8 Weird Foods from Green Bay and Pittsburgh
While we’ll have to wait until Sunday to see who wins the big game, Green Bay and Pittsburgh tie it up when it comes to weird local foods. Check out these strange dishes and let us know if we missed any!
PITTSBURGH
Chipped chopped ham a.k.a Pittsburgh Style ham: A mixture of ham chunks, trimmings and seasonings, ground up together and packaged into loaves before being shaved into super fine slices.
Smiley face cookies: Pittsburgh has been called “the city with a smile” and local Denny’s like family style restaurant chain, Eat’n Park (even though most people park before they eat, but whatevs, that’s cool.) makes delicious “smiley face cookies,” which are kind of like New York’s black and white cookies, only with personality.
Primanti Brothers: This popular restaurant chain can now be found in cities outside of Pittsburgh, but it has and always will be a city tradition. What makes them most famous is that they put your side dishes—french fries and coleslaw—on your sandwiches—er, in them, rather. Topping off with Pittsburgh’s Heinz ketchup is optional.
Pierogis: There’s a large polish community in Pittsburgh, making traditional food like pierogis quite popular. It’s basically a ravioli stuffed with potato, onion, cheeses or meats. Boil or fry ’em up and down them with a good old Iron City beer and you’ll be rooting for the Steelers in no time.
WISCONSIN
Limburger Cheese: Though originally from the Netherlands, Monroe, WI used to boast more than one hundred Limburger cheese making plants. Said to smell worse than it tastes, this cheese is also found in a popular sandwich with onion, rye bread and mustard.
Pickled Pigs Feet: Though a more common meal throughout the southern U.S., you can find pickled pigs feet in Wisconsin, thanks to Cudahy manufacturer, Porkie Co. Presumably you need to drink a lot of beer to get them down, but no worries, Wisconsin boasts more than 72 breweries.
Cheese curds: Made from the solid parts of soured milk, these curds are squeaky, like eating Styrofoam, because of air that gets trapped inside during production. You can buy them all over the state of Wisconsin, fresh, fried or in poutine—french fries topped with fresh cheese curds and covered with brown gravy.
Butternuts: Also called “white walnuts” these are extremely rare outside of the Midwest, where they grow naturally. There’s currently a fungus devastating the white walnut trees so finding butternuts is an expensive treat, but apparently worth it.
Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jillettinger
Photo: Infowidget
