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a Yankee up here near Boston. It's got to be fried chicken and pecan pie.

What coud be better than fried chicken, creamed corn, greens, and biscuits with sorghum?? Nothing, that's what!

another yankee from new england living in Alabama my current fave is red bean and rice. I've learned a whole new appreciation for smoked ham hocks:-)

Hoppin' John! Collards, rice and andouille on New Year's day. Mmmm.

Virginia girl now living in the midwest, drinking a sweet tea with lemon as I type...my favorite is shrimp and grits with tasso ham or Surry sausage or andouille (something porky). Collard greens. I could eat it every day...same with grits. Fried Chicken with honey and hot sauce. Biscuits like Hunter's (my husband) Grandma Bessie made. String beans cooked with bacon until everythin's nice and tender. I used to love to attend a friend's annual crab boil until I developed a severe allergy to crab. Oh and the occasional pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw...mmmmhhhmmm!

Pintos and cornbread. When I moved to North Carolina from the Chicago area in 1976, there was a traditional blue-collar diner (across the street from a cigarette plant) close to my office. They always had a pot of pintos with onions and ham hocks going. Everyone in the building knew when I brought lunch back...the smell permeated everywhere!
Also love the traditional Moravian chicken pies you can buy around here. I realize these are not specifically "Southern", but the Moravians came to this area in the 1700's. They don't waste space with vegetables...all chicken, all gravy, nice thick crust on the top and bottom....fabulous!

Shrimp and grits with bacon. I could it this every day.

Russian girl here, grew up in NY than transplanted to FL in my late teens, moved back to NY and very much miss the following Southern foods.
Chicken fried steaks with gravy, collards, and cornbread. My next favorite Southern meal would have to be fried catfish, fried okra, and hush puppies, I know, it's all fried, it's not good for you, but Southern cooking just isn't very good for you...

My husband is from Nashville, and I learned to eat southern from him. One of my all time favorites has to be pulled pork served over corn cakes and topped with sour cream. Yum! By the way, how do you make shrimp and grits? We eat grits all the time, but never with shrimp....

Decent barbeque. Not beef (sorry Texas, just not my taste), but smoked pork butt. Smoked until it falls apart. Then add homemade SC-style mustard sauce. second to that would have to be shrimp and grits.

@eatingoutwest: The way I make shrimp and grits (and have had it restaurants) is to cook the shrimp separately and serve them on top of the grits.

For example: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CREAMY-SHRIMP-GRITS-WITH-PROSCIUTTO-104183

I like John Currence's version. He spices up the grits real good.
http://www.recipelink.com/mf/14/24825

Beans n' taters sided by chow-chow, sliced tomatoes, cornbread and creasy greens . . . with fried pies for dessert. :)

Fried okra, biscuits, cornbread, barbecue...good grief it is sad to live in Canada sometimes. :)

P.S. - Texas here! :)

One more thing: sweet potato souffle topped with candied pecans. This one is a family recipe from Georgia and it's completely addictive.

@bisbee and Pavlov - Our local McDonalds are selling sweet (REALLY sweet) tea (in PA). Uggg! I think the dentists across the state developed this noxious brew to increase business.
My favorite southern dishes are a lump crab salad with remoulade sauce that I first had at Russo's in Mobile, Alabama years ago. But my absolute favorite is kitchen sink gumbo. I get to use up leftover produce but still stay true to the recipe with file, okra, andouille, chicken and shrimp. Anything goes.

I'm an Arkansan by birth and former New Orleanian by choice. I'm in Chicago now and I miss the food from both my homes. From Arkansas, fried catfish with tomato relish, cornbread dressing, Bojangles biscuits, sweet tea, good barbecue, fried okra, sweet potato pie and red velvet cake.

From New Orleans, all things cooked seafood, beignets, sweet tea, crawfish pie, pralines and strawberry lemonade.

I have to admit that I'm a bit Yankee when it comes to cornbread. (I like mine sweet, but it has to be cooked in a cast iron skillet.)

Born (bawn?) and raised Virginian, transplanted to New Orleans, here for life.
I love gumbo, and could eat it every single day for the rest of my life. Especially if its ingredients include andouille sausage! I also love biscuits cooked up right, pulled pork poboys, debris poboys, and anything you can find at a crawfish boil! Crawfish boils are my friend and yours, I promise. The one thing I don't like that probably baffles people is that I'm not a fan of fried seafood. I will eat fried shrimp, but generally I save the frying for my chicken! Mashed potatoes and creamy savory macaroni and cheese. Apple pies. Greens with bacon. Red beans and rice. Banana pudding, but only if it has Nilla Wafers and real whipped cream. Green beans, oh my sweet green beans.

I love to eat. Sorry, I got a bit carried away. Oh yeah, and sweet tea. But not hot tea. Laws, no.

Reading all of this in Pennsylvania is making me very hungry -- happily, we are heading to NC at the end of this week. It is going to be so wonderful to have grits that I do not have to cook!

West Indies Salad from my home town of Mobile, AL. Easily one of the most luxurious delicacies on earth.

As someone born and raised in Hawaii, in my travels, I have grown to love fried okra, fried dill pickles, collard greens, Brunswick stew (over rice :P), chow chow, fried green tomatoes, and fried chicken washed down with sweet tea. I love sweet potato and peach pies, red velvet cake, bread pudding, and eating warm pralines from a paper bag, which brings me to the slew of Cajun and Creole dishes I love.

One of these days, I have to try the southern version of oxtail soup, just to see how different it is from the oxtail soup from my neck of the woods.

I've got a jar of sorghum molasses I picked up on my last trip to TN this summer that is begging to be opened.

At the top of my list has got to be biscuits. Nobody makes biscuits like the South. There's also sweet potato casserole, mac & cheese, cornbread, pecan pie, peach cobbler, red velvet cake, and fried pickles. And although I now live in Tennessee, I was born & raised in North Carolina, so Carolina barbecue of course!

Ok, so this Upstater has very little experience with southern food. I think I'd like real fried chicken, but I've never really had it- at least not the kind someone cooked in fat in a cast iron skillet. I guess I've tasted greens once or twice, and I prefer my mac and cheese creamy, not baked.

See, what I've been doing all along is making sure there's enough for all you guys (y'all???) to enjoy :)

I am surprised that only @Divadog mentioned banana pudding - my, my, how well I remember my first taste in South Carolina - would love a real recipe - up here in Canada one can get banana cream pie, but it cannot touch southern banana pudding.

Also, hush puppies, not the mass produced ones, but the lovely crispy, fluffy ones produced in small restaurants - bliss.

Frogmore stew or Brunswick stew - I have seen it called both, but I have reproduced it in Canada to rave reviews - I had to buy my Old Bay seasoning stateside, though I believe if you shop around in specialty stores you can find it now.

Deep fried okra, biscuits, shrimp & grits - need I go on - our vacations in the South necessitate a great deal of restraint.

I have mentioned before how lucky people in the South are, to have both sweet and non sweet ice tea available at almost every restaurant you enter. There is absolutely nothing nicer than to walk in from the torpid heat and humidity and have a large, cold glass of tea!