The Strangest Food From Every State

Hawaiians consume about 7 million cans of Spam a year and host the world’s largest Spam festival. One popular way of eating it is in the form of musubi, a variation on Japanese onigiri, in which grilled Spam is enclosed in a square of sushi rice and wrapped in nori seaweed.

No, we’re not talking Hannibal Lecter here. Considered Idaho’s signature food, these are simply strips of buttermilk-marinated steak breaded and deep-fried, then served with barbecue or cocktail sauce.

Spaghetti is good. Pizza is good. Are the two together double-good? A lot of people apparently think so. Angelo’s Pizzeria, which has three locations west of Chicago, claims credit for the invention. Sausage and mozzarella are also involved.

Fermented cabbage isn’t the first thing you’d think of deep frying — unless you were a Hoosier. Associated with the state fair and with the Indianapolis 500, these are a mix of sauerkraut, pork sausage, and cream cheese, with mustard added, formed into spheres, breaded, and plunged into boiling oil until crisp and brown.

These heavy Norwegian ham-and-potato dumplings are a specialty of Story City, north of Des Moines. They’ve been described as “Norwegian sinkers,” and one fan, who claims to be able to eat no more than three at a sitting, notes that 10 of them would make competitive eating champ Joe Chestnut throw up.