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Location: Uniquely Individual Villages of the Megalopolis
646 posts, read 813,645 times
Reputation: 36
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lammius
Yeah, pre-sweetened iced tea isn't found many places in New Jersey. I did go to a French bistro in Morristown that had a sweetened orange peel iced tea. It was pretty good, but too sweet for my taste. I drink iced tea often, but always unsweetened. A squeeze of lemon is all a glass of iced tea needs, IMO. As hard as it is to find pre-sweetened iced tea in NJ, imagine how difficult it is to find UNSWEETENED iced tea in the Deep South! I didn't look around very much, but noticed a restaurant in Nashville didn't offer unsweetened.
Southern food, on the other hand, is largely available everywhere, I think. Particularly in predominantly African-American neighborhoods you find many soul food restaurants, places that have fried foods, okra, collards, sweet potatoes, etc. A few things you can't really find up here are chicken fried steak (took me a long time to figure out what the heck that was), and white gravy.
What's more surprising, to me anyway, is the rapid growth of restaurants representing cuisine from around the world and the crazy fusions that are developing. Ten years ago it was difficult to find Thai restaurants, they were few and far between. Now they're in every neighborhood. Indian restaurants, same story. Malaysian, Indonesian, Sri Lankan, South African, Moroccan, all are becoming more numerous all the time. And now more and more fusions are developing. Last week I went to an Indian-Chinese fusion restaurant for the first time (garlic chicken with garam masala and basmati rice?!?). I love the fact that we're becoming more and more exposed to food (and people, music, culture) from around the world all the time.
So who wants to venture w/ me to open a Southern US and Lebanese fusion restaurant? The menu will feature chicken fried falafel!!! Or Southern US and Indian fusion featuring Collard Paneer!
LOL!! You're absolutely right about those Fusions. But I do like the Southern BBQ restaurants, there is one in the Village I try and frequent. It's white mainly but has huge collards, the BBQ is okay but I like "Brothers" and other places, the corn on the cob, etc. Actually corn on the cob is as northern as Southern so is cornbread.
When I spent some time in Georgia, this stuff sweet tea was everywhere, I like it but prefer to sweeten myself. Snapple in bottles has a "SOuthern Style ice tea" brand. There is the Arizona Iced Tea which I don't care for much.
I want the flavor of tea, not so sweet or lemony and cringe when a restaurant that's all they have fresh but presweet with always TOO MUCH lemon. What happened to the tea for heaven's sake. But Usually in NYC I can get fresh plain tea from pitchers anywhere.
Plenty of Southerners came to NY when times were bad there and had diners and things now many Northerners have gone South for better opps for these times. THere are guys in Brooklyn that wear cowboy hats.
Location: Uniquely Individual Villages of the Megalopolis
646 posts, read 813,645 times
Reputation: 36
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolinaBredChicagoan
Most places in the Carolinas offer both sweet and unsweet tea. The unsweet tea urn may be smaller, and they may default to sweet tea if you order "tea", but most places have both. My mom always orders unsweet and adds sweet and low. Pretty much every place we ever go when I visit has that option.
In NY it's really split, plain iced tea or a presweet with lemon. All depends it's about 50/50.
Because people want to use sugar substitutes of their choice. Plain is usually the more standard. But ice tea is everywhere. I found that hard to find even in plain form in MD and PA, don't know about Jersey much.
Location: Uniquely Individual Villages of the Megalopolis
646 posts, read 813,645 times
Reputation: 36
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolinaBredChicagoan
Oh. And the lemon. Generally, we're referring to fresh tea, fresh lemon. No lemon flavoring or anything. An actual lemon slice.
Lucky for you that you find it ubiquitous in NYC. My brother lives there and has to go certain places to get it. It's only available in Chicago at BBQ or soul food places. It's available literally everywhere in the south.
Ordering unsweetened iced tea and sweetening it yourself doesn't cut it, because sugar doesn't dissolve in iced tea. I don't like artificial sweeteners.
