The Top 10 Foods Only America Could Have Invented
Photo: Emdot
When it comes to food, America gets a bad rap. It’s a common refrain that America has no cuisine to call our own. We’ve got apple pie and hot dogs, but that’s about it. (And when you really get down to it, the Germans invented hot dogs, and the British were eating apple pie like 1,000 years ago.)
But the truth is, America does have a cuisine to call it’s own. Over the past 232 years we’ve invented some of the most creative, daring, and yes, downright craziest dishes the world has ever seen. Sure, they can be overly greasy, a little too cheesy, and sometimes fried a few times too many. But they’re ours. So to celebrate Independence Day, we’ve put together this list of the best foods that only a country with just the right combination of greed, grit, and gluttony could have possibly dreamed up.
The Top Ten Foods Only America Could Have Invented:
10. Corn Dog
Photo: Intangible Arts
In 1942, at a beautiful place called the Texas State Fair, an industrious young man named Neil Fletcher came up with a way to make his hot dogs sell quicker: dip them in corn meal, deep fry ’em, and pop ’em on a stick. And so an American tradition was born. Every year, as the weather turns warmer and state fair season comes around, Americans say to themselves: what can we deep fry next? We’ve deep fried twinkies, oreos, hamburgers, even coca-cola. But all of these wondrous achievements owe a debt to the original food that really didn’t need to be battered and fried but just had to be: the corn dog.
9. Philly Cheesesteak
Photo: x-eyedblonde
Only Philadelphia, the most American of all cities, could invent an iconic sandwich and then vehemently insist that there shall be no attempts to make it good. Crappiest ingredients only, please. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell explained problems non PA-ers have when trying to make cheesesteaks: “First, they use good meat. You need the fattiest, stringiest meat to get a proper taste.” The second mistake, of course, is that you’ve got to use Cheese Whiz; no real cheese allowed. Rendell insists this is became “real cheese doesn’t melt,” which is of course a lie. But never matter. The Philly Cheesesteak is delicious. Would it be more delicious if it were made with thinly slice Kobe steak and melted Gruyere? Of course it would be. But it wouldn’t be as amazing.
8. “Chinese Food”
Photo: VirtualEm
One of the great things about American cuisine is that when we come up with something so outrageous that even we can’t stand behind it, we figure out a way to pin it on someone else. Case in point: “Chinese Food.” All across America, Chinese buffets offer endless arrays of beautiful, deep-fried, grease-soaked food. General Tso’s chicken, chop suey, egg rolls, chow mein, fortune cookies. What do all these dishes have in common? They were all invented in America. Seriously people, do you really think Chinese people eat this crap? No. They eat rice. With vegetables and maybe a little meat. And it’s not battered or fried, or double fried, or double battered, and it’s certainly not filled with cheese. I mean, crab rangoon? Come on, that stuff has imitation crab meat and cream cheese. It could only have been invented in one place, and I think you know where that is.
7. S’mores
Photo: Phil Hawksworth
It’s difficult to say exactly how s’mores became so popular throughout America. Graham crackers are not particularly well-liked, and neither are marshmallows. We generally do not enjoy eating things that were cooked on a stick our little brother just found in the dirt, nor do we usually like to burn our food to a crisp before dinnertime. Yet somehow, s’mores just work. Despite their cutesy contraction of a name, and the fact that we have to actually cook and assemble them ourselves, rather than order them from a fast food window, I’ve yet to meet a person who does not love s’mores. Except for foreigners, who will look at you like you are the craziest person ever if you try to explain what a s’more is.
6. Reuben Sandwich
Photo: kimberlykv
This fully-loaded sandwich may seem like an international delicacy, but the reuben is as American as it gets. Start with pastrami–a meat so infused with spices that it has more flavor in a single bite than most full meals. Pile this sky-high, preferably using at least a pound of meat per sandwich. Add on some “swiss” cheese–a bland, hole-y cheese that no actual Swiss person would ever touch. Top it off with “Russian dressing,” a beautiful orange mayonnaise concoction that–you guessed it–hasn’t a thing to do with Russia.
Corned beef! A reuben is made with corned beef, not pastrami. Mmm, pastrami…
don’t tell anyone – but i’ve never had a corn dog before.
nor me… we should lose our corn dog virginity together!
WTF, Stef! That’s ridiculous!
I was thinking nachos should be added, although wikipedia claims that they originated in a Mexican border town when a restaurateur made them for a bunch of gringos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachos
not sure if the story’s true tho
also, tater tots
Brilliant!
For the record, though, minibar does one HELL of an upscale cheesesteak (two bites, of course). It may not be the real deal, but it blew us away.
And the Cobb salad is definitely a piece of culinary genius, but I think the Taco Salad trumps it for sheer brazen disregard of all things traditionally salad. The ‘Real Men of Genius’ ad that salutes “Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor” is an all-time favorite.
And I definitely second the inclusion of Tater Tots on the list. Honorable mention, maybe?
The reuben can be made with either corned beef or pastrami, depending on where you are in the country and what you prefer. So it’s best to check, to make sure you don’t get a meat you’re not expecting.
Doesn’t a Reuben also have sauerkraut? A “vegetable” that’s super laden with sugar? Just wondering…
I’ve never had a corn dog either. Haha… for shame? I’ve been thinking how I kind of want to try one lately, but it isn’t as easily had as you’d think!
It can also be made with smoked duck, if you order it off the bar menu at Poste. Fourteen bucks, but well worth it!
Awesome, awesome post. Well done.
Also Gansie, the fact that you’ve never had a corn dog is an abomination. I am the rare eater that doesn’t really care for normal hot dogs, but would devour as many corn dogs as you could put in front of me.
i can’t believe how many of you have never tried a corn dog! Coney Island is a good place to start
well, i have a very good reason i never ate a corn dog.
being raised kosher-jewish, my mom was never quite sure what kind of meat made up the corn dog, so i was never allowed to have them growing up. and every time we wanted a hot dog in a public place, my mom would need to verify that it was 100% beef. so by the time i got out of my eating kosher phase, i was consequently out of my trying fried mystery meat phase. well, fine, im not really out of that phase, i just haven’t been to the garden state fair in a while.
i do admit, though, this needs to be remedied.
Um… what about the doubledecker veggie burger… pretty sure that’s as american as apple pie. vegetarianism is pretty damned american these days
tur-duck-en was not invented by us. We actually slimmed it down. I read about it – some Royal European thing made with like 26 animals – and the thing at the very center? Either an oyster or a truffle, depending on your taste. Royalty was known to throw everything away but that one middle.
so when are we going to have a party with all ten best together????? we’lll bring whatever; at all beef c dogs
i’m sure we can make up a 10 best drink list too!!! what a hellava party that would be!!!!!!
hope every es’er has a safe and fun holiday weekend
Corn Dogs were regularly served in my College’s canteen. I was surprised by this food (a naive foreigner, then), but almost immediately took to its obvious advantages over all foods that, lamentably, _don’t_ come on a stick.
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Turducken isn’t really all that American — the French kings had already contests in the astonishing field of: how many different dead birds can you stick into one-another. Record is something like 14, topped off with a deliciously fried Hummingbird. (Boneless!) [Oh, someone just made that point… darnit.]
Love corndogs slathered with a little yellow mustard. Yummy. But I only eat them at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
hello!!! deep fried oreos/mars bars! fried ice cream!!!
In case anyone else was wondering what the damn difference between pastrami and corned beef is…
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_culinary_qa/article/0,1971,FOOD_9796_1696221_,00.html
Uhhh, I hate to break it to you, but egg rolls and chow mein have been in existence around China and surrounding Asian nations forever.
Uhhh, Kinkistyle, I hate to break it to you, but Chinese and other Asian nations do not eat egg rolls or chow mein. To think so would be as absurd as suggesting that the American and French diet are identical due to skin color. Raviolis are more akin to a Chinese dish than any egg roll. Don’t get me started on “Italian” food as we know it here in the US.
My daughter-in-law is from the Phillipines and she makes us a type of egg roll quite often. It is longer and skinnier, but it is basically the same type of food as an egg roll and she calls it lampia. I also know a girl from Korea that make the same type of thing.
Uh, Carl, hate to break it to you… We Chinese people have been eating whatever in the pictures forever. I don’t live in America btw. So yea, what you Americans brought your Chinese food to us Chinese people???
The Top 10 Foods Only America Could Have Invented…
When it comes to food, America gets a bad rap. It’s a common refrain that America has no cuisine to call our own. We’ve got apple pie and hot dogs, but that’s about it. (And when you really get down to it, the Germans invented hot dogs, and the B…
Yeah my mom is from Korea and she makes a couple types of fried egg rolls and fried rice. My neighbors from the Phillipines made those lampia Vaughn is talking about too. They’re identical in concept to the American Chinese restaurant egg roll, but a lot better..
Now I’m hungry
My mother (who is korean) makes eggrolls as well. I’m not sure if they’re American foods, but who cares… they’re awesome and I eat that stuff up!
Anywho.. I can’t believe there are people who have never had a corndog before! *gasps* You don’t know what you’re missing! Best ever!! I also love pigs in a blanket. Yum yum!
And I love my American Chinese food 😀 hehe
If you’ve never had a corn dog, try this recipe.. it’s pretty simple: http://thisfoodthing.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/old-fashioned-corn-dogs/
Turducken comes from ancient Rome… Not American, not even invented in the centuries America has existed.
Replace with “Fluffernutter”.
http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/fluffernutter.html
kthxbye
Great collection of all-American inventiveness and ingenuity… even if half of them make you want to barf a little when you think about it.
Every year in Brussels, at an American-hosted Christmas party, the room was PACKED with foreigners who beelined it to the table serving up… corn dogs! They couldn’t get enough of them. Darndest think you ever saw (well, the Brits begged off, but the Continental Europeans were just crazy for them.) God Bless Texas.
Well, you say that your number 2 “Turducken” is far from a “uniquely American” invention! Multi-bird roasts were very popular in the banquets of medieval Europe. They remained popular for a long time – here’s a recipe, published in 1829, for a “Roast without equal” of 17 birds (it’s in French): http://cuisine.evasions.be/cuisine_1829/cuisind4.htm#_VPINDEXENTRY_701 .
