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Regional Summer Dishes


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Just wondering what your favorite summer foods are for your part of the globe.

 

During the summer in the deep south of the US, we enjoy watermelons, potato salad, garden salad, barbeque (ribs, pork, beef) pound cake with whipped cream and strawberries, just to name a few.

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Great topic, Virginia. Back home where I grew up, watermelon, corn on the cob, barbecue pork steaks, brats, & burgers, lemonade or ice cold beer, potato salad and homemade ice cream. In New Orleans, snowballs. (really anytime, but I'm dying for one right now.)

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LMBO!!! Sacrilege!!! I normally only want it smothered in butter with salt. We have a flea market that Mexicans set up food trucks. They sell these types of corn on te cob that is grilled and topped wroth seasonings and cheese. Looks SOLO good. I'm going to try it this weekend.

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We eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies up here in the northern plains, since during the winter we can't get anything local!  Like corn on the cob and watermelon.  Plus we eat a ridiculous amount of locally caught fish since we have 10,000+ lakes swarming with them ;).

 

The only other thing I can think of is margaritas! :lol:   

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Great topic, Virginia. Back home where I grew up, watermelon, corn on the cob, barbecue pork steaks, brats, & burgers, lemonade or ice cold beer, potato salad and homemade ice cream. In New Orleans, snowballs. (really anytime, but I'm dying for one right now.)

What are snowballs? We call the mix of advocaat and lemonade a snowball but we have it at Christmas so I'm guessing yours is different!

 

People running to get out the barbecue at the first sign of summer is sort of the running joke here so I guess we like that quite a lot  :P As far as traditional summer meals go I can only really think of strawberries and cream and maybe a 'ploughmans' lunch which is basically a cold lunch of things like salad, cold meat, cheese, pickle and bread. There's usually apple too. 

 

Maybe fish and chips sitting on a seaside wall as well. I have to wait for holidays for that though since I don't live anywhere near the sea!

Do other countries have stick of rock or is that a UK thing?

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What are snowballs? We call the mix of advocaat and lemonade a snowball but we have it at Christmas so I'm guessing yours is different!

...Do other countries have stick of rock or is that a UK thing?

We don't have stick of rock. It sounds interesting; what is it?

 

A Snowball is really finely ground ice -- literally until it's just like snow -- that's covered in flavored syrup and often topped with condensed milk. There are countless flavors to choose from, with most places having at least 100, I would say.

 

Other places in the States have sno-cones, but they're really not the same. The ice tends to be hard chunks, it's served in a paper cone, and there are only a handful of flavors to choose from. If you travel up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to places like St. Louis, though, you can find proper Snowballs.

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We don't have stick of rock. It sounds interesting; what is it?

 

A Snowball is really finely ground ice -- literally until it's just like snow -- that's covered in flavored syrup and often topped with condensed milk. There are countless flavors to choose from, with most places having at least 100, I would say.

 

Other places in the States have sno-cones, but they're really not the same. The ice tends to be hard chunks, it's served in a paper cone, and there are only a handful of flavors to choose from. If you travel up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to places like St. Louis, though, you can find proper Snowballs.

 

Well now I really want to try a snowball, that's not what I was expecting at all! I like condensed milk (although I've only had it with plain biscuits) and I can't imagine what it would be like with syrup and ice! What kind of flavours are popular? 

 

Stick of rock is not really as exciting  :giggle2:  It's basically a long stick of sugar (I think they boil the sugar, so it's hard like a lolly) and it has multicoloured stripes twisted round it. It's traditionally minty but they do loads of different flavours now as well as different colour stripes and sometimes words printed through the centre. They sell them at seaside places which is why they make me think of summer  :smile:

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And sticks of rock are very bad for your teeth, all that sugar :o   I remember buying them as a child and never being able to eat a whole one, it was so sickly.

 

I know of snowballs as the cocktail too, as Hayley described, so our version is quite different to the US's!  I think I've heard of snowcones somewhere.

 

Strawberries and cream is probably the quintessential English summer dish, I think ploughman's lunch is pretty much a year round thing, it's certainly a staple on pub menus.

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Mmm, sno-cones!  I was just talking about them to someone the other night.  We had a kid on a three-wheeled bicycle with a box on the back and he would serve sno-cones during the summer.  Only 25 cents a piece! :lol:  I really have a thing for ice-y things, so I obviously need to try a snowball.  

 

I remember eating rock candy on sticks on spring field trips in elementary school.  Can you imagine a teacher having to deal with 30 kids running around screaming, hopped up on sugar?  Oh man... Ha!

 

Virginia, I love seafood and that's a big reason I eventually want to move to the east coast.  I can't imagine getting to eat fresh-caught lobster right off the boat!  Oh my gosh!  

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We vacation in Maine every year and lobster "don't get any fresher". :) The cost of lobster in the summer normally runs around $6 to $10 a lb. I have lobster twice a day while there. Usually, a lobster roll for lunch and a lobster dinner in the evening. I know of nothing better. :)

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I feel sorry for your teacher Peacefield!  Rock candy sounds similar to our rock, we also have candy floss (which I think the US calls spun candy?) which is another sugar overload, I don't know how people eat a whole one! ;)

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Mmm, that sounds delish, MuggleNot!  Maine was the first place I tried lobster, and mussels too, which were divine :D.

 

Yes, it was just sugar and water hardened on a stick, Madeleine! :lol:  Candy floss is like our 'cotton candy.'  Pink and melt-in-your-mouth and way too sticky!

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And sticks of rock are very bad for your teeth, all that sugar :o   I remember buying them as a child and never being able to eat a whole one, it was so sickly.

 

I know of snowballs as the cocktail too, as Hayley described, so our version is quite different to the US's!  I think I've heard of snowcones somewhere.

 

Strawberries and cream is probably the quintessential English summer dish, I think ploughman's lunch is pretty much a year round thing, it's certainly a staple on pub menus.

 

I don't think anyone can eat a whole stick of rock, I have no idea why they make them that big! 

 

You're probably right about ploughman's being an all year thing, you do always see it on pub menus, I don't actually eat them because I don't really like pickle but my mom likes them in the summer so I suppose I just associate them with that time of year  :smile: 

 

 

I remember eating rock candy on sticks on spring field trips in elementary school.  Can you imagine a teacher having to deal with 30 kids running around screaming, hopped up on sugar?  Oh man... Ha!

 

What were they thinking!?  :giggle2:

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I can eat an entire stick of rock! I always crunched them, even as a child. Good, strong teeth here - one tiny filling when I was 21, but no other dental work done at all other than the occasional scale and polish (I'm pushing 40 now!).

 

Have you ever seen rock being made? It's quite clever!

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

the pound cake we have here is just a plain sponge (maybe a bit of lemon in it) with icing on top, but no jam like Victoria sponge.

 

I agree quiche feels more summery, I like either cheese and tomato, any maybe spinach too.

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Pound cake can be very "heavy" based on the ingredients. In my recipe, I use 4 cups sugar and two sticks of butter with coconut milk. Super delicious but not for the diabetic and reserved for special occasions and holidays. It holds cream and fruit and ice cream really well, no sogginess or mushiness. The recipes for pound cake are so numerous that it's rare to come across one that tastes bad, lol!

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