Late last month came news that Old Bay, the rust-colored seasoning powder associated with the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland crabs, might move its headquarters out of Maryland.
It would be a difficult loss for the region to bear. And one that economic-development folks around the area are anxious to prevent. While the folks of Maryland await the decision, they're left to wonder why something so very Maryland-ish would ever want to leave.
Old Bay was once a local institution. But the seasoning sought a bigger stage, and found it -- creating distribution deals that placed the product in supermarkets across the country. Old Bay is available everywhere nowadays. Thus it's suddenly possible for it to be based anywhere.
There are other once-regional delicacies that are in a similar position.
Cains, the maker of mayonnaise and potato chips, marketed itself as a New England brand tied to New England values. The company's television commercials even featured a map of New England that read "Cains Corner, USA."
But in July of last year, Cains was acquired by TreeHouse Foods, which is based in Illinois, which, as your geography teacher taught you, is not in New England.
But not every great food brand goes national. Some, still owned by families in the East, have stayed close to home.
Here are our picks for the five local food and beverage brands that could make any person with an affinity to the Eastern U.S. feel right at home.
1. Fluff
In Boston, and some other lucky parts of the nation, children are raised on a strange sandwich called a fluffernutter. It's like a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, except that instead of jelly you use Fluff.
Fluff is a sort of whipped marshmallow-like substance that is remarkably sweet, remarkably sticky, and remarkably popular in Massachusetts. The poet may call Boston "the home of the bean and the cod," but it's really the home of the fluffernutter. That's why thousands show up every year for the Fluff festival.
2. Hummel Brothers
Few foods are as American as the hot dog. And there's probably no place in this country where a good hot dog is more than a few yards away.
But for a great hot dog -- for a hot dog that is the Stradivarius of tube-shaped, processed meat -- you have to go to Connecticut. Because that is the home of Hummel Bros. Summers in New Haven center on the consumption of Hummel hot dogs, which are arguably the best of the Connecticut-style hot dogs, all of which are made by mixing beef and pork.
You can sometimes find Hummel hot dogs outside of the New Haven area, but not often. The vast majority of the dogs are consumed close to home.
3. Cheerwine
The cherry-flavored soft drink was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, which is also the home of the Food Lion supermarket chain. But while Food Lion has become a major player on the national scene, Cheerwine has maintained its Southern charms.
You can find the stuff outside of the Carolinas, but rarely will you find it outside of Dixie ... unless you count Norway.
4. Stan's
Nothing goes with a fine wine like a good cheese. And nothing goes with Cheerwine like pimento cheese.
Pimento cheese is serious business in the South. People even write college theses about the stuff.
And the best brand, according to many, is Stan's Pimento Cheese. The 53-year-old recipe of cheese, mayo, seasonings, and pimentos is made by a local family in Burlington, North Carolina, and mainly sold south of the Mason-Dixon line.
5. Fox's
Back in the days when the Dodgers played close by, everyone in Brooklyn drank a strangely named soda called an egg cream. You could get them at the soda fountain. You could buy them at the luncheonettes and corner stores. Or you could make them at home. Those drinks, interestingly, contained neither eggs nor cream. But they did contain something called Fox's U-bet chocolate syrup.
No other syrup seemed to work for egg creams. If you wanted an authentic, Brooklyn egg cream, you had to use U-bet.
The egg cream never really caught on fully outside of Brooklyn, and today it's rapidly disappearing even from the land of Ralph Kramden. U-bet, however, lives on.
The chocolate syrup is still made by H. Fox and Co. in Brooklyn, with real cocoa and dry milk. Just before Passover, the company makes a batch with real sugar, rather than high-fructose corn syrup. And that's worth a trip over the Brooklyn Bridge.
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