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You can get pot roast, baked chicken, baked ham, fried pork chops, fried chicken, country fried steak, meatloaf, baked mac and cheese, potato salad, dressing (not stuffing), deviled eggs, green beans, baked beans, cornbread, and muffins....As for deserts...Peach cobbler (obviously) and sweet potato pie are amongst favorites.....
Of course, you can get this food anywhere in the country, but it just taste better coming from the south!!!
California may have better crab legs, shrimp, and as u stated Mexican food!!!
CA's actually not really known for "crab legs and shrimp" though Dungeness crab is a thing in the Bay Area. The only thing I find super super super appealing from your laundry list of basically bland dishes that you seem proud to say come from the South, Peach cobbler is the best. The best. But as far as desserts go, is super unhealthy.
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Originally Posted by GLS2010
they both might be sterotyped with certian foods but in reality there isn't much of a difference. Every large city in this country has pretty much the same food options.
So not true. I've lived in Atlanta and SF. The two couldn't be on such polar opposites of the food spectrum. I can tell you in a city like Atlanta, most cities actually, you may be able to find *almost* everything (with a bit of effort), but it does NOT mean you want to try everything there.
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Originally Posted by Rachael84
CA food is healthier. Anything is healthier than the food down in the deep south, lol.
A little critical for the movement of food happening now in the south, but yes, overall southern food/cuisine is on average considerably less healthy than anywhere else in the country, and the evidence is in the sheer amount of fat people down there.
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Originally Posted by AlGreen
you'd actually be surprised to find that a lot of southern cooking is often times much healthier than foods in other parts of the country. all those pizzas and hot dogs you guys eat up there are nothing but processed meat filled with sodium and cholesterol
it's not as cut and dry as that anyway. my grandparents have eaten southern food their entire lives and they're both well into their 80s
Your grandparents come from good stock. Count your blessings. My great grandmother smoked 2 packs a day until she died in her sleep at 97 without a single lung problem. It happens. And pizza and hot dogs are not CA cuisine (or GA cuisine), though like anywhere in this country, you can find pizza and hot dogs.
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Originally Posted by Rachael84
Yeah but how often do we eat pizza and hot dogs? Maybe once every couple weeks. A lot of food is considered southern food. A lot of it is fried. That's the worst way to cook. After spending some time overseas, I came back and we had fried food and it made me sick since I wasn't used to it.
CA food vs. GA food is like 2 opposite ends of the food spectrum.
A lot of food overseas is fried. It's definitely not just a southern thing. I happen to love fried food
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Originally Posted by JustCallMeTC
With the fruits, vegetables and abundance of fresh seafood, this is a no brainer. CA, and it's not close.
Yea CA has fresh just about everything - most fruits and veggies (nearly all), all nuts, it's actually the #1 dairy state in the country, fine meats, fresh seafood, it's really all here. Probably the only state where just about anything can be fresh or in season or farm to table for most or all of the year. It's no wonder the culinary scenes in SF/wine country and LA are truly world class.
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Originally Posted by peterlemonjello
With the exception of BBQ, Cali for sure!
Yea but GA is not really a good BBQ state and that may surprise some. I will say the best BBQ I've ever had in my life is on 75 mile marker 121 in a town called Unadilla. Nothing has yet compared for me. But never found anything I really really liked in Atlanta (Nashville was a huge step up...never made it over to Memphis). BBQ more well known and better prepared in the states known for BBQ styles: Carolinas, Missouri, Texas, Tennessee
In CA, what's annoying is the simple act of grilling something is called BBQing something, and a "grill" is colloquially referred to as a BBQ. Coming from the south, this annoys me sometimes. Oakland has damn good BBQ actually better than Atlanta's, surprisingly
I really dont know how anyone with a straight face could claim that California, a state that has two of the top 5 food cities in the US by every metric, is in anyway inferior to Georgia when it comes to food.
I really dont know how anyone with a straight face could claim that California, a state that has two of the top 5 food cities in the US by every metric, is in anyway inferior to Georgia when it comes to food.
Agreed. Even within the south, Atlanta, while good and certainly exponentially better even than just 10 years ago, leaves a bit to be desired compared to NOLA, Charleston, Richmond, and even Birmingham. I think those are the 4 best foodie cities per pound in the South. And that list may sound surprising (well NOLA and Charleston shouldn't be a surprise), but Richmond and Birmingham are the cities that historically have had the culinary scenes that have drawn the most accolades in the south, and Atlanta is a little more recent and for its size, should be wiping the floor, but doesn't. Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Boston (and perhaps DC too) all strike me as really big cities that have fairly benign culinary scenes for their size. easy and possible to find good fine dining and ethnic food, some regional cuisine, but none of these cities are anything to write home about. A trip to Birmingham may begin with with a pre-existing notion that you're going to a third world country, but you can find a few really nice neighborhoods with a string of restaurants to match the best you've had in NOLA, Atlanta, Charleston or even New York. For a city of its size, there are A LOT of really excellent fine dining options and I think it's been recognized for such a scene for many many years.
So yea, GA is not a tremendous food state overall. Not bad, but not excellent. CA as a state is easily the best, by far. The comparison is a joke.
