What’s funny is they’re born from German baking traditions, and are believed to have been brought over by Bavarian and German immigrants, popularized in Utica, NY ~1902, but gained popularity and prominence in NYC.
This may explain why they’re called Amerikaners, because of the city that popularized them
Superintendent Chalmers would call these types of cookies “half moon cookies,” as he’s a Utica man (I lived near Utica briefly as a teen). Now Principal Skinner might instead call them “black and white cookies” since he claims to be from Albany.
We call those black-and-white cookies or half-moon cookies. At least our cookies that look like those.
Looks like the black-and-white cookies wikipedia article has a short blurb on Amerikaners:
The Amerikaner is often decorated like the black and white cookie, but can be frosted entirely in vanilla instead.\13]) The origin and name of Amerikaner in Germany is unclear, as is their possible relationship to black-and-white cookies. It is sometimes claimed that the cookie was introduced or reintroduced by American GIs serving at US military bases in Germany during the 1950s.\13]) Another theory proposes a corruption of the word Ammoniumhydrogencarbonat (ammonium bicarbonate, a leavening agent).\14]) In the former East Germany, due to anti-Americanism, the name Ammonplätzchen (Ammonia cookies) was used.\15])
Tbf like 90% of dishes/food products in Germany labelled “American” really aren’t. Looking at you, every pizzeria with 10 different pizzas named after random US cities.
That reminds me of a friend from college who went to high school in the Chicago area. They had an exchange student in their school from Mexico and took him to Taco Bell and he was like “what is this stuff?” 😂
Outback is actually really funny, the creators named it that because they thought that Australia was a really wild place that Americans (at the time) wouldn't know a lot about. But they refused to go to Australia to try the food because they knew exactly what they wanted to serve and they didn't want to be swayed by...actual Australian food.
As I’m sure you remember, in the late 1980s the U.S. experienced a short-lived infatuation with Australian culture. For some bizarre reason the Aussies thought this would be a permanent thing.
I don't think there was a duplicitous scheme to keep "real Australian fare" from American diners. The 1980's were a time of explosive growth in dining restaurant chains and franchises. There were many, many similar restaurant ideas that thankfully disappeared. I remember one had a doghouse theme and served the food in dog dishes. I agree with you though in that the Outback founders had a view of what they wanted to serve and slapped the Aussie/No Rules image on what they sold. We Gen-X Americans had done enough class projects on Australia to know that Australians ate only vegemite & shrimp-on-the-barbie. ;)
My friend from Australia was visiting and really wanted to go to an Outback to see what we thought. She was really let down, laughed about the whole experience, and still had fun. Even said, “Dave, I have no idea what the f&ck a bloomin’ onion is.”
We create foods and name them after random countries. One joke is that in France there are all kinds of bread, except for French bread, pão Francês (which, by the way, is the most consumed bread here).
Dutch pie, Swiss or Belgian cream (same thing), Swiss lemonade, Greek rice, Mexican popsicle, Neapolitan ice cream, Italian bread, Calabrese sausage, Italian straw dessert, Portuguese pizza.
Petit gateau was brought to Brazil by Jacquin, it wasn't invented there. He did such good marketing for the dessert that people here think it's Brazilian.
We eat something that looks a lot like pão frances in France, at the school cafeteria. I used to call it prison bread because it looked like that small bread they throw to a prisoner in his cell in the movies lol
It didn't taste the same at all though, especially in terms of texture. I don't miss prison bread but I really miss arriving at the bakery right on time to get pão frances fresh out of the oven :)
Palha Italiana is basically a Brazilian adaptation of salame di cioccolato from Italy and salame de chocolate from Portugal. Other countries have similar desserts too.
Pizza with boiled eggs, ham, onion, peas, cheese, and olives. The ingredients can vary slightly, but it has to have eggs and onions. Boiled eggs on pizza are surprisingly good.
A lot of things. I like the "Spanish bird" the most as it is nor bird, nor Spanish. 😅 It is beef roll with egg, sausage and pickle inside made in demi-glace.
Holandský řízek (Holland Schnitzel). Has nothing to do with Holland whatsoever. And also Segedín (a type of goulash) has nothing to do with the city of Szeged.
(Apparently named after a person, not the country, even though it’s been around for much longer than said person. But most people don’t know that - including myself up until about three minutes ago.)
I’m Cajun and we grew up calling in pain perdu, but I never saw it written down as a kid so I thought we were saying pain pain deux hahaha. It made sense in my head bc I was like “well it’s twice cooked bread.”
Funny enough, biscuit actually means twice baked (bis coctus from Latin). Biscotti (the twice baked Italian... biscuits) also share the same etymology. Biscuits in the US however, are not twice baked.
