Minor cultural differences.
Since I moved to this part of the country over 25 years ago I came to fully appreciate the differences in the way Americans speak, eat and live their day to day lives. Someone who abrubtly changes their locale will often find themselves facing strange looks in grocery stores and restaurants due to language and custom barriers.
Here's a few that I've noticed in South Texas.
Around here people ask for a soda. This pretty much means any carbonated beverage in a can or plastic bottle. If you ask for a "pop" people will give you a blank stare or if you ask for a "Coke" they will ask you if Pepsi is ok.
Around here it's common for someone at work to run and get breakfast tacos for everyone.
This is not a taco with ground beef, lettuce and a crispy shell. This is a small flour torilla filled with any combination of eggs, sausage, cheese, potatoes, barbacoa, carne guisada,beans etc wrapped in aluminum foil. Usually served with a little cup of homemade salsa, there is usually some mom and pop place on every corner that makes breakfast tacos to go.
Iced tea is big here, breakfast lunch and dinner. Most places serve it unsweetened except for barbecue places.
Speaking of barbecue, Brisket is big along with pork ribs and sausage. Sauce is usually served on the side. From what I understand every area does theirs a certain way. Pork isn't big at all here and most people don't know how to cook it.
Silly things, like at the grocery store. We call it a cart, I've heard others call it a "pusher" "buggy" or a "basket" Get it right or get laughed at.
I think each part of the country calls their meals something different as well.
5am to 10am is Breakfast, 11am to 3pm is lunch and 4pm to 6pm is supper or if you do 6pm to 9pm it's called dinner. It's all very confusing and the rules are not set in stone.
People are dead serious about their chili around these parts. Beef, a few chopped onions and spices nothing else. Where I was born, all chili had beans in it. If a bean touches chili here there's gonna be trouble. The Mexicans call their home made hot sauce "chile" prounounced almost the same. So if you order Chili at a mexican reastaurant you will get a bowl of spicy salsa put in front of you.
Most times, if you order a beer you shouldn't be surprised if there is salt on the rim and a lime on the side. We drink tequlia straight and one is put in front of you. Better not say no.
There is a thing called a "Texas Courtesy" If a slow farm truck or other vehicle is on a two lane road they often pull to the shoulder to let other cars pass. I've not seen this phenomenon in any other state.
I can only speak to the customs I've experienced here and the midwest. What others have you seen?
posted by Bill Rowland @ January 15, 2008
59 Comments
59 Comments:
Hammer,
The Texas Courtesy thing is great. I've experienced that recently. It wouldn't work on most roads at home, because the shoulder just has gravel, and is not wide enough. So people just ride your ass instead.
Back home on the farm, the meals are Breakfast, Dinner (at noon), and Supper. This has lead to many misunderstanding when the hired help is being asked to make dinner, they assume you mean the evening meal. I think the origin stems from Dinner being your biggest meal, and farmers ate their biggest meals at noon.
South Texas has the soda thing exactly right. In Jersey, the thing you push around in the supermarket is called a "shopping cart." A "pusher" is a guy who sells Schedule 2 or Schedule 1 drugs. A "buggy," while occasionally referring to a baby carriage, the is more often used as an adjective referring to something or someone who is infested with insects.
The breakfast tacos sound great. Good Mexican food in Jersey is about as rare as good Italian food in Texas. And, my first experience with Texas barbecue was damned near a religious one. Can't get that here either.
Then again, you can't get a Taylor Ham, cheese and egg on a hard roll for breakfast in Texas, at least not to my knowledge.
I've lived OH, FL, TX, WI,& MA. I have never found any Mexican food that could hold a candle to what is served in TX! Hot Tamales!!!! What I missed the most while living in TX was not being able to have fresh "steamers" (clams). FL had wonderful things called "hush puppies" (cornmeal and onion fried dough). My first experience with "Sun Tea" was in FL also. Oh bother, now I've got the cravings... cheese grits, biscuits and gravy and a big ole pitcher of Iced Tea!!
Most of the folks in the Carolinas (where I was at anyway) called shopping carts buggies. I have no idea what they're called here in Okinawa.
One custom here is to stop your car before answering your cell phone...right in the middle of the damned road. I guess the locals think that's safer than driving and talking on it.
The Texas Courtesy also exists in Indiana, or at least southern Indiana, due to the fact that most farm equipment is much too big for the antiquated county roads and has to travel on state highways for as long as possible.
That is great Hammer. I love the little differences from place to place. It's funny that we are actually running a poll about the different things that people call soda. Breakfast tacos are great (but hardly available here in NC) and the Texas courtesy should be nationwide!
