My family will be visiting the Lancaster area and I would like for us to try the local food. However, I don't want tourist meals. Restaurants I have found include Good&Plenty, Dienner's, and Plain&Fancy. I have found others like Millers but they seem like overpriced tourist traps. Any comments about these restaurants or other suggestions? Thanks!

Millers Smorgasboard is good and does offer some local food. But it is a slightly overpriced tourist trap. My suggestion to you is to go off US 30 (Lincoln Highway) and go to some of the smaller towns like Paradise, Bird-in-Hand, New Holland, Ephrata, or Lititz. If the place does not have scrapple or shoo-fly pie, it isn't local. The Revere Inn by the Best Western Revere is a great restaurant. But it was more an American Cuisine restaurant.

Thansk Easty. Have your tried Stoltzfus Farm Restaurant? Their website makes it look like what I want, but I can't find anyone who has actually eaten there to give me an unbiased opinion. Thanks again.

I must ask, what is scrapple and shoo-fly pie? What else would be considered local food in this area?

Here you go…cwest03

“Scrapple” also known, as “Ponhaws” or “pawnhaus” was a way of using odd bits and pieces of meat, combined with meal and spices, and it was, thus a product of farm kitchens and small meat packers. Properly made and cooked, it has the flavor of a good pork sausage combined with the crispness of bacon.

You can see why it is NOT so popular…

INGREDIENTS 1 hog's headSalt & pepper, to tasteYellow corn meal, as neededWater, as needed1 teaspoon sage, powdered Separate one hog's head into halves. Take out the eyes and brains. Scrape and thoroughly clean the head. Put into a large kettle and cover with 4 or 5 quarts of cold water. Simmer gently for 2 or 3 hours, or until the meat falls from the bones. Skim off grease carefully from the surface; remove meat, chop fine and return to the liquor.Season with salt & pepper to taste and 1 teaspoon sage. Sift in granulated yellow corn meal, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened to the consistency of soft mush.Cook slowly for 1 hour, watching carefully as it scorches easily. When sufficiently cooked, pour into greased oblong tins and store in a cool place until ready to use. Cut in thin slices and fry in hot fat until crisp and brown.

The shoo-fly pie is a wet-bottom molasses pie that used to sit on the window sills and attract flies, hence the shoo-fly name. It has a gooey bottom, cake-like middle, and crumb topping. Mmmmm good!
Certainly better then scrapple…yes?

Hi realexplorer,

Stoltfus Farm Restaurant is a nice place to eat. The food is authentic Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. You will be given a sampling of everything on their menu. I have stopped here to sample their cooking and will vouch for its authenticity. I was rather surprised that they brought a little bit of everything on their menu to my table. I was overwhelmed by the variety. They also have a butcher shop, so the sausage and ham loaf is an authentic recipe.

The scrapple sounds strangely familiar and almost tempting until I read what went into it. The shoo-fly pie, well who could resist that. I have to remember this post if I should ever find myself in Pennsylvania.

So then, how many pounds of this good Lancaster County scrapple would you care to purchase, and is that going to be cash or credit? Or would you prefer that I send you just the hog's heads, since you obviously prefer to boil them down yourself, no problem is that cash or credit…I’m sorry cwest03, I didn’t quite catch your reply. Perhaps you would prefer puddin or tripe, yes?

realexplorer,

On a slightly different note, I recently added several new “things-to-do” in Lancaster County. I then linked them to their respective web sites for a better overview, perhaps something there may be of help to you while you are visiting here.

Are you sure you can ship something like that over state lines? I would think there would be a law against something like that. I would love to order a bunch but...

The Shady Maple is Very good . It is huge and you may think a t Trap but all the locals go there including Amish families that have an "english" driver there with them. You can eat till you are stuffed. I enjoy it there.

You have certainly given us something to think about...on our way to Lancaster County next week. I'll be on your Lancaster page next to see what else you have in store for us. We've found a sweet 1700's stone cottage to rent in Churchtown... and will have dinner in an Amish home on the first night in the area. We're searching for "off the beaten path" authentic places rather than the typical soulvenir shops. All suggestions welcome.

Janet, this is an old forum posting and is only really visable to people that have posted onto this topic. You are probably better off re-posting this topic so more people can give you suggestions.

How was your trip to Lancaster area? I just found this VT website so I did not see your posting till today. I live here (for 20 years now) and love the area. I hope you had a great visit and will come back soon.
Cheryl

Pennsylvania Dutch food is not actually the healthiest food available, but if you like high-in-fat, fried, and meat-and-potatos meals you'll enjoy it.

There is a cookbook of Pennsylvania Dutch food that we have enjoyed for years. Although we are not from Lancaster County, our area has a lot of Mennonite influence. Our local Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania have published this cookbook: Franconia Culinary Pride 'n Joy which was originally put together by the Franconia Mennonite Church. It is available at their website: http://www.mhep.org/

I quite agree with the question of proper nutrition connected with this cooking. We had dinner in the home of a local family... traditional cooking. It was a wonderful evening and good food. However there were several items which I only tasted or passed on completely. Quite an abundance of sugar..indeed!! I suppose if I were working the fields all day it would be OK. :-)