I had a “burger with the lot” at Porky’s Takeaway in Bicheno, Tasmania. It was topped with a fried egg…and a thick beet slice. Once I got rid of those, the burger was quite delicious.
Both are fantastic on a burger. There’s a good number of American places that I’ve seen fried egg on the burger. Not on the average 1/4 lb or less fastfood style burger, but on the big pub burgers, you’ll definitely see it around. Beetroot, I don’t see so much (but I like quite a lot.)
Yep, in America you can get a fried egg on a hamburger at Fatburger. It’s actually pretty good!
I had a pizza in Norway that was . . . very different. It actually wasn’t bad, but flavor-wise it only marginally matched my typical expectations for pizza. Unfortunately I don’t remember what was on it anymore.
Hey, it’s Korea! They only have, like, six or seven names, right?
In a pub in Prague several years ago I ordered a cheeseburger. It turned out to be simply a large chunk of mozerella cheese, breaded and deep fried, in a hamburger bun (with tons of mayo, of course). Rather a literal interpretation!
I once went to a restaurant in Puerto Madero (Buenos Aires) call Friday’s. I understand its supposed to be an american chain. Also supposedly it serves american food.
I ate the worst hamburger ever in that horrid place.
But of course our hamburgers are way better than american ones. After all, the secret is in the meat and your’s (americans) suck 
You know, a lot of the posts in this thread seem to be saying, “Hey, I tried some food item in a foreign country that was supposed to be a typically American item, but they really missed it up. Boy, they must really be stupid there if they can’t make that item right.” This assumes that they want the item to be just like the American version. On the contrary, I suspect that the restaurant owners tried the item in the U.S. and said, “You know, this is almost a good idea, but I’m going to have to make some changes in it.” So when they serve it in their restaurant in the foreign country, they changed it by adding or deleting things in it, changing the spices in it, and changing the way it was cooked. They know perfectly well that their version is much different from the typical American version, and they prefer their version. Their customers in the foreign country probably also prefer their version. This isn’t to say that either the original American version or the foreign adaptation is better, just that they are different for good reasons.
From the OP:
Now, back to the bitching about Japanese food:
MY GOD can they screw some shit up. Mayo, corn, tuna and hotdog pizza! Yum. Lots of hotdogs where you would not expect them, in fact, like in the ubiquitous bland brown curry.
The worst thing we’ve gotten here, though was at a Mexican restaurant. Everything was awful, but the cheese dip (which I think is more of a tex mex concept than authentic Mexican) was a bowl of lukewarm cheese wiz (no additional spices) and six stale corn chips. It was completely inedible.
This is just what I came in here to mention.
Since I don’t eat red meat I’ve never experienced a Japanese hamburger or hot dog, so I can’t comment on their quality. I was amused to learn that a corn dog is known as an “American dog” in Japan, presumably because corn is involved.
I did get some decent frozen burritos in convenience stores in Japan. They weren’t fantastic dining or anything, but they tasted like I expected a frozen burrito to taste. I also remember seeing some very sad looking sandwiches for sale, but I never bought any.
What is that dish with the ketchup rice and egg? I got the impression that was inspired by American cooking, although it’s totally unlike anything you’ll find served in the US.
lmao.
オムライス, Omu-raisu. From “omelette” and “rice”. Delicious!
You give people, even professional chefs and restaurant owners, too much credit when they try to make food that falls outside of their area of expertise. They have BBQ and Louisiana food all over the country and all over the world for example and places outside of the region screw it up 95% of the time. That isn’t a subjective judgement. They simply don’t know what they are doing because it requires specialized skills and equipment to make those things correctly and they usually don’t have them. They may not even have access to the proper ingredients. There is such a thing as good and bad food of any style. It can be done though but it often costs time and money to make great food and restaurants are businesses first and foremost so they may not care about top quality as long as they are successful.
Sometimes its just very hard to reproduce food from different countries, due to a lack of, or a difference in, ingredients.
British Pork Pies are difficult to reproduce in Canada as Canadian pork has a different fat content to British Pork. I know this through talking to a British butcher here in Canada. So to get the pork right it was necessary for the butcher to raise his own pigs.
Not everyone has this dedication and so many just “make do” so the final product is different.
Let’s look at it the other way. Chinese food in the U.S. is frequently quite different from what’s served in China, especially if it’s in some town where there are no other Chinese than the owner of the restaurant. I suspect that if you asked the owner why he makes the food that way, he would say, “I tried making it in a more authentic way, but the customers didn’t like it. So now I have adapted it to my customers’ tastes. I make it more authentic when I cook for myself.” I suspect that in many cases, the reason that restaurants that serve American-style foods outside the U.S. make rather inauthentic versions of it is that they tested the authentic versions on their customers and discovered that they don’t like it.
In Taiwan I saw a “Mexican” place where the pictures of the burritos looked like kung pao chicken wrapped in a tortilla. I avoided eating there.
Singapore does a lot of the cheddar cheese, corn and such on pizzas too.
Cheddar Cheese on Pizza isn’t necessarily a “getting it wrong”. There used to be a restaurant in Boston (Warburton’s) whose specialty was “cheddar cheese pizza”. In a city full of Italian (and Greek) pizzerias, they definitely stood out – they certainly knew what a “real” pizza ought to be, and varoied the recipe to create something new.
It’s also the signature burger at Red Robin: you can of course order a mushroom-and-swiss easy as get a double cheeseburger topped with pickles and onions and relish – or you can just ask for the Royal Red Robin Burger, which comes topped with a fried egg and strips of bacon.
And is a SERIOUSLY guilty pleasure. 
I was embarrassed when the Simpsons picked out that burger specifically…I think it was the last straw that gave Homer a coronary.
Well, yes, but it’s common enough in the US to discuss why the Olive Garden is not like real Italian food, why Domino’s is not like the pizza one gets in Italy, why most bagels are inauthentic, why most Mexican food on offer is too bland, etc. This thread is just looking at the other side of that coin, and I for one have been entertained (and educated).