Adam Gerard has been mildly obsessed with scrapple ever since he was introduced to it at the age of 15. (5)

I had a craving for ice cream last night so I walked over to a convenient store around the corner from my apartment in Boston. There were a lot of flavor options to choose from, but as soon as I saw it, the only flavor that mattered to me was the one labeled "maple bacon."

Apple and scrapple - two foods I would not normally choose to eat together. There is not much at all that link them other then, well, they rhyme. And who doesn't love a good rhyme? It seems that is enough for various chefs to try and put apple and scrapple together in various dishes.

So where does the word scrapple come from?

"Scrapple? It’s made from the scraps of the pig left over after they make all the other meat.  Scraps…scrapple. Get it?"

Seems an easy enough explanation, right? And completely wrong, according to William Woys Weaver in his book, Country Scrapple.

{EAV:3128480fbb57839e} 

[CURTAIN OPENS. Two friends are sitting across from one another at a kitchen table. In front of each of them is a white plate. In the center of each plate is a brown rectangle slice of something. The slices are warm and you can see a spiral of steam coming off of each.]

Guy 1: "What is scrapple?!" Why do you have to ask so many questions? Just eat it! Trust me, it tastes delicious and you're gonna love it.

Guy 2: [Stares blankly at the brown block. Blinks. Looks back up at his friend expectantly.]

Charlie's Cafe in Norfolk, VA is amazing, mostly thanks to their omelets. Basically they take 3 eggs and whip them up in a blender, then cook it up on the griddle with options for all kinds of ingredients. The end result? The biggest, fluffiest, greasiest, most delicious omelet you will ever have.

My first taste of scrapple: a moment that changed my life forever. I was probably about 14-years-old and fairly new to the state of Maryland.

I had done most of my growing up before then in Upstate New York. Being a long distance from Philadelphia, scrapple was not much of a known food up there. I was completely oblivious.