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Garbage Plate: Rochester Food Worth Dying For

Garbage Plate [1]
In the rest of New York State and the Free Forty Nine, a plate is utensil which holds food. In Rochester, a plate not the dish off which you eat, it is the food itself.

The Rochester Plate, or plate, is Rochester specialty, as in wbo else would have it From Health [2]:

New York: Garbage plate

While New York-style cheesecake tops the list of fatty regional specialties, the Empire State is also home to the “garbage plate,” a mess of potatoes, beans, meat, onions, mustard, and sauce that reportedly got its start at Rochester, N.Y. eatery Nick Tahou Hots in 1918.

From Rochester Wiki [3]:

A Garbage Plate is a true Rochester [4] delicacy. It is a disorganized combination of either cheeseburger, hamburger, Italian sausages, steak, chicken, white or red hots [5], a grilled cheese sandwich, fried fish, or eggs, served on top of one or two of the following: home fries, fries, beans, and mac salad. A plate is always made to order. Then, the plate is adorned with optional mustard, onions and Rochester’s version of hot sauce [6]. Some restaurants will charge for extra helpings of hot sauce, and the hot sauce varies widely in flavor and spiciness. A plate is usually served with a side of white bread and butter, though some restaurants charge extra for bread. It is said that the purpose of the bread is to soak up the grease left after you’ve eaten the garbage plate

Delicacy is not exactly the word I would use to describe a plate.   Concoction might be more apt.

For reasons I do not understand, Rochester style h9t dogs, are called Texas Hots, or Hots. Each platery, has a unique,. proprietary, secrets and most likely inconsistent hot sauce, I was advised by one patron, that a Garbage Plate was best consumed less than sober.

However, if you are search of a Rochester Plate, do not go to the Apple, or Syracuse or even Buffalo.   You must come to Rochester. for Hots and Potatoes [7].