Duffy Brown: North vs. South, the best food fight ever

I'm a foodie. Guess that's why I'm on a forever diet. Didn't say I kept it, just that I was on it.

I live in Cincinnati, where North meets South … or North is separated from South, depending on your point of view. If it's fireworks over the Ohio River or rooting for the Cincinnati Reds, we meet. If it's food … not so much. For example, in Cincy we get iced tea. If we cross the Ohio River, a whopping one-minute drive away, we get sweet tea. You can't get sweet tea in Cincy. Ask for it at a restaurant and they hand you a packet of sugar.

In Cincy we grill. Over there, they have a cookout. Cincy does steaks and brats and this stuff called goetta (we're just a little bit German, you see). On the other side it's barbecued pork that's shredded, diced, sliced or pulled.

My mother used Crisco back in the day; my husband's mother had pan drippings on her stove. I ate pasta, and Dave had grits. My vegetables were green beans and zucchini. Dave had fried green tomatoes, corn pudding and mint juleps (hey, that's green, right?).

I never did convince Dave that grits is not a food group unto itself and praline pecan pie truly is not a breakfast food. When we married we always had hush puppies for Sunday dinner and Moon Pies are still in the snack drawer. Sushi is and always will be bait, granola is squirrel food, bone-suckin' sauce is what his daddy put on the ribs, and no, Dave, a spice rack is not my 36 Bs.

The Ohio River is not very wide. I mean, people swim across the thing. My mother-in-law made the best fried chicken on Earth, and her sweet potato pie was to die for. My mom made a great spaghetti sauce and the only thing fried was an egg and that goetta stuff.

The first thing my mother asked me about Dave when she thought we were getting serious was "how much does he make?" The first thing my mother-in-law asked Dave was, "Who did you say her daddy was?" My father followed the NFL. Dave's daddy was NASCAR. I was taught to mind my own business. Dave was taught to mind his manners. You get the picture.

I'd like to think that our marriage is a blending of North and South. Our kids mind their manners and their own business, but Moon Pies, peach cobbler and fried chicken are the foods of the gods. Pasta and granola never stood a chance.

So what about you? Where do you live? Are you Northern cuisine or Southern good-cooking? What's your favorite dish, and where did you get the recipe?

Note from Joyce, who's drooling, thank you very much: Duffy is giving away two signed copies of her latest release, Iced Chiffon, and three totes to five readers who e-mail her at DuffyBrown@DuffyBrown.com.

You can also find out more about Duffy and her books at her website, DuffyBrown.com.