Agreed. Even within the south, Atlanta, while good and certainly exponentially better even than just 10 years ago, leaves a bit to be desired compared to NOLA, Charleston, Richmond, and even Birmingham. I think those are the 4 best foodie cities per pound in the South. And that list may sound surprising (well NOLA and Charleston shouldn't be a surprise), but Richmond and Birmingham are the cities that historically have had the culinary scenes that have drawn the most accolades in the south, and Atlanta is a little more recent and for its size, should be wiping the floor, but doesn't. Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Boston (and perhaps DC too) all strike me as really big cities that have fairly benign culinary scenes for their size. easy and possible to find good fine dining and ethnic food, some regional cuisine, but none of these cities are anything to write home about. A trip to Birmingham may begin with with a pre-existing notion that you're going to a third world country, but you can find a few really nice neighborhoods with a string of restaurants to match the best you've had in NOLA, Atlanta, Charleston or even New York. For a city of its size, there are A LOT of really excellent fine dining options and I think it's been recognized for such a scene for many many years.
So yea, GA is not a tremendous food state overall. Not bad, but not excellent. CA as a state is easily the best, by far. The comparison is a joke.
I agree, but it's interesting that nearly a third of voters on this thread chose Georgia,
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jhenma
I agree, but it's interesting that nearly a third of voters on this thread chose Georgia,
I voted California, but I understand the Georgia voters SOLELY if they favor soul food and/or Southern food. While you CAN get these dishes in pretty much any major metro outside the South, I doubt they will be as good as from Atlanta (or Birmingham or any other good sized Southern metro)--just as I wouldn't expect to get as good of authentic Mexican or Vietnamese in Atlanta.
I voted California, but I understand the Georgia voters SOLELY if they favor soul food and/or Southern food. While you CAN get these dishes in pretty much any major metro outside the South, I doubt they will be as good as from Atlanta (or Birmingham or any other good sized Southern metro)--just as I wouldn't expect to get as good of authentic Mexican or Vietnamese in Atlanta.
But astonishingly, you can *more easily* get far better soul/southern food in CA, particularly SF/Bay Area than you can get really good Mexican or Vietnamese food in Atlanta. You can get really good Mexican or Vietnamese in Atlanta, from like 1-2 places in the metro. You can get really really good soul/southern/cajun/creole/BBQ etc from an abundance of places in CA cities. At least that's been my experience. SF as a foodie draw actually draws a boatload of really good chefs from the south, including from NOLA, who want to bring their expertise to the area. Oakland in particular has really good soul food and BBQ, as well as a fair amount of both cajun and creole cuisine usually from people from LA. And I have a roster of about 5 places I frequent (that I can WALK to either from the office or my apartment) for really really good fried chicken and mac and cheese that are at least as good as anything I ever had in Atlanta. But when you're in GA, even Atlanta, good luck finding truly really really good Vietnamese or Mexican. You can, it's just not as abundant.
If we were comparing GA cuisine to WA state cuisine or FL cuisine or MA cuisine, I wouldn't be sounding as brutal.
But astonishingly, you can *more easily* get far better soul/southern food in CA, particularly SF/Bay Area than you can get really good Mexican or Vietnamese food in Atlanta. You can get really good Mexican or Vietnamese in Atlanta, from like 1-2 places in the metro. You can get really really good soul/southern/cajun/creole/BBQ etc from an abundance of places in CA cities. At least that's been my experience. SF as a foodie draw actually draws a boatload of really good chefs from the south, including from NOLA, who want to bring their expertise to the area. Oakland in particular has really good soul food and BBQ, as well as a fair amount of both cajun and creole cuisine usually from people from LA. And I have a roster of about 5 places I frequent (that I can WALK to either from the office or my apartment) for really really good fried chicken and mac and cheese that are at least as good as anything I ever had in Atlanta. But when you're in GA, even Atlanta, good luck finding truly really really good Vietnamese or Mexican. You can, it's just not as abundant.
If we were comparing GA cuisine to WA state cuisine or FL cuisine or MA cuisine, I wouldn't be sounding as brutal.
I used to live there for quite a while. I was younger then and my friends and I would frequently seek out ethnic foods around the metro. It's possible, but it's not the same situation you would find in a denser, more diverse coastal immigration hub like NYC, SF, LA, etc. It's a whole world apart. Do you honestly think there are a host of solid noodle places dotting metro Atlanta, or a lot of decent Mexican food outside of the parts of the metro that house nearly all of the Mexican population (western Cobb County, Buford Hwy)? Buford Hwy is the ethnic road and the "Chinatown", though it's more Korean. Great if that's all you know, but if you're coming from CA or NY, it's a vast understatement to say that it leaves A LOT to be desired and you must drive there, a good long ways, outside of the central city of Atlanta. When you're on your lunch break in downtown/Midtown/Buckhead, there are very few ethnic places you can even walk to and they all basically stink. If you don't work in these areas, you are in the burbs, and must drive, and it's just a whole different environment.
In a city like SF or LA, it's pretty hard to not be within walking distance, wherever you are, from solid Mexican or Vietnamese food, among dozens of other ethnic cuisines. That's how different the two places are.
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