what is floridas official food

Weve all seen the headlines. Florida man steals ribs and puts them down his pants. Florida man eats pancakes in a crosswalk. Florida man breaks into a house and makes a snack.

When the typical Florida man isnt getting arrested because of food, hes probably eating pretty well. Thanks to its many fisheries, Florida has iconic seafood dishes like Minorcan clam chowder and fried grouper sandwiches that, fortunately, anyone can enjoy. The states bounty of subtropical produce has influenced dishes like key lime and sour orange pie. Florida is also located at a cultural crossroads, and this can be seen in dishes like the Cuban sandwich and Bahamian conch fritters. Clearly, the food in Florida is no joke.

The following iconic foods can and should be tried the next time youre in Florida, but you can also make many of these dishes at home. If youre fortunate enough to live near one, a Latin American grocer will have most or all of the ingredients you need. However, most ingredients can be found in your local supermarket or online.

Key lime pie is probably the most iconic food from Florida. Before the days of refrigeration, this pie was typically made using only fresh ingredients. At some point, people used sweetened condensed milk from a can as a workaround. However, this approach to making key lime pie was likely made popular thanks to a marketing push from a company that made condensed milk.

Today, key lime pie is pretty easy to make. If youre not from Florida and dont have access to key limes, you might be tempted to use “regular” limes, which are technically known as Persian limes. However, there is a big difference between key limes and Persian limes. Turning yellow when they become ripe, key limes are more aromatic and tarter, making for a more vibrant option for a citrus fruit pie. Pro tip: Adding a bit of white chocolate to the filling will significantly upgrade your key lime pie.

When it comes to food, authenticity is a tricky subject. However, most of us can agree on certain things that make a dish authentic. Just as a New Orleans poboy must be made with French bread, a Cuban sandwich must be made with a bread called pan Cubano. This sub-style sandwich roll is made with lard, which makes the bread crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. If you dont live near a Latin bakery, you can replicate the sandwich known as a Cubano by using another slightly sweet sub-style roll.

So, what else is in a Cubano? Essential ingredients for the sandwich include roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, sour pickles, and mustard. After these ingredients are added to a buttered, sub-style role, the Cubano is toasted in a sandwich press and cut diagonally through the middle.

Stone crabs are native to the waters off the Florida coast and are considered a seasonal delicacy. Unlike blue crabs and Dungeness crabs, only the claws of stone crabs are eaten. When stone crabs are caught, crabbers will remove one or both claws, as long as the claws are regulation size, then throw the animals back into the water. The season for harvesting these claws is regulated and the rules around stone crabbing can be restrictive. As a result, stone crab claws are expensive.

This unique harvesting practice helps with sustainability. However, removing one or both of a stone crabs claws will affect its odds of survival after being tossed back into the sea. The claws regenerate, and many stone crabs are able to survive without them (although, its less common than you might think). If one claw is removed, the crab has a 40% chance of dying as a result, according to the Florida Sea Grant, and if both claws are removed, the mortality rate climbs to 60%. By comparison, stone crabs that are caught and thrown back with both claws have a 13% mortality rate. That being said, stone crab claws probably arent going anywhere anytime soon.

A lot of jokes are made at the expense of Florida. Its easy to forget that the state has countless pockets of paradise amidst all the shenanigans and untamed swampland. Located atop rolling dunes along the Gulf Coast, The Shrimp Shack in Seaside, Florida is unquestionably one of those pockets and one of the best classic seafood shacks in the country. Its also renowned for serving Floridas luxurious Apalachicola oysters. Coming from the Apalachicola wildlife region where oysters are still harvested by hand, Apalachicola oysters are prized for marrying an oceanic brininess to a rich, creamy decadence.

Sadly, you will have to wait until at least 2026 to eat an Apalachicola oyster. In 2020, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission placed a moratorium on oyster harvesting in Apalachicola Bay through 2025 due to overharvesting and a decreasing water flow into the bay.

There are many shrimp varieties around the world, but pink shrimp that live off the Gulf Coast of Florida are particularly prized for their sweet meat. Referred to as “pink gold” since commercial fishing began in the 1950s, pink shrimp are so distinctive in their color that people have mistaken raw shrimp for cooked shrimp. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, pink shrimp are a sustainable seafood thats available year-round.

