Sprecken Sie Pennsylvaniaish?


By Cindy O. Herman

mouth   You might like mangoes, and you might like custard. You might even like mango custard. But what would you think of green pepper ice cream? Same thing, to a Pennsylvanian! We all know that mangoes are that delicious, juicy tropical fruit. Well, actually, we don't all know that. For years, mango was the word we Pennsylvanians used (some still do) to refer to peppers. Green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, orange - it didn't matter.
They were all mangoes. It was common, even 20 or 30 years ago, to see peppers being sold at farmers' markets innocently advertised as mangoes. One woman told me that, growing up in the 1940s and '50s, her family always called peppers mangoes, and it was years before she learned there was also a fruit by that name. Pennsylvanians traveling to Hawaii might be a little startled to be offered mangoes with their breakfast. And Hawaiians visiting Pennsylvania would surely question the epicurean wisdom of sauteed mangoes on a cheese-steak hoagie.

Custard is another word with a loose interpretation in certain areas of Pennsylvania. In the coal regions, where I grew up, custard is a sort of pudding. And it makes great pies: coconut custard, raspberry custard, blueberry custard. Mmm-mmm. Tasty. But in the Dutchified farm areas of Central Pennsylvania, and in parts of Western Pennsylvania, too, I'm told, people look forward to battling summer's heat with a tasty treat from the "custard shop." Now, the first time someone asks if you want to go to the custard shop on a sweltering, sweaty summer day, and you're picturing a little dish of egg custard with some cinnamon sprinkled on top, or a slice of freshly-baked coconut custard pie, you might think they're fehunst! You might even say, "No, thanks. What I'd really like is some cold, refreshing ice cream."

Well, the joke's on you, because a custard shop is an ice cream shop! To people in Pennsylvania, places like Dairy Queen make great-tasting custard - chocolate, vanilla and twist. The best advice I can give to visitors inside Pennsylvania: Just go with it. If your hosts offer you mangoes with your hot sausage, trust them. You'll love it. If they suggest a custard on a hot summer evening, you'll be glad for it. But if they offer you a mango custard, I'd think twice about that one.Green pepper ice cream? They've got to be fehunst!

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