# Foods and/or resturants you didn't realize weren't universal **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [September 29, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836 "2020-09-29T21:44:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/41 "2020-10-01T06:48:30Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > but I mean you can’t even get something that serves the same purpose as Kosher Salt I’m in Aus, and I can get ‘cooking salt’. It’s 1lb bags of the cheapest salt available – not as fine grained as table salt, not as expensive as flakes or coloured or other specialty salts. It’s purpose is cooking – which includes Koshering. I don’t know if it’s _exactly_ the same grain size as Kosher salt, but you can feel the grain. Also – Chocolate Crackles have been mentioned here before 🙂 We assumed that since they are made with Kellogg’s Rice Krispies/ Rice Bubbles / Puffed Rice, and the recipe is on the side of the pack, they must be known everywhere Kellogg’s is known. Nope – turns out it’s really a hydrogenated coconut oil recipe, unknown in hydrogenated cotton seed countries. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/42 "2020-10-01T07:20:01Z")
Burger King has tacos in Hampton Roads, Virginia, too. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/43 "2020-10-01T10:14:08Z")
I’m sure you can get it in Israel. It’s purpose is for kashering meat. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/44 "2020-10-01T10:17:20Z")
Name any Jewish food, and I had no idea everyone didn’t eat it until I was probably 8 or 9 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/45 "2020-10-01T10:44:39Z")
> [@digs](#): > > (“I’ll take you to the cinema/then leave you in a Wimpy Bar…”). I shouted out loud: “Oh, it’s not a bar that’s wimpy! It’s a WIMPYBAR!” I made the same mistake, only vaguely having heard of Wimpy Bars. I also didn’t know that “bitter” could be used by itself as a noun so I wondered what “bitter bread and jam” was for the longest time. (And I didn’t know what a “Cheap Day Return” was until I saw it plastered on a bus on Good Neighbors … errr, the Good Life.) ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/46 "2020-10-01T14:23:31Z")
> [@icon](#): > > [Wimpy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimpy_(restaurant)). Growing up outside of the US, I somehow imagined that it along with McDonalds and Burger King were the main burger restaurants in the US, but I never did find one when visiting and now it looks like I never will. Until I saw this post, I thought Wimpy was a made up name for the fast food place the hero works at in Bedazzled (the brilliant Cook/Moore 70’s original). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/47 "2020-10-01T14:32:11Z")
In Dayton, Ohio, we used to have a handful of burger joints called Wympee’s. I always assumed they were the same as the ones the Brits were talking about until I finally noticed the different spelling. I wonder if our Wympee’s was a knockoff. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/48 "2020-10-01T14:43:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I wonder if our Wympee’s was a knockoff. I’d guess either a knockoff, or the owners wanted to allude to Popeye’s hamburger-loving friend, without facing a trademark issue. Until reading the Wikipedia article to which @icon linked above, I had not realized that the British chain had its origins in America (in Chicago, much less), but that the U.S. version never got very big, and ceased to exist decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/49 "2020-10-01T14:46:41Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@Acsenray](#): > > > > I wonder if our Wympee’s was a knockoff. > > I’d guess either a knockoff, or the owners wanted to allude to Popeye’s hamburger-loving friend, without facing a trademark issue. That’s pretty much the definition of a knockoff. And it’s not that easy to avoid trademark problems. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/50 "2020-10-01T14:50:18Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Italian Beef sandwiches - I didn’t realize they were a regional thing until I moved away from Chicago. I didn’t know Italian Beef was regional until I read Ed Zotti’s book where _he’s_ surprised to learn that they’re regional. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/51 "2020-10-01T15:07:44Z")
Huh. I lived in the UK for more than a year, and I never heard of “bitter bread.” What is it? Bread made with bitter beer (which has lots of hops)? I think the term “day return” was used in one of the Beatles’ songs. That’s where I first heard it. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/52 "2020-10-01T15:17:07Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > That’s where it originated, but until quite recently the only place where most people had even heard of it was Southern California. Discovered that on this very forum twenty years ago. I live in Atlanta, that’s definitely not the case. Everyone knows about Chicken & Waffles in this city and you can find it in many a restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/53 "2020-10-01T15:20:10Z")
