Care packages: what foods do you need from home?

[Jenise]

Wherever you are, chances are you're actually from somewhere else. And maybe, like Mike Filigenzi's wife who misses her Wisconsin brats, there's something you have to bring back every time you visit, or buy now from wherever you landed via mail order, or have someone else send you from home. Some foods are just so deeply loved and ingrained in us they can't be replicated, gotten over, or left behind.

There are two for me here in my life in Washington state, neither of which I predicted I would miss the way I do when I moved away from Southern California as neither is a food I neccessarily grew up on or had readily at hand on a daily basis or even in my neighborhood: Bruno's chileno peppers (in jars) which I internet order by the case, and good Jewish deli corn rye. No, supermarket Orowheat will NOT do, I need the real deal, thick and unbelievably dense compared to the commercial version. I reload in person, usually purchasing mine at Jerry's Deli in Marina del Rey since it's fairly close to LAX which I invariably fly in and out of on frequent visits there, and I usually pick up a pastrami sandwich to share with Bob on the plane. Once home every precious slice (this stuff costs about a dollar a slice) is destined for the sandwich we have dubbed the Pablo Goldstein: grilled with green chiles and cheese, and I mean LOTS of green chiles. We get to L.A. often enough to avoid withdrawal symptoms.

So what about the rest of you? What can you not live without?

From Florida, I miss real Cuban bread. There is nothing even close on the west coast.
And, one month every summer is not nearly long enough to get our fill of fresh New England steamer clams.
Now you've done it Jenise!!!!!!!!! Major craving.

Jenise, are you talking about the Sierra Nevada Chileno peppers? I have never seen these with the Bruno's peppers in our stores. I buy the Bruno's mild peppers all the time. Our youngest son still makes a "special sandwich" as he named it when he was little. He took a ritz cracker, topped it with a slice of Columbus salami, a slice of cheddar and two Bruno's peppers, then another Ritz. They are yummy.

The food I remember from home would be my mother's home made tamale pie...it was excellent and I have never had a better one. She left the black olives whole and they were so good that way.

The food I remember from home would be my mother's home made tamale pie...it was excellent and I have never had a better one. She left the black olives whole and they were so good that way.

Karen, do you have the recipe? Are you able to recreate it?

Back when I was in college, my grandmother would send shoeboxes full of pizzelles out. If those were still available, that would be my vote.

Wherever you are, chances are you're actually from somewhere else...

Not me. I have lived within 10 miles of my current home all my life (military service excluded). However, family and friends who have moved away always miss the local items and get their fix or stock up when they come to town. Foods they enjoy while here are Viola's Subs, wings, pizza (my brother and sister insist that you can't get a decent pizza in Maine), beef on weck. Items they take home with them include Johnnie Ryan Birch Beer, Millers Horseradish, Weber's Mustard, and almost anything from DiCamillo's Bakery (Italian bread, biscotti, pastries), Sahlen's hot dogs. Also, Canadian beer is sold in the Buffalo area as local beer and is cheaper than Bud, yet whenever I see it in other areas it's sold as "imported" and very expensive.

The food I remember from home would be my mother's home made tamale pie...it was excellent and I have never had a better one. She left the black olives whole and they were so good that way.

Karen, do you have the recipe? Are you able to recreate it?

I used to have it....will take a look. She mixed the cornmeal into the dish and our family really liked it that way.

[Jenise]

Jenise, are you talking about the Sierra Nevada Chileno peppers? I have never seen these with the Bruno's peppers in our stores. I buy the Bruno's mild peppers all the time. Our youngest son still makes a "special sandwich" as he named it when he was little. He took a ritz cracker, topped it with a slice of Columbus salami, a slice of cheddar and two Bruno's peppers, then another Ritz. They are yummy.

The food I remember from home would be my mother's home made tamale pie...it was excellent and I have never had a better one. She left the black olives whole and they were so good that way.

Yes. Both are made by the Bruno's company, and the ones called just Bruno's are also chileno peppers (a very specific pepper variety brought to Northern California by Chilean workers who came to help build the railroad and who knew these would grow in cool climates and high elevations) but the ones with the Sierra Nevada label have garlic and herbs added. I prefer the latter, but both are good. And I love them just rolled inside a thin slide of salami--tell your son no Ritz needed!

Great question, Jenise.
For me it's cubanelle peppers (I can get 20 varieties of peppers around here but no cubanelle!) and jars of Pastene crushed hot red pepper (deli hots).

But the big thing that is missing is good seafood. I'd kill for a plate of Woodmans fried scallops right now.

Whenever I find myself cooking in a new kitchen or (temporarily) in someone else's kitchen (i.e. when on holiday), the anchor always has to be good salt! Otherwise it's just not food!

I know that's not exactly what you meant by the question. But I move around quite a bit and find myself in all sorts of kitchens (that don't always meet my standards in terms of available ingredients) and salt is one of the core ingredients. Of course olive oil is another.

Jenise... another So Cal transplant to Western Washington here. Have you found a place yet that sells good chorizo?

[Jenise]

Jenise... another So Cal transplant to Western Washington here. Have you found a place yet that sells good chorizo?

What part of Western Washington are you in, Katie? I've bought some locally, but what I have in my larder now I brought home from Miami.

Jenise,
If you're willing to take "West Coast" as my home, I'd say that SF sourdough (from an Oakland bakery, though), Dungeness crabs and Tillamook cheese would top the list. Thankfully, I can now get the latter locally, though not in my favored "extra sharp" form. That's why my aunt in Portland gives me a 5 lb "loaf" of Tillamook extra sharp every Xmas that I'm there. It doesn't work so well for Dungeness crabs, alas.

Mark Lipton

Wherever you are, chances are you're actually from somewhere else...

Not me. I have lived within 10 miles of my current home all my life...

Me too!

I only live three hours from my birth home, so I still get my beloved Dungeness crab, ravioli's made by an Italian family, and any kind of fish that is in season. I do miss the smell of the ocean, though and the fog horn.