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The Nation's BBQ Capital According to Google, and It Ain't Texas

Last week, we showed you how Google has been actively tracking food and drink trends since at least 2004 and how 2010 was the year of pizza (at least according to your search patterns and the number of times people have Googled "Pizza Hut"). But that's not the only thing that Google Insight lets you track.

You can also track the popularity of certain search terms on a geographical basis. This is the same data that led to such hilarious discoveries as the fact that "men kissing" as a search term is most popular in highly conservative Utah.

So we decided to see how certain food terms are dispersed geographically, with some totally unsurprising results, save one: Texas is way, way down on the list when it comes to barbecue. According to Google, North Carolina is the barbecue capital of the nation.

Texas, I've never been more ashamed.

Now for the unsurprising results:

Poor boys are the sandwich of choice in Louisiana...

...while the Italian Beef has its stronghold up north in Illinois.

The muffaletta, a New Orleans sandwich, is gaining popularity throughout the south, although it's still most popular -- by far -- in Louisiana

...while the cheesesteak continues its long reign as sandwich king of the northeast -- Pennsylvania, to be specific, although it looks like Jersey is catching on.

The most popular beige-colored stuff served in a bowl in South Carolina is grits...

...while in Maine, chowder is champ.

Texas doesn't even rank when it comes to searching Google for chili. What gives? What do Texans love more than any other state?

FRITO PIE, that's what. Texas, I take back what I said earlier. I've never been prouder of you in my whole life.

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Katharine Shilcutt