You’re wrong about turducken, it was invented in France about 1,000 years ago. A simple wiki search could’ve shown you that.
Not big on research, huh?
Fantastic selection of food hmmm!
I’m coming to America 🙂
Hush Puppies! French Toast! Yankee Pot Roast! Deep-fried Okra! Pop Tarts!
You all that eat or corndogs or not, I love them with maple syrup! And my understanding of a pastrami “Rueben” is that it is called a “Rachael” and has coleslaw instead of kraut. Can’t remember if it has a different bread or cheese though…
Tatertots don’t really reflect the fatness of the United States, by the way, the United States invented these foods, not America, leave Canada, Latin America, and South America out of the glory of the glorious turducken.
“Uhhh, Kinkistyle, I hate to break it to you, but Chinese and other Asian nations do not eat egg rolls ”
If you want to mince fine hairs down to the molecule then you’re correct, however someone needs to do their homework. The egg roll that one typically gets at chinese restaurants is more akin to what Chinese cooks (like Martin Yan) call a “spring roll”. I’ve seen a Vietnamese restaurant call a similar dish an “imperial roll” (Ch? giò). In the Philippines and I hear Indonesia, they are called “lumpia”, from hokkien “lun pia”. The Hokkien also brought the noodle dish called pansit to the Philippines.Chow mein IS eaten in China, but it is of a different style, just like every single ethnic cuisine made for Americans.
Also, how are Raviolis closer to a Chinese dish than an egg roll or chow mein? Last I heard the Chinese didn’t fill theirs with things like spinach, cheese, nor did they dress them in cheese, olive oil, or tomato based sauces.
One of my favorites is the “stuffed crust ” pizza. Also, once Domino’s, I think,offered something called “pizzert.” Truly frightening.
In no way is the Turducken authentically American, except as a simplification of the original. I can’t remember it’s name – but it was a 10-bird stack, and dates back to Elizabethan England. It’s documented in surviving cookery books (yes, they had them!) of the period.
So the idea pre-dates your *country* by at least 250 years 🙂
this post is real funny! i mean the way everything is described is so ‘eloquently american’! kudos! loved reading about all the food.. hmm.. getting hungry already! =)
How about peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Pretty sure that was invented in the US
The Philly Cheesesteak is not normally made from the cheapest steak and cheese whiz. As many may know, the city is divided between the cheese whiz lovers and the purists who take theirs with Provolone cheese.
I worked in a restaurant in Philly where cheesesteaks were made and we used good quality beef for the minute steaks used in the sandwich.
Now that I’m a vegetarian, I still make them, but obviously not with beef.
… seems many of us have picked up on your lack of research.
… and yes, a Reuben is made with Corned Beef, not Pastrami.
Swiss cheese is certainly not bland! It’s actually kind of strong. If you get Kraft cheese, of course it’s bland. If you get real cheese (god forbid! real cheese!) it’s very good. And, it’s called Swiss cheese because of it’s resemblance to Emmental, which is actual Swiss cheese.
Check your typing. There’s quite a few mistakes… “became” instead of “because,” etc.
Enjoyed reading though. 🙂
We Americans are so lazy we also invented peanut butter and jelly IN THE SAME JAR!
The only question I have is, since when are Graham crackers and marshmallows not popular in the US?
Turducken is a French dish from about 400 years ago.
Indeed “chinese food”is chinese
americans only sell the shitty versions of it,
you americans are dumbasses
Turducken is not armerican!
yes the pooey name is, but here in england weve been doing that for years.
we get a goose, stick and turkey inside, followed by turkey, duck, quail and a songbird. We also put layers of stuffing and venison in between layers. Its called a Lancashire Pot. One of the most expensive meals ever =D
Bageldogs! deep fried twinkies! Funel Cakes!
Pretty much any food available at a carnival or amusement park
Fried mozzarella sticks?
A “Lancasheer Pot” is like some meat and potatos… what are you talking about quail and songbird
It’s not russian dressing, it’s thousand island. Way to ruin a great sandwich.
Just for the record, no matter what meat your corn dog’s made from, if it doesn’t come from a Kosher source, it’s still not considered Kosher. Then again, the modern definition of Kosher is an excellent example of something good being bogged down and complicated by tradition.
I studied Koshering techniques for a couple of years, most of which are purely traditional, and compared them to the requirements of the Law. It’s amazing how many “rules” have been added to the process. The more orthodox the views the more complex the process becomes. Oddly, the law is very simple on the matter. Where, then, did all those rules come from? Not that it matters.
Eat your beef corn dog and enjoy. If you can find one that’s actually made from beef, it’s likely as close to Kosher as your going to get anyway.
Take care,
Azy!
I started out hoping to be entertained, and possibly informed by this piece, but as typical of so much material that’s posted on the internet, this article is loaded with prejudices, bigotry, inaccuracies, misconceptions, misspellings, poor grammar, and outright BS.
This list is just another sad example of how someone can fail miserably when trying too hard to write something that they think the reader will find clever and snarky instead of concentrating on constructing an thoroughly researched, informative, accurate and well-written article.
Instead of praise for being entertained and informed by it, the majority of the comments posted about it are corrections to the more glaring inaccuracies contained within.
In fact, there wasn’t one single item listed in this “TOP 10” thats description, history, “recipe”, and/or ingredients was wholly accurate. The most accurate and appropriate part of it was the actual byline.
PB&J is a funny American invention. It was created by Americans, but not in America. I was made by American GIs who received the ingredients in their rations, they slapped it all together, and then brought the recipe home when the war was over.
Good attempts, however mere amatuers compared to the scots who offer these,
Deep fried pizza:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_pizza
and the all conquering “Munchy box”:
http://blog.23x.net/5/what-is-a-munchy-box.html
Where the hell is the fool’s gold sandwhich?
Thats an American meal right there packed with 8000calories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool's_Gold_Loaf
As Ian stated before real Philly cheese steaks are made with quality meat
Only thing I question – talk to someone from China about the local cuisine – authentic Chinese food is actually very oily and often fried – it’s famous for that all over Asia.
Taiwanese food is quite low fat, but mainland Chinese food is all about the oil.
Haha…love it… “Chinese Food”. 🙂
Firstly, Vegetarisum is an ancient Native word for “can’t hunt or fish worth a darn”. Sauerkraut on the Rueben. Sauerkraut becomes a thing of great beauty, in a Rueben. Also, the only bread, in my humble opinion that is worthy the honor of being part of the Rueben is (are you Americans ready for this) is Winnipeg Light Rye bread. Leave to a Canuck to take you, guys too the edge and beyond…
S’mores are a staple of Girl Scout cookouts and camping, and have been for …ever. Possibly that’s where they gained popularity. Any mom who was ever a Girl Scout showed their kids how to make them.
i am proud to say I have Never eaten anything on the above list. Maybe not being an American has proved a blessing!
There’s also the Luther burger, a double cheeseburger topped with bacon and eggs, sandwiched between two ckrispy kreme doughnuts. Blech. Only we could have thought up something like that. Thankfully it didn’t catch on.
Dammit now i want a corndog 😐
Frito pie is much more American than Turducken.
Heinous as we are, lets not forget some other international delicacies. Like foie gras. A special duck or goose liver. Foie gras is a delicacie in French cuisine Foie gras can be sold whole, or prepared into mousse or parfait and served as an accompaniment to another food like steak.. Gavage is the way the birds are fed. It is practiced mostly on geese or male Moulard ducks, a Preparation for gavage usually begins 4–5 months before slaughter. For geese, after an initial free-range period and treatment to assist in esophagus dilation (eating grass, for example), the force-feeding commences. Gavage is performed 2–4 times a day for 2–5 weeks, depending on the size of the fowl, using a funnel attached to a slim metal or plastic feeding tube inserted into the bird’s throat to deposit the food into the bird’s crop (the storage area in the esophagus). A grain mash, usually maize mixed with fats and vitamin supplements, is the feed of choice. Waterfowl are suited to the tube method due to a non-existent gag-reflex and extremely flexible esophagi, unlike other fowl such as chickens. These migratory waterfowl are also said to be ideal for gavage because of their natural ability to gain large amounts of weight in short periods of time before cold seasons. For this reason, gavage is usually a “finishing” stage before the bird is set for slaughter, for if left to its own devices after finishing, the bird will quickly return to its normal weight. The result of this practice is a severely enlarged, especially fatty liver– which, if especially exaggerated, results in the liver disease hepatic lipidosis. The liver may swell up to 12 times its normal size (up to three pounds). While the livers are the coveted portions of these birds, the fatty flesh of geese and ducks, traditionally used to make confit as well as their feathers find a market
Corn Dog Anyone?
While stuffing one meat into another has been around for hundreds of years as forcemeat, the Turducken (chicken inside duck inside turckey) is an American invention. It was fist introduced by Paul Prudhumme in the late 70s.
For those of you who believe that ancient tribes cooked 27 or so animals inside eachother all surrounding a truffle – you may also be interested to know that the word ‘gullible’ does not appear in the dictionary.
Lol “Chinese Food”
So true.
These are really interesting recipes,I have never eaten any of them , they are a heart attack waiting to happen
What about learning ENGLISH, mate?
– bad rep (non rap, gansta!)
– its not it’s
– your not you’re
CMON you can do it!
In Scotland, they have something similar to a corn dog, its a potato dog. Pretty tasty, I must say. You (America) did not invent chinese food. Its a hunch but I think it was the Chinese.
Well, hows this you take an American Staple, A cheese burger. Smother it in Chili, Mustard, Onions, and an Egg. Put it on the cheese burger, an make it small enough that an average sized person can eat 5 of them in a sitting. But yet still for eating one you get all the calories and bad things as you would if you just ate a tub of grease and lard. Now that is A Coney Island Sundowner. An that is as American as you can get. Heck it was even invented in New York City.
We invented what we *call* Chinese food. Read the description.
