It doesn’t seem like location and knowing what pico de gallo literally means are correlated but whether you speak Spanish or not. I’m from New York and knew it was rooster’s beak but that’s because I’m Puerto Rican.
Where “speaking Spanish” probably means “as a native”. “Beak” isn’t something that comes up all that often in conversation, so someone could know quite a bit of Spanish without that particular word.
I use pico almost daily, tossing it into salads, as an add-on to frozen pizza, mixed in with tuna, and of course as a topping to Mexican dishes. I probably go through a pound of the stuff a week.
Yes, it is very common in northern Mexico as well.
I need to go and get one now…
I’ve read but don’t fully believe that it’s sometimes called salsa bandera or flag sauce. This is said to be for the green, red and white of the tomato, chile & onion to match the Mexican flag. I’ve never heard this actually used, though.
I knew what it was, and yes, literally it means:
[spoiler]
Those roosters are not amused…
:p[/spoiler]
My guess was “point[y part] of the goose” which isn’t right, but also isn’t that far off. I knew that gallo was a barnyard bird, but couldn’t quite remember which one.
I had to live in Texas for a year. I did love the food, and it’s where I discovered pico de gallo.