Order a whiskey Old Fashioned in a Wisconsin bar, and the bartender might ask you to repeat that. Brandy is the state’s answer, not whiskey. These are the Wisconsin foods and drinks that leave the rest of the country staring at their plates and glasses. 1. Fried Cheese Curds Wisconsin’s love for cheese goes well…
On a Saturday in Brunswick County, Virginia, a man stirs a cast-iron kettle the size of a bathtub with what looks a lot like a boat oar. He’s been at it since before sunrise, and half the county has followed the smell to the firehouse. Tell a friend in Minnesota you spent your morning that…
A Pennsylvania transplant walks into a grocery store in Nevada looking for scrapple and walks out empty-handed. The deli clerk has never heard the word. Neither has anybody else in the store. These are the things Pennsylvanians miss most after they move away. 1. Primanti Bros Sandwich Pittsburgh’s Strip District gave Pennsylvania a sandwich that…
America’s oldest brewery has been filling glasses in Pottsville since 1829, back when the country had just 24 states. Yuengling is only the start of what Pennsylvanians carry like a birthright. These are the things Pennsylvanians are proud of that no other American quite gets. 1. Wawa Runs Deep Wawa is the first stop after…
Anybody can dunk a wing in blue cheese and call it dinner. Telling the true Buffalo wing story from the tall tales is the hard part. In honor of National Chicken Wing Day today, July 29, here’s a two truths and a lie game for you. Each round below hands you three statements, two of…
Half of what newcomers think they know about Tennessee comes from a country song or a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Both get it wrong. Jack Daniel’s isn’t bourbon, and the state that supposedly runs on country music gave the world the blues, soul, and rock and roll too. These are the things Tennesseans are tired…
Six cousins once piled into a wood-paneled Buick Estate Wagon, three of them behind the back seat, for the drive down I-81 to Grandma’s. Nobody clicked a belt. That was an ordinary Saturday for a Virginia kid in 1975. Today, it would get a parent pulled over before the end of the block. These are…
Do you know what a Georgian means when they ask what kind of coke you want? If you’re not from the South, we’re willing to bet you don’t. These are the words and phrases Georgians say that leave many Americans across the country completely lost. 1. Carry A Georgian offering to “carry” you somewhere isn’t…
A transplant from Michigan shows up to a cookout near Florence at noon, and the host has already been awake since four in the morning. There’s a whole hog out back on a cinder-block pit, tended in shifts and still hours from done. By dark, that newcomer will have tried a handful of items nobody…
A Florida winter is the easy part. August is the test. While summer is winding down up north, the worst of the heat and the busiest weeks of hurricane season are both still ahead for Floridians. These are the things longtime Florida residents refuse to do in August, no matter what. 1. Wait for a…