A makeshift village on San Carlos Island, located near Fort Myers, popped up in the 50s to service boats that are shrimping for this popular variety, and the little village still bustles to this day. Visitors can watch shrimpers bring their catch in from the dock and eat the freshest pink shrimp at the islands restaurants. Seafood markets in Florida sell pink shrimp fresh or frozen. They can also pack frozen shrimp for air travel, as airport security will allow you to bring properly packed frozen shrimp in your carry-on baggage.

Grouper is an absolutely delicious tropical fish that works well in a variety of preparations. It is easily poached, broiled, pan-fried, grilled, or baked. In Florida, its commonly deep-fried and placed on a bun with lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce.

Grouper is a meaty and delicious fish that commands a relatively high price point. Because of this, its a popular target for fish fraud. Unscrupulous people in the supply chain will often try to pass off cheaper, leaner fish like Asian catfish as grouper. Even though this practice is against the law, its fairly common. Knowing the fish is the best way to protect yourself against grouper fraud.

Compared to other white-fleshed fish, grouper is very meaty and its flesh cooks into large flakes. The flesh doesnt contain intramuscular bones, and the meat has a very little fishy taste, with a flavor slightly reminiscent of chicken. If you purchase grouper in Florida and suspect fish fried, you should contact the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The real deal, however, is worth seeking out.

It might be overshadowed by its key lime cousin, but sour orange pie is a Florida classic that shows off the states range of delicious citrus fruit. Just as the key lime pie is made with pungent and quite sour limes, this pie is a sour dessert made with varieties of oranges that arent well-suited to being eaten on their own. You can find sour orange pies made with two different types of sour oranges: Seville and calamondin. Seville oranges were brought to Florida by Spanish settlers, while calamondin oranges are native to Southeast Asia. In fact, calamondin oranges are an iconic ingredient in the cuisines of the Philippines — where the fruit is called calamansi.

If you are looking to make sour orange pie at home, simply use sour orange juice as a like-for-like replacement in your favorite key lime pie recipe. The pie can be topped with meringue or fresh whipped cream depending on your personal taste. Although, if your pie filling is on the tart side, you can use the sweetness of whipped cream to balance it out.

What is the official state food of Florida? According to PBS, Key Lime pie is the official state food. It describes this slice of pie as a “citrusy, tart treat” that’s “made from eggs and fresh lime juice.”

From the very first prickly pears harvested by Paleo-Indians more than twelve thousand years ago to the Seminole tribes staple dish of sofkee, Floridas culinary history is as diverse as its geography. Italian, French, Creole, Spanish, Cuban, Greek, Mexican, Minorcan and Caribbean influences season southern, soul and Cracker foods to make up Floridas eclectic flavors. Learn how Florida orange juice changed the look of the American breakfast table and discover the states festival-worthy swamp cabbage. Through syllabubs, perloos, frog legs and Tupelo honey, author Joy Sheffield Harris serves up a delectable helping of five hundred years of Florida cuisine – all with a side of key lime pie, of course. By Joy Sheffield Harris, ISBN 978-1-62619-657-5, copyright 2014.

Sadly, you will have to wait until at least 2026 to eat an Apalachicola oyster. In 2020, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission placed a moratorium on oyster harvesting in Apalachicola Bay through 2025 due to overharvesting and a decreasing water flow into the bay.

Chowder dates back longer than you might expect and its a uniquely American invention with different regional varieties. The two most famous examples are the tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder and cream-based New England clam chowder. Debates over chowder can be pretty intense and at one point a clearly spiteful Maine politician tried to make it illegal to add tomatoes to New England clam chowder. While chowders in the northeast typically use the quahog clam, Floridan chowders are more likely to use the states iconic Cedar Key clams.

Conch fritters are a popular preparation because it involves finely chopping the sea snails meat, which can be quite tough. The meat is also difficult to extract from the shell, making it important to get the most out of every catch. The chopped conch meat is typically combined with chopped bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, celery, and various seasonings. While you can find conch fritters throughout Florida, they are a must-have dish in Key West. They are often served with a key lime mustard, which cuts through the richness of fried conch meat.

While, today, unfamiliar diners might take pause with reptile for an entree, alligator meat was so popular that widespread alligator hunting in the middle of the 20th century placed the reptiles on the endangered species List. Today, the alligator meat you buy in a store or restaurant comes from alligator farms, even though the reptiles were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1987.

The following iconic foods can and should be tried the next time youre in Florida, but you can also make many of these dishes at home. If youre fortunate enough to live near one, a Latin American grocer will have most or all of the ingredients you need. However, most ingredients can be found in your local supermarket or online.

The Best Traditional Foods of Florida – What to Eat in Florida

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