Walleye is Minnesota's most distinctive menu item

In the spirit of Jeopardy: "What is 'walleye'?"

The clue: This food is Minnesota's most distinctive menu item.

The back story (and how the idea of game show antics isn't that far-fetched):

Food Genius, a Chicago group that analyzes menu data to predict food-industry trends, tracked how frequently certain foods or terms appear on menus in all 50 states.

"Walleye" is on 29 percent of Minnesota menus. Nationwide, only 1 percent of menus include our state fish.

(Which explains the "Huh?" uttered by visitors listening to the day's lunch specials.)

This number-crunching doesn't mean that walleye is Minnesota's most popular food, only that it's our most distinctive menu item.

Defining "distinctive," however, is in the hands of the number-cruncher.

This trend data appears at bit.ly/1nXNElx. But its methodology is coming under fire.

One example: Prawns are named Oregon's "distinctive" food, being on 28 percent of menus there compared with 9 percent nationwide, or about three times more often. Yet one commenter noted that Tillamook Cheddar (made in Oregon) is on 16 percent of the state's menus vs. 1 percent nationwide, for "a whopping 16 times [the] average."

Surely the weighted "uniqueness" of an ingredient compared to the national average should matter far more than the simple subtraction of percentages?

The official response:

" 'Distinctiveness' is already a somewhat dubious/difficult-to-measure concept."

So, well, yes, grains of salt all around!

Still, it's fun to toggle through the interactive graphic map for other distinctive foods and states: crawfish and Louisiana, green chile and New Mexico, grits and Georgia.

But ranch dressing and Iowa? Chocolate and South Dakota? Cinnamon and Alaska? Clickbait and the Internet?

All of which brings us back, game-show-wise, to: This food is Minnesota's second-most distinctive menu item, on 37 percent of local menus vs. 17 percent nationwide.

"What is 'bun'?"

Kim Ode • 612-673-7185