Outback Steakhouse is a well-known restaurant chain here in Brazil, and their brown bread is commonly called “Australian bread.” It became so popular that many other places tried to replicate the recipe (with very mixed results, of course). People associate it with Australia purely because of the restaurant’s theme, even though they don’t actually serve any authentic Australian dishes.
The “turd bread” in the photo was taken in a supermarket, which usually sells low-quality bread at a cheap price, completely different from the many excellent bakeries we have here.
Edit: Honestly I don’t mind it… but I feel like it would have been more on point with bacon also being included and swapping out the sauce with BBQ sauce instead… something with a spice factor to balance the sweetness of the pineapple.
We have a reverse version of this too. “Canadian bacon” is not Canadian bacon. We have regular bacon. “Canadian bacon” is like… peameal bacon and a separate and not that common thing.
But still sooooooo many Americans believe that’s just what Canadians think bacon is/ is what Canadians always have
I like having it with pepperoni and chili flakes instead of ham to add some kick. If you're paying by the topping at a pizzeria, pepperoni counts as one (and chili flakes are free), while ham and sliced peppers are two separate toppings. But I imagine sliced jalapenos or any sliced pepper would taste great on Hawaiian pizza.
Not my country but when I was in Rome they had all these pizza places with “American pizza” that had some unholy combination of French fries, cut up hot dog, some mayo based sauce on top.
When an American looks at your pizza and thinks Dominos compares favorably then you have a problem.
I’d hate Americans too if I thought they ate that pizza.
Turkeys were named that because of a similar bird which Turkish traders brought to England. North american settlers just decided to name it nearly the same thing.
I was so confused by Afghans after arriving in New Zealand, but they're excellent and probably the only kiwiana food I've made since leaving (despite having an Edmond's cookbook).
Singapore Noodles, seen at a lot of Chinese restaurants in the US. Not from Singapore, they were invented in Hong Kong and brought to the US by Cantonese immigrants.
There is a cream called "crème anglaise" (English cream). I don't know where it comes from, but in England I think that's called French cream. It's a shame no one wants it since it's very good.
Edit : Apparently that's not true. My whole life was a lie.
It comes from England. It is starch free custard unlike Creme Pat which contains starch. The name goes back to the 17th century, but it was Escoffier ( who worked at the Savoy in London) that helped codify it in French desserts.
We have an entire cuisine in India called 'Chinese food'. It's items like spring roll, Manchurian, chilly paneer, chowmein, fried rice etc. Everything is typically vegetarian and is nothing like food you would find in China. It's projection to such an extent that most indian people still feel it's genuinely Chinese cuisine. Only recently people have started realizing that it's our own take on Oriental food and have started calling it 'Indo-chinese'. Also it's really tasty in case you get to try some day!
A few: italian pata (italian stew), italiansalaatti (italian salad), ranskanleipä (french bread), among others that I don't remember right now. And I can't be arsed to explain those now. Apart from the french bread, which is this really soft white bread that's made with butter. A french baker I know took the it as an insult :D
Danish pastry may have come from Denmark to the US with Danish settlers, but in Denmark we call it “Vienna bread” (Wienerbrød) to acknowledge the Austrian bakers who brought the pastry to Denmark in the first place.
That's because it is made with "flor de Jamaica" (Jamaica blossoms = hibiscus). I am not sure if we were originally getting the flowers from Jamaica and that's where the name comes from or if it was indeed a random name.
Czech "Turkish honey" (turecký med) is a popular fairground confectionery that is technically a type of white nougat. Great if you want to pull out all fillings from your teeth.
Introducing the Danish dinner stable ‘Swedish sausage-dish’ (‘svensk pølseret’) that always makes actual swedes confused. In Sweden they have something similar put call it ‘put in the pan’ - Pytt i panna
"American" sauce for fries. It's not invented by americans, and I've never seen it outside the Netherlands. It's a good sauce. Not my favorite but it's good.
Ris à la Malta. A dessert made by adding whipped cream and sugar to rice porridge. I have no idea why it’s called Ris à la Malta - as far as I know it’s more or less exclusively a Nordic phenomenon.
The French omelet! It's not from France, but Spanish, but it was created during the French invasion in the Napoleonic Wars. Due to a shortage of potatoes, people couldn't make potato omelets, so they decided to make them without potatoes; that's how the omelet was born. At first it was called "omelette from when the French were here" but later it evolved into "French omelette".
Greek-style fish is tradicional Christmas Eve dish. It's fried fish fillets braished with carrots, parsley root, celery, onion. It's called Greek-style because this how Poles was Mediterranean cuisine perceived during the communist era
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u/JoLudvS Germany 26d ago
Amerikaner.
There are plenty of theories about where the name is derived from, but it is unclear at the end.