Proudly, I am a Southerner and now that I live in California there are some standard foods I miss because they are not widely available here.
Really good fried chicken, chicken fried steak, biscuits and gravy, cole slaw, pork and beans, cornbread and potato salad …
But there are other Souther foods that I never liked that not even this Southerner will touch. I recommend the same to anyone not familiar with these foods who might be curious about them or wants to seek them out when traveling in the South.
Collard Greens
This vegetable is really something that is traditional in the poor areas of the South because they are cheap to make. They are usually sauteed or boiled and taste so bad it’s a good idea to hold your nose and eat them fast so you don’t actually taste them.
Grits
Ahh, grits. Every Yankee wants to have grits when the go to the South because that’s what they assume every Southerner eats every day. Well we don’t and I don’t because they are tasteless. The are kind of like rice but really just a pool of yuck. To give them any flavor at all you’ve got to coat them with butter and anything else you can find in the kitchen.
Give me a big heap of breakfast potatoes instead.
Okra
I was forced to eat okra a lot as a kid. And I never liked it. First of all, okra looks gross. They are green, limp and have seeds. My grandmother and mother, otherwise fine cooks, would try and season them in a frying pan but they always tasted terrible. Yuck.
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