[Tokra]

While living in the South back in the 80s, I remember ordering iced tea for the first time. It wasn't what I'd call tea at all. It was simply a heavy sugar syrup with a brown crayon dipped in it for a few seconds. Yuck!!!!!!

I was also fascinated with "Chicken Fried Steak". I didn't know for the longest time exactly what it was - chicken or steak? I made the mistake of ordering it once to find out.

They take a perfectly good steak, dip it in batter and then fry it to death. What a waste of steak!

Nor did I know what grits were - I think I expected something like hush puppies, I don't really know what I expected - but the first time a bowl was set in front of me, I looked at the waitress and said, "This is nothing but cream of wheat!" (at least that's what it looked like). I was kind of disappointed - I guess I expected something more exotic than a bowl of mush.

Don't get me going on Turkey stuffing/dressing. The stuff I was served in the South was more like cornbread soup than the bread stuffing I grew up with in the North. I found out later its called stuffing in the North and dressing in the South.

What I missed most living in the South were simple rolls. Rolls in the North and biscuits in the South. I learned later that the reason was that yeast-raised bread was harder to do in the South because of the heat so they tend to more "quick-bread" biscuits.

While I am an "adventurous" eater - I'll try almost anything at least once, I did find myself missing real bread rolls, real bread stuffing, real iced tea and mostly (because I am from Detroit) Vernors and Faygo pop. Incidentally this is Faygo's 100th birthday. Faygo was the company that first started calling "pop" pop. The name comes from the sound when the top was popped off.

Soda can be confused with plain carbonated water - as in Whisley and Soda, or with baking soda. But pop is pop.

I'm back living in the North, although my family lives in the South. Whenever I'm down for a visit and they ask me if I want a soda, I have 2 answers:

"Yes, but could I have some flavor and sweetener with it." or

(my favorite)"No thanks, I don't plan on baking a cake today."

[stainlessbanner]

This is how I always thought of it

Co-Cola = Georgia
Coke = South
Cold drinks = South (not sure)
Soda = North
Pop = North, Midwest
Dr. Pepper = Texas....Dublin

Here's the map

You gotta try some Southern homemade cathead biscuits.

[McLynnan]

They take a perfectly good steak, dip it in batter and then fry it to death. What a waste of steak!

Heresy! Chicken fried steak is food of the gods. You must have had a bad one.

[Wallace T.]

The cuts of steak used for chicken fried steak are usually the less expensive, less desirable ones, such as chuck steak, round steak, and occasionally flank steak, cuts of meat usually relegated to hamburger or stew meat. The better cuts are seldom used for this dish. It probably originated in Texas, where German immigrants applied their weiner schnitzel recipes to the tougher cuts of steak. It spread from Texas into the South and Midwest, and is sometimes called country fried steak in those regions.

[beckysueb]

I'm back living in the North, although my family lives in the South. Whenever I'm down for a visit and they ask me if I want a soda

I am a southerner and its always been called a cold drink. I have only heard northerners call it a soda. Its always a cold drink or a coke. No matter what brand, its always called a coke.

[zeugma]

I'm back living in the North,

Gee, I don't know how we'll survive without you. 

[varina davis]

Well, those Interstates run both directions. There is NO cookin’ better than Southern cookin’.