do you miss any foods from your "homeland"?

[RDaniel]

My dad took me to Romania when I was younger to visit his family and his sister made this delicious soup, I dont remember its name but it had several vegetables and beef. It had a sourness to it which made it even more better.

I for one, despise eating soup but I could've eaten this all day. Oh, and the baklava.

I was born in NJ and I too will miss the pizza in the tri state area.

 

[GL]

i don't necessarily miss foods from my homeland, tex mex, as i've never really left my neck of the woods.

i do miss however my mom's cooking and her special meals.

i enjoy them immensely whenever i get the chance to visit.

 

[chatolandia]

I love "pan sobao" which is a style of bread that soft and slightly sweet

so good.

My brother lives in CT and they have it available there, I brought 4 pounds back with me, gave 2 to my friend that was pussy sitting for me and ate the other two.

 

[bulge]

I absolutely like the food of what my family calls my home country. I guess it is some ancestor thing, some genetic code, some..., I don't know. It is quite strange. Even the landscapes there are encrusted in my mind.

 

[Críostóir]

I miss Midwestern pizza (I'm from Michigan), which is better IMO than anything you can get in NJ.

Pace, loki81 and RDaniel...I guess we all like the first pizza we had.

For a while you could get "Chicago Style" (deep dish) pizza. That was nice, but still not quite as good as the pizza I had when I was growing up. (For a little insight into how it's different: "extra crust" was an item on the regular menu at our favorite pizza joint when I was in college...and people really ordered it and liked it.)

All in all the food out here is better, with that one exception. NJ has better tomatoes than anywhere else I've ever visited, including California; and of course restaurants...well. The immediate vicinity of New York City has a better, broader selection of restaurants than anywhere in the world.

 

[bankside]

I was overseas one time and though I don't usually eat chocolate bars, they're the kind of thing you want on a trip, and I was surprised to learn that Coffee Crisp was not available outside of Canada.

 

[Beachguyj]

if I ever left NJ, though, I would miss terribly taylor ham, fresh Pechter's rye bread (I live a few blocks from their factory), bagels, and pizza (call me a freak, but I prefer Jersey pizza over New York pizza... NYC pizza always seems to be right on the edge of burnt. but you can't get a decent slice anywhere outside of the NJ/NY/CT region)

I miss Italian hot dogs.

 

[frankfrank]

I absolutely like the food of what my family calls my home country.

Do you have any favorite examples? Inquiring minds want to know.

I miss Midwestern pizza (I'm from Michigan)

All in all the food out here is better, with that one exception.

Michigan? Whereabouts? I grew up near Ann Arbor and went to University there as well. I also know Wayne, Monroe, Lenawee, and Oakland Counties well, and some other places such as Kalamazoo, Houghton-Hancock, Saginaw, and Jackson, maybe we even know some of the same places.

I've always considered "New Jersey food" to be just about as good as it gets, not only because of the cultural and ancestral megamix in the "northern/western two-thirds" of the state, but the homestyle food at so many of the diners. (New York City, without a doubt, DOES have the best restaurant food in the United States.)

One of my favorite places is a Peruvian place on Passaic Street in downtown Passaic, and I keep wanting to try that Dominican place around the corner from it, but I'm always drawn to the Peruvian place.

 

[SonOfSlobone]

My dad took me to Romania when I was younger to visit his family and his sister made this delicious soup, I dont remember its name but it had several vegetables and beef. It had a sourness to it which made it even more better.

Sounds like it might have been borscht?

 

[SonOfSlobone]

Can't really think of anything special that was native to my "homeland" (Hudson Valley) except fresh apple cider which was unbelievable. But I do miss a lot of foods from my childhood, such as fresh raspberries, which somehow don't taste the same anymore. Also ice cream flavors from HoJo's, like peppermint stick and black raspberry. Can't say I miss the fried clams that much.

And my mother's chicken breast sandwiches, from home-cooked chicken, with butter and black pepper, on really good bread like Arnold or Pepperidge Farm (not the new Pepperidge Farm bread, which is more like Wonder bread).

