Cultural and Regional Differences About This Page:

[greystone98]

Ok, let me be the first to say that until today, I had never heard of a "fluffernutter". [img]graemlins/ukid.gif[/img]

And I've no idea if our marshmellow "creme" is considered fluff or simply topping. To us, the creme comes in a big jar and is used to make rice krispie treats.

Wow. This is so enlightening. Does everyone know how to make smores, with graham crackers, marshmellows, and chocolate or is this another regional food item?

Tell me more. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Debbi

[A & J's Dad]

I haven't noticed anyone from Texas yet. So here goes.

- We generally pump our own gas (Unless you're DW)
- Turn right on red unless specifically prohibited
- Make u-turns unless specifically prohibited
- We buy beer & wine just about anywhere, but not between midnight Saturday and noon Sunday.
- Liquor can only be purchased at a liquor store, but not at all on Sunday.
- We pay sales tax on everything but food. We even have a "Tax Free Holiday" just before school starts for most clothing items under $100.
- In the city of Austin smoking is prohibited completely in restaurants. Boy were we surprised when we moved.
- If you drive the speed limit on the freeway you're going to get rear-ended.

Craig

[TINKN]

We have fluff and can make fluffernutters. Fluff cames in a plastic tub generally with a plastic lid. We also make s'mores.

Most of our stores and malls are open on Sunday, but some have shorter hours. Our malls will generally close at 5:00 on a Sunday afternoon. Department stores stay open later.

[maggiemay]

Wow, I think the differences here are so cool.

In Pa, the state tax is 6%, except, in the city of Philadelphia, where it is 7%. "The city", or Philly, as we locals call it, also has a tax, called city wage tax. For the privilege of living or working in the city, you get to pay 5% of your gross income each week.
If you call it a sub, or a grinder, you weren't born near Philadelphia. Same holds true if you are ordering a "Philly cheesesteak". True Philadelphians just call it a "cheesesteak".
I can't believe that there aren't TastyKakes, and Entenmann's, outside of this area. And what about Scrapple? That is truly a Philly taste. Soft pretzels, and water(pronounced wooder)ice? Yup, we cornered the market.
Fluffernutter? Who didn't grow up on that? I thought that was a staple!
BTW, if you are not doing more than 55mph on the highway, it is probably a Philadelphian ramming you! LOL! 55 is considered slow around here, and stop signs and red lights are apparently optional.
Police cars around here have red and blue lights, and ambulances are just red.
Pump my own gas all the time...cant even tell you where a station is that does it for you anymore. Love NJ just for that reason, but NJ loses points for the dreaded "Circles".
Just last November, the entire state of DE went non-smoking in ALL public places. How fantastic is that?(for non-smokers that is)
Oh, and Philadelphia has, notoriously, the meanest, and rudest sports fans in the country. Who else boos Santa Claus, and beats up fans from other teams in the stands?
The shore(Nj beaches), and the Poconos, are both within a 2hr drive.

[katerkat]

Originally posted by maggiemay:
I can't believe that there aren't TastyKakes, and Entenmann's, outside of this area.

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">We have Entenmann's down here in Mississippi! The coffee cake is my favorite breakfast!

[FanOfMickey]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by maggiemay:

I can't believe that there aren't TastyKakes, and Entenmann's, outside of this area. And what about Scrapple?

Mass has Entenmann's too, love thier stuff I lived a little south west of Philly and had TastyKakes, not bad, but not as good as Drakes or Hostess in MHO, and I did taste Scrapple while I lived there, though I did not like it [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Janine

[Carrousel Lover]

Originally posted by loridalel:
[img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] We say BUBBLER!?! Most people call it a water fountain or drinking fountain.
Lori
Upcoming trip
Feb.1-7 AKL/Poly

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">We grew up with Bubbler - nice to know there is another place out there.
I'm a New Englander, currently checking in from MA and although the state isn't that large you hear about cultural difference just by living on the North Shore or the South Shore and oh yeah those people who live out West (just teasing). I was asked by a South Shore person if I'd ever been to the beach?! Well yeah we have a few on the North Shore ourselves... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Are we the only state that started allowing right on red and then put up more signs that said no turn on red vs. allowing the turns on red?? I do remember when they used to pump the gas for you, but most places now are self serve and it costs more money to have them do it for you. The smoking thing here is by town/city. I personally live in a nosmoking in restaurants etc. town which was also "dry" at one time (my husband remembers it I do not).
A big difference - what did you all eat on Saturday night? Bean, Franks and Brown Bread here and then watched the wide world of sports.

