Food oddities

Today I made french toast and it got me thinking about untraditional ways of eating certain foods.Growing up my family had a couple of unusual ways of eating a couple of foods. I’m sure there are more but two stand out.

One is eating French toast as a savory food. I grew up thinking everyone ate their French toast with butter and salt and pepper. Until I went out into the world I thought that was how it was eaten. 2nd shocker when I went to college was that chopped up dill pickle wasn’t a traditional taco and burrito topping. My kids have learned to put syrup on french toast but they do put pickles on their tacos.
Any unusual family eating habits that you thought were normal until you left home?

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Well, when I moved to Maine from Texas, I was shocked at how many people don’t like spicy foods! What the heck? :sweat_smile:

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Grew up putting sprinkles/jimmies on our morning oatmeal. Went to college and was shocked there were no sprinkles by the oatmeal - when i asked my friends they explained - that is weird and boy your parents spoiled you :slight_smile:

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Ketchup on Mac & Cheese - anyone else do this? Way too bland otherwise…

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Ketchup on scrambled eggs. Haven’t had that in a long while but it was tasty as I recall!

Potato pancakes…we always had them with applesauce or sour cream. Moved to the northeast and folks put salt and pepper in them.

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@MaineLonghorn , as a native New Englander, I can say this: the most common ethnic group in NE are French Canadians, and spicy food really isn’t a part of that cuisine. My 90 yr old mother (first generation French Canadian) won’t even eat pizza—WAY too spicy for her.

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Fun thread!

Dill pickles on tacos… stealing that one!
Sprinkles on oatmeal… not mentioning to my D or she will want that to become the norm!
Ketchup on whatever… I’ve never heard of it on mac n’ cheese, but my mom grew up putting ketchup on scrambled eggs. I never quite caught on to that, but I do like diced tomatoes and avocado in my eggs.
Potato pancakes/hashbrowns… We always had with salt and pepper. I discovered potato latkes with applesauce and sour cream in college and loved it. We do both in our household. Scattered, covered and smothered, anyone? (Waffle House humor) If we have the savory version I like to add a sunny side up egg.

Since I am from the south I’ll mention grits. Growing up they were served with salt, pepper, butter and various add-ons (bacon bits, cheese, etc.) When we would visit our cousins, they served grits with butter and sugar. We called those “northern grits”. Ha. When my D was little we served them both ways and referred to them as southern or northern grits in our house. When she started ordering for herself at restaurants we got confused looks and had to explain.

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I always put chili over rice. Never heard of chili and cornbread until I left home.
A local food oddity is French fries dipped in tartar sauce instead of ketchup.
My father used to put salt on watermelon.
I did not know pork chops topped with apple sauce was a thing.

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I put butter or ghee and salt on oatmeal. I can’t stand maple syrup or brown sugar or anything sweet on oatmeal.

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I grew up in the south.
When I was a kid, I did put salt on watermelon and cantaloupe, via learning it from my elders. No more.
The chili I knew growing up was chili for hot dogs. Never ate it as a meal on its own. Hot dogs were mustard, slaw, chili and onions. Yum, yum.
Sweet potato pie. Another yummy.
Once in a while my mom made a sweet tomato pie. I guess it was an overabundance of tomatoes and her frugality that drove her to that. They were okay, nothing I still crave.
Strawberry pie was a strawberry custard type. Yum.
Chicken stew…cooked outside over a fire in a big black pot. I guess it was a chowder? as it was made with milk. That soup and saltine crackers, oh my was it good. I’ve never tried to duplicate it, maybe I should.
Also, chicken pie was a Moravian variety, no veggies in it.

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Of course, some people will put just about anything in tacos or burritos (sometimes calling the latter “wraps”).

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Isn’t grits also called “polenta” when trying to make it sound fancy? Much like calling squid “calamari”?

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They are very similar. Grits are typically ground white corn and polenta is ground yellow corn. I believe grits are also ground to a finer texture. Polenta was traditionally served with Italian dishes, but I see it in many American or fusion spots. My ex is from Holland and I’ve had many conversations with his friends/family from home… just what is “a grit”? :rofl: But they all know polenta. :woman_facepalming: :woman_facepalming:

Fish tacos were not a thing when I was growing up in Texas, but they are now. I just can’t bring myself to try them…

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We had cole slaw, just the grated carrots and cabbage, topped with sugar. I remember it being very good.

We had fried cornbread sometimes; I guess to add a bit of variety to it. It tasted the same but was the size and shape as a small thick pancake.

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Another New England thing, tell me if it happens elsewhere, is vinegar on french fries.

Another weird (maybe) NE French Canadian thing is celery salt on hot dogs.

My kid’s Mexican friends (and my kid) are constantly complaining that the food in Vermont is never spicy enough, even the stuff which is supposedly “spicy”.

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Fun idea for a thread! My post will be a little backward, what my kids did not have.

Back when my kids were young, there were not as many packaged snack options. So I used plain (no icing) poptarts as “car food” when we traveled… ate them cold. One day my daughter came home from a sleepover so excited - “Mom, did you know you can put poptarts in the toaster for breakfast! And you can get them with icing!”. Busted. But I still stuck to our rules. (In high school, when they often did not want breakfast, I would have gladly relented.)

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Absolutely the norm in the UK & Ireland- enough that shakers of it are often on the table.

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@Colorado_mom, at one point in their childhood we were living in Ireland, and made regular short trips to France with them. Nutella was a treat there, but of course only there…until the day they were with me in the grocery store (something I tried to avoid in general) and they discovered that “now we can get Nutella at home!!!”… busted! and they still give me a hard time for it…

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