Hi everyone!
I'm doing something similar to what I saw in the earlier post regarding macaroni and cheese. Rather than translate my shopping lists (which is a great idea!), I pause several times a day and try to name, in Esperanto, everything that I see around me. As I was eating dinner on New Year's, I realized that I have no idea what the Esperanto word for black-eyed peas is. I grew up and still live in Arkansas, so they naturally make frequent appearances on the table (I've heard other people call them Southern peas, crowder peas, cream peas, cow peas, etc.). I couldn't find anything in Benson's dictionary or any of my others - though maybe I missed it - so I thought I'd ask here. Oh, and the name for purplehull peas, if anyone knows.
Also, now that I think of it, I was wondering if there is a list(s) online anywhere of various plant names (and/or one of mammals, birds, insects, etc.) in Esperanto. Of course, it would be wonderful if I could find a list specific to North America, but I'll take anything! The naturalist inside me is wanting to know the names of every plant and animal I see in the great outdoors.
If anyone can help with either of my questions, I'll be overcome with gratitude!
Thanks, everyone!

Wikipedia is a good one for foods. Even if they don't have an Esperanto article on something, you can look at the various language versions to see if there seems to be an international name for something.

In this particular case, that pea has a ton of different names in different languages - and even in English. But the idea of a "black-eyed pea" is common to many language, and since it describes how the bean looks, I think that "nigrokula fabo" isn't a bad translation. (note that my translation calls it a bean, not a pea).

It's a subspecies of the cowpea, which would make it a "bovofabo"

I've never heard of a purple hull pea in my life. It must be a regional thing. I'd call it a "purpur-ŝela pizo", a fairly literal translation.

Ah, thank you Erinja! The only international-type name that I can think of for black-eyed peas is that in India they are sometimes called "chawli" - I don't know if that's Hindi or which language. I will definitely go have a look at Wikipedia, though - I don't know why I didn't think to look there!
Hmmm, I never thought about people not having heard of purplehull peas. I guess they are a regional thing. Here, we actually eat them more than black-eyed peas or any other bean, since many people grow them. A little town down the road from me actually has a purplehull festival every year.
Purplehull Pea Festival
Thanks again - I'm off to Wikipedia!

Outside the US, Americans are sometimes assumed to have a relatively uniform culture, and I think that we Americans fall into this trap as well. Our foods, customs, and language are more regional than we think.

When I was Googling your purple hull peas (yes, I did see a thing about a festival!) one of the search hits was an image of Bush's brand canned purple hull peas. They sell the Bush's brand in my region, but I've never seen this particular product. I'm sometimes surprised on visits to other parts of the country, how well-known national brands offer completely different products or flavors in different regions.

I'd be surprised to see Boston brown bread in the South, though you guys might have other products from the same brand available.

[Bostona bruna pano - yum! But I make my own.]

miamaslegi:.. in India they are sometimes called "chawli"..

Yes - here's a Youtube recipe for the Indian dish.

You can eat it with chapattis (soft tortillas can be a reasonable approximation), or steamed rice. With the latter I favour low fat natural yogurt.

erinja:Outside the US, Americans are sometimes assumed to have a relatively uniform culture, and I think that we Americans fall into this trap as well. Our foods, customs, and language are more regional than we think.…

...

I'd be surprised to see Boston brown bread in the South, though you guys might have other products from the same brand available.

[Bostona bruna pano - yum! But I make my own.]

And I'll bet that bread's good, too! I can tell you that we Southerners sure enough have a whole passel of foods y'all don't have in other parts of the country, as well as many Southern foods that have emigrated well, like Coca-Cola, which is pronounced "CO-kola" here. Here's a link to a Wikipedia listing of them in English. I'm adding them to my Esperanto shopping list a little at a time.

Presently I'm looking for a good Esperanto translation of Hoppin' John. It's made from nigrokulaj faboj and traditionally eaten on New Year's Day to bring good luck in the coming year. We eat it betwixttimes, though, to make sure the luck holds up!

miamaslegi:
I pause several times a day and try to name, in Esperanto, everything that I see around me.

