Annie: “Then there’s the whole submarine/hero/hoagie/grinder thing.”
Let’s not forget “Poorboy” 
Thanks for the clairification on the egg cream ingredients. How long ago was it called a “two cents plain” may I ask?
I’ve traveled a lot in my misspent youth and got to calling a soft drink “Soda Pop” so everyone understood what I meant.
I grew up in the South, moving to California when I was 12. Sixteen years later, I’ve lost my accent yet calling soda ‘coke’ has stuck with me, much to the annoyance of others. When I say I want coke, you’re supposed to ask, ‘What kind of coke?’ 
Dude! Any possible lingering doubt I may have had about the Net being the single greatest invention of human-kind has been settled.
It’s an amazing map, isn’t it? I have to say that it fills me with new respect for the beleaguered soda=drinking residents of the St. Louis area, caught as they are between the pincers of the Poppies and the Cokeheads.
Some of the explanations for “other” at the same site are quite interesting, although I’ve never personally heard of the drink referred to as a Big Gay California Butt Slam…
I’ve had “hoagies” in many places, but they know how to make them only in Philly and south Jersey. In fact, the best ones I’ve ever had were in a place called Hoagie Haven in Princeton. Second best were from vendors selling them from the side of trucks on 32nd St. below Market on the Drexel campus. I’ve had other pretty good ones, but only in the greater Philly area. They are certainly a variety of subs, but a superior variety.
I’ve had “hoagies” in many places, but they know how to make them only in Philly and south Jersey. In fact, the best ones I’ve ever had were in a place called Hoagie Haven in Princeton. Second best were from vendors selling them from the side of trucks on 32nd St. below Market on the Drexel campus. I’ve had other pretty good ones, but only in the greater Philly area. They are certainly a variety of subs, but a superior variety.
Ahhh, they’re 1920’s style “Death Hoagies”.
Hoagies and subs are very similar, but not quite the same. The bread is sliced differently: in a sub, it’s sliced completely through, and then stacked bread-fillings-bread. In a hoagie, the bread is only mostly sliced through, somewhat like a hot dog bun, with the fillings nestled inside. The hoagie style is much easier to eat, and I don’t know why it isn’t used nationwide, but it isn’t.
In Cleveland, where I grew up, flavored carbonated sugar water is “pop”. If you called it “soda pop”, people would know what you mean, but nobody would actually call it that. Vanilla ice cream with root beer or cola is a float (or in full, a root beer float or cola float); vanilla ice cream with any fruit-flavored pop (lemon-lime, cherry, strawberry, etc.) is a soda or ice cream soda (note that “soda” by itself must have ice cream; without the ice cream it’s just pop). I’ve never known a float or soda to be made with chocolate ice cream, but a soda might be some other flavor, so long as it’s subtle. Milk and ice cream blended together is always a shake or milkshake; I didn’t even realize until this thread that there was any other word for it.
i learned very, very, quickly not to call a carbonated beverage “tonic” outside of new england.
after learning 4 different ways of asking for a carbonated beverage i have settled on asking for “diet whatever” or ice tea. so much easier.
Thet’s a straaaaynge naaaayme. Oi’da called 'em Chuzwozzers.
Which would mean that Subway doesn’t make subs, since they don’t slice the bread through, and the Hoagie House I used to go to doesn’t make hoagies?
These are the terms I used growing up in Southern Ontario, Canada.
The problem with the “Soda, Pop, Coke” map of the U.S. is that it assumes people use only one term for a carbonated drink. I think a lot of people use these terms interchangeably. For example, I alternate between both “pop” and “soda” (but, then again, that might because I spent significant portions of my life in both “pop” and “soda” country).
Also, no matter where I lived, a flavored drink with milk and ice cream always been a “milkshake.”
Here’s the Wikipedia entry for “Submarine sandwich”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_sandwich
I really suspect that there isn’t any consistency in naming the sandwich relative to how it’s cut, as Chronos claims, althought in certain areas and among certain groups this may be true.
In Oregon and Washington, it’s pop, which is a little odd considering the overwhelming use of “soda” by our close neighbor California.
