My husband grew up in Iowa and he knows my tastes. I can eat American Chop Suey (Boston area version, not sandwich) if it has enough garlicky tomato sauce including some oregano, when I need a quick meal with protein and carbs. Loose meat, he told me, has ketchup and onion and not much else for seasoning, except for sugar. He has no interest in eating it again. We were in Burlington, Iowa, for his dad’s funeral and did not have time to venture out beyond the hotel’s bar food and what his relatives served at home. “chicken lips” was the specialty in Burlington.
Loose meat sounds like what my mom made for her 5 children in North Carolina where I grew up: Sloppy Joe’s, browned ground beef with ketchup and not much else, because my youngest brother couldn’t tolerate any seasoning and she had to eliminate the finely chopped onion and green pepper and canned tomato sauce she included when he was still at baby food age. Served with toasted white hamburger bun. Foods I miss from North Carolina: local produce including peaches, tomatoes, okra, field peas, butter beans, corn in many kinds of preparations; biscuits; hushpuppies; the cornbread that has little or no white flour or sugar; barbecue with the vinegar sauce; local seafood of all kinds (especially fried oysters). Ooops, I forgot chicken pie! Made with really excellent homemade chicken stock, a dish of my dreams! Ooops, again, I forgot homemade pimento cheese. I much prefer the kind without cream cheese.
I’ve visited Utah and New Mexico for many weeks over decades; many fewer weeks but very compelling time in Colorado. We’d go back to beloved spots in Utah (national and state parks) and New Mexico (so much in rural areas there, including the pueblos and state parks, as well as Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos) before considering Arizona, especially now. The food in New Mexico is especially compelling to us. We had only about 5 days in New Orleans and no where else in Louisiana (unfortunately). It, like New Mexico, felt to us like a different, very interesting country, and the food in New Orleans was fantastic. Florida, Everglades and Keys have always sounded interesting, not in consideration now.
I lived in Northern California for 10 years and the restaurants, cheese, grocery shopping in general for all kinds of local and international ingredients, local produce, wine, landscapes will be in my dreams forever. Cioppino!
Moving from Northern California to Boston in 1988, though I’d lived here in college for four years in the mid 1970s, was a rude shock. Boston food has gotten so much better since then even given the short growing season. And the fresh seafood is fantastic…New England clam pizza when it’s good is fantastic, local farmers markets are much more widespread, and in travels around New England, we’ve enjoyed lots of great versions of clear clam chowder (Rhode Island, no diary) and clam fritters, and lobster melt sandwiches. Fantastic New England cheeses and local bakeries. There are lots of small farms in close proximity to Boston growing many varieties of heirloom apples and tomatoes and other produce, including Asian and Latin American/Caribbean produce. Vermont and Maine are also interesting for food; New Hampshire not as much for us.
I was only in Oregon for 4 nights, in the south. So I didn’t make it Portland. I wish I had experienced more of Oregon food.
