What is Nashville's claim to fame other than country music?

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Cooking with spicy peppers isn't really that common in black American cuisines, but many people might use hot sauce as a condiment. The Nashville hot chicken definitely seems unique in that regard.

Yeah, I'm not saying that Nashville hot chicken is indistinguishable from fried chicken nationwide, but it's very common to see pan-fried, spicy chicken/fish, served on white bread, in black neighborhoods, nationwide. It isn't specifically a Nashville thing. So it's odd that the local preparation became a Nashville marketing thing, rather than a black marketing thing.

For example, in DC, I remember fried chicken/fish joints in black neighborhoods using mambo sauce, a spicy local concoction that uses cayenne pepper. So why not "DC hot chicken"? I've seen variants in NYC, Philly, Detroit and Chicago. It's definitely a thing, even if the ingredients and prep vary.