Shooting The Breeze: City Centric Foods

Written by Walt in Ramblings

Not long ago I put up an article on a local eatery called The Yellow Submarine. Included with that article was supposed to be a video of me discussing the restaurant, in my haste I forgot to encode it and it never made the final cut.

I encoded the video a few nights ago and thought that it could stand all by itself as I talked about city centric foods and not just the Yellow Submarine. The video runs about 21 minutes and I talk mainly about the transition of food from a city like Philadelphia to one like Reading.

Are there any popular foods in your
city/town that you can’t get elsewhere?

Walt

Hi There, My name is Walt White and as the name of this blog suggests, I am a Pennsylvania resident. In addition to having numerous hobbies that I discuss on my blog - Iā€™m also the father of three little girls and a pitbull.

6 thoughts on “Shooting The Breeze: City Centric Foods”

  1. As always, great topic!! Food is one of my passions and biggest downfall. I’m in NJ and the one thing we have here that is almost impossible to find anywhere else is Taylor Ham aka Pork Roll. I base not finding it “anywhere else” soley on places that I’ve vacationed to. I know it’s availabe in NY and parts of PA. I’ve been down in Florida and people look at me weird when I ask for Pork Roll. Basically, it looks like a slice of Canadian Bacon but has the flavor profiles of Spam (Jerry ought to love it). Here is Jersey, we eat it in a sandwhich also containing an egg and a slice of American Cheese. Good Stuff.

    The one thing that I can’t find anywhere here in Jersey is Scrapple. I’m sure Walt has come across the stuff. I’m not going to go into detail about it but just Wiki the word Scrapple. LOL

    The one thing I find myself doing often is Wiki’ing brands. I find it interseting in knowing information about what I’m eating, where did it originate from and other products that come close to it or are in the same genre.

  2. Carlos,
    Yeah, I know what scrapple is and I hate the stuff. Knowing what it is doesn’t make it any easier to eat it either…lol

    I didn’t know that pork roll was regional. I grew up eating the stuff for breakfast. Makes a great sandwich on an english muffin or bagel with some egg and cheese (as you mentioned).

  3. Most people I know enjoy scrapple the first time they’ve tried it but wouldn’t eat it again once they’ve found out what it’s made up of.

    Just did a Wiki search for Taylor Ham and found that there are two companies making their own brand in PA.

  4. The one thing that I don’t enjoy about eating anywhere else other that NJ is that I’m used to how things are done here.

    I enjoy Chinese take every once in awhile. Usually, I get the same thing. One of the items is a quart of pork fried rice. As most people know, it comes in the recognizable litte white container with the metal handle.

    While vacationing in Florida, the wife and I decided to order out. We looked through whatever vacation guide we had and picked out a local Chinese restaraunt. I called to place my order and as usual, one of the items was a quart of pork fried rice. The person taking my order asked me, large or small. That confused the hell out of me because I’m used to being asked..quart or pint. I told the person..a quart, isn’t that the large? They didn’t answer me and put me down for a large pork fried rice. About 45 minutes later, doorbell rings and my food is at the door. I pay the guy, go into the kitchen and I’m wondering, “Why the hell is this bag to friggin’ heavy?!” I set the bad on the table and begin taking the containers out. At the bottom of the bag was my large order of rice. This container of rice wasn’t the little white paperbox but a big honkin’ plastic tub of rice. Ever see a large container of butter at the grocery store…well, double that! I had enough rice to last me a week.

    That experience taught me a lesson not to think that all foods are made and packaged the same way.

    I’ve had the same experience with Pizza. It was basically a big round matza cracker with sauce and cheese. Nasty!!!

  5. Pon Haus (aka scrapple) is found ALL over the place here. Puddin and Pon Haus – I dont care for either, but living so close to Lancaster and the Amish there are a LOT of things people probably never heard of šŸ˜‰

    I think the thing most people dont get are the local butcher shops. We have TONS of them! Most own their own farms and butcher themselves for the store. You just cant beat a good slab of meat for the butcher compared to the grocery stores.

    Hog Maw is also good – dont know if it is across the country or not.

    I found a restaurant in Lancaster, PA that was neat – I think it is called Good N Plenty ( http://www.goodnplenty.com/ ). They sit you at long tables with other people and then you pass the plates of food around that they bring out, just like you would be at a family holiday with a bunch of relatives! AWESOME home cooked food! Most of the places in Lancaster have home cooked food! Nother one would be Dienners ( http://www.dienners.com/ ), they have a buffet that is all home cooked!

    Rambled enough.

    Mike

    We dont have many “theme” restaurants around here. Hard Rock in Maryland would be the closest I guess. At least that I know of.

  6. Mike,

    I’ve been down to Lancaster and I’ve eaten at both of the locations you mentioned. The food at both were outstanding and I’m hoping to eat there again when visiting Amish Country.

Comments are closed.

Recent Posts