Another True southern trait… We love car racing. See my buddies at the Winston race in Richmond Saturday night!!!
Rice is very common in Louisiana dishes, including gumbo, jambalya, boudin, dirty rice, red beans and rice, etc. Louisiana has a good many rice fields. Pretty wet down there in the southern portion, ya know.
Of course, cornbread is ubiquitous.
How many here celebrate a traditional southern New Year with black-eyed peas and cornbread? Or is that just a Louisiana thing? It brings good luck for the year.
originally posted by jab1
Or, dare I say it? Yes…the Piggly Wiggly. Folks, these stores really do exist. 
Divemaster: I celebrate the new year that way! Always have! The saying goes in our family that you’ll get a dollar during the year. for every black-eyed pea you eat. I haven’t really noticed any difference, and of course, my mother always boiled 'em down to nearly mush-like consistency, so they’re impossible to count.
But they are unbeatable with hot cornbread and homemade pepper sauce. Food of the gods.
It’s better unbattered, fried down with tomatoes. It’s also the closest thing to a frictionless substance yet achieved by culinary science.
Thank you. I grit my teeth every time I hear “pee-can”.
Back home, the midday meal was “lunch” and the evening meal was “supper”–or “dinner” if you were going out for it.
I’m with you on the tea, though–if you can see through it, even dimly, it’s undrinkable.
jab1 wrote:
jab1, you have sinned and fallen short of culinary perfection. Battered okra is an abomination. Okra should be cut up, rolled in a mixture of corn meal and flour, and fried in a good old iron skillet. This is the way everyone in my neck of the woods cooks it at home.
Sadly, you can’t get it cooked that way in restaurants. It only comes battered. (Blech!) I assume that restaurants get frozen battered okra in bulk because its easier than cooking it the right way.
By the way, does anybody here eat pickled okra? I never had it as a kid, but a friend introduced me to it a while back and the stuff is delicious.
jab1 wrote:
Agreed, though I often see “Mama” in the South spelled “Momma”. The female equivalent of Papaw is, of course, Mamaw.
jab1 wrote:
Same here. There mst be some sub-dialect in the South that pronounces it “PEE-can,” but it wasn’t that way where I grew up. (North Georgia.)
jab1 wrote:
Yep! “Dinner” was the noon meal. “Supper” was the evening meal. I’m afraid this Southern quirk is dying out, though. I don’t hear it as much as I used to. “Lunch” is winning, I fear.
jab1 wrote:
Black-eyed peas and greens are eaten on New Years Day to bring financial good fortune for the rest of the year. (The peas represent pennies, and the greens represent dollars, as I understood it.)
Arkansan, Dude.
I are one, I oughta know!
Amen, Brother.
Just spent two weeks on the Gulf Coast. Was sent by my sister to go to the store and pick up some things. A cart boy, two store-wandering helper-men and the checkout girl called me “y’all”. I was by myself. Y’all is so used as the singular form, at least in that community. (Diamondhead, Mississippi precisely.)
Although in southwestern Virginia, they only use “y’all” to mean the plural form, same as I use it here in New York.
Oh yeah and as far as accents: When in Virginia and surrounded by Virginians, I sound like a Virginian. When there are no Virginians around and I try to do a Virginian accent, I sound ludicrous; but when I have the accent near me to imitate (often unconsciously), I do it well enough without meaning to that people assume I’m from around there and are often greatly surprised to hear that I’m an upstate NY-er (“ya don’t talk like a Yankee”)
I mimic accents everywhere I go–I’m told it’s very frustrating to people who are trying to figure out where I live. Only a few giveaway words (e.g. “N’Orlins” and “Looziana”) stay pretty constant. A few years ago I was complimented on my command of Arabic: “Even your accent is perfect.” The waitress had to translate for me–I was just reading the menu, as I don’t speak any Arabic.
I’m stubborn about grammar, though–I stick to proper usage, even though it sometimes sounds unnatural back home.
Hey Racin … How ya’ doin ?
Y’all is always plural! Ya’ gotta’ listen until you get used to it. The bag boy was most likely extending an unconsious thought(salutation), or at least, referring to your entire clan or family. “Y’all come back now, Ya’ hear!” ie: You and all of ‘yours’, even though you were the only one present.
bb
I work in the Deli at Publix (a south-eastern grocery store chain, voted #1 Grocery Store in the nation based on customer service…) Those of you from Florida, parts of Georgia, and a couple of places in Alabama and the Carolinas know what I’m talking about.
Anyway, there are usually about 8-9 of us on any given day. We serve Boars Head cold cuts, subs, and of course, the pride an joy of any southern kitchen, fried chicken!
