@@DianeJenningsdefinitely worth a try at least. Of course be sure you are getting a decent quality dish. Anything can be made nasty if cooked wrong or poorly. Got some biscuits and gravy one time and the gravy was so oily and wasn't even white like it was supposed to be, it was like a greasy brown 🤢.
@@DianeJennings if you get a chance to come to the states again, and go to the southern states...make sure to look out/listen. There are many wonderful places that make great B&SG!
Grits are a coarse, white corn meal, served like a porridge, but neutral enough to go well with salty, savory or even sweet foods. We often have breakfast for dinner in my family, and the grits are great with fried eggs and corned beef hash! I'm an actual southerner, so I can also tell you how to make really good sweet iced tea if you're interested!
Came here to say this is a rough ground porridge. Honestly I hate them plain but shrimp and grits or cheesy grits. All day…instant grits aren’t worth anything. After living in the south for 6 years I got some opinions. Haha the way my friends in Idaho looked at me when I described eating a crawdad.
Yes Grits aren't meant to be eaten plain. You have to top them with something or it is like a grittier porridge, but once you get the taste for them they are great.
Meatloaf is actually a pretty simple non-offensive food. Ground beef, bread crumbs, some mild sauces (ketchup, mustard, worcestershire, A1, whatever) Some people add ground sausage to it too. Smoosh it up and bake. Can be eaten as is with whatever condiments you like, but my favorite way is to use it in a sandwich.
You can make a meatloaf with rolled oats. Quaker Oats used to have a recipe on the box. Much easier than messing with bread crumbs. Very yummy, though I have to say we made it spicier. Also we put ground mutton trimmings into it when available. So I guess that kinda made it haggis?
The recipe for meatloaf used here doesn't include any sauces and no spices except salt and pepper. In addition to the ground beef and bread crubs, we add chopped onion and an egg for a binder. And the ketchup is reserved for adding after it is dished onto a plate.
True story. I went much of my life never having had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because it sounded weird. In my 40s, I finally tried it and was surprised how delicious it really is. Something about the salt and sweet combination I guess.
I literally had PB&J for lunch at school every day from 3rd grade to 11th grade. I lived on it, and still enjoy a good sandwich. I eat them much, much more infrequently, as I'm trying to lose weight, but from a taste perspective - they're soooo good! Grape jelly was the classic, but I fell in love with raspberry and especially blackberry jelly!
I go back and forth on it. As a kid I hated it. As an adult I like it sometimes, but if I drink too much of it I start to notice the medicine/toothpaste-like taste. And some brands (Mug) just don't taste good to me at all.
Just my two cents but, I find pop-tarts are, at best, okay. Only when warmed, though. You could easily make something similar that would taste far better at home.
The gravy used for Biscuits and Gravy is made from buttermilk, flour, sausage bits and some of the drippings from the sausage, making it appear as a white gravy. The biscuit is closer to a scone than anything else. Together it is a savory breakfast treat that is quite delicious. Grits is made from Hominy, a large variety of corn, so grits is a porridge that is corn grain based rather than oats or wheat based.
The European version of grits is polenta, which is typically made with yellow corn. Hominy grits usually appear white, and the grain size of the cracked kernels is a little finer than they cornmeal used for polenta. If you were of a mind to, you could dress hominy grits up with any sauce you might put on polenta, like a bolognese sauce or pesto. Romania has a cornmeal mush called mammaliga that occupies the same niche; that often gets eaten with Hungarian and Romanian sauces which may be based on tomatoes, peppers/paprika or mushrooms. When I've been in the grits region of the US (the southeast generally, from Texas to the Atlantic), it's usually served as a breakfast side dish - the starch that accompanies your eggs/meat. I suppose the Southerners who order it as a side dish with eggs must eat it either with a savory sauce (cream or sausage gravy) or use jam/jelly as a sweet condiment, similar to the way you'd eat oatmeal. We rarely see grits as a side dish in California, except sometimes at soul food restaurants. As a breakfast side, the usual thing here is potatoes, either homefried (boiled, cut into chunks, fried to a slight crisp with onions and/or peppers) or hash browned (grated and fried crisp, similar to potato pancakes). Hash browns used to be the standard everywhere, but home fries have mostly replaced them over the last 40 years. You can still get hash browns off the McDonald's breakfast menu.
In Puerto Rico, where my family is from there's a dish called the Pastellon. Which has the same structure as a lasagna; building layers of ground beef, ricotta cheese, and tomato sauce, on top of each other. But instead of the pasta there's a layer of plantains which is a banana variety that slightly more firm in texture and slightly less sweet. It's a sweet and savory combo, sounds weird but it works.
@@bothellkenmore absolutely, another Puerto Rican dish is called Mofongo, where the plantains are made a dough out of and usually with some seafood, pork cracklings, and garlic mixed in. It's delicious.
There's a dismissive American term for the sweetish, aerated, spongy white bread Europeans sneer at: Balloon bread. My mom called it that back in the 60s, and so did all my friends' moms. There's lots of excellent American bread to be found; I don't know why Europeans insist on restricting their American bread searches to plastic bags in supermarkets, and assume that's all we have and all we like. I doubt I've eaten ten slices of white balloon bread in the last 40 years, and all of that was served as a side with barbecue, to sop up the sauce.
Southerner here (Atlanta). Biscuits and (white) gravy is a breakfast item, it's buttermilk biscuits topped with white gravy (flour, and typically either breakfast sausage or bacon grease cooked together until an emulsification takes place this making gravy). Brown gravy and red gravy are typically dinner/supper gravy's red goes on ham, brown goes on mashed potatoes. One of my favorite meals from a diner near me is country fried steak (cubed steak battered and deep fried like chicken) with biscuits and both the steak and biscuits are covered by the gravy, oh and a side of bacon to go with it.
McNuggets have 4 shapes that are officially called Ball, Bone, Bell, and Boot, BUT if you look at a map of Ireland 🇮🇪, you can see that "McNuggets" are actually modeled after Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connacht respectively. MCNUGGETS 😂
Grits is about the consistency of Cream of Wheat. More sandy as you described it. They are eaten several ways. In most of the south they are thought of as exclusively a breakfast food like oatmeal. But in the “Low Country” especially in South Carolina, they are served as a side dish at any meal. Cheesy grits with your fried chicken or shrimp is AMAZING!
Cream of Wheat is definitely more of a breakfast item, but grits really seem to be neutral enough to be flavored in so many ways that they can be an anytime side dish.
@@ajknaup3530 Northern Italian polenta is basically cornmeal mush; it's typically served as a lunch/dinner side. If you let polenta cool, it stiffens up to the point that you can slice it. When I've got leftover polenta, I let it solidify and then slice it and fry it in olive oil, or bake it.
Lobster salad roll is a MUST to try if you go to the New England states. While you're there, whole belly fried clams is amazing ! In Tampa, FL. where the Cuban sandwich was invented in the 1880's for Cuban immigrants to have a quick something to eat. Tampa, FL. had a huge cigar industry then. Grits are a type of porridge made from boiled cornmeal. Hominy grits are a type of grits made from hominy - corn that has been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization, with the pericarp (ovary wall) removed. Cooked in warm salted water or milk considered a soup.
I love biscuits and gravy. Typically goes with a sauaage patty and there may even be bits of sausage in the gravy too. Add eggs cooked you're way and boom. Awesome breakfast.
Just you saying “I’ve tried a few fruits” is a bit funny to me lol I can’t imagine my life without fruits and I don’t even consider myself to be that big of a fruit person
I thought that was funny too. I am a big fruit person, but I only like certain kinds of fruits, I am very picky. Lol. Like apples - Honeycrisp, Ambrosia, Cosmic Crisp... I will eat those raw or cooked but will not eat Red Delicious ever and Granny Smith only in desserts, but would still rather it be Honeycrisp. Gala and Fuji are acceptable, but never my first choice. I have weird rules like that about a lot of fruits. The only ones that I won't eat ever in any circumstance are mango and papaya.
A popular sandwich in New England is a Fluffer-Nutter, consisting of peanut butter and marshallow fluff. To be considered pure, it must be served on soft white sandwich bread. But in a pinch, I have been known to go outside the box and have it on wheat bread, and if I want to go totally rogue, roll it up in a tortilla.
DUDE I love a Fluffler-Nutter. Here from the Midatlantic (Maryland). I hate white bread those -- we usually have a whole grain, and a flour tortilla is really good.
In Pennsylvania Dutch Country (and I'm sure some other places), if you order chicken and waffles you will not get a few pieces of chicken legs or wings and separately a couple of waffles. It's served with some waffles as a base and then fairly thick chicken gravy with boneless white and dark meat chicken pieces (both large and small) poured over the waffles and over the mashed potatoes usually served with them. More of a dinner, not a breakfast. One of my favorites.