I grew up in So. Cal but have lived all over the states and my least favorite regional word in the world is "pop". POP! Ugh! It's soda, people.
Hey Hammer,
I am happy to report that the Texas Courtesy does exist here in Ohio! School buses do it too. Also, it is pop here for us...you can always tell when someone isn't from Ohio when they start talking about soda! Oh yeah, and I MUST have beans in my chili! Guess I wouldn't survive in Texas, eh?
I's like to add that the Texas Courtesy also exhists here in the farm country of NW Illinois!
Having spent some time in Tesas (San Antonio) the one thing that I found quite disturbing is that most people STOP when "merging" on to the freeway. Seems the red yield signs are often confused with the red stop signs.
If a Texan ever ate Cincinnati Style Chili, shots would be fired. Most folks other than those around southwest Ohio hate it. Cheers!!
My girl and I are still having the coke v. pop debate.
It's coke to me...THEN I'll tell you what kind of coke I want.
She's a pop girl. Yankee.
Mostly the same in Upstate NY except the Mexican food is replaced with Italian. Breakfast pizza is the oddball item here to me. Eggs on a pizza is repulsive in my opinion. Farm country and slow tractors; same. Soda or coke, no pop; same. Beans in spaghetti sauce; same
yep. the little differences always amaze ,e. Here in Jersey its SODA not POP & SNEAKERS never 'tennis shoes'...
In this state there is the great debate as to weather a sandwich from a deli is considered a SUB or a HOAGIE...
Well, you've covered it pretty well. One thing, it's pronounced "sody". for whatever reason, when I was growing up, we called all soda pop "Coke". You'd say "I'd like a Coke", and they'd say what kind? Laundramats were called "Washaterias", and my mom's chilly always had beans in it, and peppers. I think the rules on that are bullshit. The chilly they make at chilly cook-offs is horrible! You couldn't seell it in a resaurant. And along with the farmers pullin' over on the sholder, there's the wave as you pass folks. Still happens in small towns, but not like it used to.
If you put beans in chili it becomes meat stew. Not a bad thing, but not chili.
My Grandparents are from Illinois, and they call the couch a davenport. Of course, they ran the sweeper instead of vacuming also.
Where I was raised in N. Texas and Oklahoma the noon meal was called dinner and the night meal supper.
And I do like the way Texans will pull to the shoulder of the road to let faster traffic pass...but that is illegal in a lot of states.
Most exas highways are built with wide shoulders that permit this courtesy..hell try in Florida and you'll wind up in the swamp
Interesting. Why are people so touchy about what things are called? "Soda", "pop", what's the big deal. I think some people like feeling superior when they tell you that you're calling something by its "wrong" name.
arkansas weighing in:
one of the funniest things i've heard in the last 7.5 years, "i up and raised my window down."
wuh?
sometimes "slaw" just means fried cabbage.
they say "you'uns" instead of "y'all"
i still don't know the difference between a "draw" and a "holler" - apparently they're just a valley of some sort.
if you help someone by the side of the road, they'll almost always turn up at your place with a 60 pound watermelon or a side of pork in thanks.
everybody waves and if you don't their feelings get hurt, but no guns involved. they save those for something called "vigilante justice".
i love the south.
oh yeah, and until some teacher shot a raccoon with a nail gun at school, peta had never heard of arkansas.
I'm not far from you. (TX Hill Country) But somethings are different. We call it a cart. I noticed folks from Louisiana call it a "buggy" but then again, they are from Louisiana.
Around here, it's breakfast, dinner & supper. There is no "lunch". Dinner occurs at lunch time.
When my mom moved to Ohio, I had to ship her cans of Rotel and cans of green chilis.
My last visit to Ohio, my cousins raved about this apple orchard place, Maple Valley Farms or something like that. They took us to dinner at this large log cabin place and the food was bland, plain and AAACKK!!! The best part of the meal was the after dinner coffee.
I was so glad to get home and get some spice back in my life!
There's also the "Howdy" wave: if the pickup or combine or tractor is approaching you on the Farm to Market Road (East Texas) or Ranch Road (West Texas), the driver will actually look at you and then lift up the fingers of the hand on top of the steering wheel as a means of saying "Howdy".
I miss Mexican green chile. Nobody knows how to make it here in the Pacific Northwest. I love breakfast tacos too.
Mmm...gonna have to get cooking now!
Hammer, as you know that I too live in South Texas, the one thing I have learned is to smile at everyone. Why? You are allowed to carry a concealed weapon here in Texas....so, smile...just smile.
