Any person who is from Northeastern Pennsylvania and has ventured out elsewhere has undoubtedly encountered violent opposition from outsiders for various NEPA-specific expressions and practices.
People have such a hard time believing that these phrases and actions are real, but, thankfully I'm here to prove it and put it in writing... all of these things (believe it or not) are common practice in the great region of NEPA.
1. Pizza comes in a TRAY.
If you order a "tray of pizza" anywhere else, the waiter probably won't know what you're talking about. Apparently, if people not from NEPA want an entire pizza, other people refer to it as a "pie." Odd... because it literally comes on a tray...
2. Hoodies without hoods are called noodies.
A no-hooded hoodie is called a noodie in NEPA... makes sense right? Apparently elsewhere it is called a crewneck, and nobody will have any idea what you're talking about if you say noodie.
3. Dippy Eggs
People in NEPA call the eggs that you can dip toast into the yolk "dippy eggs," but apparently nobody else calls them that. Life-hack: if you want dippy eggs and you're not in NEPA, order them "over easy," or else the person taking your order will have o idea what you mean. (I learned this the hard way.)
4. Square Pizza
For some reason, NOBODY ELSE EATS SQUARE PIZZA! In NEPA, probably 95% of the time when you order a pizza, you get a square pizza. Old Forge Style pizza (the square kind us NEPA people get) is the best, but most people not from NEPA are very specific to round pizzas only. (If only they knew...)
5. We grew up riding school buses without seat belts.
Nobody in New York State believes me when I say our school buses didn't have seatbelts. I was bewildered the first time I got on a school bus in Central New York because it had seat belts on it. But, nonetheless, it is true! There were no seatbelts for NEPA kids growing up.
6. Long sandwiches are called hoagies.
Apparently everywhere else they're called "subs," but in NEPA there's nothing like a good old Italian hoagie. This is another thing I've tried to order outside of NEPA that the person who took my order had no idea what I was saying. The word "hoagie" is definitely the move.
7. Buying alcohol is a struggle.
This is an all of Pennsylvania thing, but we have special wine and spirit stores, and special beer distributor stores and beer and wine are never sold together. Also, you usually have to go to one of these special retailers or to a gas station. I was very caught off guard when I went to a Walmart in CNY and saw alcohol for sale because that does not happen in PA!
8. White pizza
White pizza is present in some places in New York, so it isn't exactly a strictly NEPA thing, but if you venture elsewhere, you probably won't find it... which is a shame because white pizza is f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c.
9. Chain restaurants are NOT all the rage
People from NEPA eat at chains far less frequently than people from other places because NEPA just has so many good family-owned restaurants that are so much better than any chain.
I was very shocked when I went to New England the first time because there were hardly any family-owned restaurants, so they usually have no choice but to visit chains. What a shame because family-owned restaurants are usually amazing.
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