Local favorites

So we all have our favorite mass-distributed stuff - Oreos or Coca Cola or whatever. But what does everyone like that is local to your area?

One for me is


and



These chips are made in Fenton, a suburb in St Louis County. Awesome.

Also gotta love


Imo's (pronounced EEE-Moe's) is St Louis style pizza. Super thin crust and Provel Cheese (a combo of Swiss, Cheddar and Provolone).

Lastly, something I love that is unique to St Louis:


Share yours!

I don't know how widely these are distributed, but the plant is just down the road from where I work.  They make some great "thick" potato chips.

I remember Imo's! Awesome!!

But around here, I can't think of anything that is locally made other than the box you get when you order from Amazon (if the box says WestRock or RockTenn on the bottom my company made the paper). Not just Amazon but tons of boxes and packaging. There are some craft beers made around here but I have never tried them. This is made one county over.

(Museum of Science and Technology)



(National Museum of Play) They even have a pretend Wegmans! They have little carts and you can go around and do pretend grocery shopping. You even get a receipt.

I don't know if I'm doing this right. I like museums so...

How could I forget?



They have amazing peanut butter.

This stuff, as I've posted before: http://www.bulls-head.com/en/ Bull's Head is distinctive ginger-based soft drinks, including ginger ale, ginger beer, ginger spruce beer, and now ginger green tea soda (haven't tasted that yet). It's local to the Eastern Townships of Québec, where I live, but it's getting distributed outside the region.

And then there's this stuff: http://bec-cola.com/en/ Bec Cola has an immediate aftertaste of maple syrup. Weird and wonderful. Not made in the Townships, but in the south of the province.

Finally, we have Red Champagne, which isn't actual champagne: http://redchampagne.ca/index.php (French only). It's berry-flavoured. It's made up in Lac-St-Jean, which is pretty far north.

Sherbrooke also has Chez Louis, a series of 3 restaurants located on the very long King Street that are more or less fast food joints, except with quality ingredients. Their poutine is ranked by some as among the top five in the province. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine

I'm not sure of what's produced locally here except for Moose Drool beer.  I'm not a drinker so I've never tried it.

Oh yeah, I remembered this one when we had breakfast for dinner last night and we were out of Tupelo Honey. It is the best honey in the entire world. If you ever taste it you will never want clover honey again. This is kind of exclusive to this area, most Tupelo Honey comes from right here.


We buy ours from Smiley's (above). The green mug is sitting on a wooden box. That is how you pay. It was kind of strange the first time we went there. It is a farm house and the signs point you where to go. Then you drive up to the barn and there it sits on a table under an awning at the barn. There is no one there. Each bottle or jar has a price on it. You pick what you want then drop cash in the wooden box. The first time my wife did not feel right about doing that so she went and knocked on the farm house door. An old man answered and pointed her in the direction of the barn and said it was fine to just drop the money in the box. So that is what we do a couple of times a year and drop money in the box and take what we pay for. 

There was a movie made here in 1997 starring Peter Fonda called "Ule's Gold". Ule is a bee keeper and makes Tupelo Honey. The movie isn't about honey, it's about some criminals and Ule just happens to get caught up in the drama. It was filmed at Lanier's Farm (a different one than the one we buy from but in the same area). The movie is entirely fictional and there is no one named Ule that lives there. What is interesting tho, at the end of this movie preview you can see an old truck in a swamp. That truck is still there on the property and after people see the movie they sometimes go to the truck looking for the "treasure".



It's a decent movie, I suggest you watch it sometime. Don't know why it is R rated, it has been a while since we have seen it. Might be language, might be violence, but I don't seem to remember much of either. 

There is more about Ule's Gold on the Lanier website here:

http://www.lltupelohoney.com/uleesgold.cfm

And if you ever get the urge, buy some, you will love it from Smiley's or Lanier. They have a Tupelo Honey Festival once a year. We bought some there one time. Lately the harvest hasn't been too good so the prices have gone up a bit. Both websites are completely sold out of Tupelo Honey but the festival should be coming up in the next few months so maybe stock supplies will be replenished soon. In fact, while looking at the Smiley's website I noticed that what we normally pay $8 a pound for is now $15 a pound and sold out so 2015 must've been a bad year for them. We had enough from 2014 to get us thru 2015 but we are out now. Will pick some up sometime this year. 

http://www.smileyhoney.com/collections/tupelo-honey-for-sale/products/one-pound-of-tupelo-honey

ishmael81 wrote:

Coca Cola or whatever

We are known for their bottle. As far as other food industry, there is Clabber Girl baking powder and the Terre Haute Brewing Company, which was apparently fairly popular regionally many decades ago and recently fired up again. Oh, there's Square Donuts - best donuts you'll ever eat. Can only get them fresh each morning, cash only.

Used to have Columbia House (where you could get in on their quarterly employee sales) and still have Sony's largest disc plant, which is likely where all major releases (cd/dvd/blu-ray) in the US are made.

and we started the Kiss Army.

One of Tennessee's most famous "local" favorites are Jack Daniels made right in Lynchburg, TN daily and then aged in caves for 4 years before you can buy it.  I never touch the putrid stuff.  Besides, if I do something stupid, I want to remember it.

Another is the Goo Goo Cluster.  Those are still made in Tennessee.  I never cared for those, either.

alldatndensum wrote:

One of Tennessee's most famous "local" favorites are Jack Daniels made right in Lynchburg, TN daily and then aged in caves for 4 years before you can buy it.  I never touch the putrid stuff.  Besides, if I do something stupid, I want to remember it.