Flyinfox_SATX
I've seen the texas courtesy thing everywhere..even in california..
but not in the bigger cities..so maybe it's just a small town thing.
i can never get used to calling dinner 'supper"
supper sounds so hick ..dinner at least pretends to be classy.
Now you've got me craving tex-mex.
~Oswegan
I remember being a kid and my dad doing that. I mean pulling over to let the people that want to pass you, pass you.. Big city here so I dont know if this goes by. Then again we have loads of Mexican stuff here and other ethnic back grounds its hard to say.
spicy foods and no beans in your chili?? nooooooooo I am not born to be a texan..lmao
Maybe I am a little too diverse?? We call it soda-pop!! Of course I don't drink the stuff... unless it is accompanying my whiskey!
As far as the list of meals... come on kids... We call it GRUB! Or if asking my kids what they want...FUDD.
Don't get me started on tea..Oldest daughter lives in NC and I about gagged on the sweet tea lol.. Was a culture shock.
Breakfast burritos RAWK!
For us here it is breakfast, lunch dinner, supper is for the middle of the night, so almost never!
Here also in France, it is a small country but we have big difference in names, recipes, cooking ingredients, it's fun and delicious.
I want to eat that on the photo it looks really good.(we don't have Texmex food in Europe)
tractors rarely pull over here. They will if it is an old man that knows the old school rules but everyone else would rather stop traffic
effers
Here is CA its tofu and chai tea. But I much rather eat like a Texan! I love breakfast burritos, never had a breakfast taco.
I love Texans. They are the friendliest of any folks I have ever met from all 50 States.
Meals are Breakfast, Lunch and most often dinner, but supper will work. Cincinnati chili is closer to spaghetti than real chili, to the point of being served with noodles. Chili should have beans, meat, tomatoes, peppers and onions. The thing at the grocery is a cart, although the stores often call it a Bas-Cart or some silly thing. Carbonated drink is pop, but the grocery probably calls it the Soda Aisle.
I remember in Louisiana ordering a sub sandwich. I don't remember what they called the sandwich, but the girl making it asked "You want that dressed?" I had to ask, that means do you want condiments on it.
i love a local flavor post, i truly do.
something about the friendly state too. texans talk to everyone they pass, if not at least eye contact and a smile, it's also called courtesy in these parts. i remember yelling out to a neighbor up in illinois, "hey"(the three syllable variety, i was fresh.) i got a "HEY WHAT?" in response. shocked me at the time and ruined the congruence of northern hospitality (for me) forever.
and beans in chili makes you look like a yankee. that's what my uncles taught me.
I think ya got it covered once again Hammer.
As far as I know, we don't get breakfast tacos anywhere but at home.
We say "pop" not soda
All farmers here pull off on the shoulder if they can to let traffic by. So will truckers if they are pulling a slow load.
Ice tea comes in a can and is way too sweet. My mom and I make it but I don't know anyone else who does. My first job we made it ourselves and served it unsweetened (but that was before cans)
We have grocery carts
Breakfast, brunch, lunch,dinner/supper (except for our Irish friends where our dinner is their "tea" and supper is a light meal just before bed.
Chili here has beans, my mother makes what she calls chili sauce but it has no chilis at all - it has peaches and is really more like a chutney.
We don't have real "barbecue" I think except what we put on the barby. "They" serve pork ribs with barbecue sauce. Rarely would you find beef ribs.
Beer is just beer - unless you ask for draught, it is served in a bottle, no glass. I think Corona might come with a lime twist.
Nowadays, just about everything is served as shots. I am one of the few who really enjoys tequila but the kids drink it to get super hammered.
Good post. I have to report the "soda" phenomenon here in AZ. I called it "pop" where I came from.
It took several years for me to call it "soda."
Sounds kind of gay.
I love Texas chili: no beans, no problems.
I love southerners!
I love how men in Texas call women "darlin'".
In MN, we have pop, shopping carts, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our chili is fairly mild with tomatoes and beans. We also serve a nasty, tasteless, gelled fish called lutefisk.
Do your kids say "meemaw and papaw" or Grandma and Grandpa?
Hammer,
It's odd. Out in California, I can't think of any... Other than tha botox is sometimes confused with God :)
Damn! Texas sounds tasty.
I share your observations about the Midwest. When I lived in Wisconsin I loved the Friday Fish Fries. But in seven years there I never grew accustomed to people asking where the "bubbler" was, as opposed to the water fountain.
Haven't really picked up on any oddities in Miami, other than the generalization that every batshit crazy person east of Las Vegas lives or has lived here.
Great post... I have been posting same subjects. Hymn....
I lived in Texas for several years. Everything you say is so true.
