I've been a member over at Atlas Obscura since 2017, though I've not been that active on there. However, I do have some items in my been there/tried that lists. There are also items in my want to (go there/try that) lists, but that's for another day. This blog post will focus on the foods that I have tried. At a later date I'll have another post with the food I want to try. At the end I'll link to the places I have been over at my other site. The portion of the Atlas Obscura site dedicated to food is called Gastro Obscura. I'm also breaking them down by region, which will not be difficult as most of the food (southern or otherwise) I have tried in my own home state. FloridaDole Whip - I have been to Disney World three times in my life; age 6, age 12, and age 26. I tried this on that first trip when I was six. I remember enjoying it, I tried a copy-cat recipe that I made at home recently and it was good. MontrealBeaver Tails - I tell you, if the person who bought me one has brought back one that's pictured on the site, I would have agreed with their statement of, "You've never had anything like this!" As it was, they brought me one with only confectioner's sugar on it and it looked and tasted just like a funnel cake. MisSissippiTexas Sheet Cake - I'd never heard of Texas Sheet Cake before making this. I found the recipe in a funeral cookbook (Being Dead is No Excuse) and it was titled Miss Abby Babbington's Chocolate Sheet Cake (or something similar to that). A friend gave us the book and we immediately found and made the recipe for Funeral Goo (Broccoli Squares). The only other recipe I've attempted so far was the chocolate cake. Looking it up online later and the recipe for Texas Sheet Cake is a pretty exact match. It's also really delicious. Snow Cream - This wasn't something everyone in the south knew of back in the seventies. My parents and sister went to New Jersey to visit my dad's sister, her Yankee husband (a Pennsylvanian) and their son. A blizzard came through while they were visiting and my Uncle Archie made this for them. My parents brought it down here with them, so that now every time it snows they want to make this, all because or their Yankee brother in law. King Cake - It's true when the site says it's a very New Orleans food item. However, Paul's Pastry in Picayune (that's Mississippi, right on the border with Louisiana near New Orleans) is a fine and recognized authority in real (& delicious) King Cakes. Someone had purchased one from Paul's during the Carnival season before Lent and brought it to church, which was my first takes of King Cake. Now everyone from Jackson makes them, but Pauls is the only Mississippi bakery that's any good at it (probably because they're pretty much New Orleans by proxy). Japanese Tea Ceremony / Matcha Chasen - I've experienced this because of learning... and because of me! I ended up with, as gifts, the small tea kettle, the cup, the whisk (the chasen), and the proper tea when I was about 20 or 21. I researched any and everything I could about the tea ceremony and taught a small class on it. The hand movements and gestures, the zen like procedure, the meditative drinking of the tea, how to whisk it properly, how to pour properly. I am confident in my learning procedures (because I'm extremely thorough) that I would have gotten excellent marks for my tea ceremony from Japan. Funeral Potatoes - So, these are a Mormon dish, but Mormons out west. It's funny to me that my dad and aunt are Mormon (conversions - dad at junior college here in this state and my aunt over in Germany) and they've never had these at any Mormon function, nor heard of them. No, we had a potluck to celebrate our coffee house business anniversary and our Yankee-ish (Indiana/Kentucky) Catholic friend made these and brought them. It's kind of a staple dish for him. They were weird, but also kind of good. Orbitz - Tried this once, here (I think I purchased it from the vending machine at my high school) and I did not like it. It was the little globs, man... they were disconcerting. Longevity Peach - Had this once, at one of the Chinese buffets in town. I think I saw it on the buffet only twice. They were pretty looking little things, which is why I tried it the first time. It was OK as far as steamed sweets go, but I'm not a fan of steamed sweets really. Molinillo - Our family friend (the same friend whose husband makes funeral potatoes), her younger sister met a Mexican man at university here in the states and they were married shortly after and she moved to Mexico. So, this family would make family trips down there to visit her and her family. One one trip, the wife family friend brought this back as a gift for my mom (because they're Super BFFS). I have made hot chocolate in the Mexican style with this, but only once because mom doesn't want it to be used. But it was fun. Field Ration Eating Device - Don't ask me where this came from because I have no idea. We just had a lot (A LOT) of key rings and keys on the holder by the back door, when I was a teenager I rummaged through all of it to find something cool for my house keys. I found this. I'm sure it was dad's and he got it at a military surplus store or something? But I don't know for certain. One time I decided to try and open a can with it just to see how it worked. It was terrible and I never tried using it again. I don't even know where it (along with the keyring it was on) got to. It's somewhere in the house, I'm sure. Salt Cellars - I remember being highly fascinated by these miniature dishes that we had when I was a kid. My mom would tell me it was a salt cellar but that meant nothing to me. When I was older and finally understood I'd put them on the table with salt in them, much to my families chagrin. I know we have three, but I can't remember what the third one is, but one is a small crystal dish (circular inside, square outside) with a small, dainty golden