I've always traveled for work and have lived in different places and learned a few things and as I read this over I realize a lot had to do with food - sad ...:

Unknown time/location:started substituting the word soda for tonic since people think tonic water, hair tonic - I've heard them all vs. gingerale,pepsi, coke etc, a sub was called either a cheese steak or steak and cheese and in one state you had it with mayo and pickles. I've lost the ability to recall when to request milkshake vs. frappe I'm confused and say which is the one with ice cream and which is the one that's thick? Those chocolate or multicolored things you put on icecream is still jimmies not sprinkles.

while living in NH: State liquor stores...on the highway. Alcohol in the grocery store. I was amazed. Grew up with package store and none open on Sunday (and people went over the border to NH to purchase)
while living in NYC: I learned to wait "online" vs. inline - quickest way to spot an out of towner
living in GA - learned to SLOW down and listen to the story of Edna at the register (gritting my teeth) or there would be "issues", learned immediately that those were Grits not Cream of Wheat. Pepsi was not to be had and learned to say hot tea vs. tea and to ask to hold the lemon since I drink my hot tea with milk (can you say curdle). Also attempted to educate people that that whipped marshmellow product in no way shape or form could replace Fluff or a Fluff-n-nutter sandwich. I didn't like pickles on my chicken.
from Cincy, OH: uh the chili is kinda different
what's up with mixing coke and some other weird thing to get a fake gingerale in a restaurant/bar. That's the only place I experienced it and I was told it was common place. Uh yeah - you can tell the difference people.
I could go on but I'm probably boring you all.

[TINKN]

Originally posted by katerkat:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Originally posted by maggiemay:
I can't believe that there aren't TastyKakes, and Entenmann's, outside of this area.

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">We have Entenmann's down here in Mississippi! The coffee cake is my favorite breakfast!</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">We have both Tastykakes (a little hard to find) and all of the varieties of Entenmann's aling with the Whoopie Goldburg comercials. The Chocolate glazed donuts are my favorite.

[coffeechef]

Carousel Lover.... You had some really good ones. I am from the West ... in Mass. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] We have always said soda here , but I have relatives in Boston & when we were kids & she would offer us tonic... well we would look at our Mom with panic on our face because we thought she was trying to give us medicine like cough syrup.
Ahhhh the FLuffernutter.... To those who don't know what it is or what MM FLuff is they have a website marshmallowfluff.com It even plays the commersial song that teaches you how to make one. Check it out. Fluff is made in Lynn,MA (Lynn, Lynn the city of sin... you never come out the way you went in) I love these regional differences. Oh and we eat grinders here.

What is Scrapple? IS it with meat & eggs?

[Dave Marx]

Having moved from NJ to Michigan a few years back....

First, I think NJ's gas pumping law unintentionally proves how the gas business has bamboozled consumers everywhere else. NJ's full-serve prices are the same or lower than self-serve prices in nearly every other state I visit. I think of this every time I stand outside in the cold, Michigan winter, pumping my own gas for the same price I'd pay in stay-in-my-warm-car NJ.

Second, (and this is a new one for this topic). In Michigan, not only does everyone stop at a 4-way-stop intersection, but they actually keep track of whose turn it is to go (first to arrive, first to go)! You should see the hand signals going back and forth when two cars arrive at the same time. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] "After you!" "No! After you!

No matter how polite I thought I was back in NJ, I'm always rude and insensitive here in Michigan. (Is this really the same state that spawned Eminem?)

In NJ we call all these liquor-related and Sunday-related regulations Blue Laws. They can vary from town to town, and county to county, not just state to state or country to country. In the little town where I grew up you could only buy liquor in a liquor store. There are (still) no taverns/bars allowed. Restaurants can't sell alcohol, but they can pour it if you bring your own. So, you walk down the main street in town, stop at the liquor store for a bottle of wine or beer, then walk to a restaurant for dinner. The same town also set a legal limit on the number of gas stations (too much gas is a dangerous thing, isn't it?).

I went crazy looking for liquor stores when I got to Michigan. Where were they? They're called Party Stores here! They usually look like run-down convenience stores, but you can buy $5 cigars and $150 bottles of brandy in most of 'em, along with the Ruffles and Ripple.

Oh, and Ann Arbor has a landmark drive-through liquor store. It opened back in the 40's, and you drive right through the ground floor of a Victorian-era brick house. I can imagine Andy Hardy driving through in his old roadster when he was an undergrad. (What, he didn't go to Michigan?)

In my former NJ county, except for "necessities" like groceries, pharmacies, newsstands, restaurants, etc., most businesses cannot be open on a Sunday. Nearly every other county in the state allows nearly any kind of business. (Don't get me started on the reasons why - I could rant about this one forever.) In the town that's the hotbed of political support for this law, the police have arrested people who visited their offices on a Sunday to do a little paperwork. It seems any car in any parking lot is cause for suspicion. (No, the people aren't religious, they just like to see the huge shopping malls in town shut down one day a week).

In at least some parts of Quebec, fries are normally served with a side of "sauce" (brown gravy). Not only are they the best fries around (fried twice, the way they're supposed to be), but the sauce is tasty, too. There are other parts of the world where you can order a side of sauce, or order your fries covered in sauce, but nowhere else I've been is the sauce standard equipment.

Another favorite regional "side"--hush puppies and Southern-style coleslaw. I don't know where it's "standard" and where it's not, but usually I have to go south of the Mason-Dixon. I'll order just about anything if it comes with hush puppies and slaw (north of the Mason-Dixon I have to go to Long John Silver's).

