Foods I can't find in my present location and regional specialties.

[scotrace]

Uneeda Biscuit, or No Dukes Mayonnaise in Arizona?

Many products are sold regionally in the USA. Things you may have grown up with that were comon at the time in North Carolina, can't be found in Kansas, for example.

Here's help.

Home Town Favorites

Home of the Hard to Find Grocer! Stuff you can't find, or stuff you thought was no longer made.
(including a few treasures for your Golden Era pantry)

Even stuff you haven't seen in ages:

 

[Nathan Flowers]

.

Interesting site, and also interesting the way you worded that. My parents recently moved to Arizona, and since they could not find Duke's in the grocery stores out there, I had to send them half a dozen jars.
I must have told you that....didn't I?

 

[scotrace]

Nope... I have friends in NC who insist they have to have their Dukes!
(and country ham with biscuits and pinto beans)













.

 

[John in Covina]

As a former NYer living in LA I can say i am amazed at the fantastic variety of foods that are out here BUT!

Chinese food out this way is different that what I remember in NY either long Island, NYC, or even up in Plattsburgh which wa outstanding.

Here in LA, I cannot find the great appetizer "SHRIMP TOAST" anywheres. It is a favorite of mine that I can only get when visiting back East.

A good tip for east coasters coming out west, Hellmans mayonaise is available as Best Foods Mayo, same recepie and flavor.

Out this way two burritos that were more common but harder to find now are: "The Hollenbeck" and "The Okie" which were scrumptious!

So if you have moved and you're Jonesing for a dish you can't get where you're at now it is time to put in a call.

 

[katiemakeup]

Oh yes~ there is a little thai place I go to sometimes, and they used to have shrimp toast for a hot second- now they don't anymore! Still on the lookout for Count Chocula though.... I also miss White Castle.

 

[John in Covina]

Still on the lookout for Count Chocula though.... I also miss White Castle.

***********
Count Chocula and some of the old brands like Quisp & Quake turn up on line or at tlittle independant markets.

White Castle burgers are available as a frozen food item again check the markets. You can microwave them and they taste like they're right off the grill.

 

[vonwotan]

There is a long list, but one regional specialty (mid-atlanitc) I haven't seen in years is scrapple.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

They don't have Flaming Hot Cheetos or Flaming Hot Fritos in New York, it seems. I brought some with me from Texas but they are all gone now!

 

[Brooksie]

Now that I live in the sticks and not in Portland anymore I sure do miss East Indian, Labaneese, and Greek foods - can't get it any where around here closest that I know of is Portland which is about a two hour drive away. Over here at least i can get Chineese, Thai, Sushi and Mexican. I also miss the good ol' home cooked texas BBQ that I used to have while living in Texas but while living in Texas I was a lot worse off, I lived 15 miles to the closest town and there was no diversity in foods at all you can get fast food, Mexican, BBQ and Southern style home cooking. I lived there for about 8 months and I really missed the diversity of foods that I got while living in Portland the most diverse thing I had while living there was Chineese food once while visiting in Dallas which was about an 1 hour 45min. from Fairfield where I lived.

LB

 

[Brooksie]

I also miss all of the varieties of pork rinds you can get in texas, regular, tabasco, cajun style, BBQ, extra hot and spicy, lime and jalepeno' and salt and vinegar. Here there is just the plain ones but one of my neighbors (he used to live in Georgia) when I lived in Portland showed me a trick and you pour a bunch of regular ones in a bowl and then dump a bunch of Tabasco on them and mix it up - this is what they he and his family eat when the rent movies instead of popcorn.

LB

 

[Rafter]

As a former NYer living in LA I can say i am amazed at the fantastic variety of foods that are out here BUT!
Chinese food out this way is different.
Here in LA, I cannot find the great appetizer "SHRIMP TOAST"
Hellmans mayonaise is available as Best Foods Mayo, same flavor.

As a former NYer living in CT, I can say I am amazed
at the lack of food variety available in my quaint village!!

Edy's Ice Cream

is Dreyer's in the SouthWest, right?

I used to think that the Dryer's brand was related
to the NorthEast "Breyer's brand" of ice cream. That's not the case!!

Breakstone Cottage Cheese goes by the Knudsen Brand name!


Do they have Nathan's Hot Dogs out there John??
What about Guilden's Mustard??
Nabisco Mallomars??

..............and I still order Shrimp-Toast along with Egg-Rolls.
All this talk about food is making me "hungry"!! :essen:

Anyway, if I want foods that approximate the SouthWest in brand and flavor,
I just go to "Trader Joe's".

 

[beaucaillou]

* Chicago Brick ice cream stopped being made some time ago, and I always miss it.

* Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream from the boardwalk in Port Dover, Canada.

* Fresh, Parisian pastries and bread.

