Growing up in Brooksville Florida which was a relatively small, very traditional Southern city for Florida it didn’t have too many specialties of its own. But we were surrounded in an easy 10 min to an hour drive by other cities of relatively unique cultures, primarily the Greeks in Tarpon Springs; Czechs in Masaryktown; the huge number of Philly, Long Island and NYC Italian Americans transplants in Spring Hill; the Cubans in Tampa and the Amish in Sarasota (this was about 1 hour and 15 mins or so but my mom loved it so we went maybe every two or three months for a dinner or lunch on the weekend). So while I ate a lot of typical “Floribbean”/“Southern“ dishes like fried grouper sandwiches, smoked mullet dip, boiled peanuts, Fat Boys “Florida” style BBQ, etc…. I ate just as many cabbage rolls, goulash, rizek/schnitzel and sauerkraut soup from Czech diners in Masaryktown and Media Noches, Tampa style Devilled Crab, ropa vieja and fried Yucca and plantains from Tampa restaurants and sandwich shops. At least once a week we would get pizza or simple red sauce “Italian” dishes in Spring Hill and the surrounds that rival NYC and Philly in quality because they were all run by “retired” restauranteurs from there who knew exactly what they were doing.
So between the above exposure (plus access to one of Florida’s first brewpubs in Dunedin along with its Scottish and Canadian culture and a tiny bit of Mexican-American culture in microscopic San Antonio Florida) and growing up with a Four Seasons pass to Epcot and an easy one hour drive, I got to try Japansee, Norwegian, Mexican, British pub food, Chinese, French and Moroccan food regularly. Since we had the annual pass, it was easy to pop over and grab some unusual food and catch some fireworks Or a ride or two.
That’s why I’m such a foodie/gourmand now, I grew up exposed to tons of different foods. I guess if Brooksville itself had any specialties it would be the big local Florida avocado half (not the tiny California Hass avocados) stuffed with either shrimp salad, fried chicken salad or tuna salad, as well as the fried grouper sandwich, strawberry shortcake using biscuits and localesque Plant CiTy strawberries, fresh Meyer Lemon Meringue, Kunquat or Sour Orange Pies using local fruit and Tangerine cakes as an homage to when there were still a lot of Tangerine groves in the area.
So between the above exposure (plus access to one of Florida’s first brewpubs in Dunedin along with its Scottish and Canadian culture and a tiny bit of Mexican-American culture in microscopic San Antonio Florida) and growing up with a Four Seasons pass to Epcot and an easy one hour drive, I got to try Japansee, Norwegian, Mexican, British pub food, Chinese, French and Moroccan food regularly. Since we had the annual pass, it was easy to pop over and grab some unusual food and catch some fireworks Or a ride or two.
That’s why I’m such a foodie/gourmand now, I grew up exposed to tons of different foods. I guess if Brooksville itself had any specialties it would be the big local Florida avocado half (not the tiny California Hass avocados) stuffed with either shrimp salad, fried chicken salad or tuna salad, as well as the fried grouper sandwich, strawberry shortcake using biscuits and localesque Plant CiTy strawberries, fresh Meyer Lemon Meringue, Kunquat or Sour Orange Pies using local fruit and Tangerine cakes as an homage to when there were still a lot of Tangerine groves in the area.
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