Aquired Tastes... (restaurants, store, safe)

[TexasHorseLady]

Margaritas. For which I have definitely acquired a taste - but only the real ones, not the fruity ones that are called margaritas. (Margarita purist, here.)

Hot sauce. Addictive, once the taste has been acquired.

[NOTAM]

Trechas sprinkled on pickles, apple slices, pineapple slices.........i live on that stuff. have a bottle of "powdered" not "liquid" Trechas at home AND at work! i developed a taste for that in South Texas
also chamoy candies, chamoy anything......and tamarind

[MaryS80]

You have to be a third or fourth generation southerner to enjoy a lot of that stuff. Beer is pretty universal. I'm a first generation Texan, and while I've picked up the lingo I never acquired the taste for the food.

I'd have to pass on the livers, chitlins, and grits. I don't like watermelon, brisket, or BBQ.

I remember not long after my husband I got together he wanted me to make Frito Pie. I had heard of it, but had no idea what it was. I thought you made a pie crust out of fritos, filled it with chili then baked it. :P

[destin04]

Frito Pie! I fixed that for my hubby 28 years ago on about our second date....and he tells everyone he knew it was a done deal....! But now if you are gonna fix it....it has to be with Wolf Brand Chili, Real Frito's and onion......no substitutes.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by MaryS80

You have to be a third or fourth generation southerner to enjoy a lot of that stuff. Beer is pretty universal. I'm a first generation Texan, and while I've picked up the lingo I never acquired the taste for the food.

I'd have to pass on the livers, chitlins, and grits. I don't like watermelon, brisket, or BBQ.

I remember not long after my husband I got together he wanted me to make Frito Pie. I had heard of it, but had no idea what it was. I thought you made a pie crust out of fritos, filled it with chili then baked it. :P

I enjoyed reading -- and got a kick out of --reading this post! ESPECIALLY the "frito pie" part of it! LOL (psssst? Mary...don't keep us in suspense. Did you actually MAKE it that way? *grins*).

Anyway, you are pretty correct, I think, although I never really considered it before, that yeah, a lot of tradtional "Southern" style food WOULD be part of "culture shock" to many not from the region.

So far as chitlins go? Interesting. Although while white and black Southerners dine on most of the same fare (called "soul" in the North, and just plain "home-style" or "comfort" or "country cookin" in the South) I think chitlins are truly more a dividing point. I feel safe in saying, if you were to put a 100 native black and white Texans/Southerners in the same community kitchen and tell everyone to whomp up your own speciality, that when it was all said and done, all would, black and white, dig into pretty much the same creations.

The exception being chitlins...where things might -- good naturedly of course -- "segregate"! LOL

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by destin04

Watermelon and salt, beer and salt, eggs with salsa, eggs with chili

I don't know if these things are exclusive to Texas but when I've eaten them in front of people who are not from Texas they've never heard of it.

Good one! Beer and salt, sorta reminds me of something that is maybe not an "aquired taste" but then again, maybe it IS. That is, what is known around these parts as a "red draw." Beer and tomato juice, and heavily salted..?

[TexasHorseLady]

I'll likewise pass on the chitlins, grits, and liver. (And I qualify on the "been here forever" category - we've been here since before Texas was Texas.) That's more of a southern thing, maybe a bit of east Texas (though I grew up in East Texas and never ate them).

I thought everybody ate their watermelon with salt, just to bring out the flavor? Except when you go out in the watermelon patch and break one open and just eat it there, warm from the sun, that is.

In Hawaii, touring the pineapple fields, they taught us to salt our pineapple. I never had done that before - BOY, what a difference it makes, it doesn't taste salty, it just tastes more like pineapple!

[love roses]

Ewww! I hated salted watermelon. Every summer we'd go visit my grandpa at his lakehouse. My great grandparents had a cabin down the road and they would walk over to my grandpa's and we'd always have watermelon. My great grandpa (pop) always salted his watermelon. He thought it was the best thing ever. He got me to try it, and I never could get into it. He also loved Watermelon rind pickles. That's another one I can't quite get into. A cousin of mine loves beet pickles, but I can also eat a bunch of those. Can't get into sweet pickles either. My ex step mom's mother cans all the time and she always makes those, but I just don't really like them although they are 100% better than the store bought kind. Pickled okra...I could eat that for days!

My grandpa got me to try frogs legs on one of my summer visits to the Lake. Took us to a nearby cafe and got a plate of them. I stil love them! Love alligator too. My grandma in Tyler used to fry rabbit, which was also great. My grandpa loved hot sauce and when we'd go to the farm, they'd always have a hot sauce eating contest, which everyone would end up getting into, so I learned to love the stuff and can eat some pretty rough stuff, even today. My grandma also drank, and still does, buttermilk. She never put cornbread in it though. I didn't like it as a kid, but now I can drink a small glass and be fine. It could be that I killed all my taste buds with the hot sauce though, who knows

My papaw (the Lake one) was a hunter, so we always got a taste of whatever he brought home, be it pigeon, dove, quail, venison, boar, snake, or squirrel. My memaw was a great cook and I did love her dove, even as a kid. Her duck was good too. My mother loves chicken livers and gizzards and we ate them as kids. Those are definitely an acquired taste, but I still love them. I like turnips now, but when I was a kid, I hated them. My great grandma (mom) always cooked liver and turnips. I have no idea why she liked that stuff so much, but she would always torture me and my sister every time we'd visit because she'd make us eat it for lunch. She eventually started mashing the turnips and told us they were mashed potatoes. Being ignorant kids, we fell for it most of the time, although we thought they were the oddest tasting potatoes in the world. I always thought she was just buying bad potatoes. I did develop a like for the liver though. Hominy is another one. My husband loves it, as does my mom. Another one that was hard for me to like from time to time is cucumber salad. I've had some that was extremely good, and some that is just too tart to handle.

Like bellestar, I like the fruit sprinkled with lime and chile. It took a while for me to get used to it, but a step aunt of mine in Corpus loves the stuff and she went on a breakfast taco run one morning and brought some back. Didn't like it so much the first time, but the next time she brought some back I enjoyed it, especially the pineapple. Tamarindo is good too, I agree, but TART. I can only eat a tiny bit at a time.

[car957]

Red beer. I could never get into that drink.

Calf fries. I love them.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by MaryS80

I'd have to pass on the livers, chitlins, and grits. I don't like watermelon, brisket, or BBQ.

LOL. I just had to add something on the "grits" aspect.

If one goes by this map from Pillsbury Co. then Texas IS DEFINTELY part of the so-called "Grits Belt":

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/12/01/foodways/story.grits.jpg (broken link)

That is to say, the area in the American South where the most grits are sold per capita (and extending a bit into eastern New Mexico which had heavy Texas settlement). In this regard, I don't think there is much to argue with (after all, this company makes "maps" of this sort NOT out of the blue, but based on marketing surveys and solid reasoning! LOL).

My own experience? Hmmmmm...

There is an east/west gradient, to be sure. But by and large, unlike in many of the SouthEastern states (especially in the "Deep South), grits are not usually brought out on the plate "by default" when ordering breakfast in a restaurant. Parts of East Texas, particularly in smaller cafe's, are noteably exceptional to this general rule, but by and large, hashbrowns will usually have an equal, if not much more, listing on the "Marque" than grits.

Now then, grits ARE readily available in most Texas eating joints. It isn't anything that Texans are strangers to. Not many of us are unfamiliar in the least with them in terms of growing up. Usually though, in public places, the menu will give a choice of "served with either grits or hashbrowns."

Personally, I LIKE them, if they are done right. That is...with lots of REAL butter, and peppered to taste!