Local Specialty Foods

[fcgamer]

I know we have a thread for what you ate today for lunch, and that is part of the reason that I want to start this thread.  From the popularity of that thread, we all like to eat, it seems, and since we have people here from all around the world, I am curious to see pictures of some of the local specialties that people enjoy eating from their part of the world.  I'll start.

Mi Gao

http://www.pbase.com/bochie/image/88047872

This isn't the best picture, and I should try to take a picture myself next time I order some mi gao from the guy across the street from my apartment.  Mi gao is a rice cake of sorts, with some fatty meat thrown on top.  It tastes great, though I always feel a bit unhealthy after eating it (so I rarely eat it), I guess that is because of the fatty meat used.  I prefer to have mine with the local hot sauce thrown on top!
Post Merge: August 04, 2014, 08:57:44 pm
It is funny too, because I live in quite a small town in Taiwan.  But the shop across from me is apparently quite famous for its Mi Gao, and Taiwanese from all over the island (as well as Chinese, Philippinos, etc) come there to eat it!

[UglyJoe]

I went to college in Rochester, New York.  They have a dish called a "Garbage Plate".

via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Tahou_Hots#Garbage_Plate

A Garbage Plate is a combination of two selections of cheeseburger, hamburger, red hots, white hots, Italian sausage, chicken tender, fish (haddock), fried ham, grilled cheese, or eggs; and two sides of either home fries, French fries, baked beans, or macaroni salad. On top of that are the options of mustard and onions, and Nick's proprietary hot sauce, a sauce with spices and slowly simmered ground beef. The dish is served with Italian bread and butter on the side. Health.com named the Garbage Plate the fattiest food in the state of New York.

[smeghead]

When people think about the part of country where i'm from, they always remember this local speciality... Slavonian Kulen 

it's Croatian original cured meat product made by drying smoked pork intestine which is stuffed with a mixture of spices and finely chopped meat from pigs specially bred for this delicacy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulen

[zmaster18]

Here's some Canadian food that you may have heard of:

Poutine - fries covered with cheese curds(mild, white, squeaky cheese) and gravy. Classic and delicious. You can get it anywhere, even McDonalds started serving it a little while ago.

Beaver Tail - a flat, big piece of deep fried dough similar to an old-fashioned doughnut. Sold exclusively at Beaver Tail kiosks in Canada and a few parts in the US, and also Saudi Arabia of all places haha

Maple Syrup - Canada's most famous food export I guess. 2/3 of the world's maple syrup comes from Quebec, Canada. Going up to the forest where it's harvested, the 'sugar-bush', is a fun place for kids to go see the syrup get tapped from the trees and see the process of how syrup is made. Nothing beats going for a hay ride through the sugar bush and then eating a big 'ol stack of pancakes with fresh syrup in the lodge. Mmm mmm good.

Everyone agrees that poutine is Canada's national dish. You can get many variants of poutine, including some meats and other toppings added on top. By the way, if you don't know how to pronounce it, it's POO-teen or POO-tin(using french pronunciation)

[fcgamer]

Here's some Canadian food that you may have heard of:

Poutine - fries covered with cheese curds(mild, white, squeaky cheese) and gravy. Classic and delicious. You can get it anywhere, even McDonalds started serving it a little while ago.

Beaver Tail - a flat, big piece of deep fried dough similar to an old-fashioned doughnut. Sold exclusively at Beaver Tail kiosks in Canada and a few parts in the US, and also Saudi Arabia of all places haha

Maple Syrup - Canada's most famous food export I guess. 2/3 of the world's maple syrup comes from Quebec, Canada. Going up to the forest where it's harvested, the 'sugar-bush', is a fun place for kids to go see the syrup get tapped from the trees and see the process of how syrup is made. Nothing beats going for a hay ride through the sugar bush and then eating a big 'ol stack of pancakes with fresh syrup in the lodge. Mmm mmm good.

Everyone agrees that poutine is Canada's national dish. You can get many variants of poutine, including some meats and other toppings added on top. By the way, if you don't know how to pronounce it, it's POO-teen or POO-tin(using french pronunciation)

I have heard of poutine, but have never had the opportunity to try it.  The next time I make it to Canada, it is definitely on my list of things to try.  I also enjoyed hearing about the maple syrup.  I think that must be quite fun for children to see, but as you said, I think eating the pancakes afterwards sounds superb.

[DDCecil]

My state is know for potatoes.

I've actually worked in a few different Potato processing plants, including one that made KFC mash potatoes for Japan.

[smeghead]

...some of my fav. tradicional meals :

Black risotto - it's very unusual dish, it's made from rice and squid, and with black ink of cuttlefish !

Cevapi - croatian best fast food, great for kids, english translation is spicy  minced meat rolls 

Fish paprikash - this i had today, it's hot and spicy , similar to fish soup, with lot of ground pepper and fish is strictly from freshwater (not from sea)

Strukli - imagine salty strudles, but instead of baking in the oven, strukli (with cheese) are cooked in boiled water.

Crepes (panackes) - but i think they're popular in the whole world , i just love them! with chocolate! and maybe with jam! 

[P]

Living on the east coast of Sweden I really like fried herring. Herring from the east coast and west coast goes by different names and are used in different dishes. The western variant is more famous though and is called "sill" and it's most iconic use is to pickle it raw together with vegetables. It's commonly eaten as part of the Christmas, Easter, Midsummer and other festivals' feast even though it's actually poor man's food.

Other things typically included in Swedish traditional food are potatoes, wild meat (deer, moose, boar, reindeer (in the north) or sometimes bear), meatballs, lingonberry jam or raw-stirred lingonberries (especially if wild meat or meatballs are served as well, alternately various kinds of berry jelly), boiled vegetables and various types of mushrooms. If living on the coast more seafood are eaten. Traditional Swedish food is quite simple though, during rough times sometimes almost only potatoes were eaten which is why I guess it's stapple food now.

Potatoes are staple food but bread is also eaten, traditionally mostly dark bread and crispbread that's pretty much only eaten in Scandinavia.

Other traditional food is varous kinds of soup followed by pancakes with jam (usually strawberry or other sweet jam, but I heard people eating it with lingonberry jam as well... yuk!) and sometimes whipped cream. Swedish pancakes are thin but a much thicker variant made in the oven also exists (which sometimes includes pork).

[security16]

TIMTAMS!!!!  Also known to most of my friends as mouth orgasms 
I wish I could find somewhere that sells the chocolate nutrijell jellies they were the best!