Biscuits and gravy is so good. It's usually really dense biscuits and the gravy is thick and has small pieces of sausage in it. It's common in the great plains region of the country too (Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, N & S Dakota). We mostly eat it for breakfast, but not always. I still eat Peanut butter and Jelly. It's yummy and a filling, fast, easy to eat sandwich - good to take on hikes or when work was extra hard and I'm too tired to cook something.
My sister-in-law in Louisiana sometimes uses her waffle iron to make waffles à la corn meal so instead of cornbread in a pan she makes it in a waffle maker that’s not bad actually
Peanut butter and jelly was a staple for me when growing up. The problem with pb&j today is there are so many kids with peanut allergies that you can't bring it in to school for lunch.
When did they stop letting kids bring pb&j to school? I brought pb&j to school a lot when I was a kid, but I don't think as many people were as defective back then. Today, it seems like everybody is allergic to virtually everything. The only allergies I remember people having when I was a kid were hay fever, peanuts, shellfish, bees, and cats. I don't think that many people were *really* allergic to cats; they just didn't like cats, but saying they were allergic to cats got them less flak than being honest.
Also the biscuits are a slightly more dense version of bread. Some people say they are similar to scones but truthfully scones are much drier where buttermilk biscuits are a fluffy, moist and tender bread. The gravy is made of flour, salt, pepper, milk and breakfast sausage (mostly) so it is a completely savory meal. The use of the word biscuit is probably confusing.
Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. It is a breakfast food, but sometimes we like "breakfast for dinner". Yes, that is a thing because breakfast foods are easy to cook, and there is probably plenty of ingredients in the house.
For my food that I eat often that other people probably do not, I like to use an avacado instead of mayo when I make my tuna salad sandwich. Not just a slice. I smash it all up with a can of tuna and some pickle relsh. BTW, Biscuits and Gravy are awesome anytime.
Traditional southern Catholic dish. Mix the leftover cornmeal dip with whatever you have left, and fry it in the hot oil from the Fish Fry out behind the church. I'm not Catholic, but my family used to swing by at the end of the fish fry and give them a few bucks for the leftovers.
The video British Highschoolers Try Biscuits and Gravy for the First Time!...All loved it! Their eyes rolled in the back of their heads in heavenly delight as they ate it, but were grossed out before hand. I believe they all loved it across the board, not like, but loved.
A food combination of mine my family calls napalm. It's mashed potatoes and whatever meat & veg is with dinner. It's buried in a ton of Louisiana brand hot sauce. If we are having rice, it's faux palm. It's all mixed up in a bowl. One that I got from my mom is similar. Fried cube steak, mashed potatoes, corn, salad with ONLY French dressing, no other dressing would work, all mixed together in a bowl. I eat these things regularly but I think gravy on French fries with cheese is weird 😂
If your ever in Atlanta you must go to Mary Mac's Tea Room, it's the closest to home cooked soul food you can get. And their meat loaf is amazing. Basically meat loaf is almost like a giant meatball from spaghetti that is just cooked in a pan that makes it look like a loaf of bread. It's ground beef, bread crumbs, seasoning basically cooked in like a bread pan and then sliced up to serve its like a square flat meat ball. Add mashed potatoes and gravy, and collards and that's southern heaven..
If you ever decide to come to Texas again, I would be glad to treat you to so many of these dishes from great places. The only one that I think I would have difficulty with is the fried rattlesnake. I don't recall ever seeing it on a menu. I have tried it though. As a young Boy Scout, we encountered a big rattlesnake on a hike. A rattlesnake does not stand a chance against half a dozen early teen boys with no fear in life because we will live forever, We took the snake back to camp where our troop leader showed us the way to fried rattlesnake. I remember it being very tasty and enjoying the experience. That occurred over 50 years ago and I don't know if the experience would be the same today.
Diane is mostly a chicken and chocolate girl But she has tried many foods from different places If the camera is rolling, she’ll usually give it a whirl But it often results in her making some funny faces
I wonder if she would ever try durian fruit?. Most people avoid it like the plague since it's literally love/hate taste wise. Love it - tastes great Hate it - dead flesh
Rather than describing grits as a type of corn-based porridge, it would probably be better to think of them as a (somewhat moist) rice replacement. Then "shrimp and grits" doesn't sound quite so strange. (And I've tried shrimp & grits -- it was great!)
I put peanut butter on my bologna and cheese sandwich, it grosses everyone out, until they try it. From what I know of you Diane, you'd like biscuits and gravy, it is really a breakfast food. Also, no danger eating a rattlesnake as they are venomous not poisonous. Hope you visit is fun.
When you get a chance, try finger steaks and waffle fries, and you can add some deep fried mushrooms as well. It is a dish that originated in the state of Idaho.
I was a ski bum/college student in the 80's. There was a little breakfast restaurant on the way up to the mountain that served biscuits and gravy. Nothing better to get ready for a good day of skiing.
Disclosure: I'm a Southerner. With that out of the way... My usual brunch place in Charlotte is Eddie's Place. Before it became a menu item, their chicken and waffles was only offered as a brunch item, randomly (brunch is only served on weekends). Boneless, skinless, pecan-crusted chicken breast served on waffles from a vintage waffle iron the owner picked up at auction. Ben, the server/bartender, recommended it, with it coming with cinnamon butter. When he came back for my order, I asked for the C&W, but instead of the butter, two easy-poached eggs on top. His response was, "That....Sounds....AWESOME!!" The lady sitting next to me at the bar (as a single I don't want to take a whole table) looked at me and said, "I just ordered the C&W, and now I wish that I had thought of that!" Grits are, for even some Southerners, an acquired taste - one I have yet to acquire. But if you are in the Charlotte area, do try the Parmesan cheese grits at... Eddie's Place (I swear I have no financial interest in the place, it's just that good - and inexpensive and family friendly). People rave over them. You can also order shrimp and grits with the Parm grits. But grits are ground hominy, a relative of corn. Think of them as large, white, pasty, firm variants of their yellow, small, sweet and cushy relatives. They traditionally were ground at grist mills, using large round stones grinding them under pressure powered by a water wheel. The "porrige" part comes in by mixing some milk into the pot as they cook. And it's not a short cook for regular grits - 30-45 minutes, which is how instant grits (like oatmeal) came to be a thing. Hope this helps - if you come to Charlotte, happy to host.
Well, one thing that you absolutely MUST try is biscuits and gravy. Not much to look at, but absolutely delicious. I grew up in the northern U.S. and never had this until I was in my 20s and found myself living in Texas. Now a favorite. Ditto for chicken-fried steak, if you haven't had it before. And frog legs and escargot are also very tasty.
Things I make that might seem odd are smoked hamburgers. Thats when I have 3 hours to cook hamburger instead of a few minutes. I'm not sure Chewie would like them. 🙂 Everyone have a wonderful day.
I'm sure nobody is reading comments after a week, I wanted to talk about grits. Grits are of native American origin. They're made from hominy, which is maize (corn) treated with lye or other alkali, in a process known as nixtamalization. This process allows the niacin in the corn to be absorbed by humans and destroys almost all the mycotoxins found in commonly in corn fungus. Hominy is also common in Mexican cooking as it is used to make masa, the base corn flour in corn tortillas, tamales, etc. When hominy is made, the corn kernels swell, lose their hulls, and turn white. The hominy can then be dried and stored without fear of it sprouting. It can be hydrated and used like beans in pozole, ground finely to make masa, our ground coarsely to make grits. When I was growing up grits were used like rice as a side dish, but usually at breakfast. Often they would be seasoned the slak and black pepper, butter, or sometimes red-eye gravy (made from old coffee and the rendered fat from frying cured country ham). In Italy, polenta is almost the same as grits, except that it's made directly from corn meal without the nixtamalization, and it's usually a little drier form of porridge. The movie My Cousin Vinny has a lot of discussion on grits as Vincent actually learns to like them and there's some courtroom discussion regarding whether or not a whether or not a witness made instant grits. Biscuits and gravy is an even more common food in the southern US. Of course biscuits here are used like bread. They resemble European scones but are not sweetened - just flour, water, shortening (preferably lard or butter), and some leavening. They can be served like dinner rolls, used for sandwiches with country ham or fried chicken, or slathered in gravy. Typically if gravy is used it's white sausage gravy made from the rendered breakfast sausage, milk, and flour. There are multiple fast food chains in this part of the US that specialize in biscuit sandwiches as well as serving biscuits and gravy.
Ketchup, yellow mustard & brown (or hot) mustard mixed together, makes a great cocktail sauce for seafood (like boiled shrimp or crayfish). It's not weird if you're from Louisiana.😉 Also, on the subject of bread, french bread is big in New Orleans and no one else seems to know how to make it as well as in Louisiana. It's _DELICIOUS!!!_ If you've never tried gumbo, you _NEED_ to!! It's basically a seafood soup.
