The Top 7 Foods to Bring When a Family Member Dies in the South

1. Fried Chicken
   The only requirements are that it is crisp and well-seasoned. Your family should receive more than one whole chicken's worth in its time of bereavement.

2. Ham
   All Southerners love ham. No matter how it is prepared, trust me, this will show up on the table. I will add that we love, and will need no excuse, to add coke to any recipe. Coke, pineapple slices, and little cherries happen to be a popular way to prepare and serve this meat.

3. Potato Salad
   It goes well with fried chicken and ham, and since you know that fried chicken and ham will be part of the funeral spread, you can’t go wrong.

4. Green Beans
   We love to garden down here! This dish will come lightly seasoned with bacon or salted meat and vinegar. Some people may add onion for extra flavor.

5. Brown and Serve Rolls
   Now I know that you must be saying, "What about the corn bread?" Or, "No biscuits?" Oh, no! When you are mourning the loss of your mother’s, third cousin’s, great aunt’s husband, you cannot be worried about the biscuits getting dried out or the cornbread getting cold.

6. Fruit Salad
   It is a fact that little old ladies like to take fruit salads to social occasions. This is no different. The requirements here are fresh fruit from the local Piggly Wiggly. You are usually in for a treat of crisp, freshly chopped apples, juicy orange slices, and marshmallows. Coconut and pecans are not a given, these are just bonus items in the salad at hand. They are, however, a sure fire way to determine if the lady having brought this dish drove a Buick or a Cadillac.

7. Coconut Cake
   All I can say here is, if you move to a Southern town where no one can cook a good coconut cake, you had better move again. You are probably not in the South, and more importantly, good food will probably not follow suit.