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

[Valiss]

Sort of a reverse of the topic, but when I went to visit a friend in northern california, I noticed everyone there says "hella" all teh time. "That movie was hella awesome!" or "Those guys are hella stupid and should be avoided." It's like 'wicked' on the east coast.

[Rani Zemirah]

In the 80's out there everyone said things were "da kine", meaning "the kind", or they would just say it was TK... a total pot reference, but then in the 80's it seemed like everyone who lived at the beach was into the culture, and the phrase originated in Hawaii and migrated over with the surfers. 

Now the buzzword is... Awesome!  Back then "totally tubular" preceded Bill and Ted's "awesome, dude" by just a bit, but not much.  LOL

[will paisley]

Oh, that's some great info, Will!  Thanks, I think I'll print some of that and read it to my grandpa next Sunday!  He's the one who told me about the Depression stuff, and he lived through it, but I'm guessing there are lots of stories about why they're eaten, although I think most good-luck symbols have ancient roots... 

Yep, according to the article, Southerners are telling the story that black eyed peas was all the Union army left them (as they considered it animal fodder), but I suspect that tale evolved from a series of "We was so poor .." stories swapped back and forth.

[Anna Iram]

Well, I grew up eating grits for breakfast with salt and pepper and butter ...yum  ...then one day I met a man from up nawth (note pronunciation) and he actually put sugar on his grits!! Y'all are nuts up in Washington. Just because it's a hot cereal don't mean you have to go and ruin perfectly good grits that way!

[Rani Zemirah]

Oh, that's some great info, Will!  Thanks, I think I'll print some of that and read it to my grandpa next Sunday!  He's the one who told me about the Depression stuff, and he lived through it, but I'm guessing there are lots of stories about why they're eaten, although I think most good-luck symbols have ancient roots... 

Yep, according to the article, Southerners are telling the story that black eyed peas was all the Union army left them (as they considered it animal fodder), but I suspect that tale evolved from a series of "We was so poor .." stories swapped back and forth.

Well, I do know that they used to be called "cow peas" here, and that they were fed to the livestock, but that could be because they're so easy to grow, and you can get lots of beans from a small amount of vines, so who knows...

Anna, I like my grits with sugar, butter and milk... but as a kid we never had them.  Instead we had Cream of Wheat, and we always had that with sugar, butter and milk, as well... same as the rice "pudding" my grandma used to make for us. 

[Anna Iram]

Then I can add crazy Oklahomians to my grits rant too! 

[Rowan MacD]

Sort of a reverse of the topic, but when I went to visit a friend in northern california, I noticed everyone there says "hella" all teh time. "That movie was hella awesome!" or "Those guys are hella stupid and should be avoided." It's like 'wicked' on the east coast.

...I resemble that remark, 'cept we always said 'Bitchin'  (I'm dating myself again)
Urban Dictionary-
A word that means "awesome" "sweet" "badical"...etc.
It is used as an adjective.
"This pie is bitchin'" OR "That's a really bitchin' shade of blue on your sweater there, Sally."
other meainings: awesome, sweet, badical, radical, hella nice

hmmm, Badical?

[Amyj]

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.

O.M.G. that sounds SO GOOD!!!!  Drool, drool, drool!!!!

Here in St. Louis, we have some local foods that confuse people....mainly Toasted Ravioli.  It's ravioli, breaded and then deep fried (or baked).  Delicious and found in darn near every bar and semi-italian restaurant as an appetizer.  My Boyfriend's niece from Boston thought we were NUTS when we ordered it, but she liked it.  We also have Goey Butter Cake, which is a butter cake without baking (soda?) to make it fluffy...so it's goey and almost like it's not totally cooked...and it's topped with powdered sugar...sinfully delicious!!!

I'm curious on the sweet tea front....are the fast food (namely McDonalds) places in the north pushing sweet tea to the point that you have to argue to get PLAIN, UNSWEETENED ice tea???  Here in Missouri it's starting to tee me off (pun intended)! 

[Dustin]

Then I can add crazy Oklahomians to my grits rant too! 

What about this Alabama native who eats his butter and sugar with a little bit of grits?

[Dustin]

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.

O.M.G. that sounds SO GOOD!!!!  Drool, drool, drool!!!!

