Let's Talk About Culture!

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So I found something out today, that made me really, really happy, and is added to a long list of things I take for granted: Pit Beef is a Murlin thang.

I had always assumed that Pit Beef trucks occupied parking lots the world over, but apparently not. That delicious beef is ours, and ours alone. It made me happy that I was privlidged nuff da grew up eatin' Pi' Beaf, 'long wit' blue crabs an' Barger (Berger) cookies, warshin' et dewn wit' sum Natty Boh eur (or) sum cawfee swaytened wit' Dawminew (Domino) shuhgger (Sugar), yeah, wall wawtchin' dem Oreos (Them Orioles) scewre a run on dem Rayngers.

I love Maryland. Every time I find out that something is a "Murlin thang" I am constantly in a state of wonder. Royal Farms (A convenience store. Best chicken boxes in the business) is a Murlin thing. Highs (Another convenience store. best ice cream in the world) is a Murlin thang. I had always though that everyone talked the way we do, or at least everyone in the North of the South, only to find that "Bawlmerese" is it's own dialect of English.

So it got me thinking. Whether it's a city, a state, or a country, or a region of one of the above, what are some things that are exclusive to your culture? What's some of the unique food you like, or some linguistic oddity that marks you as being from there? What sports teams do you support, or what are some pastimes? What's it like where you're at?

Last edited by fueledbycoffee on 17 Jun 2013, 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ooh, like Golden Flake snack chips and RC Cola and the" Iron Bowl" every November and humidity and fire ants in the summer and stuff like that?

Yeah, that's the idea. If you were somewhere else, anywhere but home, the kinda stuff you might get homesick for. Except the Fire Ants. And the humidity. We get that here, and it's hell.

I've got two to add to my list. Utz chips, specifically, Utz Maryland Crab Chips. With that goes Old Bay crab seasoning. Now, get a chicken box from RoFo (Royal Farms), put a bunch of old bay on that, and some ketchup... mmm...

I think Utz is from York County, PA...

I do love authetic Maryland Crab Cakes made in Maryland. Through I never did understand the whole thing about using plain brown towels as a placemat and ketchup only from a squeeze bottle. Is that really a Maryland tradition?

I mean, I've seen all sorts of places, but honestly, in most of the hole-in-the-wall places, that's all you can afford. I've had ketchup from a glass bottle, and immensely colorful placemats, but only in big chains like Pizza Hut or Denny's. If it's a small sandwich joint or whatnot, it's brown paper tablecloth (easy to clean up) and squeeze bottles all the way.

Yeah, Utz isn't a specifically Maryland thing, but neither is Tastykake. Both are regional things. York is literally right over the border, and Tastykake distributes out of Finksburg, so it's all good. I tell you, I wouldn't be able to get neither in Houston or Seattle. I'd miss the hell out of 'em.

Last edited by fueledbycoffee on 17 Jun 2013, 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

...and here I thought people in Maryland just dipped their hand into the sea and pulled up lobster and crab.

Hey, man, we don't have any SEA! We've got an ocean... but honestly, any fish you'd get from ocean city would be coated in tourist stank, and if you dipped you hand in the bay, it's probably be corroded off by the pollution. See, the chemicals give the crabs and oysters flavor, but you gotta be real careful and use the proper equipment to avoid being irradiated. We're the masters of that technique.

I've got to get out of Brampton more because nothing comes to mind. Most of the stores I can think of off the top of my head are chains. They're everywhere. I guess some of the Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants would be independent so they'd be the only restaurant's with their unique names. Other than that difference those kind of places are everywhere.

I don't think Indian food is as popular as it is in other places. You can always find an Indian restaurant. It might be the same elsewhere but I don't know because I'm rarely outside of Brampton or Toronto.

The one thing I notice whenever I'm in Georgetown is that Brampton is a lot more multicultural than Georgetown. Everyone's a white senior citizen there. I didn't think there was any place like that.

Tillamook Ice Cream. 'Nuff said.

We dont have lobsters.
Thats up in New England waters.

We have blue crabs, and oysters, from "THE BAY"- not so much from the open ocean.

But yes- we do just reach into the bay and pull them out! And already cooked perdue chicken.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 18 Jun 2013, 9:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

Milo's and Jack's hamburgers. An acquaintance of mine sang the Milo's jingle "Everbody goes to Milo's." He's dead now but they can;t find anybody who can sing it as well as he did, so it still plays. He was a professional blues singer and he had one of those deep, scratchy, soulful voices.

Chilton County peaches, pecans from the tree in the back yard, Crape Myrtle and Magnolia trees.

Oh, and I forgot about the big, gorgeous murals in the main room of the old library downtown. They show famous couples from world literature and were painted in the 1920s. I was bemused as a child by the bare breasts in the Egyptian pair. I was surprised that nobody campaigned for them to be covered up but I didn't want my mom to know that I'd noticed so I never said anything.

Last edited by Mindsigh on 19 Jun 2013, 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

I like cobbler. Cobbler is like pie but it's made without a bottom crust, and you can use a variety of fruits in it like apple, peaches, blackberries, or blueberries. I was amazed to find out that it's purely an American invention, it was created when settlers didn't have enough flour or the right kind of flour to make pies with a bottom crust so they had to improvise on what they had. So it's cool that one of my favorite deserts was actually invented in my own country.

That looks... so epic.

Mr. Pibb soda.

Corn bread.

Real Mexican food.

Real Italian food.

Corn souffle/corn pudding. (Locals call it scalloped or creamed corn but it's a cross between creamed corn and corn bread.)

Mashed potatoes without garlic or horse radish or other fancy non essential items in it. U.S. Midwest style.

Dinner rolls with dinner.

Midwest style meal, which is meat and gravy and starch (potato or mac and cheese) plus vegetable and dessert and iced tea. Impossible to find authentically, elsewhere other than also the US South.

Thanksgiving.

Halloween.

dia de los Muertos

Gourmet food trucks

Walking (around) the lakes

Walker Art Museum (big spoon with cherry especially)

Egg salad

Deviled eggs (again with only the basic ingredients)

Potato salad

Spaghetti without veggies in it (made with pizza sauce)

Chef Boy Ar Dee (not so much now since GMO)

McDonald's greasy fries

Pacific ocean

Mississippi River

Riverboats

flat barges

Train sounds in the distance

street beggars

street entertainers

coyotes (animals, not the human smuggler's nickname)

deer and fawns

wild birds

smog

palm trees

dogwood trees

Lincoln memorials

Olvera street

I could go on and on.