"No one else"? San Francisco would like a word with you. The signature bread here is sourdough, which is fermented with the wild yeasts that float in the air out here. There are sourdough mothers out here that have been maintained for over 100 years. But the Bay Area is a land of bakers; I have four bakeries within 15 minutes of my front door, each of which makes 8-10 distinctive breads. Acme Bakery, the place nearest my house that got its start making the table bread for Chez Panisse, makes five different kinds of baguettes all day, every day. The best Louisiana bread is those round Italian loaves they use for muffuletta. I don't know how good they are just as bread, but once you've muffuletta-ized them, they're awesome.
@@aquilapetram I've never been to SF, therefore, never tasted any of their breads, so, sorry about the disrespect. I meant the breads that are called french bread in other places I've been to. The best way to describe what they call french bread, is a big hot dog bun. Not even close. There's a bakery here called Leidenheimer's that makes _THE_ best french bread.
Grits is a cornmeal-based porridge, which is different from traditional porridge that uses wheat or oats. Can be served savory (salt, black pepper, butter, cheese etc.) or sweet (butter, sugar, maple syrup, etc.)
Just had a huge bowl of grits with honey, pecans and dried apricots for dinner last night. Also my Mom made awesome meatloaf so it was never anything I had to be forced to eat.
More specifically, hominy meal. Hominy is corn soaked in lye. This releases otherwise unavailable nutrients such as niacin. Ancient Mexicans invented hominy, as well as maize corn.
I can't imagine not liking fruit. Especially if it's apples with peanut butter or caramel. Caramel apples are really good. Especially last year since my local grocery store started having candy bar coated caramel apples in the fall. The Reese's Peanut butter cup and Hershey caramel apples were my favorite. It also had candy cane caramel apples during winter. That one was too weird for me so I never tried it. Might have been good though.
Chicken and waffles may be popular in the south, but it was invented in the Harlem section of Manhattan. A restaurateur came up with the dish to feed the musicians from local jazz clubs when they came in the early morning hours after their gigs. He used what he had on hand, and some of the crowd wanted breakfast while others wanted dinner. When these same musicians went south to visit family or play other clubs, they asked for the dish, and local cooks added it to the menu, where it proved popular.
Ok now I am a Texan and have no dog in this fight. While stationed in Georgia, I had a man that was in his 80's or 90's and a retired jazz musician tell that story the exact opposite. That musicians from New York came to GA had it, loved it and went back up to NYC and had it made. Too funny reading your post brought that back to me.
As someone that grow up eating grits I don't get why some people think it is weird. It's basically a corn meal porridge. Not that different from the polenta that is eating in northern Italy. If you have ever had cream of wheat its about the same consistency. In the winter months I do typically eat oatmeal, but I do like to change up what I eat for breakfast especially on my days off and make a bowl of cheesy grits. With a grilled chicken andouille sausage, two over easy eggs and some Sriracha hot sauce.
Biscuits make good bread too for breakfast or lunch. Add some chicken tenders, cheese, and toppings make a good sandwich so good. Chicken and waffles with pancake syrup all time fav. I hope you try some this week and breakfast cereals.
You nailed it when you mentioned how big the U.S. is. It's big enough to have several regional variations in food. I really don't think there are very many Americans eating rattlesnake or frog legs for example, although obviously some do. Grits are surprisingly interesting. I grew up eating a lot of Malt-O-Meal, a hot, wheat-based cereal. As an adult, I discovered that corn meal cooks up with a similar texture to Malt-O-Meal, and is a lot cheaper! I discovered grits more recently. Grits are basically just a coarser version of corn meal, and also cook up well as a hot cereal. Nowadays when I want a hot cereal, I'll mix oatmeal, corn meal, and grits together--they blend well. But corn meal and grits can also be done as a savory dish instead of as hot cereal with butter and sugar. At one point when I was struggling financially , I made a faux casserole with corn meal. Cook up the corn meal firm, add in some meat, cheese, and veggies, and bake a little until it's done. Tasted fine, especially with enough cheese in it. Polenta is also a corn meal-based food, often served sliced and fried. For an interesting perspective on grits, watch My Cousin Vinny. Grits are discussed in two different scenes in the movie. Meatloaf is often remembered for that sludge they serve in school cafeterias or as a frozen dinner, but meatloaf cooked at home is very versatile and forgiving, allowing for a lot of substitutions in the ingredients, and done right can be very tasty. So no dissing meatloaf! ;-) I've never been a big fan of corndogs, though. Maybe they would be tastier if you used a flavorful sausage instead of a hot dog. But when I go to the fair, I want a blooming onion (a whole onion cut, batter-dipped and deep fried) and a funnel cake. Do I have any specialties of my own? I'm not sure if this counts, but I do like making a home-made nacho or frito salad. Using tortilla chips or corn chips, cover them with meat, chili, cheese (preferably both queso cheese and grated cheese), lettuce and diced tomatoes. Maybe add a touch of sour cream and/or guacamole on top. It's like a deluxe nachos or a deluxe frito pie.
I'm from NYC and my family are Irish: Chicken and waffles I have heard originated in Harlem in the 1920s or so because musicians would play jazz until 4 or 5 AM and would go to eat afterwards. Chicken and waffles was an in between meal, but despite originating with African American musicians in NYC (maybe Chicago also) going out after a show. Grits is a porridge made from cornmeal. In the US, grits is a southern breakfast. I never tried it until I was an adult. In the north, we eat oatmeal.
I meant to write "but despite originating with African American musicians in NYC (maybe Chicago also) going out after a show, it became very popular in the South."
My mother (Irish American) grew up during the depression and the war. For most of that time, jams and jellies were not available, although peanut butter was. So she learned to make peanut butter, mayonnaise and lettuce sandwiches. I had hundreds of them growing up and still make them on occasion.
Many of these are Sweet Savory combos that I can highly recommend. Your mouth is a little confused at first tasting both at the same time, but soon it becomes your favorite. A bit like the tradition of salty cheddar on an apple pie
I am from Minnesota and Biscuits/Gravy or Grits for breakfast were things I had sort of heard of growing up but never had until I was in my 30s and spent time in N Carolina for work. I developed a taste for them and will partake if available. The grits are coarse ground corn that is cooked to a porridge and may have added things like butter, pork sausage, cheese, etc added to flavor it.
The gravy, when properly made, will contain browned ground sausage, whole milk, flour, and ground black pepper. Try this one A Chili Size. = open-faced hamburger with cheese covered with chili and beans, add a few diced onions for spice. 😊
I live in New Mexico, near the capital. A Christmas staple every year is chili and beans. We grow and export many long green and dried red chile. Fall most stores roast them by the bushel. Dried chile makes a red chile paste. Bits of pork in a red sauce made from it and fresh cooked pinto beans are as much a part of Christmas as Santa.
Meatloaf: It's pretty much just Italian meatballs, but baked in a bread pan. Ground beef with bread crumbs used as a binder plus a little tomato paste mixed in as well. "Then season as you prefer. Commonly salt, pepper, thyme, perhaps some rosemary. Seasoned tomato paste is then also spread on the top once it is formed into a "loaf" in the bread pan. Then baked. IDR time or temp. You can cook multiple ones at a time It is then sliced (hot), like bread (around 1cm thick). Often ketchup (catsup) and-or mustard are used as a "sauce." Served with potatoes and carrots as well, cooked in the same oven at the same time but on the lower rack. They also keep well in the fridge, and isn't bad cold, as a sandwich on good, high-quality (home-baked whole grain wheat) bread, with a slice of cheddar or colby, maybe swiss or even pepperjack. Some mixed leafy greens. Some ketchup and/or mustard. ...... There ya go, nice lunch.
When visiting the US, I would definitely find a local restaurant/cafe - like a privately owned, mom & pop type establishment - that serves biscuits and gravy during breakfast. This arguably improves the likelihood that you'll get good quality biscuits and gravy; as opposed to like, a chain restaurant's take on it. Many from the Ireland or UK area tend to look at the US biscuit as a scone, but while similar, it does have some differences in texture and flavor that the same people are quick to recognize. And of course the gravy is a different type of gravy than many from Europe would be accustomed to. And I've seen some questionable takes on the gravy, which is why I suggest finding a place that has deeper community roots. That's sometime I heard is a good tip in general for tourists; because fast food places know tourists aren't coming back, so they don't care if they think their food is crap or makes you sick, but if you ask a a local where they eat, it's bound to have good food. Personally, I agree with adding butter to biscuits and gravy; I do like that, and even a touch of pancake syrup.
7:35 The second kind you described is just oatmeal here. Grits are chunky like this, but the chunks are smaller, kind of like tapioca, but smaller, because grits are made from ground corn.
Grits are link of grainy porridge, but somewhat sweet because it is corn based. Note that Biscuits and Grave that he grave is a white grave made with port meat, not tart brown sauce based.
