Cultural Cuisine in your area

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phideaux

phideaux

Old fashioned
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
19,538
Location
West Ky
Just curious about the cultural foods from different areas of the country.

What is on your plate , most likely , at your house or favorite restaurant.

In my household being raised on Southern(KY, TN)
We eat , and love , different foods than folks in different areas.
Here is a sample of a KY plate.
soul_food_at_powells_place.jpg

Fried chicken, fried okra, mac and cheese, turnip greens, cornbread , and of course ice tea.

Is this common to your house?

Jim
 
We are very much blessed to have many, many wonderful restaurants. The best of the group, and the most prolific would be Italian. The Italian food here is the best I have had anywhere outside of New York. Some things take a little getting used to like thin crust pizza (which I will never get used to) and toasted ravioli, which is unique to the area.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16907/st-louis-toasted-ravioli/
 
We have a lot of Vietnamese here. You can go into a strip mall and often times find several choices there ... Pho 79, Pho 13, Pho 66, Pho Duy ... there are just tons of them. All the names start with "Pho". I like the noodle bowls with standard meats. But you can get yourself into some strange body parts that I would never consider eating if you don't look closely at the specific dishes ingredients.

We have a lot of sushi too. Ranging from excellent (and expensive) to crappy (and still expensive for bottom of the barrel stuff).

We have several great family run Mexican food places, and a ton of chain restaurant places as well.

Lots of chain restaurant places around here. Looks the same as every other city across the USA. It pays to hunt out the family run places IMHO. Some chain restaurant places aren't too bad though. I like "Texas Roadhouse Grill".

We have one very unique place. "Casa Bonita". The worst food on the planet. But a fun place to go. Lots of entertainment inside this giant restaurant. Game rooms, shows, inside 3 story waterfall cliff divers. It's one of those places where you raise a little flag on your table to get more food (all you can eat). That's never a good sign - those little flags. Recommendation is to be a picky eater on the dinner part, concentrating on the sides of beans and rice, and hold out for the sopapillas at the end - those are the best part. If you're bold enough to stop by the "Kids Only" treasure chest as you walk out the door, you can pick up a few miniature Tootsie Rolls to settle your stomach for the drive home.
 
Great thread, phideaux! This New Yorker loves southern food, but the only place that comes close is Cracker Barrel (yeah, not necessarily authentic, but better than nothing).

Around here, we have Italian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Mexican along with traditional American food and they're all really good. We tend to avoid national chain restaurants (Cracker Barrel being an exception); we prefer mom-n-pop restaurants. We have a distinct lack of German restaurants, which is disappointing.

Where I live, apples and grapes are plentiful. So apple pie and grape pie are really popular.
 
We have fast food, 3 Chinese restaurants, and more Mexican places than I can count. There's a Taco truck on just about every corner. Several Mexican places have NO English menus, You need to know Spanish to order. One mom and pop place but it's not very good. One sandwich and pie place but again it's not very good. There are 4 coffee stands.
If we want anything else it's a 45 to 60-minute drive and even there the choices are limited. I have yet to find a good Italian place. Once you eat Italian food made by real Italians in places like Chicago, NY City, New Jersey, or CT it's hard to find anything that compares. Olive garden is NOT Italian.
My wife made banana pudding 2 days ago.
If there was a place to get a meal like your picture we would eat there a lot.
My family came from TN, TX, OK, and AR so that is fine dining to me.
Before we got married I took my wife to all my favorite eating places and had them teach her how to make their specialty. Grandma's house for Chicken and Dumplings, Fried Chicken, and Biscuits and Gravy. She didn't get fried chicken down very well. Mom taught her to make Lightbread biscuits and cabbage rolls and beans.
Now I'm hungry and I just finished breakfast.
The only thing I miss about living in a big city or traveling around the country is the food available.
 
