Talk:Cuisine of the Midwestern United States

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Is scrapple really a midwest food? I thought it was from the Philadelphia area.

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[edit] Bland

Ok, I'm confused. How is saying "Midwestern cuisine is sometimes refered to as bland." POV. It's a -statement-,,,, some people think Midwestern cuising is bland. Duh. Common knowledge. Hardly POV. Meat, taters, no spices. Heck the sentence immediately before uses the phrase "lightly spiced." It's hardly POV. Rick Boatright 17:57, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC) (Also, _not_ an anon edit. )

Sorry about the "anon" bit - it's the first "POV" thing I have on Firefox's auto-form agent. However, unless you can substantiate that "some people" think that way, then that statement is a thinly-veiled POV (Wikipedia:Avoid weasel terms). - jredmond 18:12, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Sokay. But uh, I'm confused. "Midwestern food is bland" is a _truism_ of our culture. All the classic jokes apply. "White food for white people." I mean tuna-mushroom soup-macaroni hot dish? With potato chips or the all-time midwestern classic tuna-mushroom soup-Tater Tot hot dish? Macaroni and cheese. Do a google search for "Midwestern food" The top eleven hits contain the word bland. This is, after all the part of the country that leaves the pepper out of the cream gravy on the chicken-fried-steak. Unless, I suppose it's possible that you're one of those easterners who think that Pensylvania is midwestern. Rick Boatright 18:42, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

As my User: page notes, I'm from Missouri. I'm courting cliché here, but please: show me. - jredmond 18:54, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I'm from Kansas. But ok. References will follow.  :-) Rick Boatright 19:00, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

An Italian Beef with hot peppers is definitly not bland. Neither is a Hot Dog with the works. Reub2000 19:04, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
True enough, but hardly midwestern cuisine either. Chicago is an ethnic urban center. Midwestern cuisine _has_ to derive from the vast agricultural expance rom the Ohio river to the rockies... and can't be characterized by the Italians and Poles in Chicago, or the italians in St Louis. In that regard then, I offer the following proposal. "Simple but hearty." in place of bland. Rick Boatright 19:15, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Newsflash: Chicago is in the midwest. Reub2000 20:51, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
True. Are you prepared to contend that Chicago is _characteristic of the 12 state region_? -- I added an "Urban Centers" section to deal with that. Rick Boatright 00:51, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
It is definitly not representitive of the whole area. But generalize an area when a major population center in the area doesn't fit the generalization.Reub2000
Midwestern cuisine utilizes simple ingredients to make basic, practical foods that do not contain exotic seasonings and require ordinary cooking techniques.
Crop after crop, season after season, and year after year the farm family ate well, but they ate plainly. Only in the winter, when the pace slowed appreciably, did the farm wife have time to experiment with recipes, and by then only her canned and frozen foods were available. We ate midwestern (frozen) corn fritters, but never "sauteed fresh corn with coriander butter," (frozen) asparagus casserole with cheese, but never "fresh asparagus with Sauce Maltaise," (canned) cherry co

bbler but never "fresh cherry clafouti."

It is simple but hearty -- great roasts and stews, Cornish pasties (meat pies), sarma (Croat cabbage rolls), many different kinds of breads and cakes, trout and whitefish, relishes and pickles, pies and cranberry muffins.

[edit] extensive refactor of main page

I did a very extensive reorganization of the main page to attempt a description of the influences and development of a regional cuisine. Part of the problem I'm having, frankly, is that, other than simply geographical confluance, many authors deny the existance of a "traditional" 'midwestern cuisine, and contend that the region expresses merely a melange of the various immigrant cuisines it derives from. It is certainly true that the regions cultural history is shallow, extending back less than 200 years while other areas have RESTARANTS older than that. anyway, without adding extensive references, this is my best current shot. Rick Boatright 19:57, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Juicy Lucy?

I am from Minneapolis and have eaten at about every restaraunt of note there, and have never EVER heard of the Juicy Lucy.

Sukiari 08:41, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

You've apparently missed Matt's Bar[4] and the 5-8 Club[5] (the classic Jucy Lucy/Juicy Lucy establishments) in your dining experiences. -- Kaszeta 18:10, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

I read that City Pages article too. It's what we call 'marketing' in the real world. And I've been to Matt's more times than I care to remember. Sukiari 23:04, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

You've been to Matt's "more times than you care to remember" and never heard of a Jucy Lucy? Sorry, I find that very hard to believe. Seriously, that place has been pushing Jucy Lucys like a crack dealer for decades -- Kaszeta 02:36, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't go to Matt's to eat! Sukiari 10:20, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Nor, apparently, to read the signage (the place says, and has said "Home of the Jucy Lucy" on it[6], and has for at least 15 years). If you're just there to drink, I hope you like 3.2 beer -- Kaszeta 13:56, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Unless somebody can mention several restaurants in Mineapolis / St. Paul where Juicy Lucy burgers can be had, I am going to delete the reference.

