Taomist:
Don’t tell that to anyone from Idaho! The state has a patent or some such on the words, to the point of shutting down a french fry restaurant <Idaho fry?
They didn’t actually shut the restaurant down; they just made them change the name to Boise Fry Company .
njtt:
My mother, in the UK, used to be fond of a candy known as American Hard Gums. They were sort of like fruit jellies, but much more solid. I have now lived almost 20 years in the USA and have never seen them, nor has anyone I have asked ever heard of such things. (I don’t know if they are still available in the U.K.)
Are they anything like Jolly Ranchers?
BigT:
I think it’s because corn tortillas themselves are undeniably Mexican (Aztec) or Latin American (Mayan) in origin. And the innovation is so trivial that it’s hard to believe nobody for at least 5000 years happened upon it. All you’d have to do is accidenatlly fry it until it is crisp, and break it into pieces.
Oh sure - I’m sure it happened many times over 5000 years. But if it wasn’t repeatedly and purposely done and made a particular part of the cuisine until that woman did it in L.A. in the '40s (as that obit and others indicate), then I’d say it qualifies as an American creation. YMMV