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We have pepperoni rolls here. Awesome when right out of the oven and warm. They were invented here for the coal miners.
Same with the chili hotdog. Its gotta have chili ( no beans) slaw and I like mine with mustard. It was invented here too even though other places claim it they lie( like dogs)lol
Biscuits and gravy
Pinto beans and corn bread
Applebutter is everywhere here because we're an apple state
And I can't forget venison is huge here. Just like deer hunting is huge here and a family affair

forgot to add ham and bean soup. but I add rivels ( Pa Dutch) most don't around here
 
I'm not a fan of (southern) BBQ. But, there's a place close to me (one of many) that makes really good BBQ,
He cooks whole shoulders overnight on open pit with hickory wood. He says the secret (which nobody does) is to not pull the pork from the shoulder until it's ordered. I can eat it ok.

He makes a Pork Roll that I love. He wraps pork , coleslaw and mottz cheese in a big tortilla and deep fried it to golden brown...OMG.

Just a local thing.

Jim
 
bkt said:
We tend to avoid national chain restaurants (Cracker Barrel being an exception); we prefer mom-n-pop restaurants.
Click to expand...

BKT: We are right with you. :great: We try to support the locally owned places before we go to a chain, We are very fortunate to have a lot of them, of every variety, so there is no need to go to a chain.
 
WVDragonlady said:
We have pepperoni rolls here. Awesome when right out of the oven and warm. They were invented here for the coal miners.
Same with the chili hotdog. Its gotta have chili ( no beans) slaw and I like mine with mustard. It was invented here too even though other places claim it they lie( like dogs)lol
Biscuits and gravy
Pinto beans and corn bread
Applebutter is everywhere here because we're an apple state
And I can't forget venison is huge here. Just like deer hunting is huge here and a family affair

forgot to add ham and bean soup. but I add rivels ( Pa Dutch) most don't around here
Click to expand...
I saw one of Chef Vivian Howard's shows on pepperoni rolls, really neat!
 
Traditional Amish cooking around here. Casseroles, tater tots, chicken fried steak, always mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, sweet corn (off the cob), meatloaf, lots of bread rolls. Popular dessert here is pies of all kinds (sour cream and raisin, too), fruit fry pies, and cinnamon rolls.
I just got back from my favorite cousin's husband's birthday breakfast. We had: biscuits with sausage gravy, banana pudding (I brought that), cookies, cookie bars, coffee cake, grapes, custard, and homemade vanilla icecream.
 
Haertig said:
We have a lot of Vietnamese here. You can go into a strip mall and often times find several choices there ... Pho 79, Pho 13, Pho 66, Pho Duy ... there are just tons of them. All the names start with "Pho". I like the noodle bowls with standard meats. But you can get yourself into some strange body parts that I would never consider eating if you don't look closely at the specific dishes ingredients.

We have a lot of sushi too. Ranging from excellent (and expensive) to crappy (and still expensive for bottom of the barrel stuff).

We have several great family run Mexican food places, and a ton of chain restaurant places as well.

Lots of chain restaurant places around here. Looks the same as every other city across the USA. It pays to hunt out the family run places IMHO. Some chain restaurant places aren't too bad though. I like "Texas Roadhouse Grill".

We have one very unique place. "Casa Bonita". The worst food on the planet. But a fun place to go. Lots of entertainment inside this giant restaurant. Game rooms, shows, inside 3 story waterfall cliff divers. It's one of those places where you raise a little flag on your table to get more food (all you can eat). That's never a good sign - those little flags. Recommendation is to be a picky eater on the dinner part, concentrating on the sides of beans and rice, and hold out for the sopapillas at the end - those are the best part. If you're bold enough to stop by the "Kids Only" treasure chest as you walk out the door, you can pick up a few miniature Tootsie Rolls to settle your stomach for the drive home.
Click to expand...
Pho 95 on south Federal is our go to place. We get the large, get it to go, and can have a couple meals from it. I've been to other pho places, but this is our favoring.

Casa Bonita might be closing. I am not 100% sure of that. They say they are not closing, but COVID has hit them hard. It is a touristy place and the food is really not good. It is a great place to take out of towners with children. We knew someone who used to be a cliff diver there. Casa Bonita hopes to reopen by Memorial Day, even as bankruptcy proceedings are underway.