Sukiari 21:37, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

In addition to the above-mentioned restaurants, a few other places in the metro area serve it (see this list), under a variety of spellings. Probably more places than have lutefisk on the menu. Additionally, the Jucy Lucy warranted its own chapter in John T. Edge's Hamburger and Fries[7] (ISBN 0399152741), and there are several web references to this burger phenomenon[8][9][10][11][12][13]. So just because you haven't heard of it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Mind you, I'm not entirely happy with the way the text was worded, so I've taken a stab at editing it to make it more accurate. -- Kaszeta 18:10, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

I just think it's hardly 'well known' in Minneapolis or elsewhere. It was a trend food - the edible Pog of Minneapolis if you will. It is not well known or widespread in Minneapolis, St. Paul, or elsewhere. Perhaps its the only Minneapolis based dish of note, but I think a caveat that it is hardly well known there, and only available from a handful of burger joints should be added.

Sukiari 23:04, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Not an unreasonable summary -- Kaszeta 02:36, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

I live in Minneapolis, and have been aware of the Juicy Lucy for decades. Matt's is probably the best known source, along with the 5-8 Club, and another little 3-2 beer joint known as The Cardinal at 38th Street and Hiawatha Avenue... all three of these places are within walking or biking distance of each other on a nice day, assuming one would care to walk or bike after eating one of these things. It's similar to a "Patty Melt", which is a cheeseburger with the cheese on the inside, but served on a bun rather than toast, and a heck of a lot tastier. I have also run across the juicy lucy in rural Minnesota.

[edit] Ice Cream in Minneapolis

To quote the article: "Twin Cities residents eat more ice cream per capita than in any other region of the country." Anyone have a cite on this? This sounds dubious, since (a) when I lived in the Twin Cities neither the ice cream consumption nor number of parlors seemed unusually high compared to other places, (b) conflicting data[14][15][16] (indeed, it's hard to find a place that hasn't made this claim, and (c) usually these sorts of claims are dubious anyways. -- Kaszeta 18:18, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Twin Cities not having an identifyable food?

How about: Wild rice soup, fried walleye, hot dish (Casserole to those who live inside the 394-494 beltway) and corn dogs? (Invented at the Minnesota State Fair).

ColdRedRain 14:31, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Try to tell me that Detroit has more Polish food than Chicago

If I am reading this page correctly, it would seem that Detroit has more Poles than Chicago. This is clearly incorrect. Chicago has more citizens of Poland (not to mention American Citizens who consider themselves Polish) than any other city in the world, with the exception of Warsaw.

[edit] Cleveland

Nothing at all about Cleveland here? I know it's probably the blandest of the Midwestern bland, but there must be SOMETHING worth mentioning (wish I could think what it is...) JDS2005 07:23, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Twin Cities Cooking

As a long term resident of the Twin Cities, I'll be the first to tell you, Minnesota cooking will never be influenced by the minority groups who live here. Everybody here can't cook and will never be open to spicy foods from the Somali, Hmong and Mexican immigrant groups that come here.

Don't expect to see any samboosa hotdish anytime soon. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ColdRedRain (talk • contribs) 01:43, 24 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Cincinnati Chili

A major food. That is the reason the road food people gave Cincinnati a multiple star. And no restaurant mentioned - Cincinnati chili is an icon of the city. --Dumarest 21:01, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Dakotas?

It is surprising that an article on Midwestern cuisine contains no mention of the Dakotas or widely distributed foods such as fleishkeuchle or knoepfle soup.85.50.70.69 17:01, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Michigan

Another well known food item from Michigan is pickled bologna or pickled ring bologna. Its not fancy, but its delicious and a well known Michigan staple. I love the line from the 'You Might Be A Michigander If...' list...."If you can tell the difference between Farmer Peet's and Kogel's Pickled Bologna, and strongly defend your preference about which one goes best with Pinconning Cheese." I didn't add it to the article page because I'm not sure what qualifies, but I thought I'd add it here for consideration. JSDA 08:07, 15 November 2007 (UTC)