A Hoppin' John is a rice and bean dish, usually with some pork/bacon thrown in, from the American south. It is often eaten on New Year's Day, for luck. With a name so eccentric, there are all sorts of fables spun around why it's called a Hoppin' John, including a rather artless one about a man named John who hobbled around the streets of Charleston selling peas and rice. But the explanation most agree on is that it is a corruption of pois de pigeons, the French term for black-eyed peas (also called pigeon peas). Which, when you say pois de pigeons out loud in your best French accent, does sound very plausible. Try it.