I don’t think the turducken is original to America. If it is, then it was imported to the UK because I know it’s been there for a while. You can buy them at farmer’s markets and suchlike.
Yeah, that turducken thing is a version of an old european dish that would have up to 10 birds, from a swan to a sparrow inside each other.
I’m American and I’ve never liked s’mores
You got the reuben all wrong man. You gotta coat it in some pancake batter, and fry it up realllll nice. Ya. Now that’s a reuben.
For those of you who have never had corn dogs much less looked at one, they sell them in the freezer section at your local food store. Deep fried cookie dough anyone?
I’m an American living in China. I’ve been here four and a half years. The first two months i lived here I survived on chow mein almost everyday because it was all I could say. In American restaurants we’d call it lo mein. egg rolls in mandarin are called “chun1 juan3” ?? (lit; spring roll) and they eat them all the time in the south as part of dim sum
@ jim
I think the point they’re trying to make is a lot of what we consider to be “Chinese food” was actually invented in America by the Chinese.
Example: Fortune cookies were invented in San Francisco.
Jordan,
A good attempt to explain the debate over Chinese food, but I think a better explanation is that the author doesn’t know a thing about chinese food. and although he is correct on a few parts (IE Fortune cookies) he’s wrong on others, if you want proof come to my mom’s house and ask her where she learned to cook chow mein and egg rolls. (I can tell you it wasn’t here in america)
Wow, people are so mean on here. Sometimes I’m Miss. Grammarian, and I didn’t even notice any mistakes. I could probably find them now, but don’t worry. They don’t detract too much from the humor. Your comment about crab rangoons (my fav) made me laugh so hard I’m probably going to link to it. I love your list.
A Lancashire Hotpot is a rich, layered meat and vegetable stew, with sliced potatoes on top, nothing to do with chickens or turkeys.
The stuffing birds inside other birds has indeed been around since Roman times as many people have pointed out. Recently a TV chef here in the UK managed a 12 birder, starting with a wood pigeon and working out to a massive turkey.
I assume the comparison with ravioli and chinese food is the dim sum dumpling which isn’t dissimilar, usually known in China as Jowser and Bowser depending on how it’s cooked I believe.
Stop having a go at the author for poor research! It’s a bloody joke article meant as light entertainment, not a sodding PhD thesis, give the guy a break!
Turducken ? ! ?
Only the americans could eat something that has Turd in the name. Dirty sods
Wow. That is the most disgusting list of “foods” I have ever seen. I would not touch a single one of those products. Putting that in my mouth goes against my notions of humanity. No wonder America has no problems with torturing foreigners – they’re torturing themselves all the time.
Well, I can’t understand the lunatic who wants to batter fry a Rueben, but more to the point- a real Rueben isn’t made with pastrami. You should use corned beef, thick slabs of it, not sliced thinly, and you should always use pumpernickle. We always used corned beef from our “Irish” corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot, which is apparently, fitting for this forum, pretty American.
And for all you American food haters- I have eaten Toad in the Hole, with powdered gravy. It wasn’t anything to be proud of.
I never was inclined to eat a corn dog, until now. I think I may try it.
which do YOU like better? pastrami or corned beef??
are you asking me? Def pastrami. It’s an unbelievable creation. But I understand the corn beef pushers.
Everyone keeps going on about how the turducken isn’t really American, and I concur. Yes, many people have heard of the “Roast Without Equal”. I would like to posit the concept that, while the dish was most certainly inspired by its European counterpart, the name itself is uniquely American. How much classier can you get than “turducken”? Seriously.
Also, I love crab rangoons. Take a wad of cream cheese, some Krab, wrap it in a wonton and deep fry it. Yes, that is certainly an American dish. As for the other “chinese” foods mentioned, the author did have a point. You can’t walk into a chinese buffet and honestly say that was all invented in China, or anywhere in Asia. Some, yes, but not all.
You all ever have a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich at a county/state fair? They are typically called “elephant ear” sandwichs because the tenderloin is so large compared to the bun. Excellant eats and I believe truly American.
The peanut butter jelly sandwich has been eaten in europe for ages, Apple pie is as American as Mickey Mouse is Dutch, there are recepi’s known in Holland that date back to the 16th century
Americans don’t invent food, they take and addapt, they are kinda like the borg 😛
Where the fuck is scrapple? It’s a huge tradition in the Philadelphia area and surrounding suburbs. Take what’s leftover from a pig after you take the bacon, ham, pork chops, etc. (‘snouts and assholes,’ some people may joke) and then grind it all into a semi-fine paste (not too fine, that’s how they make hot dogs) and add lots of spices (paprika, oregano) and shape it into bricks, which are then shrink-wrapped.
To cook it you cut slices (between 1/8th and 1/4 inch thick) and fry them on a skillet. Some people like them crispy, some people like them soft, some like adding ketchup, I do not however. I like my scrapple thick and crispy on the outside but of course not burnt beyond recognition.
ps: I don’t know where you got that sh*t you said about Philly cheesesteaks, there’s no ‘rule’ claiming you ‘vehemently insist that there shall be no attempts to make it good. Crappiest ingredients only, please. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell explained problems non PA-ers have when trying to make cheesesteaks: “First, they use good meat. You need the fattiest, stringiest meat to get a proper taste.” The second mistake, of course, is that you’ve got to use Cheese Whiz; no real cheese allowed. Rendell insists this is became “real cheese doesn’t melt,” which is of course a lie. But never matter.’ So you can go suck a fat one for attempting to drag my fine city’s name through the mud. You use thin slivers of steak, there are even companies that have capitalized on it (Steak-ums, anyone?) to mass produce them to be sold in the freezer section of your local food store. And Cheeze-whiz is not required and not how I make them, I make them with slices of American cheese (which is actually a type of white cheddar) and fried onions and maybe some fried mushrooms.
There are even 3 very famous cheesesteak shops that operate 24/7/365 in Philly that you simply must visit if you ever visit Philly; Pat’s and Geno’s, which are opposite each other at 9th and Passyunk, in south Philadelphia, and then there’s Tony Luke’s which unfortunately I don’t know the address of, but I’m sure Google could find it easily. Oh and you can’t miss the honkin’ huge hot peppers waiting for you outside Pat’s/Geno’s, waiting patiently soaking in pickle brine in large metal tins/vats.
And while undoubtedly there are ‘chinese foods’ that really were invented by the chinese (eggrolls) it is quite true that there are ‘chinese’ dishes that the chinese have never heard of; I know of one specifically: General Tso’s chicken. You can go to China and ask someone about General Tso and they will tell you they’ve never heard of him, and they are familiar with the fact that in America there is a ‘chinese’ dish called ‘General Tso’s Chicken.’
It’s pretty arrogant of you to make this page where it seems you know virtually nothing about most of the foods you mention.
coz american like tons of calories that´s why they are so fat
Can I just say that most of these things will kill you… On the spot… if eaten only once… I feel my arteries hardening just looking at the pics.
“Turducken isn’t really all that American — the French kings had already contests in the astonishing field of: how many different dead birds can you stick into one-another. Record is something like 14, topped off with a deliciously fried Hummingbird. (Boneless!) [Oh, someone just made that point… darnit.]”
‘Fraid this is true. The English gentry also had a long-standing Victorian (??) tradition of going out and shootings all kinds of foul and stuffing one into the other. UK’s tv chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been promoting the idea of the 10-bird roast : a turkey stuffed with a woodcock, a pigeon, a partridge, a pheasant, a chicken, a guinea fowl, amallard, a duck anda goose, after he recreated the historical dish on his tv show.
This list is sooo true!! LoL…The best one is the Chinese food;-)
Only tourists eat a Cheesesteak with wiz. CheezWiz is pretty gross. If you head over to Tony Luc’s you should try the Italian, it’s a cheesesteak with Sharp provelone broccoli raab and hot peppers. They also use ribeye and not grade X meat.
Sounds like the author is mad at America for being America. The author also has not done his/her research properly. This article was not worth the read.
Corn dogs are great. My son eats one almost everyday for lunch. If you have a Culver’s around, they have great corn dogs.
Losing your corndog virginity sounds like something that could land you in the emergency room
Good call on the scrapple. Look at the philly phanatics representing!
some very true observations here – as a European, I love coming to the US but dread the food. Hideously large portions of food which is really just made for kids. The great shame is what the Italian Americans have done to their own food – it bears no resemblance whatsoever to real Italian food. I blame Alfredo, whoever he is.
listen, british visitor. i respect you views on huge portions, but don’t you fucking dare knock fettuccine alfredo. cream sauce on pasta could probably create peace in the middle east.
To Ben “It was the US Don’t include Canada etc.”
Quit fucking whining. Face the fact that when someone mentions “America” they mean the US of A. It’s been that way since BEFORE Canada existed, as that particular whine is usually sniffled out by Canadians…Hoser.
Futhermore, the only part of Turducken we invented is the name “Turducken”. Let us all hang our heads in shame.
Egg Rolls and Chow mein and lots of food in Chinese Buffets is truly Chinese. Some of it was invented here, by Chinese, but this doesn’t make all Chinese food in America an American invention.
Kosher Corn Dog: Take one (1) Hebrew National hot dog, jam a stick in it’s arse, dip in corn-meal batter, freeze until batter is stiff. Fry until golden brown.
I’ve made a few turduckens in my time, but I never knew it had a name!
Anyway, you forgot to mention hamburgers, ice-cream cones and pizza. Yeah, they invented pizza in Italy, but it’s way different over here.
A traditional reuben is made like this: pumpernickle bread,corned beef, swiss cheese, and saurerkraut. The bread is buttered and grilled on a griddle with Russian dressing added inside right before serving. Period. You can change it anyway you want though and it’s alright. To each his own. The debate about the true Philly cheese steak rages here in the City of Brotherly Love all the time. To even begin to be authentic you MUST have the soft Italian hoagie roll. No exceptions. As long as you have thinly sliced beef steak, you can add whatever you want-Philly favorites include cheeses, sweet or hot peppers, mushrooms, fried onions and LOTS of ketchup. There are only three things on the list I have not eaten, often, and I would love to try those, too!