There are many Mexican restaurants in the area, but Las Delicias is our favorite. Amish Heart and Mr. Amish can attest to the food there. It has a few locations.

The Denver area is the headquarters for many restaurant businesses that offer franchises. It is my daughter's kind of work.

One of the restaurants that we like is a Mongolian Grill, Hu Hot. You can walk in, and like a buffet, make up a plate of what food you want, add from a choice of around 50 sauces and they will stir fry it for you. Daughter can eat gluten free there with little chance of being gluten poisoned.
 
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Around here we have the standard southern Meat & 3 fare, a couple are pretty good. For folks who don't know the term... The lunch special - a meat with 3 vegetable sides. Usually have a choice of 1-3 meats like, meatloaf, baked spaghetti, chicken fried steak, fried chicken, fried fish, chicken dressing, chicken dumplings etc. Then you can get 2 or 3 vegetables on the side. Most places will have 10-12 sides to choose from, mashed potatoes, greens, cabbage, peas, beans, fried squash and fried okra, etc. The choice of meats change daily, some menu's are laid out by day of the week.

Lots of bbq joints, a few exceptional. If I want a great steak the chain restaurants are the only choice.

In the big town there are some exceptional foods, a Lebanese place geared toward fast food. They have great gyro's and shish kabobs, I wish they did a more upscale sit down menu.

There is 1 great asian place, best food I've had outside of Chinatown, SF. And one other that is a close second. The rest are average.

Only 3 hours from the gulf but no great seafood restaurants, disappointing. If you want to cook at home there is one place that specializes in fresh gulf seafood. They sell raw shimp, crawfish and oysters, some fish but you'd better order by Wednesday for Friday or Saturday pick up. If you wait until Saturday morning many times they are sold out of everything... But the seafood is first rate.

The south has many great catfish restaurants but the best is from the volunteer fire dept down the road, they sell catfish plates one Saturday a month with all the fixin's and homemade desserts.

There is no great mexican food within 50miles, just average.

Since covid the quality has really dropped in many of the restaurants. There was one place for great po' boys, shrimp, oyster etc but the last two times I stopped the food was poor.

good meat n 3

Meat n 3 (2)_v1.jpg
meatloaf 02 a sm.JPG



Good catfish plate

Fire Hall.JPG


Poor Po' Boy... shrimp was tuff, had sat too long.

shrip po boy sm.JPG
 
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Some restaurants that I miss that I no longer live near or routinely travel near, or have closed:

Snoopy's - seafood - Corpus Christi, TX
The Magic Time Machine - 24 oz T-Bone steak - Austin, TX
Ralph & Kacoo's - great crawfish plate, 1/2 fried & 1/2 etouffee - Bossier City, LA
Copper Top - BBQ - near Phideaux's place, KY

Chain restaurants:
Schlotzsky's - unique sandwich on sourdough - these are disappearing here in CO
Bennigan's - American fare - now out of business (I think)
Steak and Ale - steakhouse fare - haven't seen one in years, out of business?
 
There have been many changes in restaurants in the last few years in my area. When I first moved to Colorado, I had a dickens of a time finding barbecue and Southern Food, but I know where the good places are now.

There was a place in the inner city of Denver called Zona's. Zona's was known for pig ear sandwiches, but they also had tamales and hot links. I just could not imagine eating a sandwich made from a pig's ear. I never went to Zona's because it was in Five Point's and it had been told to me that it was not a safe part of town. Hahaha! Well, if Denver had a ghetto, this would have been it, with large Victorian homes, some worth more than a million $. People do have things stolen there and there are other crimes that go on there, but I have been there and have never felt scared. I am aware when I am there. Looks like stolen stuff was sold at Zona's. A woman I worked with told me they dealt drugs out of the restaurant as well.

https://www.westword.com/restaurant...ested-for-trafficking-in-stolen-goods-5735371
I have eaten at a Southern restaurant in Five Points called Welton St. Cafe. If you order fried chicken, it take half an hour to get it, because they cook it from scratch. There are the typical Southern sides: collard greens, okra, beans, mac and cheese, corn bread. I usually get fried catfish when I go.
 
