Local Cuisine

Someone recently asked me if I were to move away from Louisville, would I miss Kentucky food as much as I miss St. Louis food. Well, this question REALLY got me thinking and I found initially I had a hard time answering. There is a lot of great food that is native to Kentucky...but can it compare to the cuisine of St. Louis? I've written about food on this blog before, but it is a subject that is always worth coming back to. Today I'll focus on the food in Louisville, with St. Louis coming tomorrow.

Let me first begin by saying that the cuisine in Louisville is distinct from the food of the rest of the state, so I will have to limit this study to just Louisville's native foods. I will begin with one of my favorite concepts in food, and that is the "pile of slop" category. This includes recipes which are basically just heaping piles of several different ingredients. St. Louis and Louisville both have entries in this category. In Louisville, that food is the hot brown.

The hot brown is a dish that is fairly similar to an open-faced turkey sandwich...but it is so much more than that. It was created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville as an alternative late-night snacking option. It consists of turkey piled on bread, piled high with bacon, sometimes mashed potatoes, and covered with tomatoes and either gravy or, more commonly, Mornay sauce. It is generally also topped with parmesan cheese, and sometimes ham is included with the turkey. I've had several hot browns at several restaurants, and never once have I been disappointed. If you're ever in the mood for a good pile of slop, then the hot brown is definitely near the top of my list of good eats.

Another popular item that I had never heard of before moving to Kentucky is beer cheese. This is a kind of spicy cheese dip, that is meant for parties and outdoor events. It is made with, of course, beer, cheddar cheese, and just about any spices you can think of to put in there. Most people like their beer cheese especially spicy, and it is often served with pretzels, chips, or crackers. I am actually not a huge fan of the stuff, but you can't go past a cheese cooler in a grocery store in Kentucky without seeing several varieties of beer cheese on the shelf.

Kentucky, including Louisville, and especially Owensboro, are reknowned for their BBQ. This is going to be a difficult category of food to compare because I have a very strong leaning toward St. Louis BBQ. But I can't deny that Kentucky has gotten it right as well. Parts of Western Kentucky have developed a unique recipe and way of using pit BBQ which is absolutely stellar, and the two or three times I've ever had burgoo have been nothing less than parties in my mouth. Burgoo is one of those great foods like chili and my next food, Derby Pie, where everyone has their own unique recipe that they feel is the best. And I urge these same people to keep trying out new ideas and send them my way because this stuff is nuts.

I'll end this post with the one food I know I will miss the most if I ever leave Kentucky. That food is Derby Pie. In the simplest terms, Derby Pie is a type of pecan pie with chocolate chips. But that would not be doing it justice. Derby Pie is a specialty during Kentucky Derby season (kind of like the Mint Julep, another Kentucky specialty). It is generally made with chocolate and walnuts, but also can have pecans, caramel, butterscotch, or other types of nuts. Bourbon is also a tasty, but not entirely necessary, add-on. In the end, after mixing all of these ingredients together, you get an incredibly rich pie with a hard top cruse but a soft middle filled with ground nuts and melted chocolate, often with a distinct bourbon flavor. It is served both hot and cold, and is my favorite part of Derby season. A place called Kern's Kitchen actually owns the official recipe for Derby Pie, and no one can officially call another recipe Derby Pie. So it pops up as a variety of other names, including Chocolate Nut Pie, Winner's Circle Pie, or even "First Saturday in May Pie."

I'm not going to ever talk bad about Kentucky cuisine, and I really just scratched the surface because there is so much popular food outside of Louisville, and even in Louisville that I have missed. Kentucky bourbon is a source of pride for Kentuckians all over the state, Louisville has a strong German heritage which has led to many Octoberfests and German festivals popping up with great food. And I don't even know what wonders lie in Appalachia, but I can only fantasize. So Kentucky and its cuisine definitely have a place in my heart, but I'll be honest when I say it is NOTHING in my mind compared to the food you'll find in St. Louis. Read on tomorrow.