Well, I’m from the south, and I’ve never seen a good pork bar-b-que sandwich with slaw anywhere else but here. Add it to the list to replace the turd-ferguson duck thingy. 🙂
what you all refer to as a “turducken” (with the emphasis on the turd) is known in classic French cuisine as a ‘ballotine’. In England, it starts with a swan and ends up with a quail. While this was almost certainly a particular favourite dish of Queen Elizabeth the First, most sensible people today wouldn’t even consider it, unless there was an ambulance waiting outside to take them to the emergency room
what can i do fun this weekend in washington dc…
Sounds interesting but not for every one….
Fantastic page, i showed it to my American man who thought it was hilarious. One thing i wanted to let you know is that in the many hundreds of years ago in France this was invented:
bustergophechiduckneaealcockidgeoverwingailusharkolanbler – a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an Ortolan Bunting and a Garden Warbler. So you given that America may be the only ones doing multi birds still, i am afraid not an invention but crazily over the top all the same !
I like how you have the Cobb Salad on this list and you assume that its bad for you. The only source of “carbs” on the cobb are from the greens and veggies, as well as the sprinkle of cheese they add (assuming you don’t use a flood of dressing.) Sorry to let you down but thats not so bad. Yeah they put protein in it, but thats the great thing about this salad. Unlike your “euro” salads you won’t be hungry 15 minutes after eating a cobb. Sorry to bust your bubble but eating a cobb is a pretty damn good choice.
im not sorry for loving corndog and ice cream. yes they add pounds to my body but they’re just soooooo yummy 😉
HILARIOUS! I think I’ve eaten everything on the list except the turducken. Looking forward to the state fair this year to try more things on a stick, but corn-dogs are my favorite.
I wonder what your thoughts are on “hotdish” or, if you’re not from Minnesota, “casserole” — typically made with whatever you find in the cabinet and fridge. Usually contains something like hamburger, cream of something, possibly a vegetable, topped off by tater-tots, and baked in the oven 🙂
Why don’t some of you fucking people read the comments before you post? We got that Turducken wasn’t invented in America the first time. Now, 935 posts about it later, we’ve also learned that it was invented somewhere between 400 and 1,000 years ago, in either England, France or Rome. While I’m sure some of you are right, quite a few of you fuckers are wrong. So, get off the author’s ass about being incorrect, and quit being pompous assholes if you don’t have the correct information, either.
Earlier poster did say that the Reuben was made with Corned Beef rather than Pastrami. That is correct. When a Reuben is made with Pastrami it is called a Rachael. Same ingredients just with Pastrami instead of Corned Beef. This is a made in America sandwich!
Error: that turducken ain’t American. The idea of stuffing different birds inside one another goes back to renaissance times and there are recipes as old as that. BTW: the birds need to be de-boned (or as the Brits say, just boned…which results in amorous statements for a cook, like “boning that chic was so much work”, which it is).
I’ve done a version of this with a corned beef tong stuffed in a deboned chicken, stuffed in a deboned goose, and wrapped in a pastry. We like to call it “chick-tong-goose-dough”.
I’ve had everything on the list except for turducken…and most are pretty dang good. Every country has their version of these fatty, but tasty foods – The US is not unique in having foods bad for you, but good tasting.
to all you anal, sanctimonious, fractious, punctilious, whining posters: get over yourselves.
to all the rest who recognize a fun post and join in the fun: congrats, happy 4th!
I am American . I don’t eat corn dogs, I’m not a vegitarian. I do not like s’mors, but i like all the ingredents of s’mores one at a time. I cant stand anything deep fried, except chicken. I never hope to be served a turducken sounds gross. I love chinese food, but only when i make it myself….agian no tolrance for oily food. Its probly closer to what you would find served in Thiland or Singapore. When I make “Phillys” i use black angus beef (pastrami or roast, Bison is also very good) and top it with sauted onions, peppers, and mushrooms. I use either Provalone, Chedder or Montery Jack cheese. I hate cheese wiz. Bison burgers should be on this list,and Pumpkin pie is more American than apple pie. Please dont bother pointing out that i cant spell, im dislexic and already know that. Its amusing to see how much passion food can bring out.
ha ha ha they have brown ale beer mats on the tabel in photo 3. come on the toon !
The whole deep-fried candy desert “culinary” genre started in Scottish chip shops. They will actually deep-fry any food on their menu – even pizza.
And funnel cake is Amish in origin, the Pennsylvania Dutch. In other words: it’s German.
And Yvo, sauerkraut is fermented, no sugar added. Otherwise it would be a compote.
I think Turducken is a less extreme version of something served at banquets in medieval England. I couldn’t find a good reference, but in seraching I found this… “It serves 125, takes eight hours to cook and is stuffed with 12 different birds … now that really IS a Christmas dinner”… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-502605/It-serves-125-takes-hours-cook-stuffed-12-different-birds—really-IS-Christmas-dinner.html
Reuben sandwiches have sauerkraut and usually corned beef, with pastrami it’s called a “rachel” at most of them jewish delis.
Yuk!
I think you could put just about anything in this list(a la “Chinese Food”) as visiting the US is definitely a gastronomic gamble. No matter what I ordered while visiting your fine country, no matter how familiar the dish, it seemed as though somebody had found some way to make it less healthy for me(excluding some fantastic 4 and 5 star restaurants I visited in NY). When visiting the US, be prepared to either make all your own food or go up a pants size.
I am a very indignent Englishman for the ‘tuducken’ , despite having a poposterous name, is at its heart an English dish stemming from the Tudor times. Where they would stuff a pigeon inside a chicken inside a duck inside a phesant inside a goose inside a turcky inside a swan. Look it up. And stop steeling our traditions and claming them to be your own. As you may or may not know i very much dislike the americans and their ideals and values and history. Anybody whom wishes to argue these points with me feel free at hotmail.
My regards,
Benja
Benja.w.p.c@hotmail.com Wimborne Dorset England
AMERICA FTW! thats why we so fat nowadays, but seriously i have only tryed half of all dishes, and fryed coca cola? thats overkill…..
Chicago ITALIAN BEEF! A Philly can’t compare.
I just lost my appetite when I read the top ten …..(I’m from the Netherlands)
oh gosh
you scare me guys..
Everything deep fried and smothered in fat, cheese and a lot of salt and spices is obviously poisonous but tell that to someone who’s had it for lunch it all their lives, is hungry and tired/lazy and couldn’t care less if the world ended after the game…eh, healthy food is like methadone to some…just not enough…
that is some crazy food u guys are eating:D
poor guy from Netherlands.:D
hey.do feel the same about Euro food as he?
peace.
I actually work at a restaurant in Portland, Oregon which serves only american cuisine! or, because there really is no “american cuisine” we refer to it as a culinary tour through the fifty states. we serve most these things, plus an extended great menu! take a look at our menu and if you’re ever in the area stop by!
a little too much sarcasm and disdain emanating from the blogger, otherwise an enjoyable page
You talk about fried twinkies and candy bars, corndogs and such. How bout a fried Dog Turd- Its fine cajun cuisine, It tast like chicken!!
delicious
Let’s worry about what other people think about our food… you’re just making me hungry.
Mmm, I just love corn dogs.
‘chinese food’ is what they have in china, hongkong and taiwan… ever been here? unless the americans influenced them thousands of years ago… highly doubt it.
Wow! That was the worst countdown of American foods I have ever seen, like does this person even live in America?? I Mean Turducken at number 2? And what the hell is a baked Alaskan? I think this could be the countdown for the most ridiculous American concoctions, and hey you think you could toss in a few more underhanded insults about Americans eating greasy fatty foods.
“The peanut butter jelly sandwich has been eaten in europe for ages”
“Peanut butter was invented by the Mayans as a protein source for those lacking the ability to chew.
A popular misconception is that George Washington Carver invented peanut butter. He did, however, disseminate over 300 uses for peanuts.”
I was taught the “misconception” from as far back as I can remember. I looked up the Peanut Butter wiki article and actually learned something. This assumes, of course that the wiki was not written by a Mayan with anti-Carver tendencies.
I grew up in the American South and can vouch for a tendency to deep fry almost anything. I have also lived in Germany and enjoyed Bratwurst and Pommes-Frites (French Fries, actually a Belgian creation) with mayonaise.
There are very few uniquely American foods. Now go enjoy your potatoes, tomatoes and maize.
How about cotton candy?
Some of these look good – I quite fancy the Turducken!
NO NO NO NO NO.
American’s DID NOT even the corndog.
THAT’S JUST NOT TRUE.
Canadian’s invented it, and it’s called a damn POGO. ?
Ummm…. I read a comment that said fried ice cream was American. It’s not. There’s a (I believe) Mexican and Asian kind. The Asian kind is more popular. By the way most of the deep fried Chinese food really isn’t Chinese the rest of the other Chinese food pretty much is. Crab rangoons aren’t Chinese because the Chinese diet is pretty much doesn’t have any dairy.
“serve it with a heaping bowl of gooey cheese product”?
Have you ever had a buffalo wings? There is no cheese product with it. It is a ranch dressing. Maybe at some foo foo restaurant they may serve it with blue cheese dressing but I have never come across it.
Turducken is wonderful. I have only had it backed. Duck is a greasy bird and it works wonders in the middle layer because it keeps the chicken and turkey from getting dry.
One great food we invented is Pizza.
ROFL @ Chinese food
As an Austinite, I felt it was my duty to bring to light the fact that Amy’s Ice Cream, the purveyors of said ‘Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream’ mix up a number of interesting and delicious flavors which can be enhanced by any number of Crush’ns… Amy’s uniquely elevates a childhood favorite to a masterpiece everytime!!
Hahahaha, that explains why Americans are the fattest people in human history!!!
Hahahaha, good joke, Lauren, about American cuisine, hahahaha. American…… cuisine……. get it????
Americans are complaining that that some many of their poor soldier died in Iraq. But more of them are dying because of eating this American cuisine. Way to go, guys. You are doing great!!! Hahahahaha
I love American humor!!!! Hahahaha
I disagree with DR7 on this one, any article that gets us talking like this one has done its job very effectively.