See ya'll later! ;-)
The main thing I had to learn coming from Michigan to California was to keep from saying my short 'o' sounds so nasally. After 14 years here, Michigan people sound like whiny retards to me.
A dying art we have in our little corner of the world is the tradition of BBQ lamb being sold out of every tavern in town, on late Saturday morning for lunch. Now, there are only 100 or so places that do that anymore.
A hunk of lamb, cubes of feta cheese, green onions, a slice of bread with butter, and a couple of brown olives. There is no BBQ sauce - the lamb is marinated in its own juices, with garlic and other spices, as it's turned slowly on the spit.
It has to do with the large Balkan ethnic population - Serbs, Cro's, Greeks, Macedonians.
jerry: I remember people having their biggest meal at noon. I think that my be why we have so many weight issues these days.
jim: we have a couple of itlaian restaurants headed by real italians. Damn good stuff..
alison: thanks for visiting: I love hushpuppies. With cocktail sauce especially :)
john: stopping in the road? that's a capital offense!
brandon: I rode behind a hay truck for 60 miles once at 15mph and I hoped that other people would get the message. It sounds like they did :)
tweety: I'm glad that it's just not here
canadian: I like beans in the chili, just don't tell anyone :)
cheesy: grub: that works!
kitem: I love french food and I'm glad we get a little of it here.
doc: it's the little things that make all the difference.:)
em: I grew up saying pop and it sounds so weird now
kuckie: you'd survive here eventually we all do :)
dana: I hate how they stop like that. it drives me nuts!
matt: I think you're right!
RLL: It's hard to break them huh?
jp: I never had breakfast pizza but I'm sick enough to try it :)
meleah: the sandwich thing is a huge deal everywhere..grinder?
fhb: how do they win any awards for their chili?
10% Yep my family in KC calls it a sweeper too :)
guy: when I went through FL I saw your point.
janet: I suffered as a transplanted yankee. I called everything wrong
nanc: friendlieness is the best part about this area.
marianne: I had the bland food thing happen to me too it wa awful!
jami: we never dare not wave back :)
schmoopie: green chile is awesome!
flyinfox: it's the ones without the permit that we should be worried about ;)
cynnie: I know dinner has to at least include a fork and knife :)
oswegan: its an addiction :)
snowmanpoop: I wish more knew it.
barbara: taco is just smaller with more choices
sevesteen: dressed? that would throw me too!
supergurl: the niceness is a welcome change from everywhere else.
h20: thanks:)
jeannie: thanks for the rundown: that canned tea is really nasty
lbb: I felt gay when I said pop for the first time here ;)
tshsmom: we have lots of immigrants who say meemaw and paw paw
annie: lol!
james: bubbler! haven't heard that in forever!
jahoonie: ya'll is the perfect word
diesel: I wasn't going to say it ;)
mts: That sounds tasty. we have a few places like that around here.
They do breakfast burrito's here, same concept just burrito's not taco's.
It's breakfast, lunch and dinner, here. People back east that move here, get confused cuz they call lunch dinner, and dinner supper.
We say Coke meaning any carbonated beverage. We have started saying soda, but most old timers just say coke.
If you wear your jeans on the inside of your cowboy boots your a green horn, and not worth anyone's time. To many real ranchers here, and that pisses them off. You can spot greenhorns a mile away.
The tractors and such go slow here and usually try to pull over. You have a few 'young" asses that won't.
You dam well better hold doors open for women, young children and elderly here, or get your ass kicked. lol
And to think that all this time I've been calling my 6PM-plus meal supper when it is actually dinner. Thank God we let crap like that slide up north.
Well, I can tell you the farmer courtesy is live and well in my neck of the Oregon woods and through out the state as I have experienced.
The people in Oregon are of some of the friendliest I know.
and we have Breakfast, or brunch(Late Breakfast, Early Lunch usually on sundays and holidays), Lunch, Dinner.
We say 'soda' here and use 'carts' at the grocery store. There is no real road courtesy in NJ, altho I haven't driven in the farm areas much. Traffic is insane, but it's much worse in NY. Maybe one or two semi-authentic mexican places to be found it you really try. Dinner for us is anytime from 4-8. Supper was just something an occasional relative might say.
Never had a breakfast taco.
And as 'meleah' said, we've got the sub/hoagie debate. My father called them subs but I usually say hoagie.
I SO MUCH miss that Southern Ice Tea!!!!
you'll enjoy this study
it's about exactly what youre talking about with how things are called something else in different regions. after growing up in fla, i HATE that people call it "pop" up here. makes me want to pop them in the face. well not THAT harsh, but it's annoying.
There is no hospitality in Philly, only hostility (Hey, they don't call it "Killadelphia for nothing!).
