Regional Junk Food

Let's take a moment to appreciate the junk food that can only be easily found in one's specific area (or, if they can be easily found outside of it, they can only be found in their proper state where you're from). Junk foods native to my region include:

Whoopie pies. I'm told they can sometimes be found elsewhere, but they're mostly a New England thing. Thick frosting sandwiched between two big ol' mounds of chocolate cake.

Moxie soda. This is a drink that some people think tastes like heaven and some people think tastes like death. Apparently, a lot of people outside of New England have never heard of it.

edited 27th Sep '12 4:57:45 PM by Haldo

Red puddings. Tastiest food on Earth, but looks upsettingly like a horse's dick.

Pizza, sausage, haggis, black pudding, kebab, pickled egg, hamburger, Mars Bar - if we can deep fry it and serve it with chips in a styrofoam container, we'll eat it.

The crowing glory of Glasgow cuisine, however, must be the Munchy Box. With a minimum serving size of a 12" pizza box and boasting enough calories to feed a third world country, the Munchy Box brings you several layers of kebab meat, fried chicken, pizza, chicken tikka, onion rings, chips, various flavours of pakora, naan bread, garlic bread, various sauces and a salad that comes in a bag to make discarding it more convenient.

Serve with a can of Irn-Bru and wash down with a pint or five of Tennant's lager.

edited 27th Sep '12 5:20:38 PM by TheBatPencil

Poutine is the ultimate fast food. This is not up for debate.

Apparently Canada also has the widest availability of "Fruitopia" flavors. And I @$%&ing love Fruitopia.

Vachon cakes, mothafuckas! Traditional French pastry warped into something that can please unrefined children's tastebuds! We got Jos Louis for the chocolate fans, Mae Wests for those who like white cake better, Vachon-brand Millefeuilles (napoleons to you anglos) for people who prefer adult-onset diabetes, Half Moons if you miss what Twinkies used to taste like, and the irresistible temptress that is the Passion Flakie~ :///O

If you are in Canada, especially Quebec or Ontario, go to a supermarket and look for these in the snack section.

edited 27th Sep '12 5:26:33 PM by FurikoMaru

Wait, the rest of the world doesn't get Jos Louis?

... I... Need to take a moment of silence... For the rest of the planet...

We don't really have too much of our own,but there are at least these two things

Sourdough Bread (We've made it San Francisco even if it didn't originate,haggis and bagpipes didn't originate in Scotland after all,now they pretty much say Scotland,...and I must say Irn Bru really is the best soda in the entire world.)

Wine (The Napa Valley pretty does the same thing to wine the city does to Sourdough bread)

And for the state there's also the California Roll type of Sushi.

There is one other thing local,but I wouldn't consider it junk food.

edited 28th Sep '12 7:45:30 AM by terlwyth

Israel has the best junk food. Bamba and Bisli, bitches. That's where it's at.

PAKORAS.

*looks up "Pakora"*

That sounds heavenly o.o

It's the whole reason we invaded India. Some explorer brought some Pakora back from a little takeaway in old-timey Mumbai, and we all declared in one voice "we need to find the recepie for this! To India, boys!"

And then when you left, according to Russell Peters, a bunch of Indians went, : < "No no no! We've seen how you people cook when left to your own devices, we're coming with you to make sure you don't turn yourselves blind."

Bannock.

It's like a cross between a waffle and a donut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frikandel

the Frikandel. although it is known through my whole country, my country is smaller than most US states, so I think it is local enough.

also: bitterballen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitterballen

I love this thread!

I wish to thank my travels for giving me: Punjabi samosas, Russian potato pancakes, British cream pies (no custard), Scottish malted chocolate whisky, Italian cannoli, Welsh braided fruit bread, Saudi coffee and fig bars like Softi Softi but homemade is better, Mexican peppered candy, New York Cheesecake, Canada's smore mini ritz sandwiches...

Damn, now I'm starving!

My trip to Scotland and England gave me sweet teeth for Jaffa Cakes, Jelly Babies, and Irn Bru. I need to figure something out to get reliable, good quality UK goodies!

As for my personal regional junk food, fry bread is very popular here, as is smoked salmon dip. There's this one meat and seafood store/processor in which, if you bring your catch, they will turn it into the aforementioned dip, jerky, steaks, or sausages! All the meat is Alaska-caught or raised, so you can get goat, moose, deer, elk, salmon, cod, crab, halibut, flounder, and maybe bear if you were feeling adventurous. Black bear can be mighty tasty.

So how would you describe the taste of Irn-Bru? Everyone I've ever asked is in agreement with me in that Irn-Bru just takes like Irn-Bru.

My exact words when I first tried it (on the recommendation of a Scots troper) was "Holy shit! It's liquid bubblegum!"

Interesting. It does have a very sweet taste to it, but I think I'd lean more towards a sort of cream soda kind of sweet.

It tastes different (and better) out of a glass bottle, by the way.

edited 30th Sep '12 6:22:15 PM by TheBatPencil

I bet. I had it out of a can : /

Their ad campaigns are also frequently the best thing on TV. Like, for realsies.

That's brutal. I love it.

... If it tastes like a sweeter cream soda, my bet is that it's similar to Jones Soda. Look it up; it's from Washington, and very popular in BC.

As for actual Canadian junk food...

Montreal Poutine is glorious.

Ketchup chips (crisps, to UK types) are apparently unheard of outside of Canada, which strikes me as very odd.

Nanaimo bars are interesting and strange.

Omigosh, Jones soda... Is that a regional thing? 'cause it's damn good.

Tomato sauce crisps are usually on sale here for a few months every now and then.