You know what's weird? Regional foods. Especially things that seriously should not be regional because wtf.
Like, I understand about Moxie soda being regional, because it has a very distinctive flavor that people either love or hate. There is no "meh" about Moxie. People don't say, "Okay, I guess I'll have a Moxie, then," when it turns out that a restaurant doesn't have their first choice of soda. I can appreciate that it wouldn't catch on on a national level. It used to be wider spread, but now it's just a Maine product.
But things that should not be regional:
* Italian sandwiches. People, it is cheese, ham, pickles, onions, olives, tomatoes, and green peppers, with salt, pepper, and oil on top. (NOT lettuce. Add lettuce to your Italian and it is no longer an Italian.) This is not exactly a sandwich filled with mystical ingredients that are hard to find outside of New England. Apparently, however, you can't get the right kind of rolls to make them with. I don't. Get it. It's like a hot dog roll, but bigger! How hard is that?
* Red hot dogs. I mean bright red. Dyed. They are more savory than brown hot dog and the skin snaps when you bite into them. Surely bright red hot dogs are not too weird for the general populace. They are, however, manufactured exclusively by a regional meat company, Jordan's. Perhaps the mystery only goes as far as Jordan's holding the patent.
* And the one that inspired this post, that I just found about yesterday: whoopie pies. WHAT THE HELL. Wiki tells me that these have at least spread out to a certain extent and can occasionally be found in restaurants (which, a whoopie pie is not a restaurant dessert, I am sorry), BUT STILL. I don't even like whoopie pies very much and I am appalled. A whoopie pie is two round pieces of (usually) chocolate cakelike pastry held together with a whole bunch of frosting. (I've never been much for frosting. Yeah, I know, shut up.) How is this not a national treasure?
I am curious to hear from people outside New England, about their regional foods or if they have found the stuff I am talking about in their area. Or if it's just called something different.
Like, I understand about Moxie soda being regional, because it has a very distinctive flavor that people either love or hate. There is no "meh" about Moxie. People don't say, "Okay, I guess I'll have a Moxie, then," when it turns out that a restaurant doesn't have their first choice of soda. I can appreciate that it wouldn't catch on on a national level. It used to be wider spread, but now it's just a Maine product.
But things that should not be regional:
* Italian sandwiches. People, it is cheese, ham, pickles, onions, olives, tomatoes, and green peppers, with salt, pepper, and oil on top. (NOT lettuce. Add lettuce to your Italian and it is no longer an Italian.) This is not exactly a sandwich filled with mystical ingredients that are hard to find outside of New England. Apparently, however, you can't get the right kind of rolls to make them with. I don't. Get it. It's like a hot dog roll, but bigger! How hard is that?
* Red hot dogs. I mean bright red. Dyed. They are more savory than brown hot dog and the skin snaps when you bite into them. Surely bright red hot dogs are not too weird for the general populace. They are, however, manufactured exclusively by a regional meat company, Jordan's. Perhaps the mystery only goes as far as Jordan's holding the patent.
* And the one that inspired this post, that I just found about yesterday: whoopie pies. WHAT THE HELL. Wiki tells me that these have at least spread out to a certain extent and can occasionally be found in restaurants (which, a whoopie pie is not a restaurant dessert, I am sorry), BUT STILL. I don't even like whoopie pies very much and I am appalled. A whoopie pie is two round pieces of (usually) chocolate cakelike pastry held together with a whole bunch of frosting. (I've never been much for frosting. Yeah, I know, shut up.) How is this not a national treasure?
I am curious to hear from people outside New England, about their regional foods or if they have found the stuff I am talking about in their area. Or if it's just called something different.
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