• JargonWagon
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    5 months ago

    Yes about the Midwest.

    LA on the other end has an insane variety of foods, so while they have organic, vegan restaurants where everything is super healthy, they also have southern BBQ foods, steak houses, Asian foods, Italian foods, etc.

    I think there’s a heavier focus on organic, vegan restaurants up in the San Francisco area.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      LA on the other end has an insane variety of food

      This is any city, really… At least on the east and west coasts. And Chicago.

    • Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      Honestly all the cali cities have pretty diverse food options, it’s just that the cities are known for certain foods. If you want a specific cuisine, chances are there’s still a restaurant nearby for that, granted you live in the big cali cities.

      LA imo is known for korean food in ktown and street tacos but also has a lot of organics and vegan options. There’s also sawtelle and little tokyo with lots of Japanese food options. There’s even a decent strip of greek, persian, turkish food options.

      Irvine (and Westminster) is known for mostly viet food imo

      SD has a lot of coastal dining and surf n turf options

      SJ is also known for viet food and mexican food but also has a sizable portion of cantonese banquet style restaurants and japanese izakayas

      SF has a lot of chinese food (cantonese, taiwanese, mainland) due to the chinatown and also lots of fishery based restaurants near the ports. Japantown there is also pretty sizable and includes a variety of japanese foods.

        • Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          5 months ago

          Yup

          I can’t speak for the other cities, but from my time living in both norcal and socal, this is the take I ended up with

      • Cocopanda
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        5 months ago

        A lot of the old grotto seafood shops closed up in San Fran.

  • Ensign_Crab
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    5 months ago

    I don’t see anything about cream of mushroom soup.

    • zippo@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      oh god the cans of cream of mushroom soup and if thats not enough to bake the cube steak in, have a pack of the instant mushroom soup powder for good measure

    • 9point6
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      5 months ago

      And you’d better spend half a day stirring those onions on a level of heat you’d get from a cigarette lighter

    • troglodyte_mignon
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      5 months ago

      Universal recipe for any regional specialty

      Ingredients
      ‑ local meat (TN: actually a slang word for meat, I don’t know the equivalent in English)
      ‑ local fat
      ‑ local booze
      ‑ onions

      Preparation
      ① Sauté the meat and the onions in the fat.
      ② Cover with booze.
      ③ Let simmer for ages.
      ④ Serve. Grandma’s tip: it’s better the day after.

      Comic by M. la Mine — reposted here

      • Hossenfeffer@feddit.ukM
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        5 months ago

        One of the most important influences on my life and cooking was a wonderful French woman who married a Brit and settled here. Quite apart from her tendency to ask my friends and I “how many are we for lunch” and cope with any number from 3 to 30, her approach to cooking was legendary and usually involved meat, butter, wine, and cream. That said, she did once try deep fried, leftover, spaghetti and that did not work at all!

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    5 months ago

    I grew up in the midwest. We survived on processed ingredients. I now live in the Bay Area.

    I tell my partner that I need the shitty Kraft cheese for my grilled cheese sandwich, not the cheeses from Whole Foods or Trader Joes, because that’s what I had growing up. I need the shitty ingredients for certain specific foods because I want that taste. It’s not a lot of meals, but a handful must match my childhood.

    • QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Im not a cheese eater but I was under the impression that American cheese made a better grilled cheese because of the way it melts.

      • blarghly
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        5 months ago

        The cheese melts faster. But I’ve def had better grilled cheese with, like, provolone.

        I think there is such a thing as fancy American cheese that actually tastes good, but I’ve never seen it or tasted it.

          • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            Sodium citrate. Which I believe is there to allow the cheese to survive pasteurization, but it results in the texture and melting properties that make it the objectively correct choice for cheeseburgers. I still stand by provolone for cheesesteak sandwiches though.

          • captainlezbian
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            5 months ago

            And in that vein if you’re sufficiently adventurous you can americanize your cheeses of choice

      • PlantDadManGuy
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        5 months ago

        That’s actually correct, and a lot of people like to give American cheese grief because it comes individually sliced and packaged in plastic, but in reality it’s just cheddar that has been reconstituted with extra milk. It can still be very high quality, with a uniquely creamy texture that is unmatched for a hot ham and cheese, or melting onto a burger.

      • captainlezbian
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        5 months ago

        Its a different dish. American cheese is very melty but unless you go for some specialty shit or do some kitchen chemistry, its a very uncomplex cheese. It’ll taste like a blend of mild cheeses, predominantly unaged cheddar. That’s sometimes good, but one of cheese’s best features as a food is that it’s got a wide range of deeper flavors available. For the cozy familiar dish you go with the cozy familiar version. But those of us who love the depths of cheese and don’t have that craving, we often prefer more fancy cheese blends

      • adarza@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        that is true. normal sliced american cheese melts better than cheddar or other real cheese.

        the cheap individually-wrapped ‘singles’ melt even easier… like velveeta does.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      Kraft Singles are not cheese… Like literally, read the label, they’re not legally allowed to call it “cheese.”

      It’s a shame because there are decent American cheeses, yet people equate “American cheese” with disgusting Kraft Singles.

    • BigDiction
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      5 months ago

      The Boar’s Head yellow American cheese is a great melter and actually has some cheese flavor compared to Kraft singles.

      • 🔍🦘🛎
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        5 months ago

        Honestly just better off getting a block of muenster

        • BigDiction
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          5 months ago

          You don’t really see Cooper Sharp in the Bay Area where OP is.

