Quote:
She is constantly shocked when an "American" guest asks if they should bring anything to the dinner.

There's a lot of tradition in "covered-dish dinners" in the Southern US and probably in large portions of the rest of the US, too. This is not a query as to if they should bring something, but what they should bring. It's not unknown for guests to bring various side dishes, from vegetable casseroles to starches to desserts.
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Bitt Faulk