1) Watch Shaun try a breakfast biscuit for the first time. 2) Watch Jolly try biscuits and gravy for the first time. 3) Watch Jolly have British high schoolers try biscuits and gravy for the first time.
There is a different version of chicken and waffles that we used to eat where I grew up in Pennsylvania. I think it's an Amish inspired recipe, basically a waffle with chunks of chicken in a savory gravy scooped over it. Sounds weird but it was a staple when I was a kid.
Oohh, I love all those meals. In rural parts of California too - hot grits with butter(finely ground corn porridge) or biscuits and gravy for breakfast, meatloaf with ketchup baked on top, peanut butter and jelly, yam casserole. But God I love going to the Fair and eating corndogs! Comfort food!
Some of the food that gets labeled "southern" has always been more widely popular, especially here in the Midwest, or at least Ohio, where I'm from. Biscuits and gravy has always been a very popular breakfast item. I've been eating grits since I was a kid, and for Europeans I would compare it to polenta or mush/cornmush as it has a similar texture and preparation, but instead of being from sweet corn it is from hominy, which is a white field corn. And as for chicken and waffles, the best way to have it is with some syrup and hot sauce, or better yet hot honey, which seems to be more of an Ohio thing. Regarding PB&J - I still eat it on occasion, and it's really the only sandwich I eat. The sweet and salty combo is great. but the critical thing is to put peanut butter on both slices of bread- that keeps the jelly from soaking through the bread.
the biscuit in biscuits and gravy is not a cracker or cookie, but a medium firm thin bread roll that is split open into two halves, like a softer bread like english muffin. the gravy is a white sausage gravy, usully with a god amount of pepper as well, and not a savory meat flavor like brown gravy.
Biscuits and gravy doesn't seem all that strange to me, but probably because I know that the gravy isn't the salty condiment that most people envision. Instead, it's a mild, hearty sauce that often has small chunks of sausage in it. It can be quite good!
Bisquits and gravy - the gravy is sausage gravy, made with sausage bits, milk and a thickener. Usually for breakfats, but many places here serve "breakfast" 24/7, e.g. Perkins Pancake House. Chicken and waffles should have the gravy mixed in with the chicken and poured over waffles. Grits is cornmeal mixed with water and cooked up. People may add milk or butter to it.
Honey battered corn dogs from county fairs are absolutely amazing. We used to have a place called corn dog 7 and theirs were amazing. Biscuits and gravy with sausage is a necessity. Meatloaf is actually really good. It doesn’t normally look delicious but it is once you try it. If it’s cooked correctly.
Most U.S. state fairs or the grand daddy, Evansville Indiana has their fall festival where hundreds of food booths sell everything you can think of “fried” on a stick.
Hominy grits - It's like cream of corn but with some actual texture. And you can dip stuff in it or use it as a spread - very versatile. Hominy is like the lutefisk of corn, but if you prepare it correctly, much less offensive.
The secret to PB and J is moist bread. If the bread is dry it isn't as good. There was a Chinese buffet in my area that actually served meatloaf. I almost always got a little of it each time I went there. Pretty much, fried anything is good.
I think it’s worth mentioning that American peanut butter is sweeter then what other countries have. So useing it in a PB&J works. I did a swab with someone in Australia a few years back and no way would I use the peanut butter she sent me in a PB&J. Her peanut butter was definitely more savory
Grits: White Corn kernels are soaked a mixture of Lye and Water until they swell uo to the size of grapes, then they are rinsed and ground to meal/mash withe is boiled with water into a porridge like substance Served with butter, salt & Pepper or gravy...
Grits. Course ground white hominy corn. Generally boiled until it's not crunchy. It can also be found in an " instant" version, where you just mix a sachet in hot water.
Grits are essentially the same as polenta but with white corn instead of yellow. Traditionally eaten at breakfast or brunch. Shrimp and grits are traditionally a brunch item but also eaten for dinner
In Pittsburgh, we have something called a Primanti's sandwich. It has meat and cheese, french fries and cole slaw, all between two slices of bread. It's quite a mouthful.
One thing that I will say is a bit more eccentric from my childhood was egg salad sandwiches. But the madness doesn’t stop there, we as kids used to take nacho cheese Doritos and add that to the sandwiches as well so you had egg slop, Doritos and white bread. Mmmmmm man now I want one!
I'm born and raised in the US, so here's my take on this: 1. Biscuits and gravy: Yum! Can I have seconds, please? 2. Grits... hmmm... not a fave, but it's okay occasionally with some brown sugar. 3. Anything with rattlesnake? No thanks. Where's the door? I suddenly have to leave. 4. Peanut butter and jelly. Definitely yes, especially with fresh bread. 5. Meatloaf... I'm good with meatloaf, especially if it has a tomato sauce or with brown gravy. 6. Hershey's chocolate: too sweet for me. I like dark chocolate in moderation, but not Hershey's milk chocolate. 7. Pop tarts: No thanks... as the video said, too sweet and cardboardy. 8. Root beer: I know some people love it, but it has never been a fave of mine. Pass. 9. Sweet potato casserole: I have never been a sweet potato fan, so none for me. That's all I remember from the video.
I always cry inside if I run into someone who says they don't like asian bao (a steamed bun offered with various fillings. The most common being cha-siu (chinese-style BBQ pork)).
Whenever I make a PB&J sandwich I always toast the bread first so it’s easier to eat. I also like to use English muffins, toasted of course, with my PB&J sandwich. I also like chunky peanut butter and sometimes put potato chips in the sandwich for a different flavor combo. Good stuff! I’ve never had biscuits or chicken and waffles but I am from Maryland which is not technically a southern state.
What should I try this week?!
Find a county fair for all kinds of deep fried goodies. ❤️🫵🏻☘️🇮🇪🇺🇸
POLENTA (italian grits) pickled herring( i personally love it)..DINER STYLE MEATLOAF,jalapeno poppers,tater tots,clam cakes( these are only in RI)
In-n-Out for sure if you haven't yet... wait are you asking for the California trip?
Fish head soup and frybread 🥰🤤🤤🤤🤤
You should try some good Asian cuisine like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc.
Biscuits and gravy is delicious especially when they add breakfast sausage to the gravy.
I’ll have to try for myself…
@@DianeJennings Yep Yep Yep......biscuits and cream/white gravy is my favorite!!!!
try it Diane!!!!
@@DianeJenningsdefinitely worth a try at least. Of course be sure you are getting a decent quality dish. Anything can be made nasty if cooked wrong or poorly. Got some biscuits and gravy one time and the gravy was so oily and wasn't even white like it was supposed to be, it was like a greasy brown 🤢.
@@gregbiggs7564 White gravy is good, but I prefer sausage gravy.
@@DianeJennings if you get a chance to come to the states again, and go to the southern states...make sure to look out/listen. There are many wonderful places that make great B&SG!
Biscuits and gravy are mostly eaten for breakfast but we do have it for dinner as well.
There's an old photo on the internet of small biscuits with a gravy fountain at some event.
And it's FAR from just being from the south! What is WRONG with that video????
Biscuits and gravy is typically a breakfast food. It uses ground sausage for the gravy, which is more breakfast related here.
Peanut butter and honey is also a great alternative to jelly. I ate that alot and it is even served is some schools in the states.
Grits are a coarse, white corn meal, served like a porridge, but neutral enough to go well with salty, savory or even sweet foods. We often have breakfast for dinner in my family, and the grits are great with fried eggs and corned beef hash! I'm an actual southerner, so I can also tell you how to make really good sweet iced tea if you're interested!
Came here to say this is a rough ground porridge. Honestly I hate them plain but shrimp and grits or cheesy grits. All day…instant grits aren’t worth anything. After living in the south for 6 years I got some opinions. Haha the way my friends in Idaho looked at me when I described eating a crawdad.
Yes Grits aren't meant to be eaten plain. You have to top them with something or it is like a grittier porridge, but once you get the taste for them they are great.
Meatloaf is actually a pretty simple non-offensive food. Ground beef, bread crumbs, some mild sauces (ketchup, mustard, worcestershire, A1, whatever) Some people add ground sausage to it too. Smoosh it up and bake. Can be eaten as is with whatever condiments you like, but my favorite way is to use it in a sandwich.
You can make a meatloaf with rolled oats. Quaker Oats used to have a recipe on the box. Much easier than messing with bread crumbs. Very yummy, though I have to say we made it spicier. Also we put ground mutton trimmings into it when available. So I guess that kinda made it haggis?
The recipe for meatloaf used here doesn't include any sauces and no spices except salt and pepper. In addition to the ground beef and bread crubs, we add chopped onion and an egg for a binder. And the ketchup is reserved for adding after it is dished onto a plate.
We add mushrooms,onions and green peppers to ours and instead of bread crumbs, we use an egg as a binder. It’s really good as a sandwich
I've also had it with rice much like making stuffed peppers without the peppers.