I am disappointed that a BIG MAC is not mentioned though. It this not American? Dick and Mac McDonald established the first restaurant in 1940 but they like most of us have roots that are Irish, according to the 1910 census.
They began franchising in 1953 so let’s pay tribute to our burger, how about it?
The Reuben sandwich is a grilled or toasted sandwich made with either pastrami or corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and either Russian dressing or Thousand Island dressing.[1] It is typically made with rye bread.
Not enough here about cabbage. By no means.
Turducken, up until this very blog post I had never ever heard of that. Now I can not wipe the site from my mind. G R O S S !!!!!
Ketchup Baby! Ketchup-like sauces originated in Asia – and everybody in Europe (and probably everybody in the world) thinks this is an invention made in USA. LOL
Hey Ya’ll,
Come Down South, find 3v3ryth1ng is homemade!! Most born only in the USA.
Why does your title say “…only America Could Have Invented”? Why “only” America? Other countries have their own hideous foods. Gee whiz.
What a piece of shit this guy is. Let’s celebrate America’s independence by showing foods. Then bash the fuck out of them, and only show pictures that make them look like disgusting piles of shit. Fuck you writer, you anti-America piece of shit.
This is not an American invention, A form of this has been around since the Romans… History Channel wtf.
“Americans say to themselves: what can we deep fry next? We’ve deep fried twinkies, oreos, hamburgers, even coca-cola.”
Actually, the Scottish are the ones known for frying just about anything. Who wrote this crap? Other countries have done the same and/or worse than this.
I second what Joe says. Let’s throw turducken and fried twinkies at the arsehole! 🙂 Here here.
Great collection. I have tried several times to cook a Turducken – and failed dismally. I even made my own once. The kitchen looked like a slaughter house after i had de-boned the birds. What a mess.
Turducken isn’t uniquely American.
You left something out of this list. While unfamiliar to those not from western or central New York, the Garbage Plate deserves to be close to the top. Originated at Nick Tahou’s in Rochester, the plate is traditionally two cheeseburgers atop a mountain of mac salad and home fries, topped with mustard, onions, and meatsauce.
Now THAT is an American dish. You really should revamp the list to include it.
I’m a proud US citizen… but most of these foods look kinda gross to me. (S’mores, Cookie Dough Ice Cream and the Corn Dog are the only exclusions) The turducken looks disgusting. Glad I went vegetarian. -.- Yay for the newer generations of USA that are eating healthier food! Like real salad with lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, and a bit of bleu cheese on top. Mmm. ^_^
(Tomorrows my 16th birthday! Tons of cookie dough ice cream. 😀 Nom nom nom.)
Turducken is not American at all. For one the original recipe comes from somewhere in the Middle East and is traditionally served at weddings. Plus, turducken is just a light snack (not very American) compared to the original, which consist of a camel stuffed with a goat/lamb stuffed with a turkey stuffed with a chicken stuffed with eggs. Plus all the other stuffing.
So, not very American at all.
Loved reading these crazy recepies…. Ireland has a few strange ones too- like Potato crisp sandwiches- ( we love them and always call them Tayto sanwiches) but the people of Glasgow in Scotland have it sorted- they have battered Mars Bars!!- like ur corn dogs- they take a good old Mars bar- batter it and deep fry it. It’s a gastromic experience. Don’t knock it till u try it 🙂 ( Valerie – Dublin- Ireland)
Ok just want to know????? Egg rolls are not asian and asian people dont eat them??? Egg rolls have been around China and other asian countrys for centuries. Different types such as lumpia in the Philippines, spring rolls in Vietnam and Thailand. Second, most of the chinese foods that we do eat in America is still chinese just modified. They were created by Chinese immigrants to make more appealing to the American consumers, all based off of traditional chinese dishes.
Good post! Especially on chinese food. I was chuckling cos I am chinese living in America and yeah I don’t eat the American chinese food! 🙂
How did cheese fries not make the list?
Sandwich purists will tell you that a true Reuben is made with corned beef. Some places do serve it with pastrami, sometimes called a ‘Rachel,’ but it’s orgin is always traced back to corned beef. I hardly think it’s an example of American excess…if you want that, you should have listed a Monte Cristo.
And yes, why didn’t fried cheese make the list?
Al
good post!!
thank god i wasn’t born in the US
buffalo wings wit a side order of world famous newky broon,
a truley us of a invention i am sure!!!!!!!!!!!
Brownies are an american invention too.
I not sure, I would put cookie dough ice cream as number one. My first would be wings and corn dogs!!! UMMMM
A reuben isn’t a reuben unless it has sauerkraut on it. And a corn dog is the perfect, perfect food. What’s not to like about a hotdog inside fried cornmeal and it’s on a stick? Perfection. But of course you have to have HEINZ ketchup for it, no other kind. And I live near Pittsburgh, home of the Primanti brothers sandwich. Two pieces of homemade Italian bread, french fries, cole slaw, and your choice of meat and cheese, all put together in a 8 inch tall sandwich! It doesn’t get any better than that!
My mom is from the Philippines she makes lumpia (basically a filipino eggroll) and A delicious pasta thing called Panset
What about fried Coke? It’s an American institution.
I guess that is what makes American food (and America, of course) so great- it is an amalgamation of the best (and the worst) of the many countries our people come from!
I have never seen a sadder more hateful group of comments. Some good comments, yes, but many are outright offensive. Okay, so there are spelling/grammar mistakes and some foods listed are a VARIATION on foods not actually invented in America, but the writing is cute, clever and made me laugh and if you’re such a hardass know-it-all who can’t let anything go and just have a good time, then you shouldn’t bother adding yet another hateful comment because others on the hate-wagon have already crashed this party. Gain some manners, a sense of humour, or some tolerance and learn to enjoy things rather than analyze them to death.
Great article BS, keep at it!
To end confusion about the Turducken fiasco. Thanks Wikipedia : )
The largest recorded nested bird roast is 17 birds, attributed to a royal feast in France in the early 19th century (originally called a Rôti Sans Pareil, or “Roast without equal”) – a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an Ortolan Bunting and a Garden Warbler. The final bird is small enough that it can be stuffed with a single olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds. This dish probably could not be legally recreated in the modern era as many of the listed birds are now protected species. [1] [2].
In the United Kingdom, a turducken is a type of ballotine called a “multi-bird roast.”
I think the chow mein and egg roll were around in China for a while (there is debate it went to South China from somewhere else), but never in cook with the taste and style like the ones in suburban Chinese restaurants.
The Chinese folks in those Chinese restaurants would cook their chow mein or food in a less greasy and less sweet and sour loaded way, and eat very different chinese food than they sell (customers first, sell what they want and are used to). That crazy cream cheese rangoon thing is definitely US. And how do you know that you are in a authentic chinese restaurant where chinese ppl will go frequently? No fortune cookies and a lot chinese customers obviously.
i was thinking about what america has made when i wondered why hamburgers were called hamburgers when they do not have ham in them… the answer? they were made in hamburg germany. those germans sure do like naming their foods after places. anyway.. for all that have never eaten a corn dog.. you must. it is awesome. and so are wings. go obesity!!!
Cobb salad is listed, yet America is also the originator of the caesar salad, which is more widely enjoyed.
Another American food that many know of is the runza. Spiced beef, cabbage, wrapped in dough and cooked. Sometimes with cheese, it is very good to eat.
Anyone heard of a Chinese donut? Friends with a bunch of asians and they laughed when they told me that all it was is grands biscuits rolled in a different shape, fried then coated in sugar. Still good.
OH! And Jessica, There is this place is Wisconsin, The town of SEYMORE, it’s tag line HOME OF THE HAMBURGER! Yeah, it’s named for the German town cuz there were a bunch of Germen settlers there but it’s not German one bit!
The author refers to #8 as “Chinese food” notice the quotes. That means he doesn’t mean any food made in China is American. More specifically he mentions eggrolls that Americans have put a twist on and made into their own. What the article refers to aren’t called “Lampia” or “spring rolls”. If they are called Lampia or spring rolls and they have even one thing different then they are not the aforementioned “EGGROLL”. A lot of Chinese born Chinese would laugh out loud if Americans took what you’d find in a “Chinese buffet” in America, as their traditional Chinese cuisine.
Turducken is most definitely American. Look, there is no humming bird, ostrich, oyster, songbird, manatee, parakeet, velociraptor, or whatever else in this American dish. It is simply 3 birds… that’s it! It isn’t a monstrous product of some mid-evil meat stuffing marathon. If some country put 14 or 10 birds together and smoked it, then it’s different then America putting 3 (very specific) birds together and frying it, or baking it, or boiling it. Just because something is inspired by another country does not mean that country invented it. The corn dog wasn’t invented by Germany simply because the hot dog was “inspired” by the Frankfurter Wurst which was invented in Frankfurt, Germany. If I were to follow the “Turducken logic” used by many people on this blog I could throw every ingredient known to man in a huge cauldron, boil it, then any food ever created thereafter would have been invented by me.
Exclusivelty American foods not listed on his page…
Breakfast cereal
Gumbo
Jambalaya
Potato chips
Tex Mex
Southwestern
Soul Food
Beef Briscuit
Barbeque
Blooming Onion
Popcorn (Native American origin)
hash browns
bubble gum
icy pole, popsicles
kool aid
Why do we need 80 people saying Turduken and “Chinese Food” aren’t American? I think one is enough.
Marshmallows are not “particularly well-liked?” Where did you get that from?? This is blasphemy!
Where’s fried chicken? Nothing wrong with whats up there, but fried chicken is very American, as well as grits.
naaaastyyyy!!
that’s the faces of death!!
look at that… all pure fatness…
(no offense…)
What about meat loaf? Sure it’s two words that shouldn’t really be in the same sentence, but it’s got to be American.
“Mexican food”. Combine the Chinese food entry and the salad entry = TACO SALAD.
This article is a bit mean-spirited. America has produced some delicious cuisine. Even some of the items listed here, though obviously unhealthy, are quite delightful. Who doesn’t like buffalo wings? Seriously?
