Regional Dishes You've Never Heard Of

Nowadays, it seems like you can track down just about any type of food you want, especially if you live in a big city. While it may seem like it's possible to get any food you can think of delivered to your door, there are still plenty of foods out there that most Americans don't even know exist. It's a big country out there, and there's still plenty of food that's known and beloved only by the lucky locals. Here are a few of them.

If you're going to a church supper, potluck, or family reunion in Minnesota and other parts of the Upper Midwest, you're most likely bringing a hotdish. This infinitely versatile casserole is usually made by mixing meat, vegetables and a binder together and topping it with tater tots. The result is usually something along the lines of ground beef, canned green beans, and canned cream of mushroom soup. While there are countless variations, you always know a hotdish when you see one.

There are numerous locations of the beloved chain Runza in Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa and Kansas. Outside of that you're simply not going to find their namesake item. Reminiscent of a (much better) Hot Pocket, the runza is a hot stuffed sandwich with Russian and Germanic origins, with the dough completely enveloping the filling. The original runza is filled with a mixture of ground beef, onions and cabbage, but the chain also sells them in cheese, Swiss mushroom, cheeseburger and barbecue bacon varieties.

Kolaches are a type of filled dough with Czech roots that have become very popular in Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The majority of the ones you'll find envelop a dollop of fruit with soft, semi-sweet dough and are eaten for dessert or as a breakfast pastry, but some also include meat, bacon, eggs or whatever else the baker wants to include.

Visit almost any Mexican restaurant in the Phoenix area, and you'll find an intriguing-sounding appetizer on the menu: cheese crisp. Order it and at first glance, you might think that a pizza is being brought to your table. Actually, it's a massive four tortilla topped with shredded cheese and broiled until the cheese melts and the edges crisp up, sliced into wedges. It's one of the best dishes for cheese lovers for sure.

A roast beef sandwich that's worthy of the dinner table, beef on weck is a hallmark sandwich of the Buffalo, New York area. It starts with rare, thinly sliced roast beef tucked into a roll called a kummelweck, which has been dusted with coarse salt and caraway seeds. The top bun gets a dip in beef juice and the only condiment is a hefty spoonful of horseradish. It's an under-the-radar sandwich that should get a lot more attention than it does.

This classic Lowcountry, South Carolina, dish, also called Low Country boil or Beaufort stew is the perfect way to enjoy the region's ample culinary offerings. The main ingredients of Frogmore stew are fresh Carolina shrimp, yellow corn, redskin potatoes and smoked sausage, but some variations also include blue crab or stone crab claws. Typically this stew is with seasoned Old Bay, beer and hot sauce. Like most standard seafood boils, it's dumped out onto a newspaper-topped table and served on paper plates with plenty of cold beer.

In Iowa, Indiana and southwestern Ohio, pork loin is turned into one of the best sandwiches you'll ever find, all thanks to some pounding and deep-frying. A 4-ounce slice of lean center-cut pork loin is first pounded thin, then marinated in buttermilk, eggs and flour, and finally breaded in saltine crumbs and deep-fried. It's served on a 5-inch plain hamburger bun with onion, pickles, lettuce, ketchup, mayonnaise or mustard. 

The frita is a perfect representation of the American influence on Cuban culture and vice versa. It was created in Cuba and brought over to the States, specifically Miami, after the Cuban revolution. Here's the breakdown: A fresh-ground patty of spiced beef is pressed flat onto the griddle along with some diced onions and a spicy tomato sauce, then tucked into a fresh Cuban roll. It's topped with shoestring potatoes, more diced onion and a squirt of ketchup. It's unlike any other burger you'll ever try.

Baltimore's best-known native sandwich is without a doubt the pit beef sandwich. A pit beef sandwich is made by grilling top round beef over charcoal and then slicing it into thin strips to be served on a Kaiser roll or white bread with a horseradish sauce.

Not found too often outside South Dakota, chislic is a dish of cubed red meat, usually beef, mutton or venison that is deep-fried or grilled and served on skewers. The curious name is an Americanization of shashlik, which is the Russian word for skewer pork.

Head to St. Louis and you'll find one of the most fittingly-named foods around — gooey butter cake. The flat, dense cake originated in the 1930s and is a mixture of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. This sweet treat is baked and dusted with powdered sugar to create a dessert that's easy to make with just a few ingredients.

Hangtown fry, a Northern California specialty, is the Gold Rush's most enduring culinary contribution. It was created in the mining town of Placerville, California — then called Hangtown — after a just-got-rich miner walked in and asked for the most expensive dish the kitchen could make. The chef whipped up an omelet, using eggs, bacon and  oysters. The dish remains largely the same today as it did during the Gold Rush, though sometimes onions, bell peppers and spices are added.

Biscuits and gravy is a classic Southern staple, but in the Ozarks and Appalachia, you'll find a curious regional anomaly: biscuits with chocolate gravy. The standard recipe starts like most biscuit-bound gravies, with roux and milk. But the recipe takes a sharp left turn after that, adding cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla extract. It's sweet and chocolatey, and actually makes a lot of sense atop biscuits when you think about it. This gravy is usually whipped up at home, but plenty of restaurants serve it as well.

Finger steaks are a uniquely Idaho creation, similar to chicken fingers but made with beef instead. It may sound strange, but when done well, it's tender and crispy. The most legendary place to order this regional specialty is at Boise's West Side Drive-in. To make this treat, lean beef steak strips are dunked in a batter made with plenty of garlic, pepper and beef bouillon and fried for just 30 seconds. The kicker? They're dunked in cocktail sauce or fry sauce.

Fry bread is actually the official state bread of South Dakota and can trace its origins to the rations provided by the federal government to Native Americans in the mid-1800s — namely flour, lard, salt, yeast, powdered milk and sugar. The state's large Sioux population took to frying the dough in the lard, resulting in a fluffy, flat, slightly chewy bread with a golden-brown crust. Nowadays, you can find fry bread all throughout the region and especially in Oklahoma. The two most popular variations are sweet, with cinnamon and sugar and a Navajo taco — topped with ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa and sour cream.

The pepperoni roll is the definitive snack food of West Virginia. It's a no-frills bread roll filled with either sticks or slices of pepperoni. When baked, some of the spicy oil from the pepperoni seeps into the surrounding bread, resulting in a hearty and delicious nosh. Some contain cheese, some are served warm instead of room temp, some contain shredded or ground pepperoni. You can find pepperoni rolls everywhere from gas stations to fine-dining spots.