@@Woodchuck1965 That's the appeal of meatloaf: you can make them,
personalize them, anyway you want.
True story. I went much of my life never having had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because it sounded weird. In my 40s, I finally tried it and was surprised how delicious it really is. Something about the salt and sweet combination I guess.
It’s a childhood staple here in Canada as well and I still enjoy it once in a while, although I usually use a good homemade jam instead of jelly.
I literally had PB&J for lunch at school every day from 3rd grade to 11th grade. I lived on it, and still enjoy a good sandwich. I eat them much, much more infrequently, as I'm trying to lose weight, but from a taste perspective - they're soooo good! Grape jelly was the classic, but I fell in love with raspberry and especially blackberry jelly!
I'm 62, and I've eaten them since I was 2.
Have you ever tried a peanut butter and banana sandwich ? They are delicious and are less sweeter than a PB&J .
@@victorwaddell6530 Yes, but it’s been a while. They are very good
The rest of the world is nuts ! Pop tarts are freaking AWESOME !!!!! Root beer is great too !
Some root beers are good. Some root beers are not good.
In my part of the world (south central Virginia), we run out of Pop-Tarts every week, around Wednesday. (Brand-name AND Brand X.)
I go back and forth on it. As a kid I hated it. As an adult I like it sometimes, but if I drink too much of it I start to notice the medicine/toothpaste-like taste. And some brands (Mug) just don't taste good to me at all.
Just my two cents but, I find pop-tarts are, at best, okay. Only when warmed, though. You could easily make something similar that would taste far better at home.
I really love it when people tell me that they don't like licorice, but who love Barqs root beer.
"escargot"........ Isn't that something a French mechanic says¯\_(ツ)_/¯
😂
The gravy used for Biscuits and Gravy is made from buttermilk, flour, sausage bits and some of the drippings from the sausage, making it appear as a white gravy. The biscuit is closer to a scone than anything else. Together it is a savory breakfast treat that is quite delicious. Grits is made from Hominy, a large variety of corn, so grits is a porridge that is corn grain based rather than oats or wheat based.
Grits is like eating corn flavored sand.
The European version of grits is polenta, which is typically made with yellow corn. Hominy grits usually appear white, and the grain size of the cracked kernels is a little finer than they cornmeal used for polenta. If you were of a mind to, you could dress hominy grits up with any sauce you might put on polenta, like a bolognese sauce or pesto. Romania has a cornmeal mush called mammaliga that occupies the same niche; that often gets eaten with Hungarian and Romanian sauces which may be based on tomatoes, peppers/paprika or mushrooms.
When I've been in the grits region of the US (the southeast generally, from Texas to the Atlantic), it's usually served as a breakfast side dish - the starch that accompanies your eggs/meat. I suppose the Southerners who order it as a side dish with eggs must eat it either with a savory sauce (cream or sausage gravy) or use jam/jelly as a sweet condiment, similar to the way you'd eat oatmeal.
We rarely see grits as a side dish in California, except sometimes at soul food restaurants. As a breakfast side, the usual thing here is potatoes, either homefried (boiled, cut into chunks, fried to a slight crisp with onions and/or peppers) or hash browned (grated and fried crisp, similar to potato pancakes). Hash browns used to be the standard everywhere, but home fries have mostly replaced them over the last 40 years. You can still get hash browns off the McDonald's breakfast menu.
you described it perfectly
In Puerto Rico, where my family is from there's a dish called the Pastellon. Which has the same structure as a lasagna; building layers of ground beef, ricotta cheese, and tomato sauce, on top of each other. But instead of the pasta there's a layer of plantains which is a banana variety that slightly more firm in texture and slightly less sweet. It's a sweet and savory combo, sounds weird but it works.
That makes perfect sense since plantains are starchy so you're just changing one starch for another. You could use potatoes too that way.
@@bothellkenmore absolutely, another Puerto Rican dish is called Mofongo, where the plantains are made a dough out of and usually with some seafood, pork cracklings, and garlic mixed in. It's delicious.
Bread from actual bakeries usually has less sugar than the bread sold in supermarkets
There's a dismissive American term for the sweetish, aerated, spongy white bread Europeans sneer at: Balloon bread. My mom called it that back in the 60s, and so did all my friends' moms.
There's lots of excellent American bread to be found; I don't know why Europeans insist on restricting their American bread searches to plastic bags in supermarkets, and assume that's all we have and all we like. I doubt I've eaten ten slices of white balloon bread in the last 40 years, and all of that was served as a side with barbecue, to sop up the sauce.
Biscuits and sausage gravy is awesome ! So is meatloaf wrapped in bacon , with bbq sauce . Corndogs are delicious !
Instead of BBQ sauce or ketchup, try salsa sometime. 🤤
Southerner here (Atlanta). Biscuits and (white) gravy is a breakfast item, it's buttermilk biscuits topped with white gravy (flour, and typically either breakfast sausage or bacon grease cooked together until an emulsification takes place this making gravy). Brown gravy and red gravy are typically dinner/supper gravy's red goes on ham, brown goes on mashed potatoes. One of my favorite meals from a diner near me is country fried steak (cubed steak battered and deep fried like chicken) with biscuits and both the steak and biscuits are covered by the gravy, oh and a side of bacon to go with it.
10:34 I’ve made sweet potato casserole for Aussies & they consistently really love it.
I have a limited sample set, but so far both Filipinas that I've seen try it have absolutely loved it as well.
McNuggets have 4 shapes that are officially called Ball, Bone, Bell, and Boot, BUT if you look at a map of Ireland 🇮🇪, you can see that "McNuggets" are actually modeled after Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connacht respectively. MCNUGGETS 😂
Grits is about the consistency of Cream of Wheat. More sandy as you described it. They are eaten several ways. In most of the south they are thought of as exclusively a breakfast food like oatmeal. But in the “Low Country” especially in South Carolina, they are served as a side dish at any meal. Cheesy grits with your fried chicken or shrimp is AMAZING!
We have grits with any meal in Texas, also.
Cream of Wheat is definitely more of a breakfast item, but grits really seem to be neutral enough to be flavored in so many ways that they can be an anytime side dish.
@@chrismaverick9828 Yes, I've lived North & South US, Cream of wheat (& corn meal mush, for that matter) is strictly breakfast.
@@ajknaup3530 Northern Italian polenta is basically cornmeal mush; it's typically served as a lunch/dinner side. If you let polenta cool, it stiffens up to the point that you can slice it. When I've got leftover polenta, I let it solidify and then slice it and fry it in olive oil, or bake it.
Lobster salad roll is a MUST to try if you go to the New England states. While you're there, whole belly fried clams is amazing ! In Tampa, FL. where the Cuban sandwich was invented in the 1880's for Cuban immigrants to have a quick something to eat. Tampa, FL. had a huge cigar industry then.
Grits are a type of porridge made from boiled cornmeal. Hominy grits are a type of grits made from hominy - corn that has been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization, with the pericarp (ovary wall) removed. Cooked in warm salted water or milk considered a soup.
I love biscuits and gravy. Typically goes with a sauaage patty and there may even be bits of sausage in the gravy too. Add eggs cooked you're way and boom. Awesome breakfast.
Just you saying “I’ve tried a few fruits” is a bit funny to me lol I can’t imagine my life without fruits and I don’t even consider myself to be that big of a fruit person
I wish I had that
@@DianeJenningsmy house is worth fruit goes to rot I really like fruit but I never eat it quick enough
I thought that was funny too.
I am a big fruit person, but I only like certain kinds of fruits, I am very picky. Lol.
Like apples - Honeycrisp, Ambrosia, Cosmic Crisp... I will eat those raw or cooked but will not eat Red Delicious ever and Granny Smith only in desserts, but would still rather it be Honeycrisp. Gala and Fuji are acceptable, but never my first choice.
I have weird rules like that about a lot of fruits. The only ones that I won't eat ever in any circumstance are mango and papaya.
I'd like to try the crisps and butter sandwich. In America, we sometimes put potato chips on a regular sandwich, so it's not that much different.
A popular sandwich in New England is a Fluffer-Nutter, consisting of peanut butter and marshallow fluff. To be considered pure, it must be served on soft white sandwich bread. But in a pinch, I have been known to go outside the box and have it on wheat bread, and if I want to go totally rogue, roll it up in a tortilla.
I actually made them on dinner rolls and Cresent rolls. (I was out if bread.)
Yuck!
The food of my youth!!! I'm from Connecticut.
I’ve only ever had it on wheat bread as I don’t care for white bread.
DUDE I love a Fluffler-Nutter. Here from the Midatlantic (Maryland). I hate white bread those -- we usually have a whole grain, and a flour tortilla is really good.