I don't live in Philly, but I'm very, very close.
We drink soda, push a cart, have a terrible habit of saying "Yo", and love our cheese steaks.
If you stop at a nice little diner, order some scrapple, eggs and homefries for breakfast, or get a pork roll sandwich. No grits or hush puppies up here.
After breakfast we have lunch and then it's time for dinner. My mom, who is from the south, calls it supper, but because I grew up in New Jersey, dinner was what I had at 5:30 pm every night.
As far as driving habits go, everyone's in a hurry. Always. You can always count on someone riding your ass or laying on the horn because you're not going fast enough or because you actually stopped at a stop sign. *sigh*
I really hate it here.
Oh, forgot to mention - we don't eat Little Debbie snacks up here. Tastykakes are the only way to go! If you've never had a Butterscotch Krimpet, you really should try one. They're absolutely yummy!
I've really lived three places: Youngstown, OH (0-22 years), Madison, WI (22-29), and now Eastern Long Island (29-36). It's an interesting mix.
I thought Eastern LI was a big parking lot for Jersey. We have wineries, cornfields and fruit orchards. Who'da thunkit?
In Wisconsin: Pace sold an extra-mild salsa. Word is it was only sold in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but I can't vouch for the accuracy of that. But it was real, it did exist, I saw it.
Tractors pulling over was normal (depending) in all 3 spots. In Ohio and Wisconsin it depended on the road; in Ohio there were more 4 lane roads with tractors. In WI there were less 4 lane roads, and more tractors. On Long Island, out within 30 miles of the fork (where the eastern end splits) there are a suprising number of tractors, and suprisingly few 4 lane roads. Less tractors than NE Ohio, but still... Not what I expected.
Most folks drink soda, what flavor? In Milwaukee (the il is properly pronounced with an apostrophe) a drinking fountain is a bubbler. But what do you expect from a town you can navigate by smell? (Bread, beer and chocolate... Milwaukee, a town where you can't drink the water, but you can eat the people!)
About a half hour north of Madison, in a line running SW to NE, the accent changes. South of the line, it's Midwestern. North of the line, well, rent Fargo. It's a pretty sharp deliniation. I have no idea what happens north of the line, but I suspect less salsa and more lutefisk. Be afraid, be very afraid.
When I was an avid bicyclist here in Ohio, I used to like to draft tractors. They would cruise about 25mph--If I could get positioned right I could ride along with almost no effort, but couldn't pass even with an all-out effort.
Sometimes we see Amish families in either their horse and buggy or a farm tractor, with a young teen Amish boy or two drafting on road bicycles.
Hey Katey, I lived in Philadelphia for sixteen years before moving here to Kentucky, and I loved it! I actually miss Philly. I thought that drivers would be in less of a hurry here, but they are just as aggressive as in Philly! Just come here and try driving on I-75.
Hammer - living in AZ is a LOT like living in TX as I've got family in West TX and have been there frequently in my life.
We've ALWAYS had the "courtesy" for farm trucks and construction equpiment on the roads.
We drink soda here too - although 50 yrs ago in TX, a "Coke" was anything carbonated & sweet.
And finally - and I don't know WHY they even try- WHITE PEOPLE CANNOT MAKE MEXICAN FOOD NEARLY AS GOOD AS MEXICANS CAN MAKE IT. And the further south you go in AZ, the better the Mexican foods gets. ;-)
My observations.... :o)
Í'M A BIT LATE BUT i'LL JOIN IN ANYWAY...
breakfast for most people I know in Greece is coffee and cigarettes.
carbonated drinks are called anapsiktika (lol)
at the supermarket you have a karotsi
and everyone eats and sleeps whenever they damn well feel like it. it is actually illegal to make a noise between 2 and 5 pm... afternoon nap time.
Well if you're an American and struggling, is it any wonder that we foreigners are all adrift.
Oddly enough the truck pulling over thing still happens in England [or it did last time I visited.]
Cheers
I have family in South Texas so it's interesting to see how y'all live over there.
From what I've read (in my American Cooking cookbook), there 4 schools of BBQ. 1. Texas BBQ (obviously) 2. St. Louis BBQ (think ribs) 3. Carolina BBQ (think pulled pork) and 4. Tennessee Style BBQ (lesser known).
Here in the mountains of Virginia (not near DC, Richmond, or Hampton Roads), slow vehicles will do the same thing. And on the back roads here, you are almost expected to wave at every single vehicle going in the opposite direction, whether you know them or not.
When I lived in Tennessee, if a funeral were going in the opposite direction, everyone would pull over and wait for it to pass.
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