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OVERRATED & UNDERRATED
Regional Food
BY MOIRA HODGSON
Most Overrated Food: In my opinion it’s barbecue. I have never quite understood the mystique that surrounds this dish, which so often consists of charred, dry, and fatty meat slathered in a sauce that tastes mostly of ketchup.
Most Underrated Food: Salt cod, which was a kitchen staple in New England before the advent of the freezer. I think the inconvenience of its preparation (overnight soaking and much rinsing) along with the current phobia about salt have driven it out of favor, although it is still popular among people of Portuguese descent.
—Moira Hodgson is food critic for The New York Observer. | 
