What things you assumed to be universally true, but were specific to your area?

[Valiss]

Once, I ordered Chicken Pot Pie at a restaurant while traveling; except wasn't a literal pot pie. Turns out it was a thick chicken and dumpling soup, and I got really confused when they delivered this weird soup stuff instead of a nice pot pie in a crust. I had pot pies many times growing up, and up until that point, I had never seen anything like this by that name.

[LadyStitch]

Cashew Chicken is different.  You order it in Texas you get a vegtable medley with chicken bits, and some cashew nuts bits.   From southern Missouri it is deep fried chicken chunks, a basic soy, chicken broth, spices sauce, sprinkled WHOLE cashews and chopped green onions served over white rice. The guy who supposedly invented it is from there.  I have YET to find a place that does it that way in Texas.

As for the Pot pie problem.  There is a Pot pie that is done by making the pot pie filling stuff then you pour that over southern biscuits.  Ideally you would have your mix down, then put a can of biscuits over the top, and bake.

[arbcoind]

In Southwestern PA we keep our ketchup in the refridgerator.  Ketchup does not have to be kept cold.  I thought everyone had cold ketchup until just a few years ago.  So I started keeping mine in the pantry, I like it better that way!

Gina

[RenStarr]

Growing up in Texas:

If you wanted an ice cold soft drink..............you wanted a Coke.

When you got specific, you might want a Pepsi, a Dr Pepper, Orange Crush, Root Beer, etc.  But in general terms they were all a Coke.  And if someone asked for a "soda", well you just knew that they weren't from around here.

Same went for athletic shoes or what we called tennis shoes.  Never called them sneakers.  Once again, if someone said sneakers............"where you from" was a very common response.

This reminds me of watching the "King of the Hill" TV show.  Lots of regional Texas stuff in that show.  I always wondered if the guy watching that show that lives up in the far North East caught/understood  any of that stuff.  Or, most likely, he just didn't watch it cause he just didn't understand it.

Anyways.........

[DonaCatalina]

Texas is even more specific than you think.
Coke is for city folks. Sody water is what you asked for in rural central Texas, then they ask if you want Coke or Dr. Pepper.(Unless you were in Dublin then it was only Dr. Pepper)
Tater Salad means mustard potato salad, the other type is called German Tater salad.
Chili means chuck roast cooked down with beer, sugar and spices not the runny stuff with beans and tomato chunks they call chili in San Francisco.
Chili with beans is what you do to make leftover beans palatable.
Chicken Fried steak comes with cream gravy on the side.
First time we heard of pulled pork in Texas, we thought that was how you got the pig out from under the tractor.

[Rowan MacD]

First time we heard of pulled pork in Texas, we thought that was how you got the pig out from under the tractor.

LOL.....In So Cal we grew up thinking BBQ  was always made from ground beef, like a Manwich.
Don't ever recall seeing it made from pork until I moved to the Midwest.   
 

[Valiss]

We used to call then thongs when I was a kid, but when we moved everyone called them flip-flops. Now thongs just seem to refer to the underwear.

[Rowan MacD]

  We called flip flops 'zories'  don't know where the name came from, but everybody I knew called them that.

[will paisley]

Chicken Fried steak comes with cream gravy on the side.

Never saw chicken fried steak in Texas where it wasn't covered in so much cream gravy that I could see more than a square inch of uncovered breading (and never saw a chicken fried steak there that wasn't big enough to cover all but about a square inch of the plate it was on - most of them lapped over the side).  "On the side" never happened.

[LadyStitch]

It was Hard when I was in New Zealand.  I wanted a pair of flip flops/thongs to wear in the shower.  They thought I was nuts what I was asking for underwear for my feet.  Until I finally saw someone wearing a pair.  They called them "Jan-dels".  It means "Japanees Sandles".   

[will paisley]

It was Hard when I was in New Zealand.  I wanted a pair of flip flops/thongs to wear in the shower.  They thought I was nuts what I was asking for underwear for my feet.  Until I finally saw someone wearing a pair.  They called them "Jan-dels".  It means "Japanees Sandles".   

I'll bet trying to find a fanny pack was even more embarrassing 

[Molden]

Growing up in Texas:

If you wanted an ice cold soft drink..............you wanted a Coke.

When you got specific, you might want a Pepsi, a Dr Pepper, Orange Crush, Root Beer, etc.  But in general terms they were all a Coke.  And if someone asked for a "soda", well you just knew that they weren't from around here.

LOL! I remember going with my family to visit Michigan (from Austin, TX) when I was a kid. One time I asked for a coke, and before I could say what "kind" I wanted...they took off and came back with, you guessed it. A Coke!

[serenamoonsilver]

LOL! I remember going with my family to visit Michigan (from Austin, TX) when I was a kid. One time I asked for a coke, and before I could say what "kind" I wanted...they took off and came back with, you guessed it. A Coke!

In Michigan, you have to ask for a pop. 

[Mademoiselle D]

There's definitely the Wisconsin Bubbler instead of a drinking fountain/water fountain. 

Plus then there's the question, "Where's the Tyme machine?" when you're looking for the ATM.

[groomporter]

Yeah there's a small portion of Minnesota where bubbler is the term, but then we in Minn-a-sota also have "hot dish" for casserole and "bars" for a kind of a cookie baked altogether in a cake pan and cut into squares.

RF.com veterans will have seen the link in the past, but I have a collection of terms used by historical hobbyists of various kinds where I've tried to indicate the source and/or part of the country it comes from http://historicgames.com/glossary.html