls. An Examiner.com reporter, however, was able to wrestle the recipe out of Shelley Solomon Prueter, the daughter of McGarvey's owner Eddie Solomon.

Whip some up in your kitchen -- you might be surprised at how well these simple-to-make snacks are received.

Filed under: Local Delicacies

San Francisco - X Marks the Spot

COMMENTS 1

by Mark Ellwood, Posted May 19th 2010 @ 11:00AM

boudin bakery goods Photo: Andrionni Ribo, Flickr

Long before Alice Waters turned the Bay Area into a global gourmet hub, San Francisco was a food-obsessed city, even if the often-repeated boast that the city has more eateries per capita than anywhere else is iffy at best (exact stats aren't available).

"It's the weather. Unlike Southern California where they can go frolic on the beach – we're trapped inside our houses a lot, so we entertain, we eat and drink together," suggests Laurel Mays, managing editor of 944 magazine. And the ease of access to high-quality ingredients, which Waters so emphasizes, has been a source of local pride since the start. "That access to amazing ingredients, whether wine country or produce from the [Salinas] valley or seafood, that's catapulted our cuisine onto another level," agrees Marcia Gagliardi, who writes a weekly column on the local food scene.

Eating out is part of the DNA of San Francisco: when Gold Rush miners descended en masse, holed up in rooming houses without their kitchen-savvy wives, they paid for home cooking at impromptu cafés and the city's boom in restaurants had begun. "You hear so many stories of older San Francisco restaurants being boarding houses where the guys would smell the food the wife was making upstairs, she would start cooking for them and suddenly, they had a restaurant," Gagliardi notes. "It's the same now – the big tech community of young, single, unattached people go to restaurants each night to meet and mingle," Laurel Mays chuckles.

Read on about San Francisco's classic treats, after the jump...

Filed under: Local Delicacies, Features

10 Days of Belly-Stuffing in the Big Easy

COMMENTS 4

by Joshua M. Bernstein, Posted Feb 26th 2010 @ 2:00PM

Photo: rdpeyton, Flickr

I need a salad like you wouldn't believe. Or some nice sliced fruit. And perhaps a lengthy Master Cleanse regimen. Such are the repercussions of spending 10 days in New Orleans, a city that's apparently never met a vegetable it didn't deep-fry or flavor with fatty swine.

While the Big Easy is slowly, steadily recovering, there's one sector that's stronger than before the storm: the restaurant industry, with more than 1,000 eateries open today -- the most at any time in the city's history. So with an iron stomach and a fistful of Tums, I dove into New Orleans' eats and drinks. In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite watering holes and restaurants.

1. Ms. Mae's

There's one very good reason to visit this dark, smoky dive bar -- the drink prices. Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, Ms. Mae's serves seriously strong cocktails for a buck. A double? Two dollars. On sunny days, I recommend bringing a whiskey on the rocks outside and sitting on the green bus bench.

2. Merlin's Place
A thigh-pumping bike ride -- and critic Brett Anderson's suggestion -- led me to Merlin's Place, announced by a 3-D black bovine. Cow is a must-eat at Merlin's, namely the house-cooked roast beef: It's sliced thin and layered on a toasted length of bread, then dressed with shredded lettuce, pickles, tomatoes. It's juicy, crunchy genius. The beefy, well-spiced tamales are tops, too.

Find the rest of the top ten list after the jump.

Filed under: Restaurants, Local Delicacies

N.C. Festival Refuses to Take Sides in Brunswick Stew Debate

COMMENTS 13

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Jan 28th 2010 @ 1:00PM

Photo: justinlai, Flickr

A North Carolina town with no real claim to the Brunswick stew tradition is mounting its second annual Brunswick Stew Cook-Off this weekend, an event that's notable in the stew community for its apolitical stance on the popular dish's origins.

"There is a competition between Virginia and Georgia, so we're in the middle of a fight," Megan Masser, events director for the Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce, explains. "I'm staying neutral."

More than 2,000 people sampled stews at last year's festival in Shallotte, says Masser. For audience members and the 22 cook teams – each tasked with preparing at least eight gallons of the thick tomato-based stew – it's the stew's flavor that matters.

"That's the most important thing," Masser says.

Filed under: Local Delicacies, Food History, Events

Boccalone - Ask a Shopkeeper

COMMENTS 20

by Chris Dudley, Posted Jan 27th 2010 @ 1:00PM

Photo: urbanfoodie33, Flickr.

You won't find many titles that contain both the words "vice president" and "shop manager," and you won't find many salumi shops like Boccalone either. The salumeria in San Francisco's Ferry Building is one of the best places in the country to experience the sheer joy of chowing down on high-quality, slow-cured pork. We recently caught up with Executive Vice President Tatiana Graf and asked her about her day-to-day routine working in a pig lover's paradise.

One day about a month after we had opened the shop, an older woman came in and started looking around. When I greeted her, she asked in a slightly gruff way, "You don't make head cheese, do you?" I said, "Of course we do. We call it Coppa di Testa. Would you like to try some?" She was surprised and said "Sure." I could tell she wasn't convinced that I knew what I was talking about. I got a sample and brought it over for her to try. While she tasted it, I explained a little about our company and how we make make everything in the traditional, old-world style. She considered for a minute and then a smile grew across her face. She looked me in the eye and told me she hadn't tasted any head cheese that good since her father, who was a butcher, had made it when she was a kid. She said the flavor took her right back to her childhood. All the gruffness in her voice was gone. She was happy and so was I.

Filed under: Local Delicacies