Our family has done a bit of traveling and part of the excitement has always been trying to discover local food specialties that are widely unknown outside the specific town/city, region, or country.

What localized food specialties have you enjoyed?

One such food item we have in our area that cannot be found outside Cincinnati, Ohio is called goetta (pronounced gh-eta). This breakfast side can best be described as a sausage-type mash that is pan fried to crispness kinda like fried bologna except the main ingredients are pork/beef fat and pin oats, making it less a meat than a hash… I am struggling to explain this, so here is a picture:

As with many local specialties, many people insist it is best homemade, but one can pick up tubes of the stuff in our big chain grocery. However, as soon as you leave the outer belt of the city, you won’t find it among the tube-packed breakfast and Italian sausages…

What localized specialties have you discovered either traveling or in your region?

These can be either single food items like goetta or dishes prepared in unique ways like our other classic local dish “Cincinnati chili”- a meat sauce served on top of spaghetti with cheese (is that even chili?!).