OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVES

As someone who has lived in different parts of the country, and not a native Minnesotan, I’m intrigued by the different foods people eat based on where they’re from.

And sometimes we don’t have to go very far either to see these differences. 

My wife’s cousin got married in Tittle Town a couple of weekends ago – also known as Green Bay, Wisc. 

Now keep in mind both sides of my wife’s family are from Minnesota. Her stepdad is from Iowa, but we try not to hold that against him. 

But Mitch, the groom in question, and his sister Morgan, were born and raised in Wisconsin after their mom – my wife’s aunt – moved there.

I mostly quit drinking alcohol over the past year, just as a personal preference, but I could not help myself when I saw at the open bar the signature drink was a Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned. 

Admittedly, I never really knew this was a thing, and I certainly never had one. 

In fact, Morgan and I have drunk a good amount over the years since I met her eight years ago, almost always old fashioneds – our drink of choice – and exclusively the correct way: with bourbon. 

Since I was curious, I ended up having a couple of brandy old fashioneds, which were quite tasty, I must admit. 

Emily, the bride, had her signature drink as an espresso martini, which I assume has no geographical meaning. Those were also quite good. 

And of course, I would not be a good Minnesota transplant if I didn’t stop at the premium fast-food business of the Midwest. 

Late at night, I found myself hungry at the hotel. I was done socializing for the night so did not want to join the late-night party at the bar across the street, so I walked a few blocks to Kwik Trip – a place that was once a foreign concept to this Rhode Islander. 

Back home in Rhode Island, we have all sorts of corky things we drink and eat. 

We drink coffee milk, which is essentially chocolate milk but with coffee syrup instead. My wife still gets red in the face when I bring up her first experience with it. 

We were at our annual family summer vacation at a beach house (not a lake house because this is Rhode Island) and she asked my grandma if she was making it correctly. 

Instead of milk, she had a cup of coffee and then the syrup with her. 

My grandma, a strong willed first-generation American, teased her about it, probably until the day she died. 

An acquaintance of mine, from the news industry back home, recently took a television job in Iowa and made a video of his newsroom trying different Rhode Island foods and drinks. Based on the video, it would appear his Iowa colleagues are still trying to figure out what to think of coffee milk. 

Like Minnesota, we have our own types of beers back home too. 

The most well-known Rhode Island beer is called Narraganset, which is also the same name as a beach community back home. 

My wife and I were watching a movie last weekend, and it was based but not filmed in Rhode Island. Of course, they were drinking Narraganset in the film. 

There is also an assortment of foods we eat back home, that would be taboo here. One of the most iconic, I think, is the fact that we use malt vinegar on a lot of foods, especially French fries. I have never seen someone eat French fries that are drenched in vinegar – something which is normal in Rhode Island. 

When we got home from Wisconsin, I was also reminded of the fact that even within different cultures, food can be different. 

My mother-in-law came and stayed with our cat and dog while we were away. When we got back on Saturday night, we helped her get her car loaded, when she noticed a fundraiser going on a couple of houses down. 

We decided to swing by and help support our neighbor who is battling cancer.

While a woman was serving up the food – a Mexican plate – she noted to us there are no tortillas with it. 

This was the sister-in-law of our neighbor – who explained they are from South Texas. There, the custom is to serve Mexican dishes with two pieces of white bread. Who would’ve thought?

To piggyback on a column I wrote a few weeks ago about the world being small – she told us she is from Corpus Christi – which is where one of my best friends going back to college is a coach for the AA affiliate of the Houston Astros.

She told us she was a big fan of the Hooks – the team he coaches.