I’ve been blessed to have traveled to all fifty states in the USA and over twenty foreign countries. All of these place have their own cultures, which often includes different kinds of food. Here is a photo of some delicious Spaetzle, a dish popular in Germany and Austria. You’ll also notice an empty bottle of diet coke. Diet drinks are much more expensive in Europe than they are in the US. They are not as popular there either.
I have also lived in eleven different states and found even in the USA that we have cultural differences from region to region. I grew up in South Dakota and Montana. Coke or any carbonated beverage was pop, but as I moved around the country I learned that some folks call it soda, a soft drink or tonic, and some call all of it coke. When we lived in the south, sweet tea was often the beverage of choice. One of my daughters still loves sweet tea. I’m not fan.
When we moved from Georgia to Massachusetts, I learned that my pop was tonic, water fountains were called bubblers and wicked meant very. As I moved from place to place, I also learned that people refer to roads in different ways. Very often folks in Southern California put “the” before the number of the highway. They would refer to interstate 5 as “the 5.” When I lived in Chicago, they had names for the interstates such as the Kennedy or the Eisenhower. I could never remember which name went with which interstate. I wanted to say, “Just give me a number so I know where I’m going.”
When I graduated from college, I got my first teaching job near Cincinnati, Ohio. They have some special saying in Cincinnati. Instead of saying “pardon me” or “what did you say?”, folks from Cincinnati say, “please?” They talk about 3-way, 4-way or 5-way chili. Sub sandwiches are called hoagies while they are called grinders in Massachusetts. In Cincinnati a pony keg is the corner store.
Where my husband grew up in Illinois, they call tortellini “ravs.” They also fix breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches. My dad’s family was German and came to the US via Russia. They always fixed what we called “rounders” and some folks call “runzas.” They are dough pouches filled with seasoned hamburger and cabbage. Here’s a photo of some I made recently. 
I could probably name a dozen other customs, expressions or culinary differences I have seen in different parts of the country, but I don’t want to make this post too long. I like to notice these differences because when writing a book, I want to make sure my characters talk, eat and live like the people who come from the area where the book is set.
What are the special customs or sayings where you live?
I’ll be giving away an e-book of A PLACE TO CALL HOME to one person who leaves a comment. I will draw the name of the winner on January 31, 2016.
Merrillee Whren is an award-winning author who writes inspirational romance. She is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award for best inspirational romance manuscript presented by Romance Writers of America. She has also been the recipient of the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of thirty plus years, and has two grown daughters. She has lived in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Florida but now makes her home in the Arizona desert. When she’s not writing, she spends her free time playing tennis or walking while she does the plotting for her novels.
Hi Merrillee. I’m fascinated by cultural differences, too :) In Australia we call soda either soft drink or fizzy drink, we drink water from bubblers, and we call flip flops ‘thongs’ (which has a totally different meaning in the US). I’m vacationing in the US in March, and I’m looking forward to having a cinnamon roll (we don’t have them in Australia).
After growing up in the Washington, DC area and then moving to the south, I remember the first time I ordered ice tea in a restaurant. The waitress looked at me as though I had three heads. “You mean sweet tea, right?” Not knowing the difference, I agreed. That was the last time I ordered it.
Growing up in the southwestern US, flip flops were “thongs” – I still have to stop myself. I’m not sure if they still call them that, as I was growing up before the underthings of the same name existed, but it did take me a moment when the latter became a thing to remember they weren’t referring to shoes.
Love this post! I enjoy spotting the regional differences when they’re incorporated into books.
I went to college in Illinois and never could manage to ask for a “pop”. I’ve always called it soda.
I grew up in Jamaica and Avocado is Pear for us. I still can’t get use to say avocado. I love learning about different cultures and the different types of food.
Narelle and Elizabeth, I called them thongs when I was growing up, too.
Colleen, I have never heard of an avocado called a pear. That’s a new one for me. Folks from the Cincinnati, Ohio area call green peppers mangoes.
Here in the south everyone is Hun or Sugar . We bless everybody’s heart and love our sweet tea and BBQ
Such a fun post! Canada has regional differences, too. One thing I’ve noticed is that Canadians will buy chocolate bars while Americans buy candy bars.