And Long John Silver's brings me around to Fish & Chips. In the States the fish is almost always cod (or worse, pollock). In Toronto and Vancouver it seems haddock is more likely, bless those Canadians! Now, if they'd only start serving haddock at Yorkshire County Fish & Chips, along with that hot tea [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] (sorry, everywhere but some parts of the deep south, folks assume the tea bill be served hot unless you say "iced.")

OK. Appalachian Mountains. Is that pronounced, Apa LAH chin or Apa LAY chin? (that's LAH as in lab). Up north, we say LAY, except when referring to the little town of Appalachian in upstate New York. Then, we say it with a LAH, the way they always say it down south.

Oh, and one other think. Pastrami is served on rye, with brown mustard. No lettuce, no tomato. Never mayo. Pickle on the side. That's not a cultural difference. That's the law (to anyone who's grown up anywhere near New York). [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Janet 46]

Originally posted by Dave Marx:
In the little town where I grew up you could only buy liquor in a liquor store. There are (still) no taverns/bars allowed.
In my former NJ county, except for "necessities" like groceries, pharmacies, newsstands, restaurants, etc., most businesses cannot be open on a Sunday. Nearly every other county in the state allows nearly any kind of business. (Don't get me started on the reasons why - I could rant about this one forever.) In the town that's the hotbed of political support for this law, the police have arrested people who visited their offices on a Sunday to do a little paperwork. It seems any car in any parking lot is cause for suspicion. (No, the people aren't religious, they just like to see the huge shopping malls in town shut down one day a week).

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Dave, that has PARAMUS written all over it! You grew up 3 miles away from me - I lived in Elmwood Park till I got married. And I don't want to hear any EAST PATERSON jokes!

[Dave Marx]

The only town in the U.S.A. with huge shopping malls that are closed on Sunday? Paramus? How'd you guess?

I may have confused you though. My little town (sounds like a Simon at Garfunkel tune, no?) is just another of Bergen County's other 71 municipalities. It's another town altogether, and much smaller. Besides, Paramus has bars, billions of gas stations, and the restaurants sell booze. Not my town at all.

Don't worry, I won't pick on Elmwood Park. The little town I grew up in used to be named West Fort Lee. There, you thought you lived in the only town in Bergen County with an identity crisis!

Finally, as long as I'm reminiscing.... Janet (and anyone else from the Bergen/Passaic region), what's your favorite spot for a Hot Texas Weiner?

[Janet 46]

Originally posted by Dave Marx:
Finally, as long as I'm reminiscing.... Janet (and anyone else from the Bergen/Passaic region), what's your favorite spot for a Hot Texas Weiner?

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">I'm not a fan of Hot Texas Weiners but my Mom is and I remember that she sent us to 2 places to get them for her: Johnny and Hanges which used to be in a seedy part of Paterson, but they've moved to Fair Lawn, and The Hot Grill in Clifton across from Nash Park. Before we moved to Elmwood Park we lived a couple blocks away from the Hot Grill.

You're really stirring up the memory ashes, Dave. What's your favorite place?

[Belle*]

Janet & Dave, you guys are making me want to go visit my parents! (Who live in Ridgewood, by the way, but can walk to Hohokus [sp?].) I've never had a Texaz Wiener but my father now swears that you absolutely cannot get good bagels anywhere outside a 30 mile radius of Manhattan. Funny - he used to think the ones in CT were just fine! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Oh! Does anyone have Ranch dressing with their fries? [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] I picked this up in Western Mass but I've also seen it in parts of Maryland.

[Dave Marx]

They moved Johnny & Hanges to Fairlawn? What's becoming of this world? "Rot Grill" is probably my favorite, though. Can't tell you exactly why, after all these years. "One away, one!"

I figured you'd mention Falls View, River View, or some of the other legendary spots, too. There was even a PBS special dedicated to hot dog places around the country. They mentioned exactly one in the Passaic River valley, someplace down near Rt. 3 that I've never been. Then in Fort Lee there's Hiram's and Callahan's (imagine, two hot dog stands from the old days, side by side, surviving in the shadow of NJ's biggest collection of highrise, luxury condos!

In my yout (to borrow a term from My Cousin Vinnie), we'd even go on "tastings." We'd drive to Paterson Falls after dark, watch the falls for a while, then go from hot dog joint to hot dog joint, sampling one dog after the other.

What's the secret to all these NJ hot dog joints? All of them deep fry the dogs. Even the Hot Grill doesn't grill 'em. Plump when you cook 'em? Deep-fried dogs inflate when you cook 'em. "One all the way" means a dog with spicy brown mustard, chili (thinner than spaghetti sauce, almost no meat/chunks, color of refried beans) and topped with chopped raw onions. A few of these will melt the strongest stomach lining. But... if they sold these at The American Adventure, Epcot visitors would forget all about Beavertails, Kaki Gori, Churros, and all those other World Showcase snacks.