A tourist orders breakfast at a diner outside Covington, and the waitress sets down something the menu just calls “goetta.” They ask what’s in it. The waitress just says it’s better if you don’t ask twice. These are the Kentucky foods that make the rest of the country do a double take. 1. Burgoo Families…
Kroger and Food City sit closer to home for many Tennesseans, and many still drive past both. Publix earns the detour. These are the Publix finds worth the longer drive for Tennessee shoppers. 1. Hand-Rolled Sushi Tennessee’s newest Publix stores keep a sushi chef stationed behind the seafood counter, hand-rolling fresh selections every day the…
Publix picked its slogan in 1954 and hasn’t touched a word of it since. That’s 72 years without a single rewrite. Many Floridians have held up their end too, in habits nobody at the company ever had to advertise. These are the Publix traditions Floridians have kept alive for decades. 1. Stepping on the Publix…
A couple pulls into the trailhead parking lot north of downtown Phoenix and tells their hiking group they’re headed up Squaw Peak. The sign at the trailhead says Piestewa Peak. Nobody corrects them, and nobody wants to. These are the words Arizona boomers keep saying without realizing they turned offensive somewhere along the way. 1….
Think the worst thing Texas’ summer can cost you is a high electric bill? Not necessarily. Ask anybody who’s spent a July night in an emergency room after reaching into a woodpile they couldn’t see into. These are the Texas summer rules locals follow that newcomers often end up learning the hard way. Note: This…
Local boards run every liquor store in North Carolina, town by town and county by county, on hours they set themselves. Newcomers to the Tar Heel State pull on locked doors constantly. These are the habits that give away someone who grew up in North Carolina and someone who didn’t. 1. Ordering Slaw Without Asking…
Can you explain why a family stands on a California beach at midnight in August, waiting on fish? Locals can. They can also tell you why nobody lifts their feet walking into the water at Seal Beach. Every beach habit on this list has an explanation, and East Coast visitors rarely get past the first….
Readers of an Ohio newspaper once voted a deep-fried ball of sauerkraut their city’s official food. Akron, naturally. Foods like that never made it past the state line, so the names on a restaurant menu in Ohio stop visitors cold. These are the foods Ohioans grew up eating that the rest of America has never…
A new neighbor in Kokomo accepts an invitation to a pitch-in and turns up carrying nothing but a bottle of wine. Nobody says a word. Many Hoosiers would sooner let you work it out than embarrass you over an empty casserole dish. These are the habits Hoosiers never explain to the people who move to…
Put D batteries, a blue tarp, and a five-gallon gas can on the belt, and the cashier knows what the forecast says before you open your mouth. The rest of what they catch comes from register training and from state laws nobody mentions at the door. These are the things a Florida grocery cashier sorts…
