As a kid growing up in Brooklyn a large portion of the Italian American population called tomato sauce they made for pasta - gravy. I'm just recently finding out there other areas of the Northeast where Italian Americans call there tomato sauce, gravy. I know it has reached Long Island with the migration of Brooklyn Italian Americans. recently found out this slang for tomato sauce is also being used in New Jersey. one of my favorite sandwiches as a kid growing up was "eggs and gravy" which was scrambled eggs in tomato sauce. Last week while grocery shopping I noticed they had pasta sauce on a jar, labeled Long Island gravy, New Jersey gravy, and Brooklyn gravy. I did not check out the ingredients to see there differences, I just found it interesting that they labeled them gravy instead of pasta sauce. I wonder how many other Foods or dishes have different names depending on there locale.
Well, there's always "chipped beef gravy" vs "sh!t on a shingle" but that is contingent on whether you're on an army base or not, rather than where the army base is located.....LOL.
We have brown gravy and red eye gravy. The red eye gravy goes with country ham. The brown gravy goes with everything else. There is something called sausage gravy on the menu at some fast food places. Hardees for one. It is really good on biscuits. I think it is what is called white sauce in some places but it has sausage in it.
I really enjoy Foods especially Meats with gravy, like pot roast with a side of mashed potato one of my favorites. Put a gravy or sauce on it and I'll eat a red brick.
While it's not really a food, I've found the reference to soda as "pop" in some parts of the country to be interesting. I had cousins from Pennsylvania who would ask for "pop," and I could never get out of them how anyone knew if they meant Coke or Sprite or something else. I think that in some parts of the country there are hoagies and in other parts there are subs.
But any good pasta sauce starts with pork drippings. I worked for an Italian guy and his mother always started the pasta sauce off by frying pork chops and using the drippings as the base (she did not make use of the pork.) Since I've been making my own pasta and have expanded on that, the pasta sauces I really like start off by frying salt pork in olive oil and using the rendering as the base. So now that you point out "gravy starts with meat," I can see how pasta sauce might be called "gravy" in authentic circles.
In rural North Carolina back then it was also called a "dope". "Y'all wanna go down the store and get a cold dope?" In Louisville, KY, it's all a "Coke": "And what would you like to drink?" "I'll have a Coke." "What kind?" "Dr. Pepper." Hoagies, subs...…...also called grinders, heroes, who knows what else.
Referring to all sodas as "Coke" makes no sense whatsoever. Given its origins, I can see it being called "dope." And I forgot about "grinders."
In Mama Leone's cookbook she starts all her pasta sauces that way with pork rind. She had a pretty famous Italian restaurant in Manhattan, which was known 4 it's delicious tomato sauce 4 pasta.