spoon. The other is a pewter Viking war ship with a miniature oar as a spoon. Pawpaw - I think it's cool that its the oldest, native North American fruit, but I'm not a fan. A friend of ours recently cut one open (a few years ago) to let us try. It was the consistency of snot and tasted like over ripe banana (I like rather green bananas). However, he insisted on giving us some and I used it like banana and made pawpaw nut bread and it was delicious... in a baked good. Fry Sauce - This is another Mormon-ish thing (I say that because isn't Utah mostly Mormon-ville). Yet my dad didn't know any Mormon's who made this, but he would make this as shrimp cocktail sauce. So, instead of dipping our boiled shrimp into cocktail sauce, dad and I would dip it into his mayo ketchup mixture. That's how we still eat boiled shrimp. However, as a kid, I started mixing it together to dip my french fries in. It's good as a french fry dip, but I found later that I prefer just mayo if I want to dip my fries into anything at all. Montreal Steak Spice - The Sister purchased this spice mix at the store once. I want to say she'd tried it during her trip to Montreal, but I am not certain if that is her story. Anyways, sometimes she'll make steak with this, so I have tried it. The Original McDonald's French Fry - Considering they didn't change the recipe until 1990, when I was ten, yes I've had the original fries. We didn't eat much McDonalds when I was growing up, but I do remember them tasting differently than they did when I was a teenager or even now. I still think they're a pretty good fry, but they do leave a weird taste in my mouth now, so I'd rather have fries from somewhere else (mainly local places like Gold Post or Wards), but if I have to choose a large franchise (Burger King, Krystal's, Wendy's, or McDonalds), McDonalds still wins out for best fries. Johnnycakes - I would not have thought these would have been a Rhode Island thing, but apparently they are. I made them because I was making Colonial food. The food I made then (Chicken Pudding and Ham with Coffee Gravy (it was the soggy white bread coating the exterior of the ham that was very off-putting) among other items) were just bland and not appetizing at all. I've since made fried chicken from a 1736 recipe that is AMAZING, but out of all the Colonial food I prepared then, the johnnycakes were the only good thing. I fried them in bacon grease and we ate them plain or with some syrup. They were good. But they weren't all that different from fried grits, which we already liked. Sourdough Starter - I have, and also haven't made this. I've made bread from Emptyin's which is basically the same thing. It's Colonial sour dough starter that's kept in a crockery container. The Emptyin's turned out just fine but I'm rubbish at bread baking (still learning). So, we had delicious sour dough tasting rocks. Boiled Green Peanuts - Really, us southerners just call them Boiled Peanuts (we leave out the green bit in that title). Oh man and they are delicious. We've never made them, but dad is real big on stopping at fruit stands and if you're any kind of respectable roadside fruit stand you have a messa boiled peanuts ready to sale in a big pot. I would think that a squishy peanut would be off putting in my mouth, but it isn't. It's just warm, salty goodness. The first time I tried them, dad brought some home, but I've had them everywhere in the south, mainly while we're on the road traveling. Never pass up a chance to try these. They can't be messed up (I've never had any that were gross). You can choose spicy if they offer it, but just the plain salted ones are absolutely delicious (and now I wish I had some boiled peanuts). Pure Kona Coffee - They didn't do labels in the early-mid 90s, but if you were even able to obtain Kona Coffee, then it was pretty much just Kona Coffee. Someone brought this back from somewhere for us. Was it my brother? Was it mom's friend from Costa Rica? (I think it was her). She'd brought us Costa Rican coffee on her trip to see us and brought a bag of that as well. I wasn't much of a coffee drinker then, so I know it was better than Ethiopian (because that tastes like peas and carrots to me), but I could have cared less about the Kona. Sponge Candy - This was purchased in Alabama by a friend (at one of those grocery stores where you can bag your own items, selecting how many pounds or quarters or halves you want of something), but given to me here at home, which is where I tried it. It was weird but really delicious. It does look like a sponge cake but is crispy almost like crunchy honey or something. I would have this again. Scouse - So, I've never actually had this, as in this is what it was called, but if you want to know what my dad's cooking is like, this is it right here. I saw this photo a few days ago on the site and said, "What?!? That looks just like dad's food!" Reading the ingredients it is exactly dad's food. Traditionally served with hardtack, it doesn't have to now, it's just pretty much the photo you see up there. That's the exact ingredients and look of dad's roast with potatoes and carrots and gravy, or else is beef stew which looks exactly the same as his roast. I shared it with him saying, "Dad you make Scandinavian Sailor Food!" He thought that was cool. (I know it's from Liverpool, but it does say the Scandinavian sailors also took the food over). Butter Molds - I have made homemade butter before (but not from fresh cows milk, just heavy cream purchased at the store). Though we have a milk bucket (that my maternal grandmother used for her goats) and a butter churn that was used in our family, I didn't use these. I used an electric stand mixer. But, we also have two old butter molds and I used one of them with the finished butter that I made. Fried Chicken Gizzards - I have eaten these before (as well as fried chicken livers, which apparently aren't weird enough for the