{"id":71,"date":"2016-06-28T12:40:55","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T16:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/?p=71"},"modified":"2016-06-28T12:40:55","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T16:40:55","slug":"acquired-tastes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/food\/acquired-tastes\/","title":{"rendered":"Acquired tastes"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a region where a lot of people pride themselves on having their fries and coleslaw ON their sandwiches, you can expect other quirky tastes. Here are a few you might want to try. Or not.<\/p>\n

\"At <\/a>
At the Original Oyster House on Market SquareRick Faust pours a glass of buttermilk. Regulars at the Oyster House have been drinking buttermilk since Prohibition, when beer wasn’t available. Many believed buttermilk coated and protected their stomachs. (Steve Mellon\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A pepperoni and cheese pizza at Beto\u00eds Pizza on Banksville Road. (Dominique Hildebrand\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Red <\/a>
Red Star kombucha by Joe Reichenbacher in Troy Hill. (Lake Fong\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Buttermilk at the Original Oyster House<\/strong>
\nBelly up to the stainless-steel bar at Pittsburgh\u2019s oldest restaurant and you might see an old-timer order, with his fried oysters or \u201cfish boat,\u201d a cup of buttermilk. It\u2019s been that way as far back as folks can remember at the Original Oyster House on Downtown\u2019s Market Square. The landmark opened in 1870. Legend has it that the place started pushing buttermilk during Prohibition, when it couldn\u2019t serve legally booze. And for some, the tangy tradition took hold. A good local buttermilk is made by Marburger Farm Dairy north of the city in Butler County. In this \u201ctaste from the past,\u201d the family farm says, \u201cYou can see the actual flakes of butter!\u201d<\/p>\n

Pizza at Beto\u2019s<\/strong>
\nAt this landmark pizza place on Banksville Road just south of the Fort Pitt Tunnels, the toppings, including the cheese, go on AFTER the pizza comes out of the oven. Hot pizza crust and sauce, mostly cold toppings. People love it or hate it. But enough people love it that the family-owned place has been open since the 1950s (it started in Oakland) and was just a few years ago renovated and expanded. Try a square for $1.40 plus 55 cents per topping. They say most people fill up with two cuts.<\/p>\n

Red Star Kombucha<\/strong>
\nKombucha is fermented tea made with a \u201cglob\u201d of bacteria and yeast. It\u2019s been around for centuries. This local version of the resulting sour, bubbly beverage has alcohol in it \u2014 about 2.5 percent \u2014 and so it is sold in Pennsylvania as beer. If you\u2019re 21 or older, you could visit Red Star\u2019s \u201cBuch\u201d Bar in the Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip District and order a pint, or a growler or bottles to go, in flavors ranging from green tea and ginger-hibiscus to \u201csuper tart\u201d cherry and oak mulberry. Red Star just opened a Buch Bar in Philadelphia\u2019s Fishtown neighborhood and may start up a kombucha truck.<\/p>\n

Gobblerito<\/strong>
\nPittsburgh\u2019s Mad Mex restaurants started this fall tradition of taking all the fixin\u2019s of Thanksgiving dinner \u2014 turkey, gravy, potatoes, stuffing and corn \u2014 and rolling them up into a burrito. At least they put the cranberry sauce on the side. Wash it down with a pumpkin beer.<\/p>\n

Braunschweiger<\/strong>
\nOne of the wurst holdovers from the German immigrants who built Pittsburgh\u2019s North Side when it was its own city of Allegheny, this strong-tasting smoked pork liver sausage still has a lot of loyal fans. Two regional brands are Silver Star and Alberts. You can try an open-faced Bavarian Club sandwich at Max\u2019s Allegheny Tavern on the North Side (if you can figure out how to get your hands and lips around it). It\u2019s gussied up with bacon, tomato, sweet onion, spinach, hard-cooked egg and secret sauce on rye. But the classic way to eat braunschweiger is between two slices of white bread slathered with mayo or Heinz ketchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a region where a lot of people pride themselves on having their fries and coleslaw ON their sandwiches, you can expect other quirky tastes. Here are a few you might want to try. Or not.\n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":74,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[9],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/04\/INSIDER93w00kj5.jpg?fit=2210%2C1455&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7tYWJ-19","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions\/274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}