Let's Eat! (A Food Thread)

Two decades ago, no one ever heard of white sauce in most of Alabama, let alone the nation. You needed to be within about a 45-minute drive of Decatur to find it in a restaurant, and none of the Tennessee Valley kids at Bama ever mentioned it as a thing from back home.

Similarly, I lived in the Nashville TV market from 5th grade through high school graduation and we made trips there at least once every other month. Never did I hear a single mention of hot chicken.

What other really specific local foods have blown up into trendy things?

 

I imagine the Food Network shows have a lot to do with it. It kind of amazes me how much newspapers missed the boat with their food coverage over the years. Yes, the Wednesday section with the grocery store ads, some recipes etc. And a restaurant review here and there - but they could have done much more to juice the ad counts.

 

Is poutine a thing in the US? 40 years ago it was hard to find outside of Quebec, now it's everywhere in Canada. Lots of variations, some restaurants are basically nothing but poutine.

 

For a brief glorious moment we had a Montreal-style deli in Birmingham that did poutine (and amazing smoked meat). Alas it closed for good with the first wave of covid shutdowns.

 

I don’t know if it’s regional or not, but as a teenager 20 some odd years ago, my dad always made sure he had Yucateco habanero sauce in the house. When I moved out, I couldn’t find the stuff for anything (also moved to a city with a much lower Hispanic population). Then the country got on a kick of making things hotter and hotter and now habanero isn’t even the hottest flavor.

 

Fucking avocados.

 

I have a brother-in-law who is originally from down around Dothan somewhere. My regular comeback to him is "Well, you're from Alabama and eat white bbq sauce." He swears he's never heard of it.

I'm in Nashville multiple times a year, and I'd never heard of hot chicken until a few years ago, either.

 

I think you are right in the TV respect, and here's why:
Man vs. Food did an episode in Knoxville once. Everywhere they went was "famous" or "where all the locals go" etc. I thought, cool, I'll see somewhere I've been. Now, I'm not a local and don't go there to eat regularly, but I do know my way around.
I'd never heard of any of the places he went, and the chief places I figured they'd feature weren't even mentioned.
So from then on, it's always been in the back of my mind that if that's the case with the one town I know, it's probably the same everywhere else they go.

 

This might seem odd… but coffee.

Before Seattle and Starbucks, Maxwell House or Folgers were dominant. Then people started to see what roasting and how to make coffee properly tin their home can make such a difference.

I would add Seattle dramatically changed coffee.

Now, what area kicked off local breweries?

 

I've seen some "All Dressed" potato chips down below the border. First tried them on a trip to Vancouver 20 something years ago.

 

There wasn't ghost pepper where you were 20 years ago?