site), but I don't like either. Apparently our dad would throw them to us as we begged like puppies when we were very young. I do have a vague memory of eating them and also a vague taste memory of dark and greasy that isn't appealing. Smørrebrød - I have had this in a round-about-way. A Swedish cafe recently opened up in downtown and they serve Smörgås, but it's pretty much the same thing. It's an open faced sandwich on rye with butter and then toppings in a fancy manner. I've had the one with smoke salmon, soft boiled egg, pickled red onions, black peppercorns, and fennel sprigs. I've also tried the one with rye bread, butter, cheese, and cloudberry jam. The first one looks exactly like the second one (on the right) in the first picture. Only Fika's portions are really large. Two sandwiches on two large slices of bread. One sandwich would be perfect. Cotton Candy Grapes - I've had these twice, and by "had these" I mean that I tasted one that was loose at the store (just so I could say I'd tasted one) & on the second time I plucked one to make sure that it really was what it said it was. I had intended to purchase that second time, but when I went back they only had one very full bag left. I only wanted to purchase one pound (because that would have been $4), but the bag that was left made those grapes $10, so I didn't buy them. They do really taste just like cotton candy. It's amazing. Coca-Cola & Peanuts - Or down here in the south it's just referred to as Peanuts In Coke. It's not something that most people do on a regular basis, but just about everyone has tried it at least once. Or else they'll just eat peanuts with coke instead of in it. It's the salty-sweet thing. It's like popcorn and coke or french fries and a frosty. It's good and I suggest trying it at least once. Mainly if I do this, it's just some peanuts chomped up in my mouth and washed down with some coke. Necco Wafers - I've had these before, but I wasn't a fan. It was like eating a Tums as it was just just "chalk" candy. Dad loved these though, which is why I tasted them in the first place and he's sad they don't make them anymore. Absinthe Spoon - Somehow I obtained a replica Absinthe glass and spoon as a gift one year in my early twenties. I think it was The Mom & The Sister who got them for me (though that seems crazy). Later a friend of mine was making a purchase of Absinthe from Eastern Europe (because they shipped it "illegally" to the states, as in packaged to seem like something other than an illegal type of alcohol - doubly, no alcohol can even be shipped into this state, still.) She asked if I wanted a bottle & I was willing to pay the $6 she priced for the experience, so I said yes. So, I had real for real Absinthe made in Eastern Europe, here in my own home when it was illegal (actually it's probably still illegal here in Mississippi), using a real absinthe glass and spoon with a sugar cube (which is the entire reason for a spoon in the first place). We did the soak method and the pour over and fire method. And I was done. I'd had the experience, didn't drink but two tries of those experiments and gave my friend the rest of the bottle. Red-Eye Gravy - I've had this once and it was pretty good, but then one can't go wrong with ham and coffee (unless you add white bread to actual ham - Colonial cooking, man... but this does come from Colonial times because this is how I made it and had it once. That sounds like time travel. I mean from a Colonial recipe book.), but in my family (my dad's side), the thing to make for biscuits is milk gravy (so like what you'd put over country fried steak) - mainly plain, sometimes with bits of ground, cooked sausage mixed in (which is called sausage gravy). Once I had what I thought was going to be sausage gravy and it turned out it was fried liver pieces and that was gross. Beer Can Chicken - Someone gave this contraption to dad as a gift one year, some metal cage thing. I think that was just for raising the chicken up (so it didn't sit on anything while cooking), but the instructions said to use a can of beer (so it was just the deluxe version?) Anyways, he used it once, so we did have beer can chicken. No one noticed any difference in chicken being moist or rotisserie style, so we never used it again. St. Joseph's Day Altar - My childhood church as this Irish-Italian Festival every year. It was just supposed to be an Irish Festival, but the lone Italian family said, "fuck that!" and it's been the Irish-Italian Festival since its inception back in 2001. Obviously as with most festivals it's grown tremendously. They now have a parade, a 5K run, an auction & art show, but more importantly, they have altars. One dedicated to St. Patrick and one to St. Joseph. Now, a St. Joseph Day altar is intended for the poor. So I have not "tried this" as that would be wrong to partake of the food. I've also not prepared breads or anything for it because I'm not active in that church. However, I have experienced seeing one and did take a holy card that was blessed (because those were intended for everyone). Celery Vase - We do have one of these and it's rather old, belonging to my maternal grandmothers side (probably just her parents). It could be a replica or they purchased it old because they had a Victorian pickle jar that was a reproduction around the turn of the century that they gave her when she married in the 1930s. But it is exactly like the first picture shown on the site and I remember my grandmother saying it was a celery vase. She didn't explain and I figured it just meant that it seemed like celery or something? So, I'm going to display celery in it, just the once, so that I can say that I've done it. So, that's that. All the tools or foods that I have experienced so far. Foods that I want to try will show up in a later post, but for now here's the link to places I have been to.
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