Here in St. Louis, we have some local foods that confuse people....mainly Toasted Ravioli.  It's ravioli, breaded and then deep fried (or baked).  Delicious and found in darn near every bar and semi-italian restaurant as an appetizer.  My Boyfriend's niece from Boston thought we were NUTS when we ordered it, but she liked it.  We also have Goey Butter Cake, which is a butter cake without baking (soda?) to make it fluffy...so it's goey and almost like it's not totally cooked...and it's topped with powdered sugar...sinfully delicious!!!

I'm curious on the sweet tea front....are the fast food (namely McDonalds) places in the north pushing sweet tea to the point that you have to argue to get PLAIN, UNSWEETENED ice tea???  Here in Missouri it's starting to tee me off (pun intended)! 

As an Alabama native living in Iowa, I 'm grateful that some fast food places now have real tea.

[gypsylakat]

Northern Virginia, but rural
We eat black eyed peas on new years along with cabbage and shrimp..

As for the steak thing, Pittsburg Rare is so rare you might as well not have cooked it, it's seared on both sides and put on a plate still kicking.

Wreck- I was talking to a friend of mine from new jersey explaining part of why the drinking age was 21 "the kids would go to dc and get hard liquor and get in a wreck" he thought this was another word for getting drunk, not a car accident.

[serenamoonsilver]

Just discovered one that I *think* might be regional, but I'm not sure.

Clinking silverware on glasses at a wedding reception until the bride and groom kiss.  Is this a mid-west/Michigan thing only, or have people from other parts of the country heard of this?

At every wedding in Michigan I've ever been to, this has been done, but my friend from the West Coast hadn't heard of it, and it didn't happen at the wedding somewhere down South my mom just went to, so now I'm trying to figure out if this is just a regional thing.

And here this was one of those things I thought was universal.  They even sell little bells here for people to use instead because some reception halls have bans on this due to their stemwear getting broke.

[Rani Zemirah]

Then I can add crazy Oklahomians to my grits rant too! 

Bwwwaaaaaahahahahahaha!!!  "Oklahomians"?!?  Ok, I'll give you the crazy part... and it's true, I did grow up here, and have also spent the last 9 years here, but I don't actually consider myself to be an OklahoMAN, and haven't since I left here the first time, when I was just 14... and I never even HAD grits until I was already fully grown, and they were served in the Denny's where I had them (in the south) with no seasoning at all, so I got to add whatever I wanted!    People looked at me like I was crazy, but they reminded me of Cream of Wheat, so that's the way I ate them!  I still like CoW better... 

[Molden]

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.

BBQ is beef brisket slow smoked in a pit. What is this other stuff you are refering to?

Zaubon

BBQ is a cooking method and has nothing to do with that type of meat you cook, specifically. It simply refers to a 'low and slow' style of cooking, as opposed to 'grilling' which is what most people are doing when they say they are BBQing.  

While this is true Valiss - in moving from Texas to North Carolina I already understood that BBQ is different things in different regions - pork out here with a vinegar based sauce - brisket in Texas, often heresy to add any sauce, tomato based if it is added.

But what I learned here  is - though smoked brisket may be on the menu, it ain't even close to what's served in Texas. I find it interesting that a pig will be cooked low and slow over many hours...but a brisket seems to get the "speedy" version here - making it only good for replacing the soles on your boots. We have some friends who hated brisket - until I smoked one for 18 hours in my cajun cooker...then it was another story entirely! lol!  

[Seamus Ex Machina]

I moved to NC in 1995, and lived in a verrrrry small town in the Piedmont.   BBQ does indeed mean drastically different things.  Since Florida doesn't really have it's own BBQ history like Texas, NC, Memphis or St Louis, we have a hybrid of all of them.  It mostly revolves around pork, with ribs dry smoked, and a sweet tomato based sauce on the side.   Brisket is done poorly, if at all. 

NC is a very different animal.  Pork butt is smoked till it falls apart, then shredded, and placed on a hamburger bun.  It is topped with cole slaw.  The slaw is mostly there for texture.  Then the sauce....it is very different than your typical BBQ sauce, rather thin and vinegar, rather than tomato based.  When it's done right, Carolina BBQ is unbelievably good.  Unfortunately, it  usually is not, and actually makes one long for franchise BBQ. 

Another curious thing about NC is their attitude about ribs.  With all that porky goodness going on, you would think they would learn to BBQ ribs.  Not a chance.   Gotta be different, I suppose.