HAHAHA…looking at those pics of American food, uuhhmmm greasy. Now, Obama has to really push harder on making sure that every Americans has to have a health insurance.
God no wonder why so many of you are fat, I heard you people deep fry mars bars and butter!!! I am not surprised now. SHIT!
If you deep fry it you can call it your own hey? Is that what Americans are going for? hahahahaha I hate to think what Americans arteries look like.
Do you guys just put cheese on everything then wonder why you have health issues?
Nice try, Eloka…but deep-fried Mars Bars were invented by the Scots and perfected by the Irish long before they made their way here.
Good luck even finding a basic Mars Bar in the US these days…
As for all of these other “aren’t the Americans foolish” comments – I notice none of you bothered to brag about the health food options where you’re from.
Could it be because EVERY cuisine has food items that the rest of the world can laugh at for their unhealthiness?
I agree with Gerald – the ‘Garbage Plate’ (although from what I remember, it involved much more greasy meat) from Rochester definitely needs to be on this list. And, there’s no question that it was invented in America =)
A good article, but I must interject that they are not “Buffalo” wings. They are called chicken wings, and they were first made in Buffalo, NY. We don’t have much to be proud of, so we’ll defend that to the end of time.
We get it. You hate America. But try and get your facts straight before you go on a moronic rant.
And you wonder why most americans can’t see their own feet….
who deep fried coca cola? what was the dish?
“The Philly Cheesesteak is delicious. Would it be more delicious if it were made with thinly slice Kobe steak and melted Gruyere? Of course it would be. But it wouldn’t be as amazing.”
Than it wouldn’t be a Philly Cheesestake…It would be a Kobe steak and melted Gruyere, on a baguette, with a side of douche bag.
They are totally buffalo wings. 😛
Also, I like “American Food” but It really is bad for people! Especially in huge portions. Americans do need to get more healthy and eat better food, but its okay to have unhealthy food- just in very rarely, and if someone wants to be unhealthy, that is up to them… I won’t judge.
What the Author has failed to mention is that almost all the items listed have some europ. heritage. Most of the fattiest foods actually derive from old slave recipes. They were only given the poorest cuts of meats and the meager of spices and flavorings. But as Americans, we just take things too damn far.
To Kris R.
Some people have to be over weight and unhealthy and die at a young age. I am not being cruel and sadistic in the next point, but absolutely realistic.
The whole economy and infrastructure of the world is based on death. Would you want to get a low paying job that there is no chance of promotion for 200 years, because nobody dies for 5 or 6 hundred years? Of course not. Thomas Jefferson wrote something to the effect that slavery will never be fully dissolved without death of the for bearers. It took until almost all the “Slave Owner Minded” peoples (Old Slave Owners and Their direct Kin) to die off before Equal Rights became a full reality in the United States. So let them eat Turducken and baked Alaska chased down with a heaping bowl of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice cream so some one else can move up the corp. ladder.
So now i find that I sort of have to defend the culinary virtues of my country.
Asians do not eat any better off health wise than we do. I give you a good example. Freakin’ poisonous Puffer Fish. Come on. How is that anymore healthy for you than a Big Mac. At least with a Big mac, you have a fighting chance. Sure, it’ll kill you, but not until your at least done with desert.
Now, if you still want to believe that the Asian People of the world shy away from our customary deep fried origins, then check out this tid-bit of a web site.
http://www.lastappetite.com/french-fry-coated-hotdog/.
then scroll down a few frames and check out the vendors wares. So much for chop suey being bad for you. I doubt that she fried all those gastronomical nightmares in some ancient Chinese secret oils.
Let those without cholesterol cast the first cardiac arrest.
I know that we’re all lard asses, but I think we need to look at the stuff they’re making in the other fatty nations. Someone needs to set up an international gastronomic nightmares page (or at least one I’ll Stumble on in the next five seconds). Although, there’s always “This Is Why You’re Fat”. . .
I’m not actually from America…I’m from Ireland and I was doing a project with my friend on America’s food so I went online to try and find something, and then, naturally, I looked at the comments. I expected to see people putting up stuff like, LOL and ROFL and stuff..but mostly it was just sour remarks. WHAT IS WRONG WITH U PEOPLE! DON’T YOU SEE THE FUNNY SIDE OF THIS WHOLE THING!? I was seriosuly laughing my head of at the food descriptions. The one about the insane Turducken seriosuly cracked me up! XD
i thought some of it was amusing, and I’m from the u.s.
it wasn’t clever enough to be quite lol funny to me though. On the flip side I was not offended either, especially since the author is American. People will always make fun of other countries, but we should really take a second to get on the right side here. Stupid fat Americans (with more scientists than any country in the world I might add), Canadians with their hockey and kraft dinner, and Europeans with there bad teeth should all be comrades. There are way worse people out there that need made fun of, you know, the ones that habitually kill members of all these areas.
YUM!
So… How can CHINESE food be “American” food??? It originates in CHINA and I can tell you that every Chinese restaurant I have been to, that has people so Chinese I can barely understand what they say when you order anything, and I see them eat that food. Not everyone in America eats a Turducken, you can only get them in certain places unless you make it yourself. Who the hell actually makes s’mores on a regular basis??? NO ONE. They are made when you are having a campfire and it’s cold outside… AND that’s the only Cobb Salad I have ever seen in my life that doesn’t have any lettuce under it. I could make a better list of awesome American food, in my sleep.
yum!!!!!!!
The food is all delicious!!!!!
Ha, this is great! I don’t care what the other reviewers have to say, I think this is hilarious and fits a lot of the ridiculous American-made foods to a T!
american food is the best tasting by far. it may be the unhealthiest but for most people, taste is more important anyway. my father lived on steaks, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, coffee, ice cream, sodas and some beer and he lived until the ripe old age of 92 without a wheel chair and with a smile on his face. I have also seen people who eat very healthy and exercise who died young due to health issues. live a good decent life, eat moderately and have fun, and your chances for a long life are improved.
People love to make fun of American food but they sure are gobbling it up around the globe. We have some of the best foods around and have invented lots of great dishes here. You can eat smores, turkunken, twinkies, doritos, baked alaska, etc. if you want but you can also eat grass-fed bison burgers, home-made mashed potatoes, sauteed organic vegetables and ice-cream too. That’s also American food.
Katy: I believe you missed the point about the Chinese food being invented here in the United States.
The author is correct when he says that the Chinese food you’ll find in American Chinese restaurants has very little to do with actual Chinese cuisine. There is a great book about the subject called, ‘Chop Suey: A cultural history of Chinese Food in the United States’ which details exactly how and why Chinese immigrants to this country changed their rich and diverse cuisine to suit their ‘American’ neighbours’ tastes. Also, while you may see some Chinese workers eating the buffet food from time to time, more often than not you are not seeing the real Chinese food they are cooking for themselves after the restaurant has shut down. I would encourage you to make a few friends at one of the better Chinese restaurants and ask them if you could try some ‘authentic’ Chinese food. Depending on where you live, and how long the local Chinese have been there…you could be in for a real treat!
I am not saying that all Chinese food is healthy, but as a rule, it is healthier than most American food. One of the saddest things I have witnessed traveling in Asia is how quickly American franchises such as McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken are popping up everywhere, and how quickly Asian children are growing fatter and less healthy as they gobble up all of that deep fried goodness.
Anyway, great article.
I remember when Chinese food was named the unhealthiest food of all because of the copious use of MSG and other flavor enhancers and all the deep frying. It was a Japanese professor who identified this fifth flavor resulting from all the flavor enhancers used in Asian cuisine. They are still widely used in Asia where it was invented and introduced to Americans by the Chinese. I remember when a study came out about it and it explained why I would often get headaches and bad dreams after eating at a Chinese restaurant. That was a kind of running joke too. Now Chinese restaurants go out of their way to advertise no MSG and some try to use less oil for frying to cater to those trying to avoid all the excess oil and flavor enhancers. Most Americans can handle small amounts of it but not the large quantities that are often used. Considering China has the highest incidence of stomach cancer in the world I wouldn’t assume that it’s healthy one way or the other.
Baked Alaska was invented at Delmonico’s Restaurant – opened by Swiss immigrants – in New York City in the 1870s.
Why do Americans wonder why they are fat? That Turducken? How fucking greedy are these people? FUCK!
It’s obvious you didn’t read any of the previous posts and chose instead to degrade an entire country based on one dish that less than 1 percent of the population eat. By the way, many countries have fat people and more greed than Americans who are the most generous people on Earth. What a racist and hateful remark. If you think so poorly of America feel free to either leave or stay out. No haters wanted here.
I had a teacher from Kenya who told me that the tribes there lived on cow’s blood mixed with milk. I’ll take a reuben thank you very much.
The Turduken is actually a take on a tudor British dish:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-502605/It-serves-125-takes-hours-cook-stuffed-12-different-birds—really-IS-Christmas-dinner.html
the rest looks like a heap of shit.
Sorry but a heap of shit is watching snakes being cut open while they are still alive and eating their beating hearts or stabbing a lobster in the balls and drinking the juice that comes out of them or eating monkey brains while they are still alive. Now that’s what I call shitty food. Eating a smore or a corn dog is sounding better and better all the time.
you guys need to stop hating on americans (not all of you) im sure if other countrys had alot of money and the same food as us they wuld be fat to…
Someone needs to set this poster straight.
America is actually number 11 on the list of the worlds fattest nations.
This is Directly from the UN web site.
Not from some reporter who wants to bash America but from the UN who keeps statistics on this type of thing NOT used for the purpose of Nation Bashing.
Australia is the world’s fattest nation, with 36.2 percent of adults being obese.
Here are the Top 15 fattest nations according to Actual Data from the UN Web site.
Not from some nation Hating Reporter who has an Agenda.
Australia 36.2 percent
Nauru 35.7 percent
Federated States of Micronesia 35.1 percent
Cook Islands 34.9 percent
Kiribati 34.5 percent
Germany 34.5 percent
Egypt, 34.1 percent
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 33.9 percent
United Kingdom, 33.2 percent
Israel, 31.9 percent
U.S.A 31.7 percent
Croatia 31.4 percent
New Zealand 31.0 percent
Cook Islands 29.9 percent
Argentina 29.4 percent
Thank you Tav68, that should put an end to all the U.S. bashing on here.
