Stepping Out: A dish for Nebraska

States and regions often celebrate a defining cuisine.

Clam chowder comes to mind when you think of Massachusetts, for example, and chicken fried steak smothered in white gravy appears on just about every roadhouse menu in Texas. Barbecue narrows down geographic identity even further--Memphis, Kansas City and so forth.

Then there’s New York and Chicago style pizza, Cincinnati chili, Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat.

OK--that was more of an advertising ploy. But even Indiana has breaded pork tenderloin to bring it culinary fame...or notoriety, rather.

So what dish defines the Cornhusker state?

“Steaks and burgers,” said Niki Rochlitz of Sidney’s Buffalo Ranch. “Nebraskans love their beef.”

Yeah, the answer seems obvious. Cattle outnumber people in the state by a sizable margin, with some six million head roaming ranches and feedlots compared to less than two million residents.

“Everything we raise goes toward steak,” added Dick Mohatt, sitting at the Coffee Corner. “And in this part of the country, steak means Dude’s.”

Red meat indeed fills more than its fair share of panhandle menus. There should, however, be other contenders for Nebraska’s culinary crown. After all, the Cornhusker state produces more popcorn than any other part of the country. And German-speaking immigrants from Russia introduced the Runza now found at almost every I-80 interchange.

Ken Ottoson, relaxing at Bag’s Bar in Potter, suggested that a certain part of the cow deserves at least honorable mention.

“Mountain oysters,” he said. “I just cooked five pounds of them last night and we ate every one.”

Calf fry feeds are common, certainly. But, Rochlitz cautioned, they “are more of a Colorado thing.”

It looks as if Nebraska offers few real oddities--although Rene Merryfield of Sam & Louie’s knows of one.

“Chili and cinnamon rolls,” she said. “Out of state you can’t get that.”

Well, you do find the combination in Kansas. Runzas, too--although Kansans tend to call them bierocks.

So one wonders why the University of Nebraska adopted “Cornhuskers,” when “Beefeaters” makes more sense.

“Nebraskans like their usual stuff,” Rochlitz explained. “They want their steaks and burgers.”