I've said this before, but being born & raised in KS, I was surprised to find out southerners eat a lot like midwesterners, with the odd twist like our sweet cornbread & non sweetened iced tea. Greens & fatback? Check, though typically mustard or turnip, vs. collards. Hominy, black eyed peas & fried okra. Check. Even corn fritters & okra pickles & shit on a shingle was as likely as biscuits & sausage gravy. Some friends in the 'Ville a million years ago took me out to Chason's out in Lumber Bridge & asked me afterward what I thought of soul food. My response? Soul food? That's the same broke-ass country people food I was raised on.
I do love me some good eastern NC Q. You can get pulled pork here, but it just ain't the same. 'N y'all definitely got it goin' on with the seafood, too. Not sure I'd wanna pay for, let alone eat, oysters this far from the coast. 'Course, we can get crappie & walleye here & you can sure there'll be hush puppies, so maybe not so different.
All breakfast gruel "foods" are disgusting to me, so that's a wash. I don't care for boiled peanuts & don't like slaw much, neither. Fermented or fried cabbage is GTG, but slaw is just blech.
I always seem to be an outlier on these regional things, but in my experience Southern food & culture just ain't that different from the rural Midwest. There's a few fun/interesting differences, though not of any real substance, IMO.