Wow this article is amazing haha! Ups to the author you should truely take your writing furthur this is genius!
stupid article. american food is great. too many haters here.
@Jerrod
Did you know human breast milk is especially rich in MSG, along with sugar? If the sweetness doesn’t stimulate the baby to continue suckling, then the savory certainly will.
MSG is also naturally /abundant/ in tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, and whole load of other vegetables. Does Italian food give you headaches and bad dreams? Cos Italian could compete with Asian cuisine for the amount of MSG present in its dishes, gram for gram. Parmesan cheese is especially rich in MSG, containing higher levels (per gram) than even Chinese soy sauce, and don’t get me started of Italian (or any other European) sausage and sliced meats.
Hmmmmmmm, interesting article, but not for the right reason. To me it shows that some people do not do enough research into the subjects they wish to comment about.
The Philli cheese steak. Not a new idea to mix cheese and bad meat together. There are references to this in Roman text as far back as 250BC.
Chinese food. ‘NOT’ invented in America at all. Although Cop Suey is widely thought to come from America, it actually comes from Taishan in Guangdong province China. Its name in Chinese means ‘to break into many pieces’
The Sandwich. Invented in England by The Earl of Sandwich, hence the name. But even before this, as long ago as neolithic times, bread was eaten with meats. Although theres no proof, it seems almost impossible to believe that no-one at this time or after had not at some time put the meat inside the bread. Pastrami was introduced to the US by Jewish immigrants.
Baked Alaska. also known as ‘Omelette a la norvegienne. Invented in France.
Turducken. Ok, they have used a Turkey that origonate from the US. But stuffing animals with animals is not new and dates back over 5000 years. the Romans use to stuff a Camel with sheep that were stuffed with ducks or geese stuffed with many other ingredients. And other animals were cooked in this manner well before the Romans did.
Please, before you publish any more articles before you have done the research.
Okay Katy, no, the “Chinese food” we eat is from here it’s nothing like the food they eat in China and just becuase people are speakinging chinese in the resturaunt doesn’t make it form China! And the point is not that we eat them on regular basis the point is that America created them. Before you go on about things you don’t know actually take them time to think thank you. And I’ll bet the list you could make would be totally wrong!
wow therse to meany haters on this post yes we all have unhealthy food who cares all this hating and bashing shit is how arguments start that just lead to greater fucking problems how come we cant all be friends and stop all this ng shit for good and yes i am american
where can i find what is the most top 10 most popular foods?
hey, what happened to the deep fried snickers bar? no other country would make it. and why is there no deep fried foods here? america’s so fat, i don’t know why they didn’t put deep fried here. i don’t trust this list ..
I’m British, and I think I speak for all of Britain, what the HELL is number 10, 9, 8, 6, 4, and 2? A cobb salad, sounds to me like a green salad, with sweetcorn. Why would you put cheese on a salad? And corns dogs? Really? Not everything can be improved by deep frying it. Lastly, the Phily Cheesesteak. Cheez Whiz (Is that that spray cheese?) and stringy steak is not awesome. Obesity is NOT awesome.
Wow, this looks like some great food. I remember trying to do a baked alaska once. Wasnt too bad but the centre wasnt hard.
Keep it coming!
CHINESE FOOD WAS NOT MADE HERE
know wonder americans are so fat
Hey “unknown”, don’t people from where you’re from know how to spell?
dumb article, not funny
This is so funny! (Not making fun of Americans as I now live here and eat some of that stuff too, all in good humor). In my native country (guess which one?), we also went too far in “customizing” some foreign food and invented many other ridiculous formulas. Let’s see, there’s the spaghetti with ketchup and red fake hotdogs, corn dogs with waffle coating instead of cornbread (I must admit the waffle version is waaay better), cheese means Velveeta, KFC eaten with steamed rice, and many others.
Shaniqua, you need to take a food history course. Italians do not use MSG in Italy only in the US and that was after the Chinese introduced it. And I have never had bad dreams after eating Italian food. Never heard that before. The only trouble I have with it is the garlic and onion and even that never happened in Italy. Sliced meats and such are expected to have some preservatives but I don’t see MSG on any list of ingredients (where do you buy yours, China?). Typical for your post to deny the facts presented and focus on your own hatred of America instead. American food rocks and screw the haters who think otherwise.
Here is a list of really bizarre food that’s eaten around the world. Now this is what I call awful. That plate of fries is looking better and better all the time.
http://stuffucanuse.com/strange_food.htm
Ok, everyone on here needs to calm down. We don’t eat this stuff all the time. In fact, the only one I eat off this list is the Buffalo wings and Choc. Chip Cookie Dough Ice cream, very rarely. And Emma, if youre gonna start bashing our food, might I add the British eat Marmite, the sludge left over from brewing beer?
The Turducken is essentially a version of The Yorkshire Christmas pie. UK folks have made nested birds for some time. Try again.
Quite a sarcastic article 🙁 . Despite the not-very-healthy aspect of many of these foods, they are all loved, and ingenious creations. This sounds like a hate-list.
Hilarious article!! I enjoyed reading each bit and seeing just how ridiculous Americans are when it comes to food! The “Chinese Food” has to be one of the best – to think we blame someone else for all that fatti-greasiness.
I agree with another poster who said Buffalo wings were originally called chicken wings, but were invented at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY. However, these days, many places do call them buffalo wings and many recipes have surpassed the original.
Now after reading this article, I’m going back to my usual Euro-diet.
God Bless America.
Interesting piece.
There are two things I would like to point out:
1. To all the Americans that keep claiming this is “America-bashing”: Get over yourselves, this is a fun piece that explores dishes that are popular in our nation (or in particular parts of our nation). You are lying if you say you haven’t encountered most of these dishes a few times a year.
2. To all those who say “this is why America is fat”: You realize this is not what a majority of us eat all the time, right? Many of these foods are reserved for special occasions- the s’mores for camping, the turducken for large holiday dinners, the corn dogs for festivals/fairs, etc. I, for the record, erroneously believed that America was the fattest nation, until another commenter pointed out that there are 10 nations fatter than us.
Why do so many people feel so inclined to go to the most extreme ends of the spectrum? Why are there so few people from the US chuckling about this? Why are there so few people from outside of the US taking this list with a grain of salt? ::facepalm::
Loved this article! Great humor, great list, funny commentary, overall extremely fun to read.. thank you
Baked Alaska is not American, it is French.
I too enjoyed this article with a few corrections. Actually egg rolls date back to ancient China, having originated out of South China in early Cantonese cuisine. They also appeared in East Asia long before America existed. And though many historians state that chop suey is an American invention, it actually originated in Guangdong Province in China, called za suey. That said, I still love the fact that fortune cookies are completely American.
correction to my last post, chop suey’s original name is “za sui”
Looks like you’ve missed one of the key ingredients of a Reuben Sandwich — sauerkraut! You can’t have a Reuben without it….
Too bad you wrote this article before the KFC double down.
I love buffalo wings. They are popular even here in the Philippines. Thanx for the post, made me hungry though..
Do a little research the English and French have been stuffing one animal inside another for centuries, so the Turducken is not actual unique to America.
Chinese food is chinese. We do eat chow mein, fried foods, a LOT of fried foods. In fact, Chinese people eat Stewed pork belly that has been stewing in it’s own fat. Have you ever been to a dim sum restaurant? Have you not seen the mounds of fried foods? General Tso’s chicken is a chinese food. American’s have just POPULARIZED certain foods that the chinese don’t because we have better fried foods that you guys just don’t know about yet.
Great and funny article, with one exception. the Turducken.
In France, people were already stuffing birds one into the other and cooking them, long before Columbus was born. An ancient French cook book from more than a century ago, even contains a recipe involving 14(!!) types of birds stuffed one into the other, from a huge turkey to a humming bird…
“Chinese Food”
The familiar American cuisine typically called “Chinese Food” originated in America in the 1800s. Chinese-run restaurants in San Francisco at the time did actually offer authentic Chinese cuisine (primarily to Chinese customers), but Chinese owned restaurants in smaller towns throughout California and the West served whatever their customers requested, from pork chop sandwiches to baked beans. American Chinese cuisine began to emerge when these restaurants began modifying traditional Chinese dishe to suit local, Western palates. Chinese immigrants set up eateries in rail towns all over the West where traditional Chinese food was completely unknown and catered primarily to miners and railroad workers. These restaurants created a new, hybrid American/Chinese cuisine, adapting Southern Chinese dishes like Chop suey, Ginger beef and others.
It’s important to point out that Chinese restaurants (and Chinese laundries) became prevalent at that time because these kinds of businesses provided a viable economic niche for Chinese immigrants who were largely excluded from almost every other kind of job because of racial discrimination and, very often, a lack of language fluency.
“Westernized” versions of original Chinese dishes include Egg foo young, Egg rolls, Fried rice, Ginger beef and Ginger fried beef, Lo mein, Moo shoo pork, Wonton soup and many others.
Try some Native American recipes. You can’t get more American than that.
Most of these foods are special occasion only, though of course every American knows someone who eats this junk on a daily basis. Personally, I’ve only eaten hot dogs at county fairs when I lived in the Midwest, and s’mores once of twice in my life, when my family camped out. I’ve never had baked Alaska, Buffalo wings (though I know they’re very popular) or Turduken (gross!).
When I worked at a deli-style restaurant in Manhattan during college there were people who ordered a Reuben sandwich tree or four times a week, and I remember thinking about how unhealthy it was. That’s another one I haven’t tried, mostly because pastrami smells gross to me.
This was an entertaining piece!
american here, this was epic. no pizza though?
#1 should have been ramen noodles
Still laughing about the chocolate chip ice cream one.
who ever wrote this is a fucking retard. how can CHINESE food be invented by americans…
poop, pizza is from itally you dimwit!!!
