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MICHIGAN: PASTY It rhymes with “nasty,” not “tasty,” but this portable delight is best described by the latter. A yummy, simple mix of ground beef or pork, rutabagas and potatoes, it’s baked

in a pocket of dough. Based on the version born in Cornwall, England, as an easy-to-hold meal for miners, the pasty arrived with those who came to work the copper mines in Michigan’s Upper

Peninsula. It has since evolved to adjust for local tastes. “There’s always a big debate over whether you pour ketchup or gravy into the pasty,” says Charlie Hopper, general manager of the

U.P.’s Pasty Central, which ships about 45,000 pasties around the U.S. every year, many to homesick transplanted Michiganders. MINNESOTA: HOTDISH If you ever make it to a church supper or a

family reunion in the upper Midwest, you’re going to find this casserole-style meal, made with a protein, vegetable and starch, and usually mixed together with canned cream of mushroom soup.

Common ingredients include ground meat and green beans, topped with tater tots, but it has evolved to include anything from shrimp to caramelized brussels sprouts to potato chips. It's

not glamorous, but it’s comfort food writ large, developed during the Great Depression as a way to stretch meat and make use of leftovers. If you’re not lucky enough to have a great-aunt in

Duluth, you can sample hotdish at restaurants like The Mason Jar in Eagan.    bhofack2 / Getty images MISSOURI: TOASTED RAVIOLI T-rav, as the locals call it, stems from a happy accident: A

local cook missed the hot water and dropped some ravioli into hot oil, sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top and presto! — a crispy classic was born. Now it’s a destination dish that can be

found all over St. Louis but particularly on the Hill, the Italian neighborhood, where restaurants with names such as Mama’s and Zia’s are as welcoming as the Midwestern residents. “The key

is the tangy tomato sauce for dipping. That’s what gives t-rav that Grandma-made-this-just-for-me feeling,” says area food blogger Josie Bell. NEBRASKA: RUNZA You can’t have too many

variations on the brilliant meat-in-a-bread-pocket concept, can you? Nebraska’s version, which was brought to the state by German and Russian immigrants, and also called bierocks, features

sautéed beef, cabbage, onions and spices, baked in fresh dough. The result is a juicy, hot and hearty sandwich that’s available all over the state — but it’s a trademarked name belonging to,

yes, Runza, an 82-restaurant chain that opened its first shop in 1949 and has baked the sandwiches on-site at University of Nebraska football games for more than 30 years. As many as 10,000

Runzas are gobbled up at every Cornhuskers game.