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Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

> an unusual lexicon that includes words such as “hoagie” and “jimmies” (a sub sandwich and sprinkles, respectively)

Also water ice, which the rest of the world calls Italian ice.

Jimmies is a common phrase in New England, so definitely not just a Philly thing

Living in Philly, I've always heard "sprinkles" except from people from New England; I'm not sure the writer put that one in the right geographic bucket.

At least in MA, jimmies are the chocolate ones, sprinkles are the multicolored ones. I've heard that that's not 100% uniform throughout New England, but can't confirm.

I did see another comment make the same statement about Philly, so I'm guessing it's also a Philly thing?

EDIT: Just saw you identified as a Philly person, so perhaps not :)

I thought they were actually slightly different things. Italian ice being much harder and water ice being softer. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/10/489217423/wa... the wikipedia seems to imply they are they same.

There's no legal or culinary definition for any of these. You can call it sorbet, granita, water ice, or probably one of many other local names and it'll have similar ingredients, but maybe a different ratio or texture. You can't even get Italians to agree on what a granita should be.

If that's what I think it is, the rest of the world (including Italy) calls it a Sorbet or Sherbet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbet

It's basically ice, fruit pulp and sugar, blended together.

It's as though the ratio and process of blending those ingredients together can't possibly produce a different result...

Sorbet, Sherbet, "Italian Ice" and "Water Ice" (as experienced in Philly) are not all the same thing.

Also, sherbet contains dairy, none of these others do.

The consistency is different. Nowadays Rita's has expanded to most states. Go there if you want to try one out.

italian ice in the US is sugary and artificial, definitely no real fruit involved

Also, at least among my peers in the Philly area, jimmies were the brown/chocolate ones, sprinkles were the multicolored ones.

Whoa whoa whoa... I thought jimmies were the "long" ones and sprinkles were the smaller, circular ones.

And for those of us that are neither from Philadelphia nor the rest of the world, it's apparently similar to a sorbet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_ice

Yep, and for those from Italy is granita (which is not a sorbet, it is - slightly - different):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granita

And it is commonly eaten (in Sicily) with a brioscia (which is also - slightly - different from the more known French brioche).

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