One of my all-time favorites I learned as a youngster in the South, is a “Purple Cow”, made with vanilla ice cream and grape soda. ( er… I mean “pop”)
Growing up in Memphis, everything was either a “coke” or a “cold drink”.
Probably influenced by those godless heathens North of the border in Detroit.
(And while I am sure that the term has many different meanings around the country–just as all these others have–I was not making up the chocolate syrup in a Black Cow. About.com has an article that notes that Black Cow was a term for root beer, itself at one time, so that could certainly be the source of the confusion as different confections were created based on root beer.)
Food has got to be one of the most variable things around.
Fish and chips – I’ve never seen these in a cafeteria. Cafeteries are usually kind of gross, and I’m not sure I’d want to trust something as sensitive as fish to one. The fish, of course, is batter dipped and deep fried white ocean fish, such as cod. Cafeteries have some type of uniform emulsified fish paste with some type of breading material, you know, “fish sticks” and their ilk. Fish and chips stands are/were Great Britain’s most popular fast food – anyone know if they’ve been supplanted by McDonald’s yet? Here in the 'States, they’re a common item in bars-grill types of place, but you’ll never find 'em in a real seafood restaurant. If you want an authentic experience, skip the catsup on the chips and the honey-mustard on the fish, and just go for vinegar and salt. If you’re lucky enough to live near the Canadian border, you’ll even get that wonderful malted vinegar instead (I think that’s what the dark (non-cider) vinegar is, right?
Crisps – really, Hostess makes/sells potato chips in Britain? Always just a bakery company in my mind. Hell, the notion of Wonder Break actually would disuade me from trying Hostess brand chips/crisps/pommes (hmm… pommes is French for apple but German for French Fries while kartofeln are potatoes).
Fries – is there really a standard in the US? Yeah, we all know they’re french fries, but also just fries, home fries, buffalo chips/wedges, freedom fries, country fries, French-fried potatoes, shoe string potatoes, and the whole set of variations again with the word “taters.”
Soda – I’m from Michigan and grew up on “pop” but prefer “soda” – “pop” sounds way too hick for my tastes.
Chocalate sodas are both of those mentioned above, but with the demise of dime/drug store soda fountains Dairy Queen seems to be the place, so ice-cream is by far the general meaning.
Boston coolers are a SE Michigan thing as far as I know, being that you can only make them with Vernor’s. So… Boston? Oh, yeah, what it is: milk is to milkshake as Vernor’s is to bostoncooler.
Malts – malted milk can be tried in Whopper brand malted milk balls.
Local formal useage (restaurants, fast food, grocery signs, etc.) seems to be “soft drink”, possibly to avoid the whole pop/soda issue.
Exactly. Native of Cleveland, went to college in St. Louis, I remember linguistic Pop Wars. I remember fellow homies there saying emphatically, “I’m from Cleveland and I drink pop!” Ever since then, I’ve been saying “sodapop” to keep the peace. Not that I need to say it much, because I never touch the stuff (except for an infrequent ginger ale). Also because I read The Outsiders.
In Soulard, an old neighborhood on the South Side of St. Louis, the local microdialect calls it “sody.” I actually heard that on the street near the Soulard Market, a kid selling “sody.”
When it comes to describing food, I believe regional differences are also complicated by generational differences.
Living just a few miles south of tomndebb, I agree that a carbonated beverage is, was, and always will be “pop”.
But
When I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s Mom would treat us to Boston Coolers. Someone would always mention that they were also called Black Cows. Today the very same drink is always called a root beer float - root beer with a scoop of ice cream.
As far as Canadian vs American terms, I remember the confusion that resulted when Mom ordered eggs “over hard” in Ontario. She wanted the eggs with yolk intact, flipped over and cooked until the yolk was, well… hard. She got scrambled eggs. That’s how we found out about “well-done” eggs. I never did find out what the stuff was that accompanied the eggs. If you ordered eggs and toast, you would also get this little cup with a substance that looked like bacon grease, kind of grainy and gray in color. I never had the nerve to taste it. Anybody know what it was?