I like that game, too. Lernu•net's cell phone dictionaries are big help doing that.

jkph00:

erinja:Outside the US, Americans are sometimes assumed to have a relatively uniform culture, and I think that we Americans fall into this trap as well. Our foods, customs, and language are more regional than we think.…

...

I'd be surprised to see Boston brown bread in the South, though you guys might have other products from the same brand available.

[Bostona bruna pano - yum! But I make my own.]

And I'll bet that bread's good, too! I can tell you that we Southerners sure enough have a whole passel of foods y'all don't have in other parts of the country, as well as many Southern foods that have emigrated well, like Coca-Cola, which is pronounced "CO-kola" here. Here's a link to a Wikipedia listing of them in English. I'm adding them to my Esperanto shopping list a little at a time.

Presently I'm looking for a good Esperanto translation of Hoppin' John. It's made from nigrokulaj faboj and traditionally eaten on New Year's Day to bring good luck in the coming year. We eat it betwixttimes, though, to make sure the luck holds up!

Ha, that made me think of something (totally unrelated to Esperanto). When I was in college - many moons ago - I worked for a professor from Ilinois. I was going to go downstairs to get myself a drink and I asked him if he wanted a coke, too. He said yes, so I asked him what kind he wanted. He said, "What, you mean regular or diet?" I said, "No, what kind of coke? A Dr. Pepper coke or a Coke coke or a Mountain Dew coke ..." Needless to say, he looked at me like I was completely insane.
I've seen lots of business about Hoppin' John, but I've never actually eaten it or known anyone who made it - I guess it's just not common in southern Arkansas. On New Years, we always eat black-eyed peas (for luck) and fried cabbage (for plenty of money) - and assorted other goodies, of course.
Yes, erinja, I'm guilty of this myself, I admit. I thought, "What? Never heard of purplehull peas?" But then I also thought, "What in the devil is Boston brown bread?" I guess it's easy for me to remember that other countries have cultures that are vastly different from mine, but not so easy to remember that a person a couple of states away can also have a very different culture.
Sorry for that divergence from the topic...

miamaslegi:"No, what kind of coke? A Dr. Pepper coke or a Coke coke or a Mountain Dew coke ..."

I have read about this, that Southerners call everything "coke", but never actually experienced it.

I have read that the Southern tradition of eating symbolic foods on New Year's has its origin in early Sephardic Jewish immigrants, because Jews eat symbolic foods on the Jewish New Year (carrots, pomegranate, fish head, raisins in celery for a "raise in salary", har har, etc., different foods depending on ethnicity). I eat symbolic foods for the Jewish New Year, but until recently I never heard about doing it for the 'secular' new year; in fact, I only learned recently that southerners eat symbolic foods for the new year.

Boston brown bread goes right back to colonial times. It's a steamed quickbread made of cornmeal, rye flour, and whole wheat flour. You normally steam it in a can, so it comes out cylindrical.

I live in Maryland, a few hours north of the "iced tea line", which runs somewhere through Virginia. We have some Southern foods that come this far north, but not hoppin' john. My family is from the north (and from England) so Southern cuisine is largely foreign to me. I've eaten grits probably once in my life, for example. Southern food seems to put pork in everything, so that puts a lot of it off-limits to me.

erinja:

miamaslegi:"No, what kind of coke? A Dr. Pepper coke or a Coke coke or a Mountain Dew coke ..."

This is one example of regional words in the U.S. Depending on the part of the country you are in, the generic word for a carbonated soft drink is generally one of three: "soda," "pop," or "coke." (Are there more in some places?) I come from Michigan, where the most common term is "pop," and "Coke" is used to refer specifically to Coca-Cola. I once ordered a Coke in North Carolina and was confused to be asked "What kind?" There, one must ask for Coca-Cola or, as jkph00 noted, Co-Cola.