Skip to main content

American Style Hot Dogs and Other Examples of Possibly Misrepresented Foods and Customs

I have a question for all of you Americans: have you ever seen hot dogs packaged like this?

Disclaimer: this photo was actually taken in England on a different trip but we did see and photograph several examples of this exact product on this trip. I was just too lazy to go and find our more recent photos.

No! Our hotdogs come in non-recyclable plastic shrinkrap, duh! And despite our reputation of boiling hot dogs (as confessed to us by a very nice Danish hot dog vendor), I suspect most of the hot dogs consumed by Americans are cooked for 45 seconds in the microwave. We are not patient people.

This grievous representation of American hot dogs got me thinking about what kinds of things/food that we attribute to other cultures and how many of those are probably wrong or at least misguided and warped.

Here is my list. Feel free to add to it and to point out which items fall in the above mentioned wrong/misguided/warped category.

FRANCE
French onion soup (this one is actually served quite regularly in France and is, appropriately, called just onion soup there)
French fries (I don't think Freedom fries ever really caught on...)
French kissing
French toast
French bread
French dressing (what exactly about that unnaturally orangish colored dressing is French?)

HOLLAND
Double Dutch
Dutch oven
Going dutch
Hollandaise sauce (adding "-aise" appears to be a common theme around the world as we saw restaurants advertising Japonaise and Thailandaise foods)

BELGIUM
Belgian waffles
Brussel sprouts

SPAIN
Spanish rice

MEXICO
Mexican rice

ITALY
Italian dressing
Notably missing is Italian rice. Risotto sounds so much more sophisticated.

SWITZERLAND
Swiss cheese
Swiss cake rolls

SWEDEN
Swedish meatballs

DENMARK
Danish (pastry)

GREECE
Greek salad

ENGLAND
English muffin

GERMANY
Hamburger
Frankfurter

Comments

  1. Belgium beer and chocolate are the best in the world. Second to none.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I forgot about Belgian chocolate! Good catch. And I totally agree with you re: Belgian beer - yummmmmm!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beauty Anxiety

I am spending quite a bit of time thinking and planning what I am going to put in my travel backpack. There isn't going to be a lot of room so I am taking a tip from Ottsworld and planning to leave my vanity behind . I have to admit, the idea of leaving my makeup behind makes me uncomfortable. Not because I want to wear makeup everyday but because it's a security blanket. It provides the ability to fit in if I need to and to escape the feeling that I am not participating in the unwritten rules of being a woman. Don't believe me that there is a beauty standard in this country? Check this out: Video link here . More information about Girl Culture by Lauren Greenfield here . Please note that parts of this site are NSFW. But on the flip side, I'll be saving money. I found an article in Newsweek that estimated the lifetime cost of "cosmetic maintenance" . Even if I normally spend a half to a third of this amount, that's still quite a bit quite a bit of money.

Chickens Are Scarier Than Crows, Didn't You Know?

The garden is in!  If our Scarechicken does its job, we will soon have a nice crop of heirloom tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, green beans, basil, parsley and thyme! Huge thanks to my parents for their help getting the area ready. It was a jungle!

Why Are We Here?

There are three ways to answer this question: Why are we here? (What are you two up to?) For the past few years we have been watching our budget closely, paying off our debt, and saving as much as we can. This has given us the freedom to pursue a dream. What dream, you ask? A random one! While we do not have a definite goal or specific plan, we have developed some guiding principles: Let life rule instead of work. Explore the country and the world. Trade "stuff" for genuine experiences. Create rather than consume. Develop a spirit of volunteerism. Take odd jobs in unfamiliar disciplines to see if there is something we love, but don't yet know we love. Live in the moment. Work for ourselves as much as possible. Dance outside our comfort zones in order to grow. Find a way to stretch the money we have saved for as long as possible. Identify properties of cities that we like should we choose to "settle down" again. ("You kids back there bet...