When my son was in pre-school they had "International Food Day".
I took in fried okra....it was a hit! LOL We lived in Ca. at the time.:)
Back when I was in school, I worked in upstate New York on a co-op assignment with IBM. I was the subject of considerable ribbing, seeing as how I was from the South and "talked different." Each year, on the day before Thanksgiving, the small lab I was assigned to would have a breakfast where each staff person would bring in a dish of their choosing. Being a good Southern boy, I made a baked grits casserole (had to get my folks to send the grits to me by mail). After some initial misgivings, and close questioning about what, exactly, grits were; the folks gobbled it right down.