* Frank-n-Stuff hotdogs made by Hormel in the 80's were terrifying and delicious at once.

* Hot Doug's in Chicago.

* Intelligentsia coffee. I do get it shipped here, but it's not the same.

* Martial's food. It's what I think of when I think of home cooking.

* Ceviche at Nacional 27. And Adam's pomegranate ginger chili mojito.

* Portillo's. All of it.

* Rudy's Bar-B-Que.

* Black Cows at Al's.

* Bratwurst at Sox Park.

* I still can't find Chateau D'Aqueria out here. I even contacted the importer. *shakes fist*

* My Mom's Grasshopper Angel Food cake. And apricot dessert. And Bollinger cheese potatoes.

* MK's pommes frites with truffle cream.

* Malnati's pizza.

 

[Rafter]

For those of you that want a taste of the Big Apple,
you can order

Junior's Cheesecake and Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, online.

 

[Emmababy]

American's are insane and have too much food.

i do want to eat all of it though.
starting with prawn toast

 

[LizzieMaine]

I desperately miss Taco flavored Doritos. Supposedly they exist in remote corners of the midwest, but here in the northeast they haven't been seen since the late '80s. None of these new "extreme" flavors come anywhere close to being as good...

 

[Tourbillion]

Dr. Brown's Diet Cream Soda isn't really available in Los Angeles either--unless I want to drive to Pink's. You can get it in any deli in NYC (and I am not even a NY native).

There are also no croissants out here. I haven't had a decent one since I went to Paris. They are all so stale they may as well have come from Paris--by boat!!!

There is no Thai restaurant in San Pedro, I have to go the nearby cities to get even Americanized Thai food. There is a Thai area in Long Beach, but I have to cross the bridges to get there. There is a lot of building going on here though, so maybe someone will finally realize there is no Thai food.

Also, last time I checked there was no edible Mexican food east of the Continental Divide. My grandparents used to bring us cases of good hot sauce when we lived on the East Coast, because there wasn't a Mexican section in the supermarkets by us.

Also, I determined that I can't move to any area where there is no Trader Joe's. There would be no suitable foods available for me to eat, plus they are less expensive than supermarkets.

 

[Tourbillion]

As a former NYer living in LA I can say i am amazed at the fantastic variety of foods that are out here BUT!

Chinese food out this way is different that what I remember in NY either long Island, NYC, or even up in Plattsburgh which wa outstanding.

Here in LA, I cannot find the great appetizer "SHRIMP TOAST" anywheres. It is a favorite of mine that I can only get when visiting back East.

QUOTE]

Or at Yang Chow in Chinatown Los Angeles, you just need to drive a little farther:

http://www.yangchow.com/menu.html

I went there about a year ago, they were only OK, kind of Americanized even though they are in Chinatown. Didn't try the shrimp toast though.

I've noticed that LA suburbs tend to lack the variety of ethnic (or even traditional) foods that you can find in the city proper. The newer the suburb, the more likely they are to only have corporate restaurants which tend to be noticeably absent from places like NYC. Some of the corporates have good offerings, but I haven't been impressed by corporate Chinese restaurants at all. Of course if your suburb has lots of Chinese folks living there, there are likely to be good Chinese restaurants.

 

[Sweet Polly Purebred]

Since I've moved out of the States I'm missing foods that I never dreamed I would miss .. junk food mostly, which is weird because I never really ate a lot of it when I was there.

I never liked Dr Pepper but I have been craving it for weeks, same with A&W Root Beer .. ANY root beer for that matter! What I wouldn't give for a proper Root Beer float! Also missing Celestial Seasoning Teas, Cafe Bustelo Espresso, and (this is shameful) Bisquick!

On the flip side, Irish brown bread can't be beat!

 

[Miss Neecerie]

American's are insane and have too much food.

i do want to eat all of it though.
starting with prawn toast

Funny thing is....you all have just as much food over there. It's just stuff that you are used to seeing, so you don't necessarily think of it as -too much-.

I found just as much junk and crap to eat when I lived over there, as one can here.

Crisps in 15 or more different flavours, all sorts of sweeties....jam tarts, bakewell tarts.....

Shall I go on?

D...who misses Irn Bru

 

[beaucaillou]

fftopic: I agree with Miss Neecerie. The problem isn't that We have too much, it's that all first world nations have too much. The problem is actually in distribution, and nutrition. Those who live at poverty level in America buy what they can afford and food manufacturers aren't stupid. If you bring Doritos and McDonald's in at prices far lower than that of local produce and organic meats, guess what people on a budget are forced to buy? And then guess how their palates shape and then re-purchase??

There is more than enough food produced by all of the world to feed everyone, but still it doesn't happen, because there's not enough business in it.

Sorry. I'm a Slow Food member, so I'm all over this kind of thing.fftopic: