food

So I read that most Americans don't know what a sausage roll is and most have never tried one before.

For those who don't know its a British snack we love over here which is a sausage wrapped in puff pastry and cooked in the oven. If you are curious google it and maybe make one yourself to try.

What foods do you guys eat that most people here don't knows exists

In the States, we call those "Pigs in a Blanket". We use them as horderves or appetizers when not in formal settings. In Texas, we have a large population of Mexican and European immigrant started towns. Formal versions here are called them Kolaches. The word is Czech but the pronunciation of it sounds like it could be a Latin word, so the Hispanics here believe it's a Mexican invention :) . If you go to Houston area, they have fruit in a flaky pastry. Closer Central Texas they tend to have summer/polish/smoked sausages in a doughy breading. The border finds them usually with Jalapeno flavored sausages in Doughy breading or tortillas. The most informal and most recognized form of this in the States is a hotdog/weiner or a mini smoked sausage wrapped in breakfast biscuit dough and baked.

Texas, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Florida have large melting pot regions which have integrated the foods and fare of foreign lands into the local cuisine.

Texas has Germanic, Mexican, Asian, and African influences to our food. A typical Texan household will often eat Mexican food, Italian food, and English/Germanic foods. We have "Fry Ups" here but they are usually limited to Eggs served in any fashion, bacon/sausage/ham, hash-browns "Shredded potatoes fried into a flat, crispy form, toast, biscuits "fluffy breads more dense that a traditional roll", cream gravy, pancakes, and waffles. As you can see, the "Fry Up" though we don't call it that, has bits from all over Europe in it. Beans are not eaten for breakfast here unless it is in a Mexican style called "Re-Fried Beans". These are pinto beans that have been boiled until soft, then smashed into pork fat, seasoned, and pan fried. Vegetables are also not usually seen during a breakfast though some households do serve fruit. This breakfast is served with coffee, fruit juices, milk, and water.

Foods we MIGHT eat that you MIGHT not eat?

• Fajitas (Cheap/tough cuts of skirt steak cut into strips and scorched in a cast-iron skillet with peppers and onions, served with tortillas)

• Breakfast Tacos/Burrito (Eggs scrambled with bacon/pork sage sausage/ham and vegetables/potatoes "When you can find a Texan that will eat them >_<" and rolled into either corn or flour tortillas. "Burrito" is a Caucasian word that does NOT exist in Mexican culture. Anything rolled or held in a tortilla is traditionally a taco.)

• Iced Tea (Offered as straight up tea with ice cubes in it or sweetened with a large amount of real sugar, sometimes offering locally grown aromatics like mint and citrus fruits. Due to the hot whether, serving tea hot is nearly unheard of here. The only hot beverage that is widely used is coffee served either by itself "Black" or with cream, milk, or sweeteners. Coffee is predominately drank in the mornings here and only the blue-collar folk drink it throughout the first half of the day. )

• Soul Foods (These are African foods made with local ingredients. The slaves put in charge of cooking during the slavery era of the United States used their own cooking styles and recipes but were limited to locally grown or shipped in ingredients. Macaroni and Cheese for example was said to be created by the head house woman of Thomas Jefferson, a major political figure here. He had a pasta maker shipped from Italy and had this woman learn to make pasta. He wanted her to come up with new dishes using the pasta and one of them was a baked noodle dish with cheese and bread crumbs over the top. Today, "Mac and Cheese" is typically cooked on the stove top and usually only cheese, milk, and elbow macaroni stirred together until thoroughly coated. Other Soul Foods include Fried Chicken, Chicken Fried Steak, Greens with Bacon and Hog Fat, Baked Beans, Fried Okra, Fried Catfish, Pecan Pie, Black Eyed Peas, Cornbread, and Grits. Grits has 2 major ways to be eaten. Sweat or Savory. Sweet Grits are corn hominy that has been crushed into small pieces and steeped in hot water. Sugar, Butter, Milk, and Maple Syrup is added pending the taste of cook. I find this gross as I was raised with Savory Grits. Same grits but salt/black pepper/butter/bacon/breakfast sausage/over-easy eggs/sour cream/cheddar cheese in any number of combinations. Chitlins is a Soul Food that is the intestines of a pig, cleaned and cut into little segments, boiled, and then sometimes fried.) Texas has certain ways of cooking foods that are not limited to our region such as Cornbread and Chicken Fried Steaks. Cornbread can be cooked in any way and accepted but it is prized to be cooked in a cast iron skillet and fried over an open fire. Chicken Fried Steaks are a skirt steak that has been flattened and tenderized manually before being dipped in an egg wash, battered, and deep fried. Most places serve cream gravy over this but many places in Texas use Queso instead of gravy. Queso is Spanish for Cheese. Queso on a Texas menu means you will get a bowl of melted cheese that has been flavored with Pico De Gallo "raw onions/peppers/jalapenos/tomatoes/cilantro".

• Brisket (This is a tough cut of beef that was once cheap but since popularity in the 1970's rose, has become SUPER expensive. It's a very difficult piece of meat to get perfect. Most times you encounter this meat, it will be super greasy and yet somehow super dry. Generally is smoked slowly for anywhere from 4-48 hours. Sometimes it is baked in an oven. Really bloody, minerally, stringy piece of beef. People eat it shredded, slices, or chopped. Non-formal meals will have this on sandwiches, in tortillas, or by itself alongside pickles/onions/tomatoes/jalapenos/other smoked meats. Formal meals will have it sliced thinly on a plate. The term "Barbecue" in Texas often refers to any meat that has been grilled or smoked. These meats can be rubbed down with a mixture of spices before cooking or slowly slathered with sweet sauces during cooking. The term is different for the states in the "Deep South" like South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, etc. They believe it is ONLY PORK, usually Pork Shoulder, and always mixed into a vinegar based sauce.

Louisiana is heavily influenced by slave culture as well as French culture. Creole, Etouffee, Jumbolia, and "Boils" are common. A boil is usually corn and potatoes boiled in large pots with crab/crayfish "crawdads"/summer sausage. The meal is traditionally dumped out onto a picnic table covered in newspaper and a Cajun "French influenced local" seasoning mix is thrown over the items and spread out. A boil is eaten by a large group of people with their hands. It can be close friends and family or total strangers. Part of the "Southern Charm" and "Southern Hospitality" is that so long as you fit into the social acceptance of the time, you will be welcomed in and treated as close friends. It is considered rude to not help any person that is in distress if you are within the ability to help. Sharing food, housing, and offering favors used to be typical.

Minnesota has a Scandinavian influence. Foods that are pretty limited to that area are pickled fish "Lutefisk", Hotdish "the leftovers of passed meals cooked together in an oven and made into a casserole", and Lefse "a flatbread". They use a lot of potato in their cooking and in all forms. Most of their foods are greasy, fried foods "much like Texas" and very high in caloric intake. A lot of casseroles are cooked here.

Florida went through a lot of changes in it's history, having immigrants from France, Spain, and European countries in general, however, the mass influx of Cuban immigrants starting in the 1980's has completely changed Florida's culture. Cubans pretty much own Miami. Cuban foods are somewhat like Mexican food with a oceanic/tropical flare to it. Lots of slow cooked Pork, fried beef, and fish cooked into stews or eaten with tortillas in tacos. Grilling the food is a staple and some foods warrant the tropical side of the land to get involved; wrapping pork in banana leaves before cooking for example.

Everything you listed are pretty common place in the UK, you can get most of those foods from various places around near me in Southamton. Though I don't see very much cuban food by me.

Have you guys got haggis? A Scottish meal which is a mince meat made from a sheeps heart, liver and lungs and a few vegibles stuffed into a sheeps stomach and cooked. Sounds vile and can't imagine it tasting much better.

Black pudding, oats and cogilled pigs blood friend and served as part of a full english breakfast.

chips and gravy and when I say ships I mean french fries as you guys tend to call them.

steak pudding. steak and gravy in suet pastry

we joke about haggis but do not make it or eat it.... having toured in England I know you guys have gotten a lot of American specialty dishes in resturants, though your versions are poor imitations usually just like your take on coffee.

Boom is either more provincial than I ahd imagined he was or he hasn't eaten in every state of the USA hes been through. I have been in 46 states and parts of Canada, wait, or was it 47? Everywhere is melting-pot region these days. There may be large, random immigrant populations in any major city that mutate the local fare, even in the mostly whitebread Midwestern states.... the states Boom mentioned are most notorious, but even a city like St Louis has some really odd, hybrid cuisine. The USA is wild with food.

also, the secret of brisket is to take a page from the jews and brine it like pastrami and corned beef prior to smoking it on the BBQ... I go with a brining, then dry the outside, rub with salt and coarsely cracked pepper and let that soak in for a few more hours, THEN commence smoking, indirect, low heat, usually best with a really big chunk of fragrant wood instead of wood chips which fail to "go the distance"... usually yields a solid, juicy brisket that needs miimal sauce and also cooks so long the fat melts out making it less greasy than what Boom describes.... I had very hit or miss experiences with brisket in texas despite the fact that BBQ brisket is one of that state's signature dishes.

Texas talks a lot of smack about everything. I am not sure why we let this giant, loudmouthed state (that was mostly wasteland before the discovery of oil) founded by rebellious Mexicans and American expats who couldn't get by within our border into the union, but its too late now to kick them back out. I know we (the rest of the USA) at least gave them a really hard time about becoming a state. Once in a while Texas contributes something fun and amazing like SRV or ZZ Top.... most of the time not so much. We get stuff like fracking and GW Bush as president. I am not saying anything against the people of Texas in general, but somehow when they all get together they can be kinda troublesome....

Californians love Texas. We've had a problem with them leaving their jewel to come live with us in large droves the past 4 or 5 years.

The states I have visited that I didn't list did not really stand out. Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Utah, and pretty much anything from the center of the US over to the Pacific I've been through. There are other small melting pots, but they don't take over the region the same way a few other states' cultures do.

We can get or make just about any food, but finding restaurants that continually sell the more uncommon foods is tough in certain areas.

I traced my family back about 1600 years to Denmark and really wanted to cook their most distinct foods. Black Sausage was one of the dishes I wanted to whip up, but I couldn't find any butcher shops here that would sell me cows blood. Next time I visit my hometown I will have a pretty good shot at getting my hands on some but I don't plan to be there for a while.

The beef in a pastry we have and call a "Pot Pie". Haggis is known here but not really on the menu in the areas I've been to. I would imagine the New England area of the US "Upper right hand corner" would have places to get it though seeing they have large populations of Celts.

Chips and Gravy. Anything is acceptable on Chips/Fries here. Ketchup, Mayo, Mustard, Sriacha, pickle juice and dill, gravy, etc. The Canadian's have a staple called "Poutine" that consists of Gravy, Bacon, Cheddar Cheddar Cheese, and some Syrup over the fries. We do this in the US but it is not as big of a deal here and is referred to as "Loaded Fries". Canada uses a brown gravy for theirs, American's use a cream gravy.

I've not been to Europe so I cannot tell you how authentic or distinct these foods are when served over there. So long as the person making them puts their heart into it, I'm sure it turns out alright. Food is food. You can't really say You MUST be a Mexican and MUST speak espanol in order to be able to make good, authentic Barbecoa. The way it's served determines how it plays out as well. People call a lot of things Tacos here, but they aren't authentic. Authentic Tacos, and to Mexicans the only real tacos, are only served with fresh, soft, corn tortillas and only accompanied by Onions, Cilantro, Lemons, and Chiles (Pice de Gallo without the tomatoes). Hard shells, flour tortillas, orange cheese, sour cream, and all these other accouterments are all gringo add-ons.

That reminds me Liam, Mexico has some foods you may or may not have tried.

• Buche's (Pork stomach pan fried in fat ans spices. Tastes like a mixture of organ meat (liver,kidney,heart) and bacon.)

• Tripas (Animal intestines, usually pork, clipped and deep fried until spongy and crunchy. Authentically you are not supposed to over clean the intestines. Leaving small traces of feces in the lining was acceptable and altered the flavor. It's gross... but that's how it goes.)

• Chicharrone's (Stomache from any animal with the fat left on the outside, cut into small strips, deep fried until hard and crunchy. Then, they take those cooked Chicharrone and cook it with a tomato based red sauce and onions. The texture SHOULD be firm on the inside and slightly soggy on the outside. This is a really tough dish to get the ideal way. I don't order it often because the majority of the times I've had it, it was overcooked or under-cooked. Under-cooked doesn't allow the flavors to mingle and is like eating pork cracklin strips. Overcooked leaves the chicharrones completely soggy and horrible. A pink pork soup in your tortilla. )

• Barbacoa & Barbacoa Del Lingua (Beef cheeks slow cooked under ground in soaked burlap sacks and steamed until it falls apart by looking at it. Very greasy usually. I love it dried out and always ask them to not stir it up before getting mine out. Tastes somewhat like beef pot roast. Just a strong, bloody tasting beef. Barbacoa del Lingua is what it sounds like. Beef cheeks as well as beef tongue cooked in the same fashion. You can order just lingua as well and it is MUCH less greasy, but generally you get it in this dish. Many people don't cook it correctly int he burlap anymore. Burlap is getting harder to find and a crock-pot is often easier to deal with than digging a hole. You get such a different taste the right way though.)

• Menudo (White hominy and pork stomach "usually the honey comb section of it" cooked into a deep red soup with a heavy amount of spices. Mexicans use this soup as a hangover cure because of the high salt and water levels. This dish isn't as hard to make as Barbacoa, but a lot of people tend to mess it up. The dish should be so dark and greasy, you can't see your spoon under the service of it. It should also be pretty spicy. It's becoming a trend around here to make it with golden hominy, make it completely see through, and add little to no spice to it. The stomach should be cooked until it is only slightly rubbery but still soft enough to chew through. Like tacos, it is acceptable to serve with lemons, limes, onions, and cilantro on the side. I personally like it as is.)

• Mole' (Shredded pork or chicken mix into a rich bitter/sweet sauce. The sauce is based on either of 2 ingredients. Chocolate or Peanut-butter. The chocolate mole will be deep dark brown and will not usually be sweet. Think molasses without the sugar. The Peanut-butter version is very sweet and dark, but not as dark as it's counterpart. I prefer the later. This dish is incredibly easy to make and there are a few companies that make a very respectable grocery store version of the chocolate sauce.)

• Nepalitos (Flat cactai with the needles removed, cut into strips, and sauted. I think it's gross. Tastes like a bell pepper without the aromatic qualities.)

If you go to the South end of Mexico, you get more dishes with insects, chocolate, and avocados. I've not been THAT deep into Mexico. I grew up on the border and would visit only 5 or so hours in. North Mexico and South Mexico are two different animals. The language is different, the attitudes are different, and of course the foods differ as well. The North side is often the poor side. Any animal can be made into a meal, but of course the big 4 are Cow, Pig, Goat, and Chicken... in that order. Not every get's to eat beef. Pigs are more common but they are still expensive. Goats are cheap and can live easily on their own in the harsh environments, but you have to split the males up from the females and you have you know how to butcher it when the time comes or else you are left with meat that tastes the way a construction worker's arm pit smells. The only cheese you will ever find in real Mexican food is goat's. Rarely used though. Most everyone I knew growing up drank the milk instead and would only make the cheese for special events.

Haggis is rare in new England too. Even Boston, home of the Celtics. Haggis is really Scottish and up here we have more Irish folks. The Scots are a lot thinner on the ground (though I am Scottish and French on my mom's side, this is not a common lineage). Haggis may be more prevelant in the Appalachians, a lot of those coal miners are of highland scots descent. But there aren't really many restaurants there and the ones there are cater to tourists along the skyline drive and blueridge parkway...

I was kinda grossed out the first time I tried new York Disco fries but they were awfully good and it prepared me for the delicious aberration that is poutine! Most of Canada is a culinary wasteland, but there are a few spots I've been that had some interesting food. Mostly Canada is a lot like the USA in resturants though... you have to DIG for the really uniquely Canadian stuff.

up here in the northeast we also don't usually make beef pot pies unless its at a restaurant that pecializes in colonial era foods (most of our older cities have these resturants, some are better than others, Philly actually has the ebst one I've been too with a really renowned historical-chef who actually has a TV show... come to think of it my home town has quite a few celebrity chefs including Jack McDavid and Marimoto of food network fame, but yeah, up here a beef pot pie is generally a colonial novelty item and then tis called a "pasty").... you will still see frozen, factory beef pot pies in markets but no one buys them up here. Even as far west as Ohio Beef is not popular in pot-pies. I don't know why. It can be quite good, but I guess its just a cultural thing.

All this talk about Canadian fries and the search for Haggis in the states is making me miss travelling around. I can't wait to do a crazy road-trip vacation with my son when he's older...

The older I get, the fewer places I want to see. I'd like to see Jerusalem and Denmark as far as other countries go. I'd like to take a train to Boston just to see what the other coast is like. I have a lot of distant family in South Carolina so I imagine I'll make my way there some day.

If you don't enjoy a visit to Boston you're insane, its a helluva town, warts and all. A lot like my hometown, Philly but with a distinctly New England spin. Like Philly, its a lot larger than one would expect and it will take a solid week to really experience it as a tourist. I still haven't done Boston the way I want to, I always wind up there on business and I squeeze in a little tourism in my free time. Also, southern New England is home to this reat chain of music stores called Daddy's Junky Music. Great deals there, ice staff... all USED. Got my strat at a daddy's in New Britain CT about 12 years ago... good times...

South Carolina is a beautiful state with friendly people and a distinct BBQ style that blows my mind every time I am down there. Once you are in SC you might as well truck down to Charleston's sister city, Savannah GA. What an amazing town. I have had some great times down there, lemmee tell ya.

Oh the memories.