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Chuck D'Imperio holds a copy of his book, "A Taste of Upstate New York," along with one of the foods featured in it, the Meatball in a Heel from Columbus Baking Co. in Syracuse.
(Don Cazentre)
You've heard of Utica's Chicken Riggies, but have you heard of its Bean Pies? You know about Syracuse's Salt Potatoes, but what about the Meatball in a Heel?
'A Taste of Upstate New York,' by Chuck D'Imperio (Syracuse University Press)
You've had the North Country's Thousand Islands Dressing, but what about a 'Michigan'?
You love Buffalo's Beef on Weck, but what about its Sponge Candy?
Chuck D'Imperio knows about all these foods and the places they come from. He criss-crossed Upstate New York in search of the the unusual, interesting things that people in this region eat, drink and savor.
You'll find the foods and their stories in his new book, "A Taste of Upstate New York" (Syracuse University Press; $29.95).
The story of Upstate food, D'Imperio found, is the story of Upstate people.
"Food is a bridge to the past," he said. "It takes us back to our youth, our upbringing. And it works on all the sensory levels."
D'Imperio's book explores the way the most famous (and not so famous) Upstate foods evolved. It often stems from the wave of immigrants coming to the region.
Related: 17 Upstate Foods We All Love
"People I say 'I learned this from my grandmother,' or my father sat me on the counter and showed by how to do this' " D'Imperio said.
D'Imperio is an author, free-lance writer and radio show host who lives in Oneonta. His 288-page. color-photo illustrated book provides profiles of 40 different foods, locations or products, and mentions many more in passing.
Hinerwadel's Salt Potatoes are among the better known foods that Chuck D'Imperio profiles in his book, "A Taste of Upstate New York."
He hits the ones we all know -- like Salt Potatoes, Chicken Riggies, Spiedies and Buffalo wings. He taks note of famous food producers like Philadelphia Cream Cheese in Lowville and Grandma Brown's Baked Beans in Mexico.
Some of the stories involve world-famous foods that may have been 'invented" in Upstate New York. Did you know, for example, that the potato chip started in Saratoga Springs, Jello in the Genesee County town of LeRoy or the ice cream sundae in Ithaca?
Or not, of course. Some of these origin stories are disputed.
"I didn't get into that," he said. "I talked to the people who have great stories to tell."
And he points out this about Binghamton's Spiedies. "Some of these foods, the alternative origin stories are someplace far away (like the sundae may have come from Wisconsin)," he said ."When you get to the spiedies in Binghamton, it's more that the alternative stories are a different place just around the block."
Columbus Baking Co. owner Jimmy Retzos, left, with Chuck D'Imperio, holding a copy of D'Imperio's his book, "A Taste of Upstate New York," along with one of the foods featured in it, Columbus's Meatball in a Heel.
D'Imperio clearly delights in the foods and people that are a little off the beaten track. That includes the Syracuse treat known as Meatball in a Heel, made at Columbus Baking Co.'s deli on Pearl Street. It's meatballs in a marinara sauce, poured into a hollowed-out heel of the bakery's famous point loaf.
Owner Jimmy Retzos devised it as a mobile treat -- great for tailgating, outdoor parties or picnics.
"I think a lot of people have heard of Columbus bread," D'Imperio said. "But a lot fewer know of the Meatball in a Heel."
That's probably true of the Michigan, a name for steamed hot dog with a tomato-based meat sauce, found only within a 100-mile radius of Plattsburgh. Or maybe the Sponge Candy in Buffalo, described as "a cross between a fluffy meringue cookie and a malted milk ball," by the owner of Buffalo's Fowler's Chocolates.
Jim and Barb Dourie of Dourie's Shop Wise in Wyoming (Wyoming County). They make apple-flavored breakfast sausage. From 'A Taste of Upstate New York' by Chuck D'Imperio.
One of D'Imperio's other favorites is the apple-flavored sausage, made by Dourie's Shop Wise, a market on Main Street in Wyoming, in the heart of western New York's apple orchard country.
"This is one that I'm glad I caught," he said, noting that the shop's proprietors have been in business for 60 years and may not have anyone to pass it on to. "This may be the last chance to find it made by the original people in the original way."
Muhammad X Seven, who makes Bean Pies at his barber shop in Utica. From 'A Taste of Upstate New York' by Chuck D'Imperio.
Even more obscure are the Bean Pies of Utica. This is one, as D'Imperio noted in the book, that he stumbled on completely by accident, after being rerouted by a traffic detour in downtown Utica.
He found a man who runs a barber shop catering to an African-American clientele, who makes pies filled with Navy beans on the side. This didn't get its own entry in the book, but featured prominently in D'Imperio's introduction.
"That was is the most charming," D'Imperio said. "It was one of the only things i found that was completely unplanned. Most everything else I set out to find. The Bean Pies found me."
"A Taste of Upstate New York: The People & The Stories Behind 40 Food Favorites," is available at amazon.com, syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu and at local booksellers.
Don Cazentre writes about food, beverages, restaurants and bars for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact him by email, on Twitter, at Google+ or via Facebook.