chunks with the delicious outer
smoked char and the succulent inner
meat.” —Reader DeAnna
Anderson, Pleasant
Hill, Missouri
Who Knew? Do you
suffer from frequent
heartburn, perhaps
from too much
barbecue? So did
Nellie Acuff Howe.
Her husband, St. Louis
pharmacist James
Howe, invented
tums for her in 1928.Montana
Signature dish: Chicken-fried steak,
which is dipped in egg and flour and
then fried, and is often served with a
white gravy.
Who Knew? Rocky Mountain oysters,
also known as Montana tendergroins
and cowboy caviar—euphemisms all:
This dish is made from the testicles
of a young bull.Nebraska
Signature dish: Runza, a pocket
sandwich similar to Kansas’s
bierocks, with extra cabbage. The
sandwich chain Runza, a Midwest
favorite, got its start
in Lincoln.
Who Knew?
In 1953,
Omaha-based
C. A. Swanson and
Sons overestimatedthe demand for Thanksgiving turkey
and found itself with 260 extra
tons of frozen birds. The solution?
Ordering 5,000 trays and assembling
the first TV dinners, complete with
corn bread dressing, gravy, peas,
and sweet potatoes.Nevada
Signature dish: Shrimp cocktail.
To compete with the other gambling
houses in town, Italo Ghelfi, the
owner of the Golden Gate Hotel
and Casino, decided to bet on this
seafood starter, selling it for 50 cents
in 1959. It has been a conspicuously
affordable Sin City staple ever since.
Who Knew? Nevada
has been home to
a proud Basque
population
since the
1800s. The
basque cake, filled with cherry
preserves and cream, is still a
favorite way to finish a meal of
chateaubriand with béarnaise sauce.New Hampshire
Signature dish: poutine is not the
most appetizing name, and it’s
actually worse when you translate
the French word—it means either
“hodgepodge” or “mess.”
But this French Cana-
dian recipe for cheese
curds, french fries,
and gravy is justifiably
a Granite State favorite.Reader’s Digest Cover Story
62 july/august 2019 | rd.com
juliedeshaies/shutterstock^ (poutine).^ s
tockphotovideo/shutterstock^ (basquecake)