NYC has a toss up 50/50 fresh, but often presweet including lemon or sometimes not. Mostly though I have no problem anywhere getting simple fresh iced tea from urns.
The states in between NY and DC make the big fuss about whether something is "southern" or not and try to be snobbish about it. MD, Del, and PA kinda have their own culture. Quaker influenced in some areas, PA Dutch in others.
There's nothing restricting that when you get to NYC, what's good is good and they are so used to so many cultures, what difference does one more make. Now grits you won't find in NYC but plenty of cornbread.
Iced Tea is very popular and often already sweetened.
What qualifies it as Southern? Simple. It is a beverage that originated in the Southern United States (Deep South/Upper South) and it is offered virtually in every restaurant. I've eaten at restaurants in New Jersey and New York, and sweet tea was not offered in them. I've heard its sold in bottles but it is not something restaurants in the rest of the country tend to promote very heavily.
Yuck that bottled junk does NOT qualify as sweet tea or unsweetened tea for that matter. YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!!
Thanks but you didn't answer the question. I live in NY it's offered everywhere in restaurants. USually in delis or small stores it is offered in varieites by Snapple and others in bottles
I promise you bottled doesn't count It has to be brewed and the sugar added while the tea is hot, water added then chilled drank with ice.
You can get grits and sweet tea at any soul food restaurant or BBQ joint in any city in America. Plain and simple. But the key here is soul food which is tradionally southern (African American) cuisine.
Most places in the midwest and northeast serve iced tea (sweetened or unsweetened). It's sweet too but it's not the same. Correct me if I am wrong, but i think sweet tea is made by letting the tea sit in the hot sun over some hours.
You can get grits and sweet tea at any soul food restaurant or BBQ joint in any city in America. Plain and simple. But the key here is soul food which is tradionally southern (African American) cuisine.
Most places in the midwest and northeast serve iced tea (sweetened or unsweetened). It's sweet too but it's not the same. Correct me if I am wrong, but i think sweet tea is made by letting the tea sit in the hot sun over some hours.
You're wrong
No, not WRONG. There is such a thing as "Sun tea", but that's not the norm. Most sweet tea is just fresh-brewed tea with the sugar added while the tea is hot.
imagine how difficult it is to find UNSWEETENED iced tea in the Deep South!
It isn't difficult. I'm from the deep south, and almost every restaurant offers unsweet tea. In my experience, if you just order "tea," they will always ask, "Sweet or unsweet?"
Quote:
So who wants to venture w/ me to open a Southern US and Lebanese fusion restaurant? The menu will feature chicken fried falafel!!! Or Southern US and Indian fusion featuring Collard Paneer!
"Southern US" food covers a wide range of styles. It's not just fried country cooking and barbecue, but also cajun, lowcountry, creole, Tex-Mex, etc.
Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans all have some interesting southern fusion restaurants.
Last edited by anonymous; 11-12-2007 at 09:48 AM..
You can get grits and sweet tea at any soul food restaurant or BBQ joint in any city in America. Plain and simple. But the key here is soul food which is tradionally southern (African American) cuisine.
I've never been to a bbq joint that served grits, but I'll take your word for it. And I wouldn't equate southern with "African American" - they certainly had a major influence, but it's equally European-influenced.
Quote:
Most places in the midwest and northeast serve iced tea (sweetened or unsweetened). It's sweet too but it's not the same. Correct me if I am wrong, but i think sweet tea is made by letting the tea sit in the hot sun over some hours.
I've never heard of anyone letting sweet tea sit in the sun. The only thing different about sweet tea is that you add sugar while the tea is still hot.
I'm sure that plenty of places across America serve sweet tea. I have, however, asked for a sweet tea in Manhattan and Los Angeles, and gotten a blank stare, followed by: "Um.. you can put sugar in it."
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It has to be brewed and the sugar added while the tea is hot, water added then chilled drank with ice.
j/k Was he raised in Kentucky? I have been drinking the stuff since I was little!
