From Lobster to Crawfish: A Girl’s Guide to Eating Southern

When I moved from Boston to North Carolina the changes in food ended up being quite shocking. No one here knows what an iced coffee regular means or where to find some quality Italian food.

In Massachusetts, “barbecue” generally meant grilling burgers and hot dogs on a summer afternoon. If you’re lucky someone would grab some BBQ sauce from the store and maybe a rack of ribs. I wasn’t expecting this verb to turn into a noun. Barbecue in North Carolina is essentially pulled or chopped pork with a vinegar-based barbecue sauce (which I have grown to love). One of my favorite Southern sides are hushpuppies, these simply cannot be beat. Another new favorite of mine is Cookout! This fast-food chain blows any other out of the water and is a late-night snack staple. My go-to items here are the fried cheese bites which some may call fried cheese curds and the quesadillas! No matter what you’re in the mood for Cookout has it all.

If you’re from up North, you know when you ask for Sweet Tea in a restaurant, you’ll get a glass of un-sweetened tea and a side of sweeteners. In the South they do all that hard work for you and let me tell you it’s delicious. After having Southern sweet tea, the self-sweetened tea from up North simply cannot compete!

Although there are a lot of lifestyle adjustments that must be made when moving from up North to down South, it’s all worth it. I could never see myself returning to New England after college and I hope that everyone who decides to go to college down south falls in love with the food and southern charm of it all!

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Girls Go South is a podcast created by friends who relocated to North Carolina for college, sharing our journey of discovering Southern culture, food, fashion, and adventures!