Another is the Goo Goo Cluster.  Those are still made in Tennessee.  I never cared for those, either.

Something else I tried for the first time in Tennessee -- Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie. It is AWESOME! (and will kill your weight loss plan!). But it is a way to sample JD without any alcohol in it. We make one from time to time but it has been a couple of years. And it won't make you do anything stupid.



And topshot, your area is also responsible for something else that I dearly miss:

How could I have forgotten:



especially their


and

and of course their

which is almost as good as their



which is almost as good as my favorite beer Schlafly's makes:



I also enjoy



especially their



they also make my favorite beer ever:

alldatndensum wrote:

One of Tennessee's most famous "local" favorites are Jack Daniels made right in Lynchburg, TN daily and then aged in caves for 4 years before you can buy it.  I never touch the putrid stuff.  Besides, if I do something stupid, I want to remember it.

Another is the Goo Goo Cluster.  Those are still made in Tennessee.  I never cared for those, either.

I was a huge fan of Jack Daniels (along with Bacardi 151) back in my drinking days. I still enjoy the taste but stay away from it as I have no desire to fall off the wagon.

Xid wrote:

I'm not sure of what's produced locally here except for Moose Drool beer.  I'm not a drinker so I've never tried it.

I love Moose Drool!  It is quite good!  I first got turned on to the stuff when my family and I went out to Glacier Nat'l Park (and surrounding areas) for vacation some years ago.  In more recent times, it's actually been getting distributed around here (California) and I buy it from time to time.

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

One of Tennessee's most famous "local" favorites are Jack Daniels made right in Lynchburg, TN daily and then aged in caves for 4 years before you can buy it.  I never touch the putrid stuff.  Besides, if I do something stupid, I want to remember it.

Another is the Goo Goo Cluster.  Those are still made in Tennessee.  I never cared for those, either.

I was a huge fan of Jack Daniels (along with Bacardi 151) back in my drinking days.  I still enjoy the taste but stay away from it as I have no desire to fall off the wagon.

Sounds familiar. When I drank to get stupid, I'd have as many Jack and Cokes as I could, as quick as I could. I still like the flavor and smoothness but once I start with Jack, I don't know when to quit.

Beer, on the other hand, has always been about flavor for me...

kerrick wrote:

Xid wrote:

I'm not sure of what's produced locally here except for Moose Drool beer.  I'm not a drinker so I've never tried it.

I love Moose Drool!  It is quite good!  I first got turned on to the stuff when my family and I went out to Glacier Nat'l Park (and surrounding areas) for vacation some years ago.  In more recent times, it's actually been getting distributed around here (California) and I buy it from time to time.

I just searched their website and there are 3 stores near where I live that carry Moose Drool. I shall have to sample it!

You should!  It's a very nice brown ale.  Flavorful but also mild: very enjoyable!

Speaking of beer...  California has a TON and even Santa Cruz has quite a few good ones.  Some of my favorites are:

Discretion
Sante Adarius Rustic Ales
Uncommon
Steel Bonnet

I went to school in Chico which is home to Sierra Nevada.  That was pretty excellent because all the bars had really good beer on tap!  (If all you've ever had is their Pale Ale, I highly recommend you remedy that!  The Pale is ok... but nowhere near as good as some of their other stuff.)

My all-time local favorites though are the redwood forests around here.    There truly isn't anything like hiking through the epic redwood forest on a grey drizzly day.  Just fantastic!

Even in my drinking days, I thought that beer was just putrid swill.  Unless I was literally dying of thirst, I would not drink that nasty concoction.

Fortunately, I have no desire for alcohol at all.

alldatndensum wrote:

Even in my drinking days, I thought that beer was just putrid swill.  Unless I was literally dying of thirst, I would not drink that nasty concoction.

Fortunately, I have no desire for alcohol at all.

No beer, no Jack?.....you must have been a Bartles & Jaymes fan.

ishmael81 wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

One of Tennessee's most famous "local" favorites are Jack Daniels made right in Lynchburg, TN daily and then aged in caves for 4 years before you can buy it.  I never touch the putrid stuff.  Besides, if I do something stupid, I want to remember it.

Another is the Goo Goo Cluster.  Those are still made in Tennessee.  I never cared for those, either.

I was a huge fan of Jack Daniels (along with Bacardi 151) back in my drinking days.  I still enjoy the taste but stay away from it as I have no desire to fall off the wagon.

Sounds familiar. When I drank to get stupid, I'd have as many Jack and Cokes as I could, as quick as I could. I still like the flavor and smoothness but once I start with Jack, I don't know when to quit.

Beer, on the other hand, has always been about flavor for me...

Sounds like I am the same way with wine. I like wine but it better taste good, and I have never been tempted to drink more than one (or two) glasses of it at most....I just never drink it to excess.

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Even in my drinking days, I thought that beer was just putrid swill.  Unless I was literally dying of thirst, I would not drink that nasty concoction.

Fortunately, I have no desire for alcohol at all.

No beer, no Jack?.....you must have been a Bartles & Jaymes fan.

I did like a few wine coolers.  However, it has been so long that I really couldn't tell you what they even tasted like.  I just have no desire for it at all.

Here's something locally grown right here in the Flathead Valley:

'Dat ol' foozball's da debil!  Its da debil, I say!!!

Xid wrote:

Here's something locally grown right here in the Flathead Valley:

That brings me to AJ McCarron ,born and raised here in town.