What Southerners Eat vs. What We Think Southerners Eat: Breaking It Down, A Venn Diagram

nusan

peole in the south eat what people in the north eat basicly. usely we save all those traditinol foods you guys are talking about for special ocations and holidays, believe me. we are not a bunch of lard eating, yehaing rednecks iike some think we are... just because we talk different doesn't mean a thing. i hate that paula dean ya'll put on stuff. southerners are not poor nor are.we all overweight from eating to much fried food, peole who are overweight in the south are overweight for the same reasons as anybody else in america, TO MUCH FAST FOOD.

jerry

Please let me clear one thing up about southern cooking. Although its roots run deep with all the foods listed in this article and many more, not all us southerners cook this stuff every sjngle day of our lifes, We also eat things like salads ,freash fruits ,broled and grilled meat and we even use olive oil in some of our recipes. Sure we have our sweet tea ilove the stuff but hey we have the unsweet version too, Don't get me wrong, i love a southern meal and i am southern born and raised but i don't eat it every day ,i eat it sometimes whenever i get a craving for it.Southerners eating fried food and nothing but fried food is a crock of bull, if we did we would all be so fat we couldn't get out of our houses.

Mary Blumreich

Banana sandwiches, on white very fresh bread with minimal crust, slathered with real butter are still one of my favorites. The bananas have to be almost ripe, but not quite, (if a banana dares to show a brown spot in our house it is thrown out). I used to like sliced Vidalia onions on white bread with plenty of French's mustard, too. Come to think of it, I may have one of those in a few minutes. :)

richard swearinger

You forgot chocolate gravy, served over biscuits, for breakfast.

terjeanderson

Chocolate gravy?

I've lived and traveled in the south, and never heard of it... wonder what I'm missing. A southern form of mole?

The closest I can think of is red eye gravy, made with coffee. Is it similar?

terjeanderson

Where's the pimento cheese? Not on anyone's list, and it sure belongs in at least one segment of the Venn diagram.

Ron31

When I was in the Air Force the Southern guys would take a bag of Planters Peanuts from the vending machine,and pour them into a bottle of Coke and shake em up,I never tried thatt little trick as it didn't appeal to me.

Robby

How the hell did sweet tea get stuck over on the left? I've lived in Tennessee my entire life and sweet tea is EVERYWHERE.

Brittanie Shey

"We made sure not to include Texans in this poll; Texan cuisine is an entirely separate Venn Diagram."

Indeed.

cuntryboy

boiled peanuts and ice tea! not sweet tea fool!

Alex

You forgot the white cheese dip that you can only get at mexican restaurants in the south. Or maybe that's just my personal vice...

mark

I've lived in the south for 5 years (SC and then NC), and my girlfriend is from AR; I've visited her place several times.

Sweet tea is everywhere. EVERY restaurant serves it and many people drink it.

Mikey

Banana sandwiches are delicious. Goop on the mayo with pride.

Georgian

Florida was part of the confederacy.Y'all are dumbasses.

meenxeen

Yup, I think you hit that nail square on the head. Well done dude.

www.anon-tools.edu.tc

Southerner

Sweet tea. I agree with that one. It used to be you couldn't get sweet tea north of the mason dixon line or in Florida. Nowadays, I can order sweet tea in any state. Same with peaches, McDonalds, mac and cheese, seafood, fried chicken etc, even southern style bbq.

Things you used to see everywhere, but almost never find in the south: Mint Juleps, collard greens, red beans and rice, black eye peas, gravy, grits, okra, chitlins, cheese straws, chicken and dumplings, fried green tomatos, boiled peanuts, and cobblers. You've got to really look around to find these dishes. Sysco doesn't stock most of these items, so restaurants don't make them. We eat the same sorts of food you do.

um... mcdonald's isn't originally southern. it's originally from san bernadino, ca, and the corporation was started in illinois. so of course you can now find it "in any state".

ifellwithicarus

Southerner, I don't know where you've been looking lately in the South, but you'd only have to travel as far as my kitchen to get most of the foods yout say that you almost never find . Come for a visit, and I'll cook you up a mess of collard greens, add a side of my homemade chow chow, and for lunch, I'll bake you a blacberry cobbler. We'll hop in the pickup truck and ride down to the farmer's market to buy a brown-paper bag full of warm boiled peanuts.

Once home again, maybe you wouldn't mind going out to the garden and picking a green tomato for me. I'll fry it up in my great-grandmother's skillet , and serve it with some chicken and dumplings---ones I rolled out and cut on my little enamel kitchen table. If you'll stay one more day, I'll let the scent of bacon frying in the morning wake you up, and I'll fill your plate with some hot, buttery grits. Maybe you'd like a homemade, fluffy biscuit to eat with some strawberry jam I made in June? No problem. You're welcome. Come again. Bless your heart.

