I'm a Southerner who moved to New York City. Here are 5 foods that make me want to book a flight home.

From Ethiopian to Polish eats, New York City houses some of the most culturally diverse restaurants in the US. After living in Orlando and graduating from Florida State University in 2018, I moved up the east coast and eventually settled in Bushwick, a neighborhood located in the northern part of Brooklyn.

Living in Bushwick has expanded my palette, but I undeniably miss some Southern staples that can be hard to come by in New York City.

I actually gasped when I asked my partner – a born and raised New Yorker – if his family liked King Cake, only for him to look at me with utter confusion. Growing up, I remember me and my classmates getting excited to eat King Cake at school in celebration of Mardi Gras.

King Cake is typically a ring of braided dough filled with cinnamon and topped with icing. Each cake is decorated with purple, green, and yellow sugar to highlight the official Mardi Gras colors. They're also baked with a single plastic baby, which is supposed to herald good luck and prosperity to anyone who finds it in their cake slice.

While I've discovered a few New York City bakeries that sell King Cakes, there seem to be fewer authentic options, in my opinion.

There's something about fried dough that really speaks to my soul. As a kid, I went through a phase where I'd order hush puppies at every restaurant, wanting to compare them and find the best ones in Orange County.

Hush puppies are usually balls of cornmeal-based batter fried into a golden fritter. They're most often used as a side dish to seafood or BBQ meals, making them perfect for sopping up sauces. I've had the pleasure of finding a few spots with hush puppies in New York City, but so far, they haven't compared to the ones down South.

As I mentioned in a previous article, boiled peanuts are one of the foods I've genuinely struggled to find in New York City. While I usually found boiled peanuts in grocery stores or pop-up shops on the side of the road in Florida, I now order cans of the Peanut Patch Cajun Boiled Peanuts from Amazon for about $23.

In my opinion, boiled peanuts are a versatile food because they can be eaten solo or incorporated into larger meals like seafood boils.

I had my first pecan praline when I was in kindergarten. My parents traveled to Savannah, Georgia, for a week and returned with a bagful of them, to my curious delight. Eater reported that the dessert originated in France, but became a US Southern favorite after the recipe reached New Orleans and they incorporated pecans.

Pralines are usually made with sugar, butter, milk, and pecans. They're sweet with bursts of nuts that usually add a nice crunch. Luckily, I've visited a few bakery shops that sell pralines to tide me over until I'm back in Florida.

Like boiled peanuts, pimento cheese is a versatile food used as a sandwich spread, cracker dip, burger topper, and much more. There are many variations, but pimento cheese is made with cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, pimento peppers, and seasonings.

Serious Eats reported while the North actually spearheaded America's pimento cheese production, the South became the leader in pimento growing and the canning industry – which cemented Southerners' love for it.

I noticed that more prominent brands like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's sell pimento cheese, but I don't often find any in the smaller grocery stores near my Bushwick apartment. As a result, I've either had to travel across my borough to buy a singular container or purchase it online.