[QUOTE=acsenray]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Beat me to it.
I like his show.
[QUOTE=Philster]
French Fries
[/quote]
I believe french fries are Belgian in origin. Anecdote: a former colleague of mine, while he was in Belgium, stopped at a potato stand to buy fries. They served it with a choice of sauces, one of them being the “American sauce”. That’s what he tried, and it turns out that it was a very hot pepper and horseradish sauce. I don’t know how Americans eat fries (here we usually eat them with white vinegar and/or Heinz ketchup, but I don’t really like Heinz ketchup so I rarely put it on my fries), but I’d be surprised if they ate it with this kind of sauce.
Here we call that pain doré (golden bread). I have no idea if it’s eaten in France.
[QUOTE=Antonius Block]
José Cuervo makes tequila, not beer (and AFAIK there’s essentially the same product line available in Mexico and in the USA).
Then there is the case of foreign branding, in which products made in one country are marketed to imply that they’re from abroad: an example would be Häagen-Dazs with its faux-Scandinavian name and (originally) map of Denmark on the label, despite being made in the Bronx, NY. Its erstwhile competitor, Frusen Glädjé, used similar marketing techniques.
[/QUOTE]
You have exposed me for the (near) alcohol-free sissy that I am. In anycase, I just picked it up from a tourguide while I was in Mexico. She kept stressing that Jose Cuervo down there is not as the same as it is up here in the states. She said it was pretty bad down there but even she liked it just fine in the US, so I don’t think she was getting kickbacks or anything.
Never tried it, so I only speak from second hand experience 
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
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.
[/QUOTE]
I had always thought that, too. **jjimm **schooled me in this recent thread.
[QUOTE=villa]
When we fly over, we are issued a secret government leaflet to teach us how to confuse the Yanks about muffins.
[/QUOTE]
I KNEW IT!!!
[QUOTE=severus]
Here we call that pain doré (golden bread). I have no idea if it’s eaten in France.
[/QUOTE]
We were taught in French class (in the US), that french toast is pain perdu, and most often eaten as a desert, not a breakfast. wiki linki
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
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.
[/QUOTE]
I think part of the problem is that English Muffins appear to be sold in packaging very similar to that in which we buy crumpets, with the two-rows-of-three arrangement. So a brief glance at such a photo can cause this confusion.
[QUOTE=Capt B. Phart]
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.
[/quote]
So by ‘curry was invented in Britain’, you mean ‘British curries were invented in Britain’? How helpful.
No more than ‘bread’ or ‘stew’ or ‘beer’ or ‘coffee’ are ill-defined. They have many meanings, and plenty of people will vehemently defend ‘their’ version as being correct or original.
[QUOTE=villa]
When we fly over, we are issued a secret government leaflet to teach us how to confuse the Yanks about muffins.
How we all laugh at you when you get confused, through our shabby, crooked teeth.
[/QUOTE]
It’s great how they never get to see all that stuff on what puports to be our visa waiver form. Let’s face it, when we claim there’s a yes/no box for ‘are you involved in terrorist activities’, it’s surely obvious that we’re hiding something far more significant, regarding muffins?
[QUOTE=whole bean]
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).
[/QUOTE]
I’m aware of the American origins of Royal Crown Cola… the point I’m making is that it’s made here under licence for export to a country with a relatively small market for the stuff 2000kms away, and that it’s not available for purchase here, despite being brewed here. I think that meets the OP’s criteria, at any rate.
[QUOTE=ralph124c]
good pizza is not made in italy.
[/QUOTE]
Wow. I sooooo disagree with you there. Italian pizza is just one of many pizza styles and, in fact, I prefer it to almost every style except possibly a good New York pie.
Oh, and I gotta go with French dressing. Can’t imagine the French eating anything close to resembling that sickly sweet crap. A similar curiosity existed in Hungary, where a “French salad” was basically frozen vegetables (peas, carrots, corn) in mayonnaise. I don’t think a French person would be caught dead eating that.
Also, with Italian pizza, they know how to make a great crust. Just like many a New York place: big blisteringly hot (usually brick) oven, wood fire, pizza goes in, two or three minutes later, it comes out. I don’t understand how anyone could say Italian pizza is bad. Maybe it’s not to your taste, but it certainly ain’t bad.
Add me to the list of people that have had English Muffins in England. Now to be fair, this was free breakfast at the hotel that could easily have been catering to foriegn tastes. The only difference was their size. They were about twice as big as the ones that I have purchased in the states.
To me, who has lived in America all my life, and has eaten English Muffins and plain old muffins all my life, and crumpets for a few years:
Notice the nooks and crannies on the top of the crumpet. This has always been served to me soft and chewy.
This picture is of a split English Muffin - it has a crusty outside, which must be split to reveal the nooks and crannies. This has usually been served to me toasted and crunchy on the outside, hot and chewy in the middle.
This is what it is - a big, heavy pastry, unlike either crumpets or English muffins.
This is my experience. YMMV, of course.
Joe
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
We were taught in French class (in the US), that french toast is pain perdu, and most often eaten as a desert, not a breakfast. wiki linki
[/QUOTE]
Interesting. Here it would be eaten as breakfast. And if I have stale bread to put to use, I would probably make bread pudding with it. (The way I’d do it is a little different from what this article says: I wouldn’t put suet in it – maybe I’d put butter instead --, nor would I let the break soak in the liquid ingredients, I’d just pour them over it. The liquid ingredients would include milk, and I’d put maple syrup in the recipe at some point, either while preparing or while serving the pudding.)
[QUOTE=DiggitCamara]
Jose Cuervo is beer? That’s news to me.
[/QUOTE]
Really? Then check this out (1:35-1:50).
Russian dressing? What the hell is that? The only people in Moscow who might recognize it are American expats.
(French zombies stagger forward, dressed in black-and-white strfiped shirts and berets, smoking Galoises crookedly)
Zombies: French Salad! French Salad!
French woman with ridiculous French accent: Oh, Pierre, what are they doing?
French man with even worse accent: It is horrible! They are eating frozen vegetables! With mayonnaise!
[QUOTE=acsenray]
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.
[/QUOTE]
The city in question is Piedras Negras, which is across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.
They were invented by one Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya.
[QUOTE=parthenokinesis]
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)
[/QUOTE]
I rather suspect that a lot of stories like this are not quite apocryphal–maybe slight exaggerations or embellishments, but necessity is the mother of invention and all that, especially when it comes to food.
A similar story exists for the genesis of a Hungarian dish called “Székelygulyás,” a pork and sauerkraut stew. Here’s the relevant qutoe from Culinaria Hungary:
As for Buffalo Wings, Teresa & Frank’s official story was they were invented when her son came by the bar with a bunch of friends late at night and asked for something to eat, so Teresa improvised the now-famous wings.
Now, whether the events happened exactly as stated, who knows? But the story exists across cultures and, I know from my experience, my culinary inventions are often products of experimenting with the ingredients I have on hand. It seems more than remotely plausible that several dishes have gotten their start in this manner.
Then again, I understand your suspicion, because the stories do read like urban legends. But I’m not inclined to dismiss all stories of this type as apocrypha.
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict]
You’re right there. I’m starting a campaign to alert Scots that Scotch tape is a racist term derived from their alleged frugality. I’m going to ruin 3M so that Scotch tape will no longer be sold in Scotland! Then my answer will be correct.
[/QUOTE]
But I always thought that if it wasn’t Scottish it was CRAP!!!
