Local comforts
Feb. 16th, 2018 08:20 pmI would have been born in Lancashire except for that Greater Manchester was created a few months before. I have family spread across both regions and they have kindly and generously hosted me over the past several days.
Although it is so very long since I lived in this region, perhaps through family connections it still feels very familiar to me: I am much at home in Northern England. The accents comfort me and I enjoy the local idiosyncrasies such the offerings on the menus of fish and chip shops, the idea of places like Scarborough as obvious vacation destinations, and over the past few days I have eaten food ranging from barm cakes to parkin.
I realize that I also eagerly adopt local foods from other regions in which I have lived. We recently celebrated Burns Night with haggis and black pudding with neeps and tatties. In Cornwall I enjoy everything from pasties to saffron buns. In the US, however, despite never having lived any further south than Ohio, I definitely tended more toward Southern cuisine: dry-rub ribs, collard greens with vinegar, Mexican comfort food, etc. I came to greatly look forward to our trips south.
Although it is so very long since I lived in this region, perhaps through family connections it still feels very familiar to me: I am much at home in Northern England. The accents comfort me and I enjoy the local idiosyncrasies such the offerings on the menus of fish and chip shops, the idea of places like Scarborough as obvious vacation destinations, and over the past few days I have eaten food ranging from barm cakes to parkin.
I realize that I also eagerly adopt local foods from other regions in which I have lived. We recently celebrated Burns Night with haggis and black pudding with neeps and tatties. In Cornwall I enjoy everything from pasties to saffron buns. In the US, however, despite never having lived any further south than Ohio, I definitely tended more toward Southern cuisine: dry-rub ribs, collard greens with vinegar, Mexican comfort food, etc. I came to greatly look forward to our trips south.