Thanks, man. We finished it up last night.
Regarding southern cooking, I do have a lot to learn. Just recently discovered of the joys of shoo-fly pie, and pecan pie is about as nice as apple pie. I’m from California, so not a classic Yankee. Some of the stuff they eat in this region I can do without, like clam chowda and Yankee pot roast. Not big on Indian Pudding, either.
Some of the Italian food you get on the east coast is world class, though. The North End in Boston is foodie heaven. About a billion ways to make spaghetti ala cabonara, and you can find them all there. Mine of course is the best, but so they all say
. Some think pizza was actually invented in the US, in New Haven or some other part of Connecticut, though I can’t say for certain. Little Italy in NYC, of course, is amazing if you like eating. I’ll be on Staten Island in a couple of weeks for my wife’s 25th HS reunion, and got a tip that the best pizza in all the boroughs is on Staten Island. I will find out soon.
A lot of the stuff I grew up eating was Mexican (not Taco Bell, brrrr, the horror), stuff like carne asada, which is one of the greatest things ever.
Was thinking you could adapt this recipe with mozzarella or provalone cheese and thickly cut prosciutto or capicola as the bacon weave, along with hot or mild Italian sausage. Beer brats or even other German style pork based wursts may be nice, too, along with a smoked German cheese instead of cheddar. Serve with an Italian lager or Italian white wine, or for German versions, any decent German beer (and what German beer isn’t decent?). For this first run, I drank a locally made bitters.