# How does American food manifest in other countries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397 "2015-08-30T15:58:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/61 "2015-09-01T11:09:59Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > In Mexico there’s no sweet corn. Sure there is. I’ve eaten it. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/62 "2015-09-01T13:53:52Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > In Germany, the word “pepperoni” means jalapenos. Learned that one the hard way (or someone was playing a horrible, horrible joke). The closest to American pepperoni I could get was salami, which I wound up liking better anyway. > > Austrian, surely. Schnitzel is a dish popular in Germany and Austria (and elsewhere), but you’re right about Wiener Schnitzel being a Viennese specialty. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/63 "2015-09-01T15:08:20Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > In Germany, the word “pepperoni” means jalapenos. Learned that one the hard way (or someone was playing a horrible, horrible joke). Well, here in America, the word “pepperoncini” doesn’t mean “little pepperoni,” even though it sounds like it should. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/64 "2015-09-01T16:07:52Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Back in the early '90s we had distant family from Germany come and visit us in Vancouver, Washington. They had five things they wanted to see while in the United States: > > 1. Disneyland > 2. The Statue of Liberty > 3. The Grand Canyon > 4. Willie Nelson > 5. Cowboys and/or Indians > > They truly had no sense of how large this country is. It was my first exposure to the fact that Europeans aren’t inherently more worldly than Americans (it was their first time leaving Germany). > > So we took them to Disneyland (though they were aghast that it took two days of driving to get there) and a local Indian cultural site (which they weren’t entirely pleased with since PNW Indian cultures were not what they were thinking of). Things haven’t changed much. I just met a German exchange student last week. He told his host family he wanted to take weekend trips to see NYC, Florida, the Grand Canyon and Hollywood. His host dad explained that all but one of those are farther than anywhere in Europe would be from his home, and not possible except for major, long vacations. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/65 "2015-09-01T16:09:47Z")
> [@Orwell](#): > > Things haven’t changed much. I just met a German exchange student last week. He told his host family he wanted to take weekend trips to see NYC, Florida, the Grand Canyon and Hollywood. His host dad explained that all but one of those are farther than anywhere in Europe would be from his home, and not possible except for major, long vacations. What, you don’t have planes in America? (Hey I never said it would be _cheap_)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/66 "2015-09-01T16:14:43Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Only in Israel. > > :d&r: Actually, you can get bacon cheeseburgers just about everywhere in Tel Aviv. American-style bar and grills and burger joints are ubiquitous here, and virtually none of them are kosher. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/67 "2015-09-01T17:38:03Z")
The night before we were to fly back home from a vacation in Ireland, a friend and I were busy organizing and packing, and wanted something quick and easy for dinner. So I got a pizza from a Domino’s in the Ballsbridge neighborhood of Dublin. The only “exotic” thing about it was the Irish accent of the Asian manager. > [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Nobody has discussed the Donald Trump of American cuisine – bacon. Apart from the religiously pork-adverse countries of the world, can I get bacon for breakfast? What about lunch, dinner, and fourthmeal? Will the sandwich maker know what I mean by a BLT? Are there bacon cheeseburgers? What if I want bacon in my pasta, or a spinach salad with warm bacon dressing? Can I get a bacon-wrapped hot dog at the convenience store? A deep-fried bacon-wrapped turkey leg at the carnival? > > And would I recognize it as bacon, rather than some loony local variant (I’m looking at you, Canadians)? Another friend of mine was justifiably proud of finding pancakes and bacon in Istanbul. During Ramadan. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/68 "2015-09-01T17:57:04Z")