Atlyank37

Umm, no. Pretty much half of the foods you listed that you never find anymore, double as the side item list at any BBQ joint in Georgia. There is also a wave of "southern fine dining" restaurants in Atlanta that have different twists on traditional southern fare. Also, with the exception of winter months, any trip on a major highway will have signs for people selling boiled peanuts every few miles once you get out of the city.

Mabllard

I agree that we eat a lot of the same foods at most restaraunts or at home. Most of these dishes are hard(er) to find than one might think. In Tennessee we have plenty of down home, little family run kitchens where you can find these items, but you have to look to find them. We also have Cracker Barrel, which serves all of these items, except for mint juleps, boiled peanuts, fried green tomatoes, and cheese straws. I am a little disappointed that pinto beans and meatloaf didn't make the list.

Katharine Shilcutt

As the originator of the Texan concepts Venn diagrams and a lifelong Southerner, I have only one question: Shoney's, y'all? Really? (Okay, that's two.)

Brilliant job!

uyny

tinyurl.com/2c7p8hm

Nate

Many interesting points of view.

Here is another you may or may not be interested in:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/a...

http://www.aculinaryphotojourn...

Nate

Interesting points of view.

Here's another you may or may not find interesting:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/a...http://www.aculinaryphotojourn...

uyny

tinyurl.com/2c7p8hm

Jonathan Moore

+1 for misspelling sweet

Jonathan Moore

Sweet tea didnt come to the south because of McDonalds. Sweet tea has been around (my grandmothers mother) forever. And it is only in certain parts of the south. Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, its big. It is practically non-existant in parts of Georgia. And McDonalds sweat tea is horrible, btw.

Peacan pies and Fried potatoes are my all time favorite.

dr. angelface

McDonalds' *everything* is awful, but their attempt at tea is nothing short of a grotesque mockery.

sweet tea has been the house wine of the south since the 1700s. it was originally made with green tea; but it's been "officially" made with black tea for many many years now.

+1 for misspelling "existent," and +1 for actually managing to misspell "pecan," which is actually sort of a feat in itself. what, did you go to public school in tennessee?

Sweetteakicksass

Jonathan... I can't believe you actually said sweet tea is "practically non-existent in parts of Georgia." Man, Georgia lakes & rivers are MADE of sweet tea- the creeks are just unsweet, btw. Yep, you obviously haven't visited Georgia in the last...150 years :-)

uyny

tinyurl.com/2c7p8hm

S. Britchky

Sweet tea is so popular back home, you're almost always asked when you order tea whether you want it "sweet" or "unsweet." Speaking of sugar, where's the Dr. Pepper and Coca-Cola? I hope readers understand that in a Venn diagram of ham, regular (sweet) ham and country ham would intersect only on the pig. Country ham (always sliced thin) is a little tough and bitter, extremely salty, and fabulously delicious, and that's just the ordinary, corner-cafe variety. The great hams of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Carolina (e.g.) are a gift from God, especially served with red-eye (a thin gravy made by boiling down a little black coffee with the fat left in the ham skillet). Hey, where’s the red-eye?? And move those peaches over to the Southern side!

Ellie K

Regarding sweet tea: That is the default in the South. It took nearly five years for me to realize that I was just confusing waitstaff by asking for unsweetened ice tea anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Dr. Pepper is another oversight.

Sweet ham is an abomination. Country ham is the only true ham. Now I am hungry.

But thanks for the effort, L.A. Weekly. Perhaps we can look forward to Part II?

Paula Dean

A better chart would be "What Southerners eat" vs. "What Southerners *think* they eat." Sweet tea is consumed in large quantities, but not quite as plentiful as it once was. You left out some staples: Little Debbie Snack Cakes, Moon Pies, Krystal Hamburgers, RC Cola, Golden Flake snacks, fried pork skins, squash casserole, grits ya-ya (this is a specific main course dish, separate from "grits" or "cheese grits"), potato salad, cole slaw, broccoli casserole, venison, buttermilk chess, muffuletta...

dr. angelface

or maybe you could call your list "what *I* think Southerners think they eat," since the rest of us are pretty well aware of what we eat; everything you listed is either nationwide, confined to an extremely small region, or completely outdated.

Grits ya-ya, please. some insipid florida chef put some extra tidbits in his cheese grits, like EVERYONE DOES, and decided to give it a name and pretend it's a traditional dish? well, yeah, it is. it's called "cheese grits with extras," and it's a side dish just like grits with redeye gravy. muffulettas are a southern louisiana food, and even my daddy hasn't eaten a moon pie in years. stop pretending you're some kind of expert.

and the actual Paula Deen can kiss my grits. southern women are not hokey-ass fake-drawling caricatures of walking-talking-estrogen sponges, and her recipes are crap.

Woooooo56

dr. angelface FTW!!!

Word of Souf

WIN

Harry Niletti

"WIN"

That's right -- we need Winn-Dixie stores out here so we can buy soft White Lily flour and make real biscuits, not the hockey pucks available all over Los Angalus. Even Tupelo honey don't help the hockey puck.