Name of the Day

Dammit, Toby

Around the nation in 51 dishes

The List

My Annotations:

#1: As my reflux worsened, pizza went from favourite food to a rare treat. Even if I could go back to it, it wouldn't be to Chicago-style. It's too much of the "more is more" school which represents the worst tendencies in contemporary US cuisine. I remember when all those ads for fast food piled with meat and cheese would make my mouth water; now they just disgust me--and not just on account of the aftereffects, but because the very experience of having a mouth stuffed full of those ingredients doesn't appeal as it once did.

All in all, the best trend in Chicago pizza is the one away from Chicago-style deep dish and towards traditional Italian style: thin, crisp-chewy crust with a modest amount of extremely flavourful toppings rather than a drippy calorie bomb of mediocre mozzarella and gummy dough.

#4: Just because you can do something doesn't mean anyone does. There is no intrinsic obstacle to getting a good crabcake outside of Maryland: Old Bay and lump blue crab meat are easy enough to get in most of the country. The barrier is purely psychological, yet it is real enough; I have learned that the words "Maryland(-style) crabcake" on a menu are always a lie; if it's really Maryland-style, you don't have to point this out because you're already in Maryland. (Not that you can't get terrible crabcakes there, too, but your chances go way down.)

#11: I'm calling shenanigans on this one given that they bag on the Half-smoke (#36) for being just a hot dog variant.

#15: I don't really have an opinion on this since, as far as I can see, there aren't really any "Missouri foods", there are only KC foods, St Louis foods, critters (or whatever they eat in the Ozarks), and generic Midwestern whitebread cuisine. I associate St Louis with ribs in the same way that I associate Manahattan with reasonably-priced food, i.e. not at all. Our barbecue is pork steaks. So, fine, ribs, whatever.

#22: YES! YES! YES! My hometown has a shitty local variety of pizza, too, but unlike New Yorkers, I'm not about to claim it's anything more than that.

#23: I would've gone for musubi myself. Still just spam and rice, but with bonus points for culinary syncretism.

#26: +1. Why anyone eats catfish when there are alternatives available is beyond me.

#33: "Be honest: Would you rather have another boring bratwurst, or a hot Italian sausage with sautéed peppers and onions?" Neither: I'd rather have an interesting bratwurst. If you're eating a boring one, well, that's your own goddamn fault.

#37: Wyoming, what? Someone is badly geographically confused.