yeah - just dont like it. my wife LOVES sweet potato chips and sweet potatoes...guess its what you grow up on.

And the overwhelming majority of white southerners who were too poor to own slaves did what, go over to the plantation to eat?

Southern cooking is influenced by a ton of things and is super regional--as someone who lives outside of the United States, you may not realize this.

Louisiana probably has the best food anywhere, though. love that shit.

same here.

no doubt.

the Low Country of Soth Cakalak is great too. Shrimp N Grits bitch.

the funny thing about my inlaws is that probably 90% drink but they are afriad of offending aunt claudia, uncle david, and grandma. they were quite upset that there was drinking at my wedding reception - they pretty much saw that and left. man they would be shocked about how holiday parties go down in my family.

I find equally funny that people who live a mile from each other (as did their parents, grandparents, etc) are supposed to eat drastically different food, because they're different colors. A little different, yes. GA / WI different? No.

Chitlins, however....

I'm not sayin' it was only influenced by the slaves. Just alot of the Southern Country Cooking is influenced by it. Plantations were like cities onto themselves. Lots of people lived around and were involved in plantation life. Not just the slaves and the owner. My grandfather's birth certificate says Southdown Plantation not Houma. Most large plantations had their own money.

a question about the south - my wife ordered oatmeal for breakfast the other day. out here most people treat oatmeal like any cereal - put milk on it, maybe some sugar or brown sugar. she put butter, salt, and pepper on it like it was grits. i almost vomited along with the other diners and the waitress. is this normal behavior?

sounds like she was trying to turn oatmeal INTO grits. Was she drunk?

Liquor was in copious amounts at our family gatherings. Except at my grandparents on my dad's side. Them north Louisiana folk and that's not the same stock as around here. My step dad's grandparents family used alcohol as a bonding ritual. He gave me my first drink at like age 7.

ok so I am not crazy...she said everyone does that in north carolina. i will write it off to her being drunk.

That's Catholic v. Protestant, though I think that the divide was bridged in my family by the Military, where EVERYONE drinks...my grandma is from NC, but she was like the Devil's Water just the same.

And R - that is just fucking gross.

LOL! at least they don't fart!

y. i don't like coffee so i gave my sample to wife. she said it was horrid after a sip. & she love her coffee.

Speaking of bug juice... the "lantern" of African-American cuisine has attracked the moth-like country boys.

Southern culure (on the skids or not) is not really country (no red bug juice on the country plains of Manitoba), but it is surely a conjunction of African, Scot-Irish, French, Indian influences. I know lots of African American red-stuff drinkers, but I have never known a white bug-juice consumer... but I do know, thanks.

I was going to ask if she was pregnant, but even pregnant chicks aren't that insane. Must've been booze.

she's pregnant and drunk! we roll trailer park style.

Those are the influences but they would never have melded the way they did if it didn't happen in the country in the South. There's a reason New York doesn't really have a cusine and the South does.

No question about it. The South is unique for historical reasons. Oral story-telling = great writers... it's all true. A disproportionate influence on American arts, culture. The South is America.

Spent a year in Shelbyville TN one week... chow chow and three kinds of beans with both okra and summer squash all at the same meal.

I also remember seeing my brother marry a southern belle in 1962 in Aliceville, AL and before the wedding walking with local white kids down a stream looking for crawdads and their commenting about my lack of tan and I didn't look like a Californian and astonished that I had black Puerto Rican kids in my school ... "the boys would kill 'em if one of them n****ers came to our school..." said one of the young ladies, twisting slightly in her powder blue short shorts.

Liked the grits though... with lots of butter.

Damn Harry, you've even been to the real south...Aliceville, Shelbyville...tru fucking crackers. A good friend of mine is married to a girl from Shelbyville.

yeah, bourbonized

I miss grits. They don't sell it out here in the restaurants. Good God, people don't even know what red eye gravy is out here. One of my favorite culinary excursions was when I was in Chicago about 3 years ago, and got to eat cheese grits with ham. I was in heaven.

I've been to a couple of "southern-style" restaurants out here, and they all suck-- Delta Cafe being the "hip" one. Their "corn fritters" are disgusting.... move over, give me the damn cornmeal and I'll make my own fucking hush puppies.

We also don't have the famous "meat & 2" restaurants out here. Whenever I head back to Atlanta, I try to hit one. (for those of you in the dark, that's "meat and 2 vegetables/sides"-- btw, macaroni and cheese is considered a vegetable in Georgia).

As for sweet potatoes, not really a big fan, but I can't deny the goodness that is sweet potato FRIES.

Oh Hell yes!

ha ha, my family finally got over this hump at some point about 10 years ago... we drink at all occasions now, but it's usually the light stuff like wine and beer. Mom and Dad haven't accepted mixed drinks at family gatherings yet.