I grew up in southeast Michigan, so we were never lacking for delicious Lebanese food. It wasn’t until I moved to New Jersey that I learned Middle Eastern food of this calibre does not exist everywhere. And when we finally did find a place, you should have seen their puzzled looks when I asked for garlic sauce. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/54 "2020-10-01T15:22:01Z")
Paczki. Growing up in the Detroit area, we had them every year on Mardi Gras. It was only when I coordinated a training class put on by an out of state company that I learned it was not (I was in my 30s). The training class happened to be on Fat Tuesday, and those heathens brought in donuts for breakfast. Donuts! Can you imagine? So I zipped out to the local bakery and picked up the good stuff. It used to be they became prevalent 3 - 4 days before, but nowadays bakeries are creeping the start time back and they’re available 2 - 3 weeks before Lent even starts. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/55 "2020-10-01T15:25:09Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > Paczki. Growing up in the Detroit area, we had them every year on Mardi Gras. They’re big here in Chicago, too, but I’m pretty sure that’s due to a large number of Polish-Americans, and a history of bakeries in the area owned by Polish immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/56 "2020-10-01T15:26:07Z")
Well yeah, that’s why they are well known in Detroit as well. Lots of Polish immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/57 "2020-10-01T15:46:35Z")
When I was a kid growing up in the Detroit area I assumed White Castle was a national chain like McDonalds and Burger King. Then a girl I was friends with moved to Virginia, and I found out from her letters how much she missed White Castle burgers (turns out it’s a midwest thing); Vernors Ginger Ale too. When she and her family came back to visit, they’d always make a holy pilgrimage to White Castle. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/58 "2020-10-01T15:48:00Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Huh. I lived in the UK for more than a year, and I never heard of “bitter bread.” What is it? Bread made with bitter beer (which has lots of hops)? I was making the opposite mistake. Bitter bread as far as I know doesn’t exist, but I thought it might because I was parsing the lyrics wrong. The lyric was, (without punctuation) “Well I’m a common working man with a half of bitter bread and jam”. I mistakenly was parsing it to be “bitter bread and jam”, because I didn’t know that “bitter” can refer to bitter beer. So in context it should be “half of [a pint?] of bitter [beer] [and] bread and jam” instead of “half of [bitter bread] and jam”. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/59 "2020-10-01T16:08:55Z")
More specifically on iced tea, having grown up in North Carolina I was absolutely horrified the first time I ordered an iced tea out-of-state and it arrived unsweetened. Just . . . why? ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836/60 "2020-10-01T16:12:11Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Because you couldn’t buy bratwurst in North Carolina in the 1980s. It seems like it only started to become readily available in maybe the mid 1990s. Food and beer in NC (and a lot of the country) expanded a lot in the 1990s. In the 80s, I remember that Chinese and Mexican (both Americanized style) restaurants were considered a bit exotic, and and Italian was about the only other nationality routinely represented. And grocery store selections were much more limited, especially if you didn’t have a weird import store anywhere nearby. Starting in the 90s, more different varieties of restaurants opened, and grocery stores started stocking a lot more variety, especially around the bigger cities. Beer also followed the national trend of many more microbrews turning up. That was also the time when salad dressing opened up - I remember growing up in the 80s there was pretty much always Italian (or a vinegrette), Thousand Island, and one of French or Russian. Then in the 90s you started seeing ranch and honey mustard routinely, plus more varied ‘vinegrette’ type dressings, and things like bleu cheese on occasion. And French/Russian fell out of favor (I rarely see them now) and Thousand Island went from everywhere to about where French/Russian used to be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-and-or-resturants-you-didnt-realize-werent-universal/921836.md?page=4)