Rhode Island specialty foods

June 5, 1:52 AMProvidence Food ExaminerDonna Diegel

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Dunkin Donuts Coffee and Egg & Cheese Croissant

Each state has their own peculiar and unusual foods and Rhode Island is no exception. Johnny cakes, doughboys, grinders, torpedoes and pizza strips. Clam cakes, quahogs, stuffies, lobster and three types of clam chowder. Cabinets, coffee milk, frozen lemonade and iced coffee. These are the foods Rhode Island is famous for.

Rhode Island Food Traditions

Dunkin' Donuts ~ wicked good, orgasmic belly bombs. It is rumored that there are so many Dunkin' Donut shops in Rhode Island, that you can find one every 2 miles. At last count there were well over 125 Dunkin Donuts' in the smallest state.

Iggy's Doughboys and Chowder House in Oakland Beach, Warwick, serves up tender fish and chips, and "chowdah" and clam cakes. Other favorites are clam rolls in hot dog buns with tartar sauce, and melt-in-your-mouth fried dough affectionately called doughboys. Bumper stickers proudly declare, "I survived the line at Iggy's!"

New York System restaurants can be found all over the state and strange sounding foods such as Hot Weiners (aka, gaggas), sound almost vulgar. "All-the-Way" means steamed buns, straight reddish-colored weiners smothered in meat sauce, topped with chopped onions, mustard and celery salt.

Del's Lemonade is another Rhode Island institution. Soft frozen, slushy lemonade with bits of real lemon is served in a cup without a straw. Locals know that straws are for tourists and sissies. The clever traveler will soon learn that Del's and vodka make an awesome cocktail.

Clam shacks are scattered up and down the coast, where the quahog is king. Also known as littlenecks, cherrystones or clams, they can be served on the half shell, steamed with melted butter, or as stuffies which is basically a stuffed quahog. Immortalized by Peter Griffin in "Family Guy", Quahog is a fictional town.

Newport Creamery is where you will find the Cabinet, a frozen drink made with ice cream, flavored syrup and milk. The famous "Awful Awful" is similar to the cabinet made with ice milk instead of ice cream. "Drink three, get one free!"

Local Rhode Island Cuisine

There are many other wild and crazy foods in RI tempting the adventurous connoisseur hell-bent on sampling local cuisine. NY System Hot Weiners and Other Rhode Island Favorites by Pages in Time.com and Quahog.org, are dedicated to unique Rhode Island traditions, strange but true. Pick up a Rhode Island map, arm yourself with a bottle of antacids, be brave and indulge!