Food meme!

[seidskratti]

Ganked from siliconshaman.

The saying goes, "as American as Apple Pie!"...so what foods define where you live? Be it locally or Nationally.

• Grits. Made by grinding hominy (corn that's been soaked in lye). Common breakfast food, kind of like a porridge, but eaten with butter and salt and pepper or other savory seasonings, not sweet.
• Sweet (iced) Tea. Strong black tea made by boiling the leaves in the water. Sugar's added while it's still hot so it's almost tea-flavored simple syrup. I read a while back that the southern US iced tea was originally green tea, pre-WWI. Not sure if it's true or not.
• Southern-style BBQ. Pulled pork or beef or whole chickens cooked in big smokers often made from old oil drums. Sauces are a jealously-guarded secret... which can be a big pain when you have food allergies and have to know ingredients and they refuse to tell you.
• Hot boiled peanuts. Green peanuts boiled in the shell in salted water in huge batches, then dipped out and served fresh. Common to see roadside stands selling these at the right time of year.

Bonus round... What tastes define Summer for you?

• Iced tea. Mentioned above. Probably the only thing I miss about the south when I leave. I make sun-tea, sometimes, or brew mine more conventionally and ice it, but I almost always have sweet tea when I go out.
• Cheap frozen ice pops. The kind that come a hundred to a box that you throw in the freezer and cut the tops off to eat. I think my ex-girlfriend and I once went through a box in under two weeks. Great treat for keeping cool if you don't have air conditioning.
• Watermelon. Mmm.