We have: fried chicken, fried chicken wings, Hot’n Spicy frid chicken wings, buffalo wings, mardi-gras wings, barbeque wings, chicken tenders, barbequed rottisserie chickens, and of course, buttermilk bisquits… our McDonalds sized kitchen pumps out nothing but the above 15 hours a day. To make it even better, one person gets assigned “tea duty” every day. That means you brew pot after pot of sweet tea, fill it into gallon jugs, and try to get it on the shelves before rabid customers try to kill you. “When will the tea be ready!?!”
That said, it’s a very interesting place to work… Publix is a really great company, and it’s 100% southern grown. They offer better than average pay, stock options, great retirement options (after 5 years, you can take your retirement money and walk!). I’m still amazed by the visiting yankees’ shock at how courteous our employees are!
Most Yankees are shocked at how courteous Southerners
(and Tennesseans in particular) are. Okay, so I’m biased.
But I’ve travelled a lot and I swear there is a big difference. Sadly, the hardened Northerners often don’t appreciate this phenomenon…they figure they’re being scammed somehow. Don’t get me wrong: there are plenty of jerks, rednecks, and scalawags down here. These are the exceptions to the rule. So, y’all come back, now, y’hear?
Just don’t overstay your welcome. As has been pointed out before, the only difference between a Yankee and a Damned Yankee is that the Yankees go back home…the Damned Yankees stay. Even so, conversion is relatively swift and we tend to be accepting and patient. As the saying goes:
I wasn’t born in the South, but I got here as fast as I could!
Peace,
TN*hippie
Didn’t we play this scene back on page 2?
Another Texan (Dallas): Jab1 nailed it, except for his dislike of grits.
As to rice being a coastal crop, I believe rice grows quite well in Arkansas. My aunt owned a rice plantation (her name for it) in Arkansas. It was run by a cropper.
A “pee-can” must be storage vessel for urine. It sure doesn’t describe a Schley’s or a paper-shell.
Actually, that IS the way my mama and both grandmas cooked it. The memory cells don’t work as well as they used to. SIGH I remember the little kernels of cooked corn meal were as tasty as the okra itself.
I have SEEN pickled okra, but I never had the nerve to try it. I guess I should.
BTW, everybody, we have ignored THE most important question about iced tea:
Lipton’s or Nestea?
In our house it was ALWAYS Lipton’s.
Lipton’s, when we could afford it.
Rice does indeed grow quite well in Arkansas. In fact, it’s the largest rice-producing state in the U.S., growing over 40% of current U.S. production (1996 figures). Poinsett County in northeastern Arkansas, where I graduated from high school, used to produce more rice than any other county in the U.S. – don’t know if that’s still the case or not. Riceland Foods is of course based in Stuttgart, Arkansas, as are a number of other rice-related companies.
However, it grows quite well only in certain parts of Arkansas: mainly, the Grand Prairie region. Rice requires land that is as flat as possible (or else that has been terraced so that it will hold water). Growing it in areas where there’s much change in elevation is too labor intensive when there are other viable options. So it doesn’t tend to be as common or popular in the Ozark or Ouachita Mountain areas of Arkansas.
I’ve lived in Oregon since I was ten years old, but am originally from Lakeland, Florida, where Publix HQ is located. One of the few things I do miss about Florida is Publix, which is infinitely superior to the grocery store chains we got here in Portland. Earlier this summer I was in Lakeland again visiting relatives, and more than once during my visit I went to the deli and ordered one of those Italian sub sandwiches…oh God, one of the best deli sandwiches I’ve ever encountered. Puts “Subway” and “Blimpie” to shame!.
As for the black-eye peas tradition, my family continues to have it as a part of every New Year’s Day, so I don’t think the custom is confined to Louisiana.
I love grits too, and have enjoyed the discussion about them here in this thread. Before I read this thread, I never knew that anyone even contemplated the idea of adding milk or sugar to grits. Jeez, you might as well add motor oil to grits for all the good that it will do. It’s hard to find proper grits in Oregon, though. The grocery store chains here aren’t much help, only providing one or two brands of instant grits.The vast majority of restaurants here don’t serve it, and when you ask, the waiter/waitress gives you a funny look and then says, “What’s a grit?”
And when will a Cracker Barrel open in Oregon? My favorite restaurant, bar none, and I must live at least a thousand miles from the nearest one. AAAGHH!
racinchikki wrote:
Y’all is always plural. Witness the fact that every single Southerner who has posted to this thread has confirmed this. The only posters who seem to be under the (mistaken)impression that it can be singular are Northerners and Northern transplants.
racinchikki, I guarantee that the folks who used “y’all” when speaking to you intended to convey the meaning “you and yours.”
I’m still waiting for the first Southern poster who claims “y’all” can be singular. I think it’ll be a long wait…
