![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Regionalism isn't what it once was. I'd never heard of Rolling Rock Beer till I lived in Ohio. It was a local brand from Pennsylvania in those days. But now I could get it at my local drug store here, 2000 miles from PA, if I wanted it.
Where I grew up in St. Louis, there were a variety of names we heard for flavored carbonated water; soda, pop, soda pop, Coke. We knew people from different places said different things to mean the same thing. But we understood them all. On my first family trip to California we found out not everybody understood. We stopped at cafe in Barstow in the desert, which was then a much smaller and nicer place, than it is now. It was blazing hot, of course. But we had our first air-conditioned car. Somewhat in honor of my parents' first trip across the desert during the war, when no one had AC, we stopped for cool drinks. My father asked what kind of soda they had. The waitress curtly replied, "We didn't have any sodas." 'What do you have to drink,' asked father somewhat chastened. "Coke, Pepsi, 7-up, Root Beer..." dutifully replied the waitress. My whole family was too stunned to laugh at the waitress who didn't know the difference between an ice cream soda and a plain soda. So we all warily ordered our favorite, hoping that the waitress wasn't insane, and would suddenly snap there wasn't any Pepsi after all. When she went to get our drinks there was a lively discussion among the family on how to communicate with these strange natives we'd found in the Far West. (When I was driving to Tahoe last year, I found the same building in Barstow where that cafe was in 1960. It was no longer a restaurant, and of course the main highway has by-passed the whole area of town.)
A lot of the regional terminology has faded away just as many regional brands have grown or faded away. But not all. Here in Phoenix they call barbecued pork ribs, "St. Louis Style ribs." Anyone from St. Louis knows that you can get good ribs there. But St Louis isn't famous for pork ribs. Chicago or Kansas City may be known for their ribs, but not St. Louis. Barbecued chicken or pork steaks, sure, but not ribs. So the first reaction of St. Louis natives to St. Louis Style ribs is "What the heck is that?" There are also Country Style ribs here, which aren't ribs at all, but poorer cuts of pork roast cut into individual rib-sized chunks.
In the parts of Ohio I knew, every knows what Cincinnati Chilli is. Basically it's chilli served with spaghetti and a wide variety of toppings. When I tried to describe it, people in St. Louis immediately would exclaim, "Oh, it's chilli-mac!" "Um, well. Not exactly." Chilli-mac is a fairly set, unimaginative dish, where as Cincinnati Chilli is a whole class of imaginative dishes. No one understood.
In St. Louis every Chinese restaurant had Crab Rangoon, a generously sized fried won ton with a mild cheesy filling instead of meat. Here, nobody ever heard of them. A few Chinese places in Phoenix have 'crab puffs,' but they are a pale imitation. Have you ever heard of Crab Rangoon?
Do you have any regional food terms that others have trouble with or that make you laugh?
Where I grew up in St. Louis, there were a variety of names we heard for flavored carbonated water; soda, pop, soda pop, Coke. We knew people from different places said different things to mean the same thing. But we understood them all. On my first family trip to California we found out not everybody understood. We stopped at cafe in Barstow in the desert, which was then a much smaller and nicer place, than it is now. It was blazing hot, of course. But we had our first air-conditioned car. Somewhat in honor of my parents' first trip across the desert during the war, when no one had AC, we stopped for cool drinks. My father asked what kind of soda they had. The waitress curtly replied, "We didn't have any sodas." 'What do you have to drink,' asked father somewhat chastened. "Coke, Pepsi, 7-up, Root Beer..." dutifully replied the waitress. My whole family was too stunned to laugh at the waitress who didn't know the difference between an ice cream soda and a plain soda. So we all warily ordered our favorite, hoping that the waitress wasn't insane, and would suddenly snap there wasn't any Pepsi after all. When she went to get our drinks there was a lively discussion among the family on how to communicate with these strange natives we'd found in the Far West. (When I was driving to Tahoe last year, I found the same building in Barstow where that cafe was in 1960. It was no longer a restaurant, and of course the main highway has by-passed the whole area of town.)