Some years ago (about 15) I was in Ireland and got a hankering for spaghetti with a nice red meat sauce. I couldn’t even adequately describe it to the guys at the hostel I was staying in. They were baffled. So instead of going to a restaurant, one of them took me to a grocery store, where I was able to get all the ingredients to make it for them. They loved it, but continued to insist that there was nothing like it in their experience. A few days later, I did spot it in a menu in another town, called simmering like American Spaghetti, and…No. I understand the problem. It was creative, but the sauce was like watery ketchup and it had slices of meat of indeterminate origin, with no seasonings that I could discern. And it was served over egg noodles. For all I know, it was closer to authentic Italian than what I make, but it wasn’t American style spaghetti at all. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/69 "2015-09-01T19:08:10Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > In my experience in Japan, pancakes are only found on the dessert menu. > I ate at quite a few Denny’s and Coco’s because those were the only placed open for breakfast at the time we were up and moving around. On my second morning ever in Japan, we woke up so early that Denny’s (in Ginza, of all places) was the only thing open. We decided to wait another half-hour for the McDonald’s to open. The Egg McMuffin, hash browns and coffee were exactly what you’d get in the states, but the service was stereotypically perfect, and the restaurant was spotlessly clean. The only downside was the substantial and poorly-isolated smoking section; Japan still has a long way to go on that front. Had we stuck around for lunch, we could have gotten shrimp burger, something you don’t see in the states. > [@Penfeather](#): > > It was pretty common in Japan, too; it was explained to me that fried chicken actually translates pretty well across cultures, with no cultural or religious taboos like beef, pork or horse, or stuff considered dangerously foreign or weird like frog or octopus. It was relatively easy to import the concept whole with only a few local tweaks. Not much of a stretch for Japan; they had [kara-age](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaage) before American fried chicken ever showed up. ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/70 "2015-09-03T14:21:13Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Another friend of mine was justifiably proud of finding pancakes and bacon in Istanbul. During Ramadan. Heh. Not what I would look for in Istanbul, but a fun story, nonetheless. By the way, beef bacon is amazing and I actually prefer it to the piggy variety. Not the easiest to find, however. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/71 "2015-09-03T15:10:58Z")
Eh, during Ramadan, a lot of folks eat big breakfasts (before the sun comes up) to tide them over until sunset. I don’t know if pancakes or something like them are a traditional breakfast food in Istanbul, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some folks have adopted them. And bacon would be no problem at all, if it’s from a clean animal. Plus, of course, the places catering to non-Muslims (or nonobservant ones). ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/72 "2015-09-03T15:28:04Z")
> [@Elemenopy](#): > > By the way, beef bacon is amazing and I actually prefer it to the piggy variety. Not the easiest to find, however. That’s on my to-eat list now. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/73 "2015-09-03T15:38:35Z")
Other Dopers can verify whether this is still the case, but when I visited Thailand in the early 90s, I found several restaurants that served “American fried rice,” which was fried rice with a fried egg on top. I’ve never really thought of fried eggs as a quintessentially American dish. Hamburgers in Brazil I’ve found to be hit-or-miss, at least at non-chain restaurants. I’ve never tried McDonald’s, etc. while there, because why the hell would you? But that sort of chain-restaurant fast food has grown immensely popular there, coincident with a rising number of Brazilians growing immense. Surprisingly, I had one of the best hamburgers of my entire life last December in Paris, at a brasserie that served mostly Basque food. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/74 "2015-09-03T15:52:35Z")
> [@MarcusF](#): > > In the UK, along with the ubiquitous McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC - which all seemed much the same as in the States, there has been a recent rash of “American style” BBQ/smoke-house places, at least around London. The one I’ve been to is Bodean’s where the pulled pork, ribs etc. all seemed good to me 🙂 but how authentic they are I couldn’t say. Allegedly the owner is actually from Kanas City and wanted to recreate the “real” experience. Bodean’s is very nice indeed but it’s on par with Famous Dave’s - it’s good eating but it’s a chain and thus not comparable with your local “shack with the roasting pit” _real_ BBQ place. > [@](#): > > Incidentally, corn on the cob is certainly not viewed as pig food in the UK. Admittedly Jolly Green Giant sweetcorn kernels in tins is the most common form but most supermarkets will have the fresh cobs on sale during the summer. Also, it’s on the menu at Nando’s. > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > In Germany, the word “pepperoni” means jalapenos. Learned that one the hard way (or someone was playing a horrible, horrible joke). The closest to American pepperoni I could get was salami, which I wound up liking better anyway. In the UK, an “American pizza” is a pepperoni pizza. “American Hot” is pepperoni and jalapenos. The worst example of food labelled as “American” I’ve tried is “American Ginger Ale”, which inexplicably contains sugar AND three different artificial sweeteners. I don’t know why they’ve done this, but it’s disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/75 "2015-09-03T16:02:14Z")
Oh! I thought of one. I haven’t really been abroad, but we love international supermarkets and always pick up lots of odd goodies. One of the more memorable whims was a Russian knock-off of SPAM. Holy cow, I didn’t know you could make something that bad exponentially worse. Don’t know enough Russian to make sense of the ingredient list, but there was something very, very wrong about that food. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/76 "2015-09-03T16:18:52Z")
> [@](#): > > The worst example of food labelled as “American” I’ve tried is “American Ginger Ale”, which inexplicably contains sugar AND three different artificial sweeteners. I don’t know why they’ve done this, but it’s disgusting. Yeah, that just makes no sense at all. A lot of people find some artificial sweetener or another to be unpalatable, and including three of them is almost sure to be unpalatable to everyone. Plus, of course, turning off the folks who don’t want real sugar either. Calling a pepperoni pizza “American”, though, is perfectly reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/77 "2015-09-04T02:28:01Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Other Dopers can verify whether this is still the case, but when I visited Thailand in the early 90s, I found several restaurants that served “American fried rice,” which was fried rice with a fried egg on top. I’ve never really thought of fried eggs as a quintessentially American dish. I’ve visited Thailand a dozen or more times the last four years, and I now think of fried egg at any meal as quintessentially Thai. Most of the dishes at my two company work locations’ canteens have a fried egg as part of the dish. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/78 "2015-09-04T05:49:14Z")
The fried (chicken) egg on top of some other dish (such as steak) is something I’ve seen in Japanese manga occasionally. I’m not sure to what degree I’ve seen it live and in person in the West; it seems much less common. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/79 "2015-09-04T06:27:09Z")
IMHO, the main way that America has infiltrated the Australian food scene is the ginormous serves that now grace our plates. At least for the working classes, a ‘serve’ now would be enough to feed a family…a chicken parma that is bigger than your average chicken, a side of chips (fries) enough to cause a local potato famine, and of course the ubiquitous salad on the side that nobody eats because it’s drowned in dressing and who eats chunky tomatoes anyway? Please, tone down your servings Aussies…because I take one look at the food on my plate and suddenly develop a dose of anorexia. We don’t NEED so much food…if we’re hungry afterwards, we can order a dessert or something… PLEASE?? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397/80 "2015-09-05T00:51:54Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I’ve never experienced it personally, but apparently in Thailand you can get “American fried rice”, a dish the locals invented to please GIs by incorporating foods they thought Americans would like into traditional fried rice. > > [It doesn’t look either Thai or American to me.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/American_fried_rice.jpg/800px-American_fried_rice.jpg) > [@foolsguinea](#): > > It looks reasonably American to me. :shrug: Are those raisins in the rice balls? Yes, those are raisins. American fried rice is actually a tasty dish. [But yes, it was a Vietnam War-era local addition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_fried_rice). In fact, I recall reading somewhere that it was invented specifically by a Thai cook at the US military base at Nakhon Ratchasima in the Northeast, from where many missions against North Vietnam were flown. Or Korat, as the province is commonly known. (So many servicemen settled in the area after the war that the main town had an actual VFW post. It may still be there today for all I know,) American food in Thailand has improved vastly over the years. Twenty or 30 years ago, you had to pay big bucks at a fancy steak house or five-star hotel to eat anything that might resemble good American fare. Otherwise it was just McDonald’s crap and gummy white bread. Today though, it’s not difficult to find good American dishes at a reasonable price, at least in Bangkok. And in major cities upcountry. Found some good American stuff in Chiang Mai and even Mae Hong Son in the North in July. A good friend has lived in Roi Et in the Northeast for almost 25 years, and when he first moved there, it was just Thai food. Now there are reasonable facsimiles of American food and even a German and French restaurant, owned and operated by an actual German and Frenchman, respectively. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-american-food-manifest-in-other-countries/729397.md?page=5)