Also Wise potato chips. Some of my favorite candies are gone too, like butter rum life savers and Sugar Daddies (which would probably be illegal now). Salt water taffy my grandmother brought back from Maine. She was a great cook too, especially with desserts like floating island and Indian pudding.

And moving on to the carnivorous section, you just can't get well-marbled beef like you used to. That's really true, they've genetically modified the cows so they're leaner, and the beef just doesn't have the same flavor. Chickens are different now too, much bigger, especially the breasts. It's also impossible to get a decent pork rib roast that hasn't had all the fat trimmed off it.

 

[BINOWGAYLATER]

And moving on to the carnivorous section, you just can't get well-marbled beef like you used to. That's really true, they've genetically modified the cows so they're leaner, and the beef just doesn't have the same flavor. Chickens are different now too, much bigger, especially the breasts. It's also impossible to get a decent pork rib roast that hasn't had all the fat trimmed off it.

Now just a cotton-pickin, chickin pluckin' minute Mr.

I have some fat on my ribs ...........................I'm just sayin................


it's actually there to insulate my abs from the cold. (That's my story and i'm stickin to it)...

SOOO NICE to see you SOS !!

 

[BINOWGAYLATER]

very few here would recognize the foods I miss.

Poi
a good Laulau
Lomi-lomi Salmon
Kalua pig
(basically the whole Luau fare)

any 3 choice lunch .
typically rice/macaroni salad and fried Mahimahi.

anything the Manapua man would have in his "tin cans" hanging from a pole over his shoulders --- he was more loved than the ice-cream truck.

boiled peanuts.

there's soooo much more !!

oh yeah - a great tuna sandwich -- they way they USED to taste when it was real tuna and it had a special flavor after being wrapped in real waxed paper and sittng in a paper bag all morning before our lunch period.

 

[brialphatango]

Hotdish. No, not CASSEROLE. Hotdish! any kind.... yummmm.

 

[Críostóir]

Michigan? Whereabouts? I grew up near Ann Arbor and went to University there as well. I also know Wayne, Monroe, Lenawee, and Oakland Counties well, and some other places such as Kalamazoo, Houghton-Hancock, Saginaw, and Jackson, maybe we even know some of the same places.

I grew up near East Lansing and went to University there. The favorite pizza joint was Bell's Pizza in East Lansing.

 

[BearBoi]

salmon pie
maple cream cookies
maple fudge
poutine

You're dead to me now.

 

[Beachguyj]

I also can't get TastyCakes here. I miss Chocolate Juniors.

We don't have White Castle down here.

I wish I had some of my grandmother's recipes before she passed she was a chef caliber home cook.

 

[BINOWGAYLATER]

The loss of the older generations receipes is indeed tragic !

Granny never had anyting written down, never measured anything - just a spectacular cook -- and now nobody can bake bread they way she did.

and I had an aunt who was a very very good cook -- she had the original receipes written down on 3x5 index cards - as that's the way it was "back then" -- i asked her to make copies for me many many times -- she always said she would - and she never did -
then she got Altzheimers........died.....and nobody konws where the receipe box went !

it's sad.

 

[maxpowr9]

My grandmother on my mom's side (RIP) who's 100% Polish used to make some awesome pierogies and babka with raisins.

As for "local cuisine" I sadly have not moved more than 25 miles from the house I grew up in, except for a stint in Australia for a few months.

At least in Australia, I miss...
-Tim Tams
-Brumby's especially for their Wanganui Squares
-Smiths Chicken flavoured Crisps
-Carlton Beer
-Toohey's Beer

 

[hotb0d]

fresh tropical fruits...of all varieties. Every time I to a super market and see one of those "tropical supreme fruit salad"...I shake my head in disappointment.

shellfish and fish sauce
durian
taro cake

 

[AlmondMilk]

Well, I still live with my parents and we have Filipino food a lot. So I don't really miss it too much. But when I was in California, I did miss New York-style pizza. I just love all of the different ingredients besides that standard pepperoni and mushrooms.