What do you like to bring back with you to the Triangle after visiting where you grew up? (Raleigh: home, live)

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

I'll be the first to say I have found just about every kind of comfort food I could want in the Triangle and I am not interested in replacing NC traditions. I am from NJ and I have been quite pleased with some of my favorite foods that I have found in North Raleigh.

At the same time I have enjoyed learning about NC BBQ and sweat tea and other local favorites. That being said there are still a few comfort foods I like to haul back to Raleigh after visiting my family in NJ. I am headed up to the Jersey Shore in a couple of days and plan to bring a cooler back with some Thumann's Hot Dogs on ice. It just doesn't feel like summer until I grill up one of those bad boys on the patio grill.

What do you "smuggle" back to the Triangle after a visit to your family in another state?

[chime]

Bourbon.

Hey, I'm from Kentucky!

[Jdatlas]

We miss frozen Ray's New York Bagels. We used to get them in MA but can't find them down here. I'm betting once my daughters taste them again they won't taste as good as they expected them too. It's just the fact that they can't get them makes them crave them.
They also miss Friendly's restaurants. We took them there so often when they were little so it's somewhere familiar and they were very surprised not to find one in the Triangle area. Unfortunately that's not something we can bring back with us.

[eloyfan]

From New England:

Howards' Red Pepper Relish. Sweet for the wife and boys, hot for me. Sunbeam or Wonder Bread flat-sided hot dog rolls. Can't toast/grill with butter the rounded ones here. And the flat ones here are not-so-good.

Ken's Tartar Sauce.

Coffee yogurt.

And a frappe (not a milkshake!) called a black and white. A chocolate frappe is made with chocolate ice cream. A b&W is vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. They don't travel well though....

[no kudzu]

Mind if I switch it up a bit and tell you a story about my mother in 1946? She was moving from Goldsboro to my father's home in Oklahoma and she stocked up on Mt. Olive pickles. My father was furious with her and said "Hell woman, they have pickles in Oklahoma" but my Mom insisted there is no pickle like a Mt. Olive pickle and I would never think of eating any other kind myself. She even managed to have some sent to Japan, Germany and Italy when we were stationed there.Yum...think I'll have a pickle snack before I head off to bed. NRG you can have your thread back now. Sorry-just couldn't resist that story.

[dansdrive]

Spedie Sauce for marinating Chicken and Pork. Upstate New York has a great sub sandwich where you skew marinated meat on a grill and place it on a Italian Roll and call it a Spedie! Only place I have found those as in upstate NY. So always like to get that Spedie Sauce to use down here. They sell it on line so as the smell of marinated meat comes flowing up over the grill I wipe the sweat from my brow and say, "Life's good!"....heard that In a commercial one time!

[dansdrive]

Oh yea and forgot in Northeastern PA it was Kielbasa and pirogies! "Life's better!"

[Dire Wolf]

Originally Posted by North_Raleigh_Guy

At the same time I have enjoyed learning about NC BBQ and sweat tea and other local favorites.

Funny you mention BBQ, because when I saw this thread title the only thing that really came to mind for me was BBQ. I grew up closer to Lexington and greatly prefer that style BBQ to the Eastern NC style so common around the Triangle.

[Claire_F]

Shipley's donuts. When my friends come to visit from Houston, they always bring some.

I'd bring back Blue Bell ice cream if I could.

Butternut hot chocolate mix.

Goode Company BBQ sauce.

Other than that, the stuff I miss most is stuff I can't bring back with me. Things like the Texas barbecue and Tex-Mex food (Houston has the best anywhere). I like NC barbecue, but comparing it to Texas barbecue is like comparing Italian food to Chinese. They're entirely different cuisines.

[justthe6ofus]

I have a lot of food items that I miss from NY (both Long Island and Western).

When we head up that way I have to stop at Wegmans and get my kitchen cut tomatoes with basil (I have recipes that just do not taste the same without them!), their tripple fruit spread and fresh apple fritters from Wegmans on a Sunday morning...YUM! I also miss their bulk food section. Nothing too regional I guess, just that store itself. Oh, and Dinosaur BBQ...we REALLY miss eating there!

From Long Island I miss a good bagel, napoleons, pizza from the shop around the corner from my parents, The Good Steer burger joint and the diner hubby and I used to stop at for late-night eats.

Oh, and farina! I cannot find that stuff anywhere around here!