One of the things I loved about growing up in Seattle was the very wide availability of teriyaki chicken. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but it was widely reported in the mid-to-late 90's that there were more teriyaki places than fast food places in the Seattle city limits - and Seattle has no shortage of fast food. But Seattle does teriyaki extremely well - so well, in fact, that I didn't know how spoiled I was by it until I left Seattle and came to Portland.

There is teriyaki here, but it's different - here, "teriyaki" is usually unsauced grilled chicken over rice with vegetables, so you have to provide your own heat or flavor. In Seattle, the chicken is typically marinated before it's grilled, for up to 24 hours, so it's much more flavorful, whether it's regular or spicy. SO GOOD

Portland, by contrast, doesn't seem to have a regional food - there is a very wide variety of extremely good food here (there's even really good poutine!), don't get me wrong, but there's nothing that's unique to Portland, at least not that I've found. What about where you live? What foods are only available in your area? If you're living somewhere that you didn't grow up, what do you miss, food-wise, about your old hometown/region?

What else is going on this week? Used to the new SBN format yet?