13 Virginia Foods Out-of-Staters Have Never Tried

Ask a visitor what Virginia food they’ve tried, and you might hear about ham and not much else.

Virginians know the list runs a lot longer.

Here are the foods worth sharing with the next out-of-state friend who visits.

1. Peanut Soup

King’s Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg lists peanut soup on its lunch menu as “Peanut Soupe.”

Yes, peanuts.

Colonial Williamsburg says the dish is rooted in West African groundnut stews that reached the American South through the transatlantic slave trade.

If you read the menu description, you’ll see it starts with butter, onions, shredded carrots, and celery.

You can order it by the cup or by the bowl.

2. Brunswick Stew

Brunswick stew carries an official Virginia claim, since the General Assembly proclaimed Brunswick County its originator in 1988.

Georgia disputes that claim.

A tour announcement on Virginia Tourism’s press site dates the dish’s origins to 1828, when stewmasters gathered each year to prepare their versions.

If you take the county’s self-guided Brunswick Stew Tour, launched in 2020, one stop is a bowl in downtown Lawrenceville.

You’ll find that modern Virginia versions favor chicken over game meat and run thicker than Georgia’s, according to a food column in the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily.

3. Hanover Tomatoes

What makes a Hanover tomato different?

Hanover County sits on the Fall Line, the boundary between the Coastal Plain’s sediments and the Piedmont’s harder bedrock.

The county’s east side has well-drained, loamy soil that suits vegetables.

A local legend credits volcanic ash from millions of years ago, though the expert Virginia Public Media interviewed pointed instead to millions of years of geological change.

They even have a festival.

The Hanover Tomato Festival began in the 1970s as a fundraiser for the county’s volunteer fire department.

If you want a Hanover tomato at its source, the festival draws thousands to Pole Green Park each July.

4. Smithfield Ham

The Code of Virginia defines a Smithfield ham as one cured by the long-cure, dry salt method of cure.

The six months of aging start the day the raw pork first meets the salt, so you can’t speed up the clock.

If you see the name on a ham, every step from smoking to aging happened inside Smithfield’s town limits.

State lawmakers first set rules for the Genuine Smithfield name in 1926, the Smithfield Times reports.

Smithfield Foods had decided to discontinue production of the brand-name Genuine Smithfield ham by January 2024.

It gave its final ham to the Isle of Wight County Museum in April 2024, according to Axios.

It’s in a museum now.

5. Route 11 Potato Chips

Route 11 Potato Chips began in 1992 in a former feed store in Middletown.

The company moved to a chipping facility in Mount Jackson in September 2008.

Big windows in its retail store let you watch chips get made, except for the potato peeling.

If you’re used to the big brands, Garden & Gun reports that the whole Route 11 process takes about fourteen minutes, compared with thirty seconds of a big brand’s output.

Flavors include sour cream and chive, Chesapeake crab, and dill pickle.

Crab chips exist.

6. Spoonbread

America’s Test Kitchen compares spoonbread to the flavors of sweet cornbread in an airy soufflé.

You scoop it from a ramekin with a spoon.

Edna Lewis, born in 1916 in Freetown, Virginia, put an Orange County spoonbread in her 1988 cookbook, In Pursuit of Flavor.

Her version blends grated fresh corn with milk instead of flour.

Corn does the work.

If you serve it, set it next to something saucy, such as beans or collard greens.

7. Albemarle Pippins

As many as fifty Albemarle Pippin trees went into the South Orchard at Monticello between 1769 and 1814.

The pippin was one of Thomas Jefferson’s two favorite apples.

The variety originated in New York in the eighteenth century, so it’s sometimes called the Newtown Pippin.

Monticello says the apples store well, and if you slice one open, expect greenish-white flesh that’s juicy and crisp, with a fine aroma.

Jefferson had good taste.

8. Grayson Cheese

Grayson is a square, washed-rind cheese made from raw cow’s milk by Meadow Creek Dairy in Galax.

Culture magazine describes it as semi-soft and reddish-orange, with savory notes of bacon, smoke, grass, and butter.

A whole wheel is four pounds and eight inches square.

Expect a pungent aroma.

The dairy’s owners built the style on washed-rind European classics such as Taleggio and Reblochon after a 2000 trip to Wales and Ireland.

The dairy describes itself as a seasonal grazing dairy, so if you’re shopping for Grayson, check what’s in stock.

9. Oysters by Region

Oysters taste different depending on the water they grow in, and the Virginia Oyster Trail connects eight regions.

Rappahannock River oysters are sweet, buttery, and crisp, according to Virginia Tourism.

Rochambeau oysters, from farther out where the York River enters the bay, balance a bigger bite of salt with a taste of fresher water.

Olde Salt oysters from Chincoteague are billed as the truest taste of the sea.

Pick your water.

If you’re ordering at a raw bar, ask which river or bay the oysters came from.

10. Williamsburg Ginger Cakes

Ginger cakes are the signature item at Raleigh Tavern Bakery in Colonial Williamsburg, which says it bakes them every day in wood-fire ovens.

They’re a tavern specialty dating to the 18th century.

The recipe on its website comes from the foodways staff, who base it on a cookbook by Hannah Glasse.

If you pick one up, expect a texture that’s a cross between a ginger snap and a soft cookie.

They should still be soft to the touch when they leave the oven.

If you want both, the bakery also lists ham biscuits.

11. Hoecakes

Hoecakes and honey are a distinctly American dish, Mount Vernon says, and the recipe began with Native Americans.

Enslaved people and European settlers used it afterward.

George Washington liked his hoecakes loaded with butter and honey.

Butter and honey.

Guests at Mount Vernon noted hoecakes and honey as a big part of breakfast there.

You’ll also hear a hoecake called a journey cake, ash cake, cornpone, or spider bread.

12. Highland Maple Syrup

Highland County’s maple syrup gets a festival in Monterey, and the 66th ran March 14-15 and 21-22, 2026.

Highland County has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to the festival since 1959, The Virginian Review reported.

Ten sugar camps opened on Saturdays and eight on Sundays in 2026.

The tours are free.

If you go, hickory and other tree syrups turn up there too.

An economic analysis found the festival generated $2.4 million in direct spending in Highland County in 2023.

13. Ramps

Ramps are wild leeks, a plant native to the Appalachian Mountains with a garlicky flavor, according to Visit Damascus.

Each May, the Whitetop Ramp Festival serves them at the Mount Rogers Fire Hall in Whitetop, a few miles east of Damascus.

You can sample ramps with the barbecue chicken dinner, and a ramp-eating contest runs alongside.

Their brief appearance signals the arrival of spring.