my wife went to highschool in Vicenza in northern Italy. She describes Italian pizza as something very similar to what **ralph124c ** is describing
Esabbath, what’s a quarterbacker? martni enfield, Royal Crown Cola originated in Columbus, Georgia, not down-under. The draft cola was an attempt at a premium cola.* It’s now owend by a Canadian corporation. RC Cola and “moon pies” are a deep south snack staple (or so a stereotype will tell you).
*as a southerner, it’s hard for me to think much less write cola, as all colas are called coke, regardless of the brandname, here
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A friend of mine (also an American) is studying at Oxford right now. She says that at the market there’s an “American” section in the frozen food aisle. She is unfamiliar with every item in the case except for the frozen pizzas.
Yes, there are dishes with their inspiration in dishes with the same name in the subcontinent - but the “curry version” isn’t just a slight modification to suit local tastes - it’s a whole different way of cooking. The use of batch cooked sauces, which can be used as the base for a number of different dishes was invented in the UK (I’m guessing by Bangladeshi restaurant owners) and is a sophisticated standardized industrial process - similar to the way franchises like McDonalds have standardized and industrialized their food - and very different to " to dishes of Indian origin in Africa, Fiji, Japan, or anywhere else" which in my experience are cooked in a “home style” way
“Curry” is word with a long and disputed history (the Wiki page on curry is a bit rubbish, disappointingly) and now tends to mean anything with a vague connection with the subcontinent. I’m glad to say it’s now not too difficult in the UK to find more “authentic” food from the various regional cuisines of the subcontinent (Mmmm, Masala dosa…) which would come under the banner of “curry.”
But when someone says “let’s go for a curry” it’s a good bet what they’re going to get was invented in Britain
On an episode of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, nachos were invented at a restaurant in Mexico when a bunch of American tourists showed up after the kitchen had closed. So, they generally aren’t made or eaten by Mexicans, but technically they did originate in Mexico.
The rest of your post is circuitous - you’re choosing to define ‘curry’ as the particular large-scale cooking methods developed in Britain, and then using this as proof of your original claim.
If you’re going to link to muffins, why not Muffin Films?
Indeed, German chocolate has nothing to do with Germany. It was developed by a fellow named Sam German, here in the U.S., while working for Baker’s Chocolate (which was itself not named because you bake with it, but because it was founded by a guy named Baker).
What Americans call a “Danish” was inspired by what Danes and other Scandihoovians would call a wienerbrød, which is a Danish invention as far as I can tell. The name means “Viennese bread”, which brings us back to the subject of this thread, as it has nothing to do with Vienna.
Swedish fish (the red, chewy, fish-shaped candies) are certainly available in Sweden, but called red fish or gummy fish or something like that, depending on what the particular manufacturer chooses to label them. The elder of the junior flodnaks loves them and calls them red fish.
A company called “American Classics” has started selling food products in Norwegian, and presumably at least some other European, grocery stores. The products are recognizable American processed food standards - barbecue sauce, macaroni and cheese mix, and so forth - but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that brand for sale in the US. I could be wrong, though, it’s been a while since I moved away.
Finally, here in Troll Country a very popular frozen vegetable product is known as “American mix” - peas, carrots, and corn. To the best of my knowledge that particular combination is not available in the US; “mixed vegetables” have at least green beans added to those three, and sometimes other vegetables as well.
Yup, and I’m not disputing (obviously) that the dishes on which curries are based are subcontinentinental (that may not be a word, but hey) anymore than I would dispute that an American deep-pan pizza was inspired by the Italian thin pizza.
But in both cases there’s been a huge change in the actual resulting food - even though the names remain unchanged and the origins may still be clear to anyone familiar with both.
(Something similar seems to have happened to “Country music”, though less of the original flavour remains)
I’m choosing to define “curry” as what most people understand by the word “curry” most of the time in the modern world
I’ll give you that it’s a pretty Ill-defined term - but if you hear the phrase “I’m going out for a curry tonight” what do think the chances of my definition being wrong are? (I’d think less than 1 percent - and that’s nitpicking territory for Cafe Society surely?)
That’s more on the Thai cuisine side. Indian cuisine doesn’t categorize by colour like that. In authentic Indian cuisine, a “curry” is any dish that is very saucy – the spices vary widely from one dish to another, from one region to another, and from one cook to another. “Curry” is a general term and is usually not used to refer to a specific preparation, such as “murgh makhni.”
Nachos with fake “pastuerized process cheese food sauce” aren’t Mexican, but Chips with some stuff cheese tossed on them heated then stuff like beans and avocado added is a standard border dish.
BrainGlutton: yes, but a light sprinkling of cheese is certainly authenic too.
This has got to be apocryphal. I have heard nearly identical claims for the invention of chop suey and buffalo wings (replacing American tourists with sailors and college students on break, respectively) Arguably they could all be the same group of arrogant Americans, who signed up for the GI Bill, invented chop suey, were discharged, went to colledge, took a spring break in Tijuana, and invented nachos (between visiting donkey shows), then went home again and invented buffalo wings. I sense a movie. maybe with Jack Black and Vince Vaughn.
I’ve certainly never seen that brand of macaroni & cheese here. There’s Kraft and its many off-brand imitators, and Pasta Roni.
I’ve definitely seen (and eaten) something like that, but it was called focaccia, not pizza.
But the thing about wines is that it’s not just the grape variety that determines what a wine will be like. It also has a lot to do with the kind of soil and climate the grapes grow in, and with what is done with the wine before it gets to the consumer. For example, compare a California Chardonnay like Rombauer to an Australian Chardonnay like Lindeman’s or a French Chablis- they’re all Chardonnay, but they taste very different.
Most French wines aren’t made from hybrid grapes, by the way- they’re usually made from V. vinifera vines grafted onto roots from American varieties of grape.
Definitely not. Muffins as I ate at breakfast as a wee nipper were the same thing as muffins I see now when I visit home and the things sold over here as English muffins.
Muffins have been around in England for a long time…
Every single other time this has been brought up that I’ve seen, everyone from England says they have no idea what we’re talking about when we say English muffins, and they claim we’re talking about crumpets when we show them pictures. Very odd.
It certainly could be, but Bourdain went into the kitchen of the restaurant (I forget which city it’s in) and the owner said, “This is how my dad invented nachos for those silly tourists in such-and-such year” and pulled out some stale tortilla chips, some canned jalapeno’s and a bit of leftover cheese.