What foods are popular in your hometown but are difficult to find, or just aren’t the same, when you leave the area?

25 comments

  1. I was inspired to make this post by the thread asking which city had the best food in America. I immediately thought of the town I grew up in.

    Utica NY has incredible Italian food. For a city of its size there is such awesome food traditions there. It obviously can’t compete with the diversity or scope of larger world class cities. But I love the fact that a city this small has so much heart and so many regional specialties and history. But as I mention further down, it does actually have the oldest continuously operating pizzeria in the state of NY. And they do not serve anything like thin crust!

    In Utica you will find:

    1. [Chicken Riggies](https://www.contentednesscooking.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Chicken-Riggies-4.jpg) are dish of regional pride. A creamy orange sauce with spicy cherry peppers and chunks of chicken served over rigatoni. Some people add mushrooms or olives too

    2. [Utica greens](https://external-preview.redd.it/52BMTxdSXkY-xb8Rvqh-dWcvjX0esLhD9FOqI5Rw4zI.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=cce8db22888466e7207c662c020c6764b170210f) are another regional specialty. Escarole cooked down with chicken broth, with bread crumbs, garlic, pecorino, prosciutto, cherry peppers, onions, and seasoned potatoes in the version I like to make (my picture above).

    3. [Tomato pie](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRpRZzU_EOlffLxBckEmYRCUF9ZYvtwFzGA6w&usqp=CAU) is something you see served at any sort of graduation party or work meeting. You get it from deli’s and bakeries. Sheets of it are like 10 bucks. It’s a focaccia style crust with a nice thick sauce generously topped with pecorino romano. Served room temperature.

    4. As I said, Utica is home to the oldest continuously operating pizzeria in New York. Downstaters have a certain arrogance about their pizza, but yes, Utica takes this title. [O’scugnizzo’s](http://media.newyorkupstate.com/photo-gallery/photo/2016/01/10/-ea88271519d81bd5.jpg) Pizzeria has been operating their pizzeria in Utica continuously since 1914. They are the second oldest pizzeria in the United States after Papa’s in NJ. They serve an “upsidedown pizza” where the toppings are on the bottom and the sauce is on the top. If you get a sausage pizza here, delicious bulk store made sausage is spread evenly on the whole crust evenly. It’s then topped with slices of mozzarella. Then it’s put in the oven. Sauce is topped AFTER it comes out of the oven. The homemade sauce never gets baked and it retains a certain sweetness to it because of this. The pizza is finished with a generous helping of pecorino and is ready to eat right away and will never scald the roof of your mouth. I guarantee you’ve never had a pie like it.

    5. These are not Italian, but originated at the German Hemstroughts Bakery. [Half Moon Cookies](https://homeinthefingerlakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Half-Moon-Cookies-3-of-3-1024×683.jpg.webp)! They only superficially resemble the black and white cookie that you find in New York City. They have a chocolate cake base and one side is frosted with a a light buttercream vanilla frosting, and the other a thick chocolate fudge.

    6. [Pusties](https://roadfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/rfl_19050-1024×768.jpg), or Pasticiotti are another dessert staple in Utica that you’ll find at all the Italian bake shops. Florentine bakery I believe is who made the original and has been doing them for 100 years. They’re essentially a custard filled tart that are popular around Easter time. Traditionally they come in chocolate and vanilla, But they also make them in lemon, apple pie, and all sorts of other varieties.

    7. [Mushroom Stew](https://www.upstateramblings.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/mushroom-stew-1040889-1024×768.jpg) is another pasta dish that is native to Utica. Not as well known as chicken riggies, which has spread throughout the state. This has mainly stayed within the Italian restaurants and families in the areas. It’s a tomato-based stew with pork or sausage, peppers, onions, and of course. mushrooms. Served either with ziti or crusty bread.

    In recent years there is much food from all around the world in Utica, especially Eastern Europe. Utica is a **huge** hub for refugees. Proctor High School in Utica has more languages spoken in it than any high school in New York State.

    For beer, Utica is home to the FX Matt Brewing Company who brews the wonderful Saranac line of beers. But they also are the ones who brew Utica Club, the first beer sold after prohibition–[at least that’s what it says it’s bottles and cans](https://www.decrescente.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/utica-club-can-lg.png).

    So watch out Springfield, because Utica is a city on the grow!

  2. You just can’t get good cheese curds outside of MN/Wisconsin (possibly some other nearby states). Let alone deep fried ones.

  5. Cornish pasties.

    Just my town in California, a few towns in Montana, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan have them in America.

  7. There are only a handful of taquerias outside of the Mission District itself that make a decent Mission-style burrito.

    People from SoCal will endlessly insist that SoCal-style burritos are better. I don’t prefer them, personally, and insisting that they’re better is an acknowledgement that they’re different. I’ve never had a burrito in SoCal that I enjoy for the same reasons I enjoy a Mission-style burrito.

  8. I got used to some amazing German food in Queens, NY where I grew up. Moved to the suburbs – NO GERMAN FOOD TO BE FOUND

  9. Dutch Crunch rolls, a soft roll baked with a rice paste on the top that forms a crunchy, slightly sweet crust. Standard option for a deli sandwich in northern California, rare elsewhere.

  10. My hometown has a lot of fusion food that you just can’t replicate. The best used to be a Japanese-Persian place. Zomg!

  11. Some will say pizza, but the answer is bagels. I’ve had decent pizza outside of the pizza belt, it’s just not very common. But i have never ever found a decent bagel outside of the nyc metro.

  12. BBQ. They might have BBQ in other places, but BBQ in Atlanta is the best. We get the influence from all over the southeast.

  14. I haven’t found Vietnamese food in the US outside of the Bay Area (especially San Jose), Orange County, Seattle, and Houston to be as great as in these places. Makes sense when you consider that many of these areas have large Vietnamese populations, but the quality of the cuisine is solid nevertheless, and many times on par with what you can find in Vietnam, or in a few cases even better.

  15. Lobster. It exists elsewhere and the west coast has those clawless spiny lobsters. But Maine is the home of homarus americanus which can’t be beat.

  16. In SC, you can find hash & rice at about every BBQ place you go to (at least in my region), but you really won’t find it anywhere else…

  19. Bacon egg and cheeses. Went north to Gloucester MA and couldn’t get them there. Went south to wildwood NJ and couldn’t get them there. However LBI does have them, so the southern line is somewhere between lbi and Wildwood. Idk exactly where the northern line is.

    My sister moved down to FL (west coast) and the first thing she did when she came up to visit was get a bacon egg and cheese. I’ve had them in Boca (east coast) and they’re normal but everyone in Boca is from the NYC area so that’s why.

  21. Narrowing it down to just what’s widely popular… (My hometown has a couple of local specialties that are pretty obscure nowadays.)

    Lexington Style BBQ, pretty much only available in a handful of counties in Western NC. What you get in the rest of the country as “Carolina Pulled Pork” bears no resemblence to the Real Deal.

  25. Middle-Eastern food and lamb in general. Other than the odd Aladdin’s every now and then, it’s difficult to really find good lamb options outside of my county around here. I know they exist, but they’re nowhere near as ubiquitous as they are here. There’s Syrian and Greek places everywhere, all the stores carry toum and locally made hummus, lamb kebabs are a staple at backyard barbecues… it’s hard to avoid.

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