Hi Merrillee, I love your blog post about the differences around the US. I think it’s so interesting to notice these things, when traveling. When I moved from Minnesota, many years ago, I was often confused by some of the local terminology. One of the funny things that happened where I worked was when the other girls would comment about this one girl who always was receiving sugar at lunch time from her husband. I couldn’t figure out why he would be bringing her sugar everyday. I finally asked someone, who told me that “sugar” was a kiss or kisses.
Having lived in Hong Kong for 19 years, I still sometimes call an overpass a “flyover” :-)
I lived in New Mexico and when you eat Mexican food, they always ask red or green meaning do you want red or chile on top of your food.
Sheila, I remember that from when we lived near Atlanta.
Valerie, yes, I’ve always said candy bars. Do you say chocolate even if it’s not chocolate?
Kay, what a cute story!
Margaret, I don’t remember where I’ve heard that expression before, but I have heard overpasses called flyovers before.
Linda, I think Mexican food can have a regional taste.
Your post made me hungry for bierocks, which is what the Russian German Mennonites from my home town in central Kansas call rounders. I would love to have a German meal right now with bierocks, and verinike, and cherry moos. Mmmm. The main word differences I’ve noticed from KS to SC is that down here shopping carts are “buggies” and if I call a vacuum cleaner a “sweeper” people think I’m talking about a broom.
Here in north Texas we say “y’all” all the time. Great article!
Andrea
andrearenee2004@yahoo.com
I loved this post! It reminded me of the I was living in Washington state and said to a co-worker I needed to stop at the market on my way home. He had no idea what I meant and thought it was hilarious that I called the grocery store the market. I now use the words interchangeably.
Katy, I had no idea that anyone else called them rounders but my family.
Andrea, I lived in N. Texas and remember that well.
Kimberly, I also lived in Washington state. I can’t remember whether I said grocery or market, but I probably said grocery.
Kimberly, somehow my reply to you went under Andrea’s comment. Guess I clicked the wrong button. :)
Elizabeth and Merrillee, it’s interesting how the meaning of words can change over time, but it’s not necessarily a global change in other regions or countries.
Excellent blog about differences in culture and word choice between different countries, but also regions in those countries. Spätzle, German / Austrian noodles is a southern German / Austrian dish.My father and I were born in Berlin and my mom was from East Prussia and I never had them at home or any of my parent’s friends homes. As In most major metropolitan areas I did eat spätzle in Berlin in 1996 and 2009. Socio -economics also plays a roll In culture. Michigan with its Lower and Upper peninsula has differences. Pasties are from the UP. Then there are differences within the lower peninsula, depending who settled in a region – southerns or German or Middle East. We say living room but my daughter-in-law says front room. Many readers enjoy how authors blend this cultural diversity in Thor works.
Jill, I didn’t realize that sweet tea and iced tea are different. Iced tea isn’t common in Australia, and I love hot black tea with milk. I’ve learned to provide specific instructions when I order tea in the US :)
It sounds like you love to travel and find out about different cultures. Thank you for sharing that love and thanks for the giveaway!
Janice
I love this post! I grew up in Texas and moving to AZ was a bit of a culture shock for me. Breakfast tacos were now breakfast burros (as well as all burritos). Silly me. I’d always thought a burro was a donkey. I discovered that chili didn’t mean the big dish of meat and beans that my father had won several cook-offs for, but a large green pepper that went be names like Big Jim, Sandia and others. I kept waiting for waitresses to ask “What kind?” when I said I wanted a coke. And then I was perplexed when they brought me a Coca-Cola.
I’ve learned the difference between Tex-Mex and real Mexican food and how to correctly pronounce words like saguaro, Gila and Huachuca, but I’ve never quite learned to stop saying y’all or fixin’ to.
Kimberly, if you were in Australia you’d be saying you were going to the supermarket. We go to the markets to buy farm fresh produce, meat, seafood – an alternative to buying in-store. Our markets sometimes have other stalls eg. handmade jewellry, crafts, food.
Narelle, when we were in Europe last summer, we saw some really big, big markets with all kinds of booths. It was fascinating.
Hi Merrillee, I live in southwest Louisiana, and we have a lot of different customs here. We call sub sandwiches PoBoys, our evening meal is called supper instead of dinner. To put something away is called saving it. Growing up sodas were called soda pops. Thanks for the giveaways.
