This Popular Food Feels Like a Buffalo-Only Dish

When I was a kid, there was no real social media. We didn't have any smartphones and only word-of-mouth and TV news was the only real way to get information. It was like that even back in the mid-to-late '90s, when the internet didn't have the footprint on pop culture that it does now.

Growing up in Buffalo, you just assumed that everyone had amazing chicken wings. You also assumed beef on weck was sold everywhere. I didn't realize that beef on weck was a Buffalo-only thing until I was a teenager.

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There's also the flip-side of that -- foods that you perhaps assumed were only a Buffalo thing, but are actually available elsewhere around the country and even around the world.

One of the most popular dishes in Western New York is French onion soup.

French onion soup is beef broth with sautéed onions, croutons inside the broth, covered in melted cheese. There's an artform to perfecting French onion soup. You have to have enough onions and croutons and the right amount of cheese that is perfectly burnt on top. It's awesome when you get a French onion soup that's elite in preparation.

Buffalo adores French onion soup. So much so that I once assumed that French onion soup was a Buffalo-only soup...as crazy as that sounds. There is no doubt that Buffalo loves it more than most cities in the United States.

It's on almost every sit-down restaurant menu in Western New York. It's a staple of Buffalo's food scene and many people here take pride in their French onion soups.