I'm delighted to have beaten my fellow Stokies to it, and I am proud to offer -
The Oatcake!!!
It's a Potteries delicacy, and has been for hundreds of years now.
It's the size and consistency of a pancake, but it is made with oats, water and seasoning.
Oatcake shops used to be all over the city, they always opened early in the mornings, and were shut after lunch, because everything they baked in the early hours would have sold out.
You can buy them with traditional fillings like cheese and bacon. or by them in half-dozens and take them home to fill, heat and eat there.
They are such a well-known local delicacy, that when we sold them in my parents' shop on Sunday morning (bought in from a local shop) and someone asked what they were, the traditional response was always "Welcome stranger …" and they would be amazed.
We would explain that they must be from out of the area, if they were local, they would know what an oatcake was.
Recipes are jealously guarded and handed down through generations.
If a particularly popular shop comes up for sale, the interest will not be the price for the premises and equipment, it will be for the recipe, that is where the goldmine is!
Stokies who live away often like visitors to bring a few dozen down for them to freeze and enjoy over a few weekend breakfasts.
I remember in the '70's, a friend of mine bought an old icecream van, fitted a griddle and hit the pop festivals with a few gross of oatcakes, he made a fortune!! The cost pence to produce, and they are really popular.
When anyone mentions to a Stokie the word 'oatcake; referring to that small thing that Scots eat, the disdain will be palpable!
That's our proud claim to culinary fame.