What kind of food do northerners eat

We are ordinary in our careers and ambitions. But everyone understands on some level that this is not just a weekend away with the boys. This is one of the last vestiges of the village hog killing, a harvest-time coming together that acknowledges the lean months ahead and acknowledges, more symbolically than in the s perhaps, that the only way to survive a Northern winter is to be part of a community.

Intermittently through the day, we have heard the cracks of. But they have all quieted now as the hunters have sifted back through the woods toward the pale light of camp windows. The heart is my favorite cut. It is tender for such a powerful muscle, and it tastes of iron and blood and survival.

Brook trout need the coldest, cleanest water of any of the trout that now grow here. They also happen to be the only ones that have been here from the very beginning.

Browns and rainbows are 19th century immigrants brought from Europe and the American West, and for whatever reason, they can stand a little more civilization than brookies. Because cold water is usually remote water — up near the first spring-fed trickles of streams that later join forces with each other, before joining forces with Lake Superior or the Mississippi — brook trout fishing is, almost by definition, beautiful fishing. Brook trout refuse to grow in ugly places. The stream is maybe as wide as a sidewalk, overgrown with prairie grasses and lined with treacherous wild angelica, making it almost impossible to land a cast.

The North is a place where water, including the Father of Waters, begins. Not the middle of nowhere, but, in some sense, the center of everything. I could drive a few hours north and stand in water that was headed for the St. Lawrence Seaway by way of Lake Superior.

I could drive a few hours west and stand in water that was headed up the Red River, bound for the Arctic Ocean by way of Hudson Bay. We are a land of three watersheds, and we reserve the best of them for ourselves, where their waters are young and remote and cold and clear.

Strasburg, North Dakota. Gary Grad has black hair, cropped short with short bangs, and close-set eyes. He has a trim waist, a broad chest and the arms of a high-school football player, which he is.

Grandma Silvernagel spends summers near her farm then moves in with Grad and his family for the cold-weather months. He is calling her because he has thought of what he wants for dinner. The answer, as always, is yes. And so his football team will eat warm white rolls in the locker room this afternoon, and after practice, he will walk through the back door of his house into a steamy kitchen filled with the lingering smells of carrots, celery, onions and stock, and he will go to the stove, where a thick chicken and potato soup with dumplings sits in a pot, its surface shimmering with butterfat, waiting for the grandson who ordered it earlier in the day.

Port Edwards, Wisconsin. Yia Vang comes home from his first day of eighth grade. His mother sets out a snack of just-made sticky rice and a bowl of hot pepper sauce, made by grinding Thai chilies with Hmong cilantro, garlic, fish sauce and tomatoes in a mortar. A pot full of chicken and bones has begun to simmer on the stove, scented with lemongrass, garlic and ginger.

Vang resignedly scoops up a bright clump of the sauce with a warm hunk of sticky rice, talking about his day and dreaming of McNuggets and fries. Years later, chef Yia Vang will serve this same dish to sold-out Twin Cities crowds at his pop-up restaurant, Union Kitchen. Upton 43, Minneapolis. In the basement kitchen of his restaurant, Chef Erick Harcey stands in front of two six-foot-long walnut appetizer boards balanced precariously on a prep counter. His fingers shake slightly as he balances a finely shaved wafer of truffle on a slice of cured salmon wrapped around rich, airy egg butter.

His grandparents ran Kaffe Stuga in the Minnesota hamlet of Harris. His grandfather before he died told Harcey he should stop cooking like other people and should cook from his soul, from his heritage. These are a big thing down here in Georgia, and you can find people selling these all along the side of the highway and outside of gas stations.

I originally thought they would just be a soggy version of regular peanuts, but they are surprisingly delicious— especially with Cajun seasoning. Leave it to Louisiana to add seafood to what northerners think of as a breakfast dish. Up north, most of us have no idea what to do with a plant like okra , but Southerners have used their typical cooking genius to come up with a delicious solution: fry it.

Everything tastes delicious fried, and okra is no exception. Contrary to what the name suggests, this drink does not contain any alcohol. Cheerwine is actually a popular cherry-flavored soft drink from North Carolina. When my Southern friends wake up with an appetite in the middle of the night , one of the first places they think to go is Waffle House, which serves chicken and waffles 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Only in the South…. The hot chips melt the butter, then the bread goes squishy and it's wonderful. Twitter: toorantom. Twitter: fobeara. Twitter: Natzq. Twitter: hairydoughnut. It's a real mystery that Poundbakery hasn't spread to the south.

Twitter: cwattyeso. Twitter: ajshaw Twitter: ash Attempt if you dare. To complete with our breakfast staple, northerners prefer oatmeal. Most people up North have no clue what grits are. And you know what? Northerners are pretty serious about their deli meats. Up there they scoff at a simple Subway sandwich. This clam-based soup is mighty delicious and can be found in high and low end restaurants throughout New England.

Now that fall is finally here, pumpkins are everywhere.