Culture of The Southern United States - Cuisine

Cuisine

As an important feature of Southern culture, the cuisine of the South is often described as one of its most distinctive traits. Popular sayings include "Food is Love" and "If it ain't fried it ain't cooked". Southern culinary culture has readily adopted Native American influences. Corn meal cereal known as "grits", cornfritters, cornbread and brunswick stew are a few of the more common examples of foods adopted directly from southeastern Indians. Nevertheless, a great many regional varieties have also developed. The variety of cuisines range from Tex-Mex cuisine, Cajun and Creole, traditional antebellum fare, all types of seafood, and Texas, Carolina, Virginia (which shares strong similarities with North Carolina) and Memphis styles of Barbecue.

Traditional African American Southern food is often called soul food. While not typically as spicy as is cajun food, it does tend to use lots of herbs, flour, and can also be called stick-to your ribs food. Of course, most Southern cities and even some smaller towns now offer a wide variety of cuisines of other origins such as Chinese, Italian, French, Middle Eastern, as well as restaurants still serving primarily Southern specialties, so-called "home cooking" establishments. Some notable "home cooking" meals include: fried chicken, corn on the cob, greens with pot liquor, vegetable stew, chicken and dumplings, and chicken fried steak.