Renate, how interesting that you born in Berlin. Although my dad’s family was German, I had never heard of Spaetzle until I read about while doing research for a book. When we were traveling in Germany last summer, I saw it on the menu, first in Austria, then Bavaria, and I had to have some. Delicious. I noticed you spelled it with a special marking over the a and no e.
Janice, we do love to travel. My hubby is already planning our trip to the Netherlands and Norway for this coming summer.
LeAnne, so many things you mentioned are things I have had to learn about AZ, too. I’m still learning.
Carol, I always called the evening meal supper, too. My son-in-law who hails from Massachusetts says dinner, so my granddaughters call it dinner and are always correcting me when I say supper. Also, he calls athletic shoes sneakers while I call them tennis shoes.
I think I picked the term “market” up from my grand-parents. They were from Massachusetts. I still same some words with an accent because it’s the only way I know how to say them. lol
Kimberly, we do often use the sayings we grew up with. I have a funny story about my brother who married a Texas girl, and she kept asking him to get her the “fawl.” He couldn’t figure out what she was asking for until he finally figured out she was saying “foil.” I also had a typing instructor who was from Oklahoma, and she was giving us words to type, and she said “ire.” All of us northerners typed “ire,” but what she was saying was “our.”
That’s funny, Merrillee. :) It amazes me how different we talk based on what part of the country we or our relatives are from.
Merrillee, the two dots over the a is called an umlaut. Umlauts are used in German over a, o, and u. They change the vowel sound. On electronic devices if you have set up the language preference for German language, instead of using an umlaut you would type or write using an e – Spätzle is Spaetzle. In German all nouns are capitalized. (I am a retired German, World Culture, American Lit, Contemporary Lit, and Creative Writing teacher. I also taught English as a Second Language. I have taught all grade levels – from first thru college.)
Spätzle is German pasta. If you do not have a Spätzle maker, but want to make it there are recipes on line and you can push the dough through a colander. One can buy packaged Spätzle in the German section in International aisle of your supermarket. That is how I make my Spätzle when I make Wiener Schnitzel.
Love this blog and the comments on different strokes for different folks. That is why I enjoy traveling and teaching a World Culture class.
Terms vary even within a state. I had a friend from the bootheel of Missouri who said she had to “carry” her husband home meaning give him a ride. He was a large man so this made me laugh. As an “older” woman, terms have changed during the years too.
Joan, yes terms have changed over the years. Unfortunately, some very nice words have been hijacked, and now their meanings are dubious.
Renate, thanks for the informations
I grew up in Illinois & live in Oregon now (almost 20yrs). I never really knew any difference in speech until the first time I visited after being gone for 7 years. I adapted to native Oregonian language by that time, so when we say “soda” they say “pop”. And yes, I remember breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches! The tenderloin was 2-3 times bigger than the bun it was in….nobody here knows what that is. It’s making my mouth water just thinking about it, lol! I also noticed a slight Midwestern accent while talking to my relatives, but they said I had one :-) My one aunt lives in Alabama so you can definitely tell she’s southern by how she talks! As in, she’s fixin to do something (she’s getting ready to do something). I think by the time I flew back to Oregon after that week with my family, I sounded like they did…..my husband had commented on that very thing!
We also vacationed to Canada early in our marriage & I could definitely hear the accent in their speech. One restaurant we ate at served brown gravy with their fries. I had to ask the waitress what it was for! I guess that’s how they eat it :-) We’ve also eaten authentic German & Dutch food. I love the Wiener Schnitzel with sauerkraut (German) and the Aebleskivers (Danish pancake/popover). I think I my dream career would be a world food critic, that way I can sample foods from all over :-)
Trixi, it is interesting how we pick up speech patterns from where we live. I have an interesting story about fries. My daughter got a job in Pittsburgh, and during a business meeting someone says that they are going to order salads for everyone to have for lunch. She was thinking it was going to be a health and calorie-light meal. When she opened the box, a pile of fries sat on top of the salad. When we went out to eat there while visiting, we also got fries on our salads.
Andrea Cox is the winner of A PLACE TO CALL HOME.