I don’t know much about Food… but a retard would know Fortune Cookies are from Fucking China you down syndrome fuck nut!
Very funny, it was a humourous article, I thoroughly enjoyed it
Wow, there are truly some stupid people posting about this article! THIS IS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY!!!! And it is, if you aren’t an anal, self absorbed fool! Just laugh and enjoy the humor folks!
I’m American, the ones I’ve heard of
1. Corn Dog
2. Philly Cheese Steak
3. Chinese Food
4. Smores
5. Reuben Sandwich
6. Buffalo Wings
7. Cookie Dough Ice Cream
The ones I’ve eaten.
1. Corn Dog – plenty of times
2. Cheese Steak – plenty of times
3. Buffalo WIngs – plenty of times
4. Smores – A few times
5. Cookie Dough Ice cream – a few times.
The ones i’ve never even heard of.
1. Baked Alaska
2. Turducken
3. Cobb Salad
So I haven’t heard of 3, I haven’t eaten 5. Which is half your list, and this list is as American as it gets? That’s strange considering I consider myself very American in that I don’t really care how unhealthy something is, if it taste good I’ll eat it.
Oops I forgot Chinese Food, I guess that only makes 4 I haven’t eaten.
General Tso’s Chicken in Chinese is called ??? (zuo zong ji). Named after a Qing Dynasty general from Hunan Province, it is a very common and popular dish.
Nobody eats Chicken Fingers in China.
Absolutely LOVED this piece!! I laughed so hard I cried. You have Americans taste and habits pegged. We ARE a funny culture, with an extremely vivid imagination, enormous curiosity, and strongly competitive. If what we create doesn’t appeal to most, your absolutely right,
as with the Chinese food….You didnt get it from us!
wow!wow! awesome photo collection of corn dog.i like it.
I was trying to find a website that had food the us invented and this one was the only one I could find. However it is dripping with sarcasm so I cannot trust it. Way to lose out on making an actually useful article. And instead making one that rips on the food culture of a very young country made of immigrants.
Also although we may have invented fatty food, (speaking for myself and people I know) we eat food invented by other countries all the time. Two things I have ever had and have only had them once or twice. All the good food has been invented many years ago and since we are such a globalized world we eat food of other cultures
i am not really sure that “chinese food” you refered is an american one lol.
i am an asian and i do know chinese people and their culture.
well i kinda agree with half of “fake-chinese-which-actually-american” food because none of those chinese would’ve eat that crap. But for sure, the cook tehniques both real-chinese and fake-Chinese used is the same.
No, they’re not using little amount of salt.
Yes. they eat lot’s of meat.
Yes. Half of food of Chinese Restaurants in America are crap.
the reason why most americans dont find this amusing is because most of what the article says is very inaccurate. buffalo wings are not fried. theyre baked. turducken wasnt made in america. nobody eats baked alaskas unless its at a drunk highschool party, and im pretty sure almost nobody knows what a cobb salad. this is just made up crap.
…first of all this article is way out of fucking whack (excuse my language) but seriously I have been to America pleanty of times(I lived their for 13 years) (Canada for 24 years) and “Chinese food” how do you not understand the word “Chinese” and s’mores how the hell is this American and only for “special ocassions” they are s’mores how hard is it to make anny other time of the year for gods sake Canadians do that dayly while them fat Americans are dreaming up something else to deep dry or add more salt or butter too and a reunion sandwich it’s a fucking sandwit h with fucking onions and meat(a whole bunc of fatty American “meat” the point is it ha all beenqround for a lot longer than any of the dumb fucks think it was 99% of that is never even started.in americabut at least say Canada has actually made food from real stuff not the leftovers from a rotting cow we use fresh cheese and real home made gravy from Frey roast from the ovenother time of the year for gods sake Canadians do that dayly while them fat Americans are dreaming up something else to deep dry or add more salt or butter too and a loaded sandwich it’s a fucking sandwitch with fucking onions and meat(a whole bunc of fatty American “meat” the point is it all been around for a lot longer than any of the dumb fucks think it was 99% of that is never even started.in americabut at least say Canada has actually made food from real stuff not the leftovers from a rotting cow we use fresh cheese and real home made gravy from Fresh roast from the oven they at least do it healthy and I’m honestly a very embarrassed to be a legal American
Loved this article! Came across it when looking for an all American snack for United Nations Day at school. We live in China and I love your comments about American “Chinese Food” buffets. So true!! Can’t get any of that stuff here..though I prefer it over the authentic “Chinese food” 🙂
I love how almost none of the americans that comment here are all angry and complaining about something. I’m from australia and i thought this was a pretty funny way to show some crazy american foods and i think all of you should just learn to take a joke about yourselves. I’ll show you a bit. G’day all you americans here in australia we eat both our national emblems, eat some shrimp fried on the barbie and if our mates are around we drink 5 times the amount we eat in beer. So have a beaut day take and just sit back and enjoy this for what its worth.
someone commented baked alaska is french it s actually american dating back to new york in about 1876, it wasn’t till a chinese delegation went to paris that it was made there for the first time, and the became sybolic to be served in chinese restaurants in honor of their ancestors………… i’m australian and even i know this
HotDog isn’t German it’s Danish.
When I think American food, I think of the twinky. We don’t have them in Australia, but I did try one once, quite an experience, what about koolaid
Last time I checked a Reuben was corned beef brisket, thinly sliced NOT Pastrami.
And you forgot the ever so important sauerkraut.
One that you missed off is stuffed crust pizza
Real pizza in Italy is very thin, the abominations from Dominoes with bacon and cheese in the crust and piles of cheese and meat on top is very American
I’ve heard of these ones, Smores, Buffalo wings, Corn Dog, Philly Cheese Steak but have never heard of Cobb salad, Turducken and Baked Alaskan
OMG I Thought That Chinese Food Came From China…. Guess I Was Wrong There….
I live in China… they use more oil in Chinese food than American Chinese food… just saying. Most of the food is soaked in oil. And there is tons of MSG, in like everything. They call it “gourmet powder.” Not that the food doesn’t often taste better in China, but it’s definitely not necessarily healthier, not to mention you can’t really trust it in most places.
Necessarily the Reuben Sandwich is a mix of international ingredients just look at all the stuff used to make it. Saurkraut – German, Corned Beef – Irish, Swiss cheese – Swiss. So it is not American if different cultures made it. Something that truly is “American” is something made by Native American Indians, they were here way before us. So Corn on the Cob is probably American.
Sorry, but you’ve got it all wrong as to why Philly Cheesesteaks taste awful outside of Philly. It’s not the meat or the cheese – it’s the bread. The bread is EXTREMELY soft and maintains its properties only because it is made with water from the (disgusting) Schuylkill River (pronounced “school-kil”).
I found my beagle, Colonel Mustard, when he was living as a stray on the mean streets of Philadelphia, hiding from the dog catcher behind the dumpster of a cheesesteak place. He will LITERALLY eat an entire 10″ Philly Cheesesteak in two bites and ten seconds flat. But when we moved to North Carolina, I bought him a non-Philly Cheesesteak for his birthday from a place recommended to me down here. He would not touch it. I feel the same way.
Fortune Cookies are invented by Chinese Americans in California.
And when the writer says “Chinese food” is invented in the US, he meant that the dishes you find in Chinese restaurants in America, and not literally the Chinese food eaten outside the US.
I’d know, as a Chinese American who have vacationed in various Asian cities populated by Han Chinese over the years in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan.
Baked Alaska or omelette norvègienne! It’s 100% french…
Egg rolls originated from China.
Wtf is “turducken”? I’m american and I’ve never heard of that crap. Looks like something that’d be served at the heart attack cafe.
The author of this piece is obviously uneducated in the way of food, and is just a consumer. Firstly, wings are cooked at 350 degrees by frying, a style of cooking that was not invented by Americans. Its pretty obvious to the consumer that they came off of a bird, unless you’re eating at a shitty restaurant, which you clearly are. The real crime here is in how the chickens were raised, not in how they were prepared. If Americans don’t get a HUGE piece of GMO’d chicken, they’re upset about it. Secondly, turducken is a very old dish originally used to serve Roman soldiers. Its not American whatsoever, it was used as a meal in harsh times to feed lots of people, by using one manner of cookery. Get your facts straight. Thirdly, ‘Chinese food’ may have been re-invented here, but that country is responsible for almost all endangered species on the list due to stupid theories of ‘classical medicine’, which have been proven to not work. It proves that the Chinese don’t do things correctly, as does the poor quality of EVERYTHING they make. Unfortunately, due to the shortsightedness of a retarded president (Clinton), now the Chinese will overrun us in the third World War. If you’d ever traveled to third world countries, you would be proud to be an American when you got home, for the little freedoms that we have, rather than trying to slander this country by finding little quirks to knock.
Oh..and to CANADIAN… you’re an idiot. People only eat s’mores here generally while camping. Hence ‘special occasions’. If you Canadians are truly eating them every day as you clearly state, then maybe mountees are the fat ones. You’re stuck with the French idea that the French are superior in EVERY way… which is funny, because again, when traveling, everyone hates the French.
Chow mein is also Chinese in origin – ??. It just means ‘fried noodles’. Not American, at all.
Chinese food that is egg rolls, chow mein and such are actually chinese food. The chinese DO eat fried foods, lots of it. They just dont consume it in large quantities like Americans do. Fake Chinese food is fortune cookies, crab ragoons and cashew chicken. Cashew chicken was invented by a Chinese man(Leong) in Springfield Missouri, (where I’m from) he was a wonderful man, his children still run a restaurant in Springfield, still serving his wonderful creation. I love it when I go to a chinese restaurant with my chinese friends that are actually from China. We spend most of the time talking about the food thats real chinese food and the ones Americans made. 🙂
Turducken seems to enjoy its popularity to John Madden. Are there any other individuals around who are so closely identified to a dish or food?
I love how someone in the comments section wants to claim that Turducken is Roman. Unless I’m mistaken, the Europeans never encountered Turkeys until after their colonisation of the Americas
This whole shitty article reeks of ignorant snobbishness.
i don’t like the food they eat in America or usa which is the same thing