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Thai!
Daughter and I were in Boston, looking for dinner. We came across a Thai restaurant and bought food to go. It was horrible. When daughter began asking around her friends told her the best Thai they had had was in Denver. Really?

Tommy's Thai on east Colfax has gotten the nomination for the best Thai many years in a row. We don't get food there now because Tommy thinks he should keep wait staff tips.

Swing Thai is another Thai restaurant in our area. There were 3 locations, but now there are two. Great food.
 
I love Asian food way more than anything else, so I learned to cook it. Family loves it too. My favorites are Indian, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese. I do like (non raw) sushi but it's too much trouble to make and since we moved away from Florida I haven't had any. There really aren't any good restaurants where we live. I do like Southern food occasionally, but not a lot. Don't really care much for Mexican food. Don't eat fast food , don't like burgers. Not much else around here. If we drive to the "big city" of Roanoke a few hours away, we go eat Cuban food There is a good Cuban restaurant there
 
Love fried green tomatoes. We slice and freeze green tomatoes and enjoy them year round.

Here are a few samples of my wife’s cooking. We are both of German descent and love food. She is a great cool.
Speaking of fried green tomatoes... those and squash blossom and scrambled eggs.

04ECCE5C-0B78-429F-A46D-17E7ED5EC6D7.jpeg


And more.

FGT and sausage and fried eggs.

206093F6-92DC-4694-A03F-2ADA021E488C.jpeg


And a wonderful meat pie.

AEC4D107-987D-40FD-93D5-780781A33D30.jpeg
 
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As far as ethnic food in the area... Mexican? LOL

There is a large Basque presence in the area. There are a couple of restaurants and one in particular, The Star, is stellar. They serve food family style, all you can eat. One of my favorites is their pork tenderloin with pimentos. We haven’t been there for a long time, must order some food. I see they do serve that way now.
Pics from the net.

F51A7B86-719D-4FB7-96A6-DC739E0AA893.jpeg


A6F9FA66-3F4F-438D-AE7B-0B3ED3802AA0.jpeg
 
Southern? I lived in Atlanta (actually Duluth) for a while and had relatives from the south. Add boiled peanuts to your list. If you haven’t had them, DO have them. We always took a ride on Sunday after church and would stop at one of the many peanut sellers and get peanuts for the drive. Yum!
They boil a 55 gallon drum of salt water and cook the peanuts in that, then scoop them out and dump into a bag for the road. We just boil a pot of water on the stove, sometimes adding hot sauce too. A local supplier orders the raw peanuts for us.
 
Weedygarden said:
Thai!
Daughter and I were in Boston, looking for dinner. We came across a Thai restaurant and bought food to go. It was horrible. When daughter began asking around her friends told her the best Thai they had had was in Denver. Really?

Tommy's Thai on east Colfax has gotten the nomination for the best Thai many years in a row. We don't get food there now because Tommy thinks he should keep wait staff tips.

Swing Thai is another Thai restaurant in our area. There were 3 locations, but now there are two. Great food.
Click to expand...

We lived in Parker for a couple of years. It has been a LONG time, but there was a great Indian restaurant in Denver. Darn I wish I could remember the name. A small place but GOOD.
Oh, there is (or at least was) a fantastic Indian restaurant in Omaha too. Wonder if it is still there? 🤔

Update, I couldn’t identify the Omaha Indian restaurant for sure. But, I did find that the best steakhouse and steak I have ever had is still going. Cascio’s Steak House in Omaha. A filet that can be cut with a fork. OMG good. Go there if you get the chance.
 
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NevadaBlue said:
We lived in Parker for a couple of years. It has been a LONG time, but there was a great Indian restaurant in Denver. Darn I wish I could remember the name. A small place but GOOD.
Oh, there is (or at least was) a fantastic Indian restaurant in Omaha too. Wonder if it is still there? 🤔
Click to expand...
Little India on 6th Ave.? It is a great place and I have eaten there many times. Still there, and have opened at least one other location, maybe more.
 
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