If you are going to eat out, you tell people what meat you are going to eat. if you are going to eat chicken, it’s fried chicken. If you are going to eat fish, it’s catfish and it’s fried. if you are going for barbecue, it’s just understood you are going to get pork, even though Texas features beef barbecue. of course, Texas is its own country, and not officially Southern, either. Texans are proud of that fact, and have a right to be. So let’s get this straight: Chicken and catfish are fried. Pork is barbecued unless it’s chops, and then it’s fried or smothered. Beef is roast. there aren’t many people in the South saying they’re going out to eat “vegetarian salad bar with tofu cubes,” but we’ll be real polite when you ask if that’s available. Please be polite when we say no.