A lot of the regional terminology has faded away just as many regional brands have grown or faded away. But not all. Here in Phoenix they call barbecued pork ribs, "St. Louis Style ribs." Anyone from St. Louis knows that you can get good ribs there. But St Louis isn't famous for pork ribs. Chicago or Kansas City may be known for their ribs, but not St. Louis. Barbecued chicken or pork steaks, sure, but not ribs. So the first reaction of St. Louis natives to St. Louis Style ribs is "What the heck is that?" There are also Country Style ribs here, which aren't ribs at all, but poorer cuts of pork roast cut into individual rib-sized chunks.
In the parts of Ohio I knew, every knows what Cincinnati Chilli is. Basically it's chilli served with spaghetti and a wide variety of toppings. When I tried to describe it, people in St. Louis immediately would exclaim, "Oh, it's chilli-mac!" "Um, well. Not exactly." Chilli-mac is a fairly set, unimaginative dish, where as Cincinnati Chilli is a whole class of imaginative dishes. No one understood.
In St. Louis every Chinese restaurant had Crab Rangoon, a generously sized fried won ton with a mild cheesy filling instead of meat. Here, nobody ever heard of them. A few Chinese places in Phoenix have 'crab puffs,' but they are a pale imitation. Have you ever heard of Crab Rangoon?
Do you have any regional food terms that others have trouble with or that make you laugh?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
But - people are still tribal in nature. We flock to those who have similar backgrounds, ethnicity, etc to us and we tend to talk like them. It's why when you visit NYC - you will find people who lived their entire lives in NYC - yet speak with a thick Chinese, Russian, German, or Irish accent. Why? They've never left the group of people who speak that way and speak in Chinese or Russian at home, with their friends, and everywhere they can. So culture doesn't get as homogenized as one may think. Certain aspects of it do - sure. But people are stubborn and like what is familar.
I often think of it as two cultural layers - pop culture on the top - or what we see in the media, then the ethinic/regional culture underneath.
What we show the world and what we keep to ourselves.
Regarding Crab Ragoon - I've found it here and in KC.
Rolling Rock? Was very popular in Colorado - the cheap beer alternative to Coors, which everyone hated on principal. Rolling Rock was considered hip and foreign. A great underground alternative. Harder to find. Less available. They basically taste the same - but we hated Coors because well we lived in Colorado and Coors was located there and a huge nasty corporation. It was political.
Memphis Barbecue vs. Kansas City - I've heard of it as the contest of dry barbecue vs. wet. Prefer wet myself. Dry is a completely different process also I've been told a little sweeter - I think they use brown sugar.
Course I lived in KC for 17 years, so I'm slightly biased. Once you've had Arthur Bryant's - you tend to be picky about BBQ.
Like it or not - people are tribal, I think. We defend our tribe, homeland, how we were brought up - no matter up.
From:
no subject
St. Louis likes to lord over Kansas City about most things. But St. Louisans know the BBQ is better in KC!
From:
no subject
Wasn't fond of either to be honest. Both were very watery.
Now can't drink either - so doesn't matter. LOL!
What I can drink? New Grist - made from brown rice and sorghum is actually much better. Reminds me a lot of Corona and Sam Adams Summer Brew - the one's that were hot in the 90's.
KC has and always will be a cattle town. Hub of the West or so they say.
And it does have the best steaks and BBQ's. St. Louis can't compare. Hee.
But I don't think it tries in that regard - the South does - Memphis/Tennesee, Mississippi and Louisana like to think they have better BBQ - always seen it as more a war between Southern and Northern tastes or the whole dry vs. wet debate.
(Yes, I used to watch the Food Channel and clocked far too many hours of it for my own good - that's how I know this stuff. Whether it is true or not? Shrug.)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject