Hoppin' John. Yesterday my parents and I had a discussion on the vocabulary of meat. Seems cows have their own vocabulary. There's pork chops and lamb chops but no cow chops; instead you have steak. Same goes for the other cuts on pigs and sheep. The cows get their own language. Now, what's up with that. Oh, and....brisket? (A brisket, a brasket, a tisket, tasket, basket. well, huh?)
The version of this I know is creamed chipped beef on toast. Delicious! Anyone for head cheese or scrapple?
"Don't Blame Me. I'm from Massachusetts." (Famous American bumpersticker after the 1972 presidential elections. Massachusetts was the only state to vote in favor of George McGovern. The rest of the country voted for Richard Nixon.)
Having been born and raised in Montana, I find that many of these expressions sound familiar, though some are slightly different. I know what you mean with regards to 'boughten' food, only in MT, many people would say 'store-boughten'. It is a bizarre term. We also refer to soda as pop, soda, soda-pop, sody, or sody-pop. Also, we spin cookies and donuts in MT. I won't even get started on Canadian references to Kraft Macaroni & Cheese as 'Kraft Dinner'.
Too late, you started. Our kids called it back-a-bony. The white cheese version is almost edible, as long as you use enough butter.
Another Minnesota "favorite": Salad. I learned that it means Jell-o, often with stuff embedded in it. And here I was, looking for something green (and healthy). Lutefisk. It's a Scandinavian word for "Ewww, it's that lye-soaked dried fish again, served with either cream sauce or melted butter!" Hotdish. Someone already mentioned hotdish vs. cassarole, but Hotdish is cooked ground meat, canned veggies mixed with cream of mushroom soup, topped with tator tots and ketchup (or cheese). I am still unlearning the concept of asking/refusing refreshments 3 times (that's right, Garrison Keillor did NOT make that one up!). After 9 years, I still catch myself refusing a cup of coffee when I really want one, or repeatedly offering (sweetening the deal) refreshments to guests. Around here, you get asked once. They believe you.
I recognize most of these Michigan references. I have lived and worked in enough areas and with enough other people that my expressions and pronunciations are a bit of a mixed bag. It also depends on the person doing the listening. A Canadian would recognize my Michigan accent, but when I worked in Ohio, people there thought I was Canadian. In addition to different words for foods, many regions have their own pronunciations for the same words. Here are some you find in Michigan, although they are not all food related: Correct Spelling ---- Michigan Phonetic Spelling ------------------------------------------------- Height - highth Caramel - carmal Poinsettia - poinsetta Marry - mary Mary - mary Merry - mary I'll try to think of some more, Tom
I forgot that one. My wife still is bothered by people serving fruit and mini-marshmallows and whipped cream with the main meal as a fruit salad. She saves it for desert but then people take it away when clearing the table before bringing out the desert. That's one kind of hotdish. Another popular variation is macaroni and tuna (tuna noodle), again with mushroom soup, but with crumbled saltines sprinkled on top. Hmm, tasty. A Minnesotan also has 3 types of spices - salt, pepper and ketchup.
Back in the day and maybe still in the south: White Castle = Crystal Burgers. We'd eat a dozen or so and go back for supper.
Good stuff. Didn't know that before. You're making me hungry. BTW, a new Harold & Kumar movie is coming out. Also, I have a book about White Castle (some guy's doctoral dissertation that he turned into a book) called "Selling 'em by the Sack - White Castle and the Creation of American Food".
Vegemite, it has no vegetables in it but is made from yeast, the stuff that comes out of the sludge they remove from beer in a brewery. We are raised on Vegemite. Pie floater, this is a meat pie in a bowl of mushy boiled green dried peas topped with tomato sauce (not ketchup) and Worcestershire sauce and/or vinegar. Wonderful! Fritz, a processed meat made from pork offcuts, I think it is like baloney. It isn't called fritz anywhere that I know of but South Australia. As a child we were served sh*t with sugar on it almost every day for our evening meal (tea). I come from a poor upbringing, my father was a truck driver and mum had to look after 8 children on very little house keeping. On a hot day after school mum would be working in the kitchen (we had no air-conditioner) and I would engage mum in conversation. I said, "What's for tea mum?" Mum said , Sh*t with sugar on it." Funny thing is it tasted OK, always looked different each day and smell was not bad too, and I never saw a stock of sh*t in the fridge or cupboards. Often I would continue the conversation, "can I help you make tea mum?" to which the reply was always the same, "yes, go outside and keep out the way." Toad in the hole, is sausages covered with Yorkshire pudding and baked. Dicks on stick, cocktail franks on toothpicks dipped in tomato sauce. Pigs in blankets, cocktail franks wrapped in bread, a toothpick through it to hold it together and baked to make the bread crisp. Bubble and squeak, left overs smashed up and stir fried in a little oil with potato. PS, it is only sheep miss out on special language, a pig isn't a pork or a bacon any more than a cow is a steak or beef. A sheep can be a lamb though. Lamb chops, yummy.
I have never been to White Castle. However, the one thing I miss the most about not living in California anymore - more than my friends, more than the weather - is In-N-Out Burgers.
Yes, a cow is Beef and a pig is Pork. We had that discussion last year. I told my mother I suspected that the sheep sold in the U.S. was sold as "lamb" but it was probably "mutton". Then there's.....veal. The cow equivalent of lamb. I don't think there's a pig equivalent of veal or lamb.
You have to go. It's one of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die. It's like Machu Picchu (but closer).
Oh man! When I moved "Back East" from "Out West" (speaking of colloquialisms), I was SO mad the first time I ordered a milkshake and was given some kind of runny flavored milk thing... The local native who I was with laughed at me and told me what I really wanted was a "frappe." Another odd one out here: "Sprinkles," the little colored sugar bits you put on ice cream are called "Jimmies."
True. But for StevO (and my guess, >99.9% of PriusChatters), it's definitely closer. Seriously, I think it's one of the great foods of the world.
Another: 33% of the country calls it "Soda"; 33% calls it "Pop"; 33% calls it "Coke" (even if it's, say, Sprite). The other 1%? Bostonians who call it "Tonic".
