Today is grocery day. While trying to make out a grocery list and decide on what to cook next week, my daughter and I got into a discussion. It started with her asking me if I realized that everything thing on my list for meals next week was foreign food. I didn’t realize it!
But looked and saw she was right… let’s see… Spaghetti, Polish Sausage and Saurkraut, Swedish Meatballs… wait here’s one! No wait Pizza’s italian, lol. Meatloaf? Nope, I checked, it’s been around forever in various countries with just slightly varying ingredients…. Hamburgers! Ok, Mongolian and Turkic tribes are the ones who started shredding low-quality beef to make it more digestible, and Germans are the ones who started using ground beef to make a cheap “steak”, but Americans were the first to put it between two pieces of bread, although four states claim to have started it. So I guess the hamburger as we know it is of American origin. But I can’t for the life of me think of any other foods that originated right here in America, by Americans. I did find something interesting while researching though… Spaghetti actually started in China, not Italy. Just leave out the red sauce and add differen’t things. If anyone can tell me of some actual AMERICAN dishes, please do so. I’d be pleased to know of at least 5. Oh by the way, I’m not including AMERICAN-INDIAN food, HA!



I’ve thought about that before, that we have no truly “American” food. Since we are a nation of immigrants, all the food was imported with us.
Chocolate chip cookies, maybe? I think they were invented here.
Andrea, you are correct! I looked it up and found this from an article online:
“Legend tells us that Ruth Wakefield invented chocolate chip cookies by mistake. There are several versions of the story, but the one that is the most popular says that Ruth Wakefield was baking butter cookies at her Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.
She realized that she was out of baker’s chocolate so she cut into small pieces of a bar of semi-sweet chocolate that she had gotten from Andrew Nestle. She expected the chocolate to melt throughout the cookie. Instead, the chocolate stayed in its shape.
Ruth died in 1977.
nice little bit of trivia there
Just want to add NEVER use generic chocolate chips when you make these cookies! LMAO You MUST use Nestle’s Toll House brand- to use others is sacrilege…
If I recall, the Toll House brand came from the original inventor too (she worked in a toll house? Maybe?). Apparently Nestle bought her out!
what about american cheese?
Well Fox, ya got me there! I guess American Cheese would have to be American! I should have been more specific though, I was thinking more along the lines of dishes, like Fried Rice, Spaghetti, etc.
I hate to burst your bubble, but the Romans invented the hamburger. The romans in the large cities, used to live in large tenement blocks (4 or 5 stories tall, the first “skyscrapers”). One thing each crowded apartment did not have were kitchens, which were generally located on the bottom floor. People all congregated there to eat, and in the large malls (yes, they invented malls too). Since time was precious they had a lot of “fast” food, slapped together in a hurry. Hence the hamburger, two pieces of bread with a quick fried piece of meat in between.
My bubble isn’t burst, lol. I was just going by what I read online. I have to ask though, was the meat between the bread ground or shredded beef or a whole piece of meat of any kind or what?
Pizza is a american food, invented in new haven ct. tomatoes is an american food, they were brought to other places, like italy.Lots of ppl think itatilian when you see anything with tomatoe sauce,but nope italtians use lots of cheese.
Actually, the early Greeks were making pizza (tomato-less) long before even Italy started making them (also tomato-less) in the 19th century. So although the first pizzas didn’t have any red sauce, they weren’t started in America.
Maybe we did not invent pizza, but we have perfected it
Anyone I’ve ever heard who’s been to Italy says the pizza there is really nothing special.
Barbecue - 1800’s - by Cowboys! - Western Cattle Drive
Potato Chips - 1853 - by American George Crum - New York
By the way, the first known pizza shop was in Naples (Italy, not Florida) in 1830.
The Greeks ate a different form of pizza which is called Foccacia or something like that
I agree with Andrea, lol
OH Andrea, meant to tell you, if you see any posts on your blog by “Melody” that’s me.
The Hamdog is an American food invention. We are the only ones that are sick enough to come up with this: “”The Hamdog.”
The dish, a specialty of Mulligan’s, a suburban bar, is a hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that’s deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions and served on a hoagie bun. Oh yeah, it’s also topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries.”
The whole story: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20050213/D887OPR80.html
OMG That hamdog sounds like a recipe for a heart attack!
Oh good lord Jimmy! LOL I’ve never heard of it. Mulligan’s eh? That wouldn’t be an Irish pub now would it? Either way, ACHHHH I couldn’t stomach that. But thanks for the info, interesting!
And knowing the Irish, has to go down with several pints …
I think it would have to anyway to get that nasty taste out of your mouth, lol
Yes, BUT, to answer the original question, only an American could have come up with something so grotesque and ridiculous.
Ok so that’s 4 by my count.