          I’m in the Midwest now though and agree that’s a great option.

  • Haus@kbin.earth
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    5 months ago

    When mom cooked breakfast, she’d collect bacon grease (as, like, supplemental butter) and add that to subsequent meals. AFAIK, it still happens, but is probably less common.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      Cooking for two people, I do half a pound of thick cut bacon, and when it’s done and the bacon off to the side, put in 6 eggs scrambled up right into the grease. I’ve found this is the perfect ratio of bacon grease to eggs.

    • TommySalami
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      5 months ago

      I know it’s bad for me, so I use it very sparingly, but I have a jar of bacon grease that gets used every so often. I’ll be honest, I don’t know anyone outside my family that still does it.

      I’m also from bumfuck nowhere, so that could be an influencing factor on why I am the way I am.

      • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 months ago

        I don’t use it sparingly and I also have a jar of bacon grease.

        The day I learned to put a coffee filter or paper towel in the jar under the lid ring to filter the hot oil? Game changer.

        My grocery store carries “bulk bacon” which is packs of low quality fatty bacon that’s great for cooking. I buy that sometimes and the grease off a pound fills a pint jar about halfway, sometimes more.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            You must do a ton of bacon because I can only at most use the leftover fat from doing some pork (bacon very rarely) in a frying pan to, immediately afterwards, sauté some vegetables or such on that fat.

        • Telecaster615
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          5 months ago

          Yes and no. Bacon has curing salts and spices and some time in a cold smoker ideally. That all adds some additional flavor to the grease.

          Lard is just plain pig fat that is rendered down and strained to remove bits of meat and skin. No seasoning and no smoke

      • xep@fedia.io
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        5 months ago

        Good news, it’s not bad for you at all compared to industrially refined oils. Enjoy your bacon grease!

    • bitchkat
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      5 months ago

      I have a special container to keep bacon grease in. But I’d only use it to fry in.

      • Zammy95
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        5 months ago

        I do this! I use it in my cast iron before cooking most things I was using butter for. I mean, the grease comes free with the bacon, it would be a shame to waste it

    • Tot
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      5 months ago

      My grandma did this and it made pancakes AMAZING!

  • frezik@midwest.social
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    5 months ago

    At the Minnesota State Faire last year, I had deep fried cheesecake batter. Yes, this is correct.

    • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      chocolate covered frozen cheesecake is way better. but i got banned from the state fair for complaining about the awful heat so i dont go there anymore

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        5 months ago

        Personally I don’t like the frozen cheesecake on a stick because for me the best part of cheesecake is the cheesecake texture

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        I don’t think I’d have it again, tbh. The texture of the batter isn’t for me.

        It’s gluttonous as hell, though, and for state faire food, that’s all that matters.

        • ZoopZeZoop
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          5 months ago

          Disappointing, but probably better for my health. 😄

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      I just got a bbq pork chop on a stick and saw some local band called Slipknot when I went to the Iowa State Fair

    • CPMSP@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      You have to have spam curds to go along with it to round out the meal, and wash it all down with a pint of dill pickle or mini donut beer.

  • Treczoks
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    5 months ago

    Depends. It’s either a pound of cream cheese or a pound of HFCS. Bonus points for adding both to a dish.

    • Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      Who is using Hydrofluorocarbons in their cooking? That’s probably a bad idea. Heat plus HFCs is how you wind up inhaling hydrofluoric acid.

    • stray@pawb.social
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      5 months ago

      Do people for reals buy HFCS for home baking? Like you can just go buy a jug at the grocery store? I’ve seen it in ingredients lists of packaged foods, but I’ve never seen the stuff itself IRL. (Gonna assume it looks roughly like syrup. Corn syrup maybe.)

      • Treczoks
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        5 months ago

        It is corn syrup. And people buy it for cooking, not just companies. Think cookies and home-made candies.

          • frezik@midwest.social
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            5 months ago

            The processing causes the glucose to break down into fructose, which is perceived as sweeter. In the end, it’s just different types of sugar in syrup form.

  • Hawke
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    5 months ago

    Is that Los Angeles, Latin America, or Louisiana?

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Context clues tell us it’s Los Angeles. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who eschew sugar and additives everywhere but in LA there’s the whole industry of people who have to run around weighing 15 pounds less than skinny but still appear attractive and healthy and smiley or they won’t get work.

      (Whereas in the Midwest, cream cheese and butter are needed daily, 10 months of the year, to prevent one from freezing solid.)

      • ChicoSuave
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        5 months ago

        The difference between the Midwest and LA is also how fresh the produce is. Most of the produce in the US comes from California so it would make sense that the biggest metro areas closest to the fresh veg and fruit would focus on eating healthy and nutritious foods. The Midwest is the home to some incredible cheese and ice creams, likely much more dairy as a whole. The amount of cow in Midwestern meals is what one would expect the same way proximity to the produce influences CA cuisine.

  • captainlezbian
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    5 months ago

    Can’t speak to LA, but nah. Cream cheese is the East coast trick. The Midwestern secret is “cream of [ ]” soup. Cream of mushroom is my go to, but when I ate chicken I used Cream of it a lot too. It’s useful in casserole/hotdish where a roux would be great but a real pain in the ass.

  • boolean_sledgehammer
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    5 months ago

    I made your favorite! Deep-fried bacon-wrapped pumpkins stuffed with chive butter in a 5 gallon painters bucket of fondue.

  • adarza@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    and only two bucks a pound at kwik trip right now, too