Spoiled

I am writing this post while on my back porch where I am tending to a brisket cooking low and slow (you gotta love WiFi). Brisket is perhaps the most unforgiving of the BBQ meats family. It takes a good deal of patience. In my case, I'll be smoking this hunk of beef for about 12 hours. This is what I do on weekends when my wife and kids are away.

I fell in love with brisket while living it Texas, where ribs, pork, and everything else plays second fiddle to brisket. Where I lived, between Dallas and Fort Worth, I had half a dozen BBQ joints within a two-mile radius of my home. This spoiled me. Since moving away, I've never found anyone else who can do brisket like the Texans.

That's what regional foods are all about, aren't they? Those great tastes you just can't get anywhere else - a lobster roll in Maine, sourdough in San Francisco. Enjoying these foods in their natural habitat spoils us forever. Even my brisket, as good as it will be, will not be the same. I can't get mesquite wood, that imparts such great flavor. I have to settle for a bag of mesquite chips from the local big box.

So, what Midwest flavors would you miss the most if you moved away. Perhaps you already have left the heartland and you've stumbled upon this blog through some homesick Googling. I would miss sweet corn, tomatoes, breaded tenderloins, and sugar cream pie. These are some of my favorite Indiana foods. What about you? What would you miss?