In Pennsylvania Dutch Country (and I'm sure some other places), if you order chicken and waffles you will not get a few pieces of chicken legs or wings and separately a couple of waffles. It's served with some waffles as a base and then fairly thick chicken gravy with boneless white and dark meat chicken pieces (both large and small) poured over the waffles and over the mashed potatoes usually served with them. More of a dinner, not a breakfast. One of my favorites.
I think the strangest thing we eat here in New Orleans is Fried Soft Shell Crab . So damn good !
😬
Soft Shell Crab is the BEST!!!
Do you guys fry it whole?
@@edrodriguez9431 that’s the only way I’ve ever seen it done.
@@tearonash2313 Thats fantastic
If you think a pb&j is strange, you might be floored by a PB&Fluff.
Biscuits and gravy is so good. It's usually really dense biscuits and the gravy is thick and has small pieces of sausage in it. It's common in the great plains region of the country too (Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, N & S Dakota). We mostly eat it for breakfast, but not always. I still eat Peanut butter and Jelly. It's yummy and a filling, fast, easy to eat sandwich - good to take on hikes or when work was extra hard and I'm too tired to cook something.
Happy Monday Diane! Very interesting video as always! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions! Have a great week Diane! 😁👋🎉❤😎
Thank you! You too!
@@DianeJennings By the way, I enjoyed it when you were a participant on the TRY channel many moons ago. 😁♥️
4:13 yes, after living overseas, never knew how much sugar was in the US diet
My sister-in-law in Louisiana sometimes uses her waffle iron to make waffles à la corn meal so instead of cornbread in a pan she makes it in a waffle maker that’s not bad actually
Peanut butter and jelly was a staple for me when growing up.
The problem with pb&j today is there are so many kids with peanut allergies that you can't bring it in to school for lunch.
When did they stop letting kids bring pb&j to school? I brought pb&j to school a lot when I was a kid, but I don't think as many people were as defective back then. Today, it seems like everybody is allergic to virtually everything. The only allergies I remember people having when I was a kid were hay fever, peanuts, shellfish, bees, and cats. I don't think that many people were *really* allergic to cats; they just didn't like cats, but saying they were allergic to cats got them less flak than being honest.
@@royagilmore they never really stopped you from bringing pb&j. The kids that brought it though had to sit at a remote table or something.
Also the biscuits are a slightly more dense version of bread. Some people say they are similar to scones but truthfully scones are much drier where buttermilk biscuits are a fluffy, moist and tender bread. The gravy is made of flour, salt, pepper, milk and breakfast sausage (mostly) so it is a completely savory meal. The use of the word biscuit is probably confusing.
Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. It is a breakfast food, but sometimes we like "breakfast for dinner". Yes, that is a thing because breakfast foods are easy to cook, and there is probably plenty of ingredients in the house.
For my food that I eat often that other people probably do not, I like to use an avacado instead of mayo when I make my tuna salad sandwich. Not just a slice. I smash it all up with a can of tuna and some pickle relsh. BTW, Biscuits and Gravy are awesome anytime.
Hush puppies are a good side item, made out of corn meal and also chopped onions, and then deep fried.
Traditional southern Catholic dish. Mix the leftover cornmeal dip with whatever you have left, and fry it in the hot oil from the Fish Fry out behind the church. I'm not Catholic, but my family used to swing by at the end of the fish fry and give them a few bucks for the leftovers.
The video British Highschoolers Try Biscuits and Gravy for the First Time!...All loved it! Their eyes rolled in the back of their heads in heavenly delight as they ate it, but were grossed out before hand. I believe they all loved it across the board, not like, but loved.
A food combination of mine my family calls napalm. It's mashed potatoes and whatever meat & veg is with dinner. It's buried in a ton of Louisiana brand hot sauce. If we are having rice, it's faux palm. It's all mixed up in a bowl. One that I got from my mom is similar. Fried cube steak, mashed potatoes, corn, salad with ONLY French dressing, no other dressing would work, all mixed together in a bowl. I eat these things regularly but I think gravy on French fries with cheese is weird 😂
😂
If your ever in Atlanta you must go to Mary Mac's Tea Room, it's the closest to home cooked soul food you can get. And their meat loaf is amazing. Basically meat loaf is almost like a giant meatball from spaghetti that is just cooked in a pan that makes it look like a loaf of bread. It's ground beef, bread crumbs, seasoning basically cooked in like a bread pan and then sliced up to serve its like a square flat meat ball. Add mashed potatoes and gravy, and collards and that's southern heaven..
If you ever decide to come to Texas again, I would be glad to treat you to so many of these dishes from great places. The only one that I think I would have difficulty with is the fried rattlesnake. I don't recall ever seeing it on a menu. I have tried it though. As a young Boy Scout, we encountered a big rattlesnake on a hike. A rattlesnake does not stand a chance against half a dozen early teen boys with no fear in life because we will live forever, We took the snake back to camp where our troop leader showed us the way to fried rattlesnake. I remember it being very tasty and enjoying the experience. That occurred over 50 years ago and I don't know if the experience would be the same today.
Happy Monday! I really enjoy this video.Have a great week.
Thank you! You too!
Diane is mostly a chicken and chocolate girl
But she has tried many foods from different places
If the camera is rolling, she’ll usually give it a whirl
But it often results in her making some funny faces
She did find SPAM "pleasant."
@@daybeau7819 There's no accounting for taste.
I wonder if she would ever try durian fruit?. Most people avoid it like the plague since it's literally love/hate taste wise.
Love it - tastes great
Hate it - dead flesh
Rather than describing grits as a type of corn-based porridge, it would probably be better to think of them as a (somewhat moist) rice replacement. Then "shrimp and grits" doesn't sound quite so strange. (And I've tried shrimp & grits -- it was great!)
I put peanut butter on my bologna and cheese sandwich, it grosses everyone out, until they try it. From what I know of you Diane, you'd like biscuits and gravy, it is really a breakfast food. Also, no danger eating a rattlesnake as they are venomous not poisonous. Hope you visit is fun.
Today for lunch I went to this bar and got a cheeseburger with peanut butter on it and it was delicious.
@@johnfriday5169can confirm
I ❤their TH-cam channel. Some of their subjects can be educational. Thanks for sharing this.
Yes they are!
When you get a chance, try finger steaks and waffle fries, and you can add some deep fried mushrooms as well. It is a dish that originated in the state of Idaho.
I was a ski bum/college student in the 80's. There was a little breakfast restaurant on the way up to the mountain that served biscuits and gravy. Nothing better to get ready for a good day of skiing.
Every time Diane says “porridge “ she reminds me of the 3 bears 😂
We Love You Diane!!!
Disclosure: I'm a Southerner. With that out of the way...
My usual brunch place in Charlotte is Eddie's Place. Before it became a menu item, their chicken and waffles was only offered as a brunch item, randomly (brunch is only served on weekends). Boneless, skinless, pecan-crusted chicken breast served on waffles from a vintage waffle iron the owner picked up at auction. Ben, the server/bartender, recommended it, with it coming with cinnamon butter. When he came back for my order, I asked for the C&W, but instead of the butter, two easy-poached eggs on top. His response was, "That....Sounds....AWESOME!!" The lady sitting next to me at the bar (as a single I don't want to take a whole table) looked at me and said, "I just ordered the C&W, and now I wish that I had thought of that!"
Grits are, for even some Southerners, an acquired taste - one I have yet to acquire. But if you are in the Charlotte area, do try the Parmesan cheese grits at... Eddie's Place (I swear I have no financial interest in the place, it's just that good - and inexpensive and family friendly). People rave over them. You can also order shrimp and grits with the Parm grits.
But grits are ground hominy, a relative of corn. Think of them as large, white, pasty, firm variants of their yellow, small, sweet and cushy relatives. They traditionally were ground at grist mills, using large round stones grinding them under pressure powered by a water wheel. The "porrige" part comes in by mixing some milk into the pot as they cook. And it's not a short cook for regular grits - 30-45 minutes, which is how instant grits (like oatmeal) came to be a thing. Hope this helps - if you come to Charlotte, happy to host.
When you come to the US, ask the local population where the best dish you desire can be found. And ask more than a few people.
Well, one thing that you absolutely MUST try is biscuits and gravy. Not much to look at, but absolutely delicious. I grew up in the northern U.S. and never had this until I was in my 20s and found myself living in Texas. Now a favorite. Ditto for chicken-fried steak, if you haven't had it before.
And frog legs and escargot are also very tasty.
Things I make that might seem odd are smoked hamburgers. Thats when I have 3 hours to cook hamburger instead of a few minutes. I'm not sure Chewie would like them. 🙂
Everyone have a wonderful day.
Peanut butter and jell sandwiches are the best kind of sandwiched
What they forgot to mention with haggis is it comes with a whiskey gravy that really really helps
Love haggis, wish we could get the real stuff here in the US.
Lol, helps I just don't get that dish unless you are starving.
