As an example of what I mean:
If someone in the U.S. prefers the following dishes, would you say that person was southern or northern?
Well-done roasts
Blackeyed peas, cooked for hours with some pork seasoning such as ham bone, rinsed salt pork, or bacon
Turnip greens, cooked for hours with same
Collards, purple hull peas (preferably home-shelled), fresh tomatoes, green onions (scallions to you), leaf lettuce, especially if home grown
Catfish coated with cornmeal and salt and fried till well done
Hushpuppies with catfish
Cornbread, no sugar unless you want to face a court trial for treason
Homemade yeast rolls
Chicken and dumplings, made from scratch

And if someone prefers the following food choices (or decides to go hungry rather than to try them) is that person northern or southern?
Lamb chops
Rare meat of any kind
Just-cooked vegetables of any sort except those listed above
Baked fish--check the price per pound and buy the most expensive, provided your choice is environmentally friendly
Whole grain bread--however, only one starch is allowed per meal, so if you have a quinoa and brown rice mix with the fish, you may not have bread

I mean the above historically. We tend to change as the years go by. I tend, for instance, to prefer the grocer's frozen-food section. And there is currently a stereotype that southerners prefer fatty, rich foods. I can't address that issue, not having traveled to every household in the southern U.S..

But anyhow--in the real world, as opposed to the world of popular stereotypes and mythologies about foods (Paula Deen is not the type of southern cook I once knew), how can you ID a person by food choices growng up? If someone you know prefers, or once had preferred, a certain dish, say, shrimp and grits for breakfast, you might be thinking of the Charleston area, for example. You have fried whole clams once a week? Oh, lucky you! Might be Boston, elsewhere nearby?

So in general, what food choices would you add to the above list regionally to ID a person?