The whiskey gravy... ... it helps, what?. ... exactly? 🙂
I'm sure nobody is reading comments after a week, I wanted to talk about grits. Grits are of native American origin. They're made from hominy, which is maize (corn) treated with lye or other alkali, in a process known as nixtamalization. This process allows the niacin in the corn to be absorbed by humans and destroys almost all the mycotoxins found in commonly in corn fungus. Hominy is also common in Mexican cooking as it is used to make masa, the base corn flour in corn tortillas, tamales, etc. When hominy is made, the corn kernels swell, lose their hulls, and turn white. The hominy can then be dried and stored without fear of it sprouting. It can be hydrated and used like beans in pozole, ground finely to make masa, our ground coarsely to make grits. When I was growing up grits were used like rice as a side dish, but usually at breakfast. Often they would be seasoned the slak and black pepper, butter, or sometimes red-eye gravy (made from old coffee and the rendered fat from frying cured country ham). In Italy, polenta is almost the same as grits, except that it's made directly from corn meal without the nixtamalization, and it's usually a little drier form of porridge. The movie My Cousin Vinny has a lot of discussion on grits as Vincent actually learns to like them and there's some courtroom discussion regarding whether or not a whether or not a witness made instant grits.
Biscuits and gravy is an even more common food in the southern US. Of course biscuits here are used like bread. They resemble European scones but are not sweetened - just flour, water, shortening (preferably lard or butter), and some leavening. They can be served like dinner rolls, used for sandwiches with country ham or fried chicken, or slathered in gravy. Typically if gravy is used it's white sausage gravy made from the rendered breakfast sausage, milk, and flour. There are multiple fast food chains in this part of the US that specialize in biscuit sandwiches as well as serving biscuits and gravy.
Ketchup, yellow mustard & brown (or hot) mustard mixed together, makes a great cocktail sauce for seafood (like boiled shrimp or crayfish). It's not weird if you're from Louisiana.😉 Also, on the subject of bread, french bread is big in New Orleans and no one else seems to know how to make it as well as in Louisiana. It's _DELICIOUS!!!_ If you've never tried gumbo, you _NEED_ to!! It's basically a seafood soup.
"No one else"? San Francisco would like a word with you. The signature bread here is sourdough, which is fermented with the wild yeasts that float in the air out here. There are sourdough mothers out here that have been maintained for over 100 years. But the Bay Area is a land of bakers; I have four bakeries within 15 minutes of my front door, each of which makes 8-10 distinctive breads. Acme Bakery, the place nearest my house that got its start making the table bread for Chez Panisse, makes five different kinds of baguettes all day, every day.
The best Louisiana bread is those round Italian loaves they use for muffuletta. I don't know how good they are just as bread, but once you've muffuletta-ized them, they're awesome.
@@aquilapetram I've never been to SF, therefore, never tasted any of their breads, so, sorry about the disrespect. I meant the breads that are called french bread in other places I've been to. The best way to describe what they call french bread, is a big hot dog bun. Not even close. There's a bakery here called Leidenheimer's that makes _THE_ best french bread.
Grits is a cornmeal-based porridge, which is different from traditional porridge that uses wheat or oats.
Can be served savory (salt, black pepper, butter, cheese etc.) or sweet (butter, sugar, maple syrup, etc.)
Just had a huge bowl of grits with honey, pecans and dried apricots for dinner last night.
Also my Mom made awesome meatloaf so it was never anything I had to be forced to eat.
LOVE biscuits and gravy! (And I'm not from the South. Ohio girl here.)
Grits is a porridge made from cornmeal that can be made sweet or savory depending on taste
More specifically, hominy meal. Hominy is corn soaked in lye. This releases otherwise unavailable nutrients such as niacin.
Ancient Mexicans invented hominy, as well as maize corn.
I can't imagine not liking fruit. Especially if it's apples with peanut butter or caramel.
Caramel apples are really good. Especially last year since my local grocery store started
having candy bar coated caramel apples in the fall. The Reese's Peanut butter cup and
Hershey caramel apples were my favorite. It also had candy cane caramel apples during winter.
That one was too weird for me so I never tried it. Might have been good though.
Chicken and waffles may be popular in the south, but it was invented in the Harlem section of Manhattan. A restaurateur came up with the dish to feed the musicians from local jazz clubs when they came in the early morning hours after their gigs. He used what he had on hand, and some of the crowd wanted breakfast while others wanted dinner. When these same musicians went south to visit family or play other clubs, they asked for the dish, and local cooks added it to the menu, where it proved popular.
Ok now I am a Texan and have no dog in this fight. While stationed in Georgia, I had a man that was in his 80's or 90's and a retired jazz musician tell that story the exact opposite. That musicians from New York came to GA had it, loved it and went back up to NYC and had it made. Too funny reading your post brought that back to me.
@@Heymrk I wouldn't doubt that either, I was just passing on one story told to me 30 years ago.
As someone that grow up eating grits I don't get why some people think it is weird. It's basically a corn meal porridge. Not that different from the polenta that is eating in northern Italy. If you have ever had cream of wheat its about the same consistency. In the winter months I do typically eat oatmeal, but I do like to change up what I eat for breakfast especially on my days off and make a bowl of cheesy grits. With a grilled chicken andouille sausage, two over easy eggs and some Sriracha hot sauce.
Great Great video as usual Diane!!!! Cheers from Mississippi!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Love Corn Dogs BTW
Biscuits make good bread too for breakfast or lunch. Add some chicken tenders, cheese, and toppings make a good sandwich so good. Chicken and waffles with pancake syrup all time fav. I hope you try some this week and breakfast cereals.
Great idea!!
@@DianeJennings 🥳 another good idea chocolate milk with breakfast cereal
You nailed it when you mentioned how big the U.S. is. It's big enough to have several regional variations in food. I really don't think there are very many Americans eating rattlesnake or frog legs for example, although obviously some do.
Grits are surprisingly interesting. I grew up eating a lot of Malt-O-Meal, a hot, wheat-based cereal. As an adult, I discovered that corn meal cooks up with a similar texture to Malt-O-Meal, and is a lot cheaper! I discovered grits more recently. Grits are basically just a coarser version of corn meal, and also cook up well as a hot cereal. Nowadays when I want a hot cereal, I'll mix oatmeal, corn meal, and grits together--they blend well. But corn meal and grits can also be done as a savory dish instead of as hot cereal with butter and sugar. At one point when I was struggling financially , I made a faux casserole with corn meal. Cook up the corn meal firm, add in some meat, cheese, and veggies, and bake a little until it's done. Tasted fine, especially with enough cheese in it. Polenta is also a corn meal-based food, often served sliced and fried.
For an interesting perspective on grits, watch My Cousin Vinny. Grits are discussed in two different scenes in the movie.
Meatloaf is often remembered for that sludge they serve in school cafeterias or as a frozen dinner, but meatloaf cooked at home is very versatile and forgiving, allowing for a lot of substitutions in the ingredients, and done right can be very tasty. So no dissing meatloaf! ;-)
I've never been a big fan of corndogs, though. Maybe they would be tastier if you used a flavorful sausage instead of a hot dog. But when I go to the fair, I want a blooming onion (a whole onion cut, batter-dipped and deep fried) and a funnel cake.
Do I have any specialties of my own? I'm not sure if this counts, but I do like making a home-made nacho or frito salad. Using tortilla chips or corn chips, cover them with meat, chili, cheese (preferably both queso cheese and grated cheese), lettuce and diced tomatoes. Maybe add a touch of sour cream and/or guacamole on top. It's like a deluxe nachos or a deluxe frito pie.
I'm from NYC and my family are Irish:
Chicken and waffles I have heard originated in Harlem in the 1920s or so because musicians would play jazz until 4 or 5 AM and would go to eat afterwards. Chicken and waffles was an in between meal, but despite originating with African American musicians in NYC (maybe Chicago also) going out after a show.
Grits is a porridge made from cornmeal. In the US, grits is a southern breakfast. I never tried it until I was an adult. In the north, we eat oatmeal.
I meant to write "but despite originating with African American musicians in NYC (maybe Chicago also) going out after a show, it became very popular in the South."
My mother (Irish American) grew up during the depression and the war. For most of that time, jams and jellies were not available, although peanut butter was. So she learned to make peanut butter, mayonnaise and lettuce sandwiches. I had hundreds of them growing up and still make them on occasion.
Many of these are Sweet Savory combos that I can highly recommend. Your mouth is a little confused at first tasting both at the same time, but soon it becomes your favorite. A bit like the tradition of salty cheddar on an apple pie
I am from Minnesota and Biscuits/Gravy or Grits for breakfast were things I had sort of heard of growing up but never had until I was in my 30s and spent time in N Carolina for work. I developed a taste for them and will partake if available. The grits are coarse ground corn that is cooked to a porridge and may have added things like butter, pork sausage, cheese, etc added to flavor it.
The gravy, when properly made, will contain browned ground sausage, whole milk, flour, and ground black pepper.
Try this one A Chili Size. = open-faced hamburger with cheese covered with chili and beans, add a few diced onions for spice. 😊
I live in New Mexico, near the capital. A Christmas staple every year is chili and beans. We grow and export many long green and dried red chile. Fall most stores roast them by the bushel. Dried chile makes a red chile paste. Bits of pork in a red sauce made from it and fresh cooked pinto beans are as much a part of Christmas as Santa.
Meatloaf: It's pretty much just Italian meatballs, but baked in a bread pan. Ground beef with bread crumbs used as a binder plus a little tomato paste mixed in as well. "Then season as you prefer. Commonly salt, pepper, thyme, perhaps some rosemary. Seasoned tomato paste is then also spread on the top once it is formed into a "loaf" in the bread pan. Then baked. IDR time or temp. You can cook multiple ones at a time
It is then sliced (hot), like bread (around 1cm thick). Often ketchup (catsup) and-or mustard are used as a "sauce." Served with potatoes and carrots as well, cooked in the same oven at the same time but on the lower rack. They also keep well in the fridge, and isn't bad cold, as a sandwich on good, high-quality (home-baked whole grain wheat) bread, with a slice of cheddar or colby, maybe swiss or even pepperjack. Some mixed leafy greens. Some ketchup and/or mustard. ...... There ya go, nice lunch.
Also biscuits and gravy is like heaven for a hungover Sunday morning before church. With an irish coffee.
When visiting the US, I would definitely find a local restaurant/cafe - like a privately owned, mom & pop type establishment - that serves biscuits and gravy during breakfast. This arguably improves the likelihood that you'll get good quality biscuits and gravy; as opposed to like, a chain restaurant's take on it.
Many from the Ireland or UK area tend to look at the US biscuit as a scone, but while similar, it does have some differences in texture and flavor that the same people are quick to recognize. And of course the gravy is a different type of gravy than many from Europe would be accustomed to. And I've seen some questionable takes on the gravy, which is why I suggest finding a place that has deeper community roots. That's sometime I heard is a good tip in general for tourists; because fast food places know tourists aren't coming back, so they don't care if they think their food is crap or makes you sick, but if you ask a a local where they eat, it's bound to have good food.
Personally, I agree with adding butter to biscuits and gravy; I do like that, and even a touch of pancake syrup.
7:35 The second kind you described is just oatmeal here. Grits are chunky like this, but the chunks are smaller, kind of like tapioca, but smaller, because grits are made from ground corn.
Grits are link of grainy porridge, but somewhat sweet because it is corn based.
Note that Biscuits and Grave that he grave is a white grave made with port meat, not tart brown sauce based.
There's a video of English School boys eating American food. One thing was Biscuits and Gravy. They liked it.
1) Watch Shaun try a breakfast biscuit for the first time.
2) Watch Jolly try biscuits and gravy for the first time.
3) Watch Jolly have British high schoolers try biscuits and gravy for the first time.
There is a different version of chicken and waffles that we used to eat where I grew up in Pennsylvania. I think it's an Amish inspired recipe, basically a waffle with chunks of chicken in a savory gravy scooped over it. Sounds weird but it was a staple when I was a kid.
Oohh, I love all those meals. In rural parts of California too - hot grits with butter(finely ground corn porridge) or biscuits and gravy for breakfast, meatloaf with ketchup baked on top, peanut butter and jelly, yam casserole. But God I love going to the Fair and eating corndogs! Comfort food!
Some of the food that gets labeled "southern" has always been more widely popular, especially here in the Midwest, or at least Ohio, where I'm from. Biscuits and gravy has always been a very popular breakfast item. I've been eating grits since I was a kid, and for Europeans I would compare it to polenta or mush/cornmush as it has a similar texture and preparation, but instead of being from sweet corn it is from hominy, which is a white field corn. And as for chicken and waffles, the best way to have it is with some syrup and hot sauce, or better yet hot honey, which seems to be more of an Ohio thing. Regarding PB&J - I still eat it on occasion, and it's really the only sandwich I eat. The sweet and salty combo is great. but the critical thing is to put peanut butter on both slices of bread- that keeps the jelly from soaking through the bread.
the biscuit in biscuits and gravy is not a cracker or cookie, but a medium firm thin bread roll that is split open into two halves, like a softer bread like english muffin. the gravy is a white sausage gravy, usully with a god amount of pepper as well, and not a savory meat flavor like brown gravy.
Biscuits and gravy doesn't seem all that strange to me, but probably because I know that the gravy isn't the salty condiment that most people envision. Instead, it's a mild, hearty sauce that often has small chunks of sausage in it. It can be quite good!
Crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam on whole grain bread is my favorite pb&j
My mother and I used to enjoy cream cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise sandwiches. People look at me like I'm strange if I mention it. I still enjoy it.
Bisquits and gravy - the gravy is sausage gravy, made with sausage bits, milk and a thickener. Usually for breakfats, but many places here serve "breakfast" 24/7, e.g. Perkins Pancake House. Chicken and waffles should have the gravy mixed in with the chicken and poured over waffles. Grits is cornmeal mixed with water and cooked up. People may add milk or butter to it.
Honey battered corn dogs from county fairs are absolutely amazing. We used to have a place called corn dog 7 and theirs were amazing.
Biscuits and gravy with sausage is a necessity.
Meatloaf is actually really good. It doesn’t normally look delicious but it is once you try it. If it’s cooked correctly.
Most U.S. state fairs or the grand daddy, Evansville Indiana has their fall festival where hundreds of food booths sell everything you can think of “fried” on a stick.
Hominy grits - It's like cream of corn but with some actual texture. And you can dip stuff in it or use it as a spread - very versatile.
Hominy is like the lutefisk of corn, but if you prepare it correctly, much less offensive.
The secret to PB and J is moist bread. If the bread is dry it isn't as good. There was a Chinese buffet in my area that actually served meatloaf. I almost always got a little of it each time I went there. Pretty much, fried anything is good.
I think it’s worth mentioning that American peanut butter is sweeter then what other countries have. So useing it in a PB&J works. I did a swab with someone in Australia a few years back and no way would I use the peanut butter she sent me in a PB&J. Her peanut butter was definitely more savory
Grits: White Corn kernels are soaked a mixture of Lye and Water until they swell uo to the size of grapes, then they are rinsed and ground to meal/mash withe is boiled with water into a porridge like substance Served with butter, salt & Pepper or gravy...
Grits. Course ground white hominy corn. Generally boiled until it's not crunchy. It can also be found in an " instant" version, where you just mix a sachet in hot water.
Grits are essentially the same as polenta but with white corn instead of yellow. Traditionally eaten at breakfast or brunch. Shrimp and grits are traditionally a brunch item but also eaten for dinner
In Pittsburgh, we have something called a Primanti's sandwich. It has meat and cheese, french fries and cole slaw, all between two slices of bread. It's quite a mouthful.
As a Canadian I can attest to the fact that the right biscuits and gravy for breakfast is near heavenly lol
One thing that I will say is a bit more eccentric from my childhood was egg salad sandwiches. But the madness doesn’t stop there, we as kids used to take nacho cheese Doritos and add that to the sandwiches as well so you had egg slop, Doritos and white bread. Mmmmmm man now I want one!
I'm born and raised in the US, so here's my take on this:
1. Biscuits and gravy: Yum! Can I have seconds, please?
2. Grits... hmmm... not a fave, but it's okay occasionally with some brown sugar.
3. Anything with rattlesnake? No thanks. Where's the door? I suddenly have to leave.
4. Peanut butter and jelly. Definitely yes, especially with fresh bread.
5. Meatloaf... I'm good with meatloaf, especially if it has a tomato sauce or with brown gravy.
6. Hershey's chocolate: too sweet for me. I like dark chocolate in moderation, but not Hershey's milk chocolate.
7. Pop tarts: No thanks... as the video said, too sweet and cardboardy.
8. Root beer: I know some people love it, but it has never been a fave of mine. Pass.
9. Sweet potato casserole: I have never been a sweet potato fan, so none for me.
That's all I remember from the video.
I always cry inside if I run into someone who says they don't like asian bao (a steamed bun offered with various fillings. The most common being cha-siu (chinese-style BBQ pork)).
Motels that have a hot breakfast usually serve biscuits and gravy, in addition to scrambled eggs and sausage. All delicious!
Whenever I make a PB&J sandwich I always toast the bread first so it’s easier to eat. I also like to use English muffins, toasted of course, with my PB&J sandwich. I also like chunky peanut butter and sometimes put potato chips in the sandwich for a different flavor combo. Good stuff! I’ve never had biscuits or chicken and waffles but I am from Maryland which is not technically a southern state.