When my family travels, one of our favorite activities is a food tour – a guided experience where we taste a variety of local foods and drinks. From enjoying a rich tagine stew on the streets of Marrakesh to a flavorful po’boy sandwich in the middle of New Orleans, these tours are not only delicious but also enlightening. I believe that one of the best ways to understand a culture is by experiencing its cuisine, and food tours are an excellent way to achieve this understanding.
The more I taste, the more I’m reminded of the endless depth of food and the identity it highlights. Every dish tells a story of who made it, who adapted it, and what they wanted you to remember.
The United States is infamous for its melting pot of cultures and backgrounds. When visiting any major American city, it’s easy to find foreign restaurants from anywhere. From Italian cuisine to restaurants from the Republic of Georgia, I always look forward to trying new food.
What’s strange to me, however, is the fact that not all of these “foreign” dishes are really foreign; rather, they’re American dishes modelled to seem exotic and foreign, yet perfectly fabricated to appeal to American palettes.
American food isn’t stolen, it’s remade. Behind every “foreign” food that was born in the US lies a story about invention, identity, assimilation, and misinterpretation.
Once I realized that, I began to dig deeper, researching to curate a list of five “foreign” foods that actually originated in America:
In my mind, pepperoni pizza fits in the category of classic Italian food, so it was to my astonishment when I discovered that it was actually invented in the US. During the early 1900s, in cities such as New York City, Italian-American immigrants blended traditional Italian sausage-making traditions with local ingredients like paprika or chilli spices.
In 1919, pepperoni began to appear in Italian delis and pizzerias across NYC. In the 1950s, after gas pizza ovens were commercialized, pizza and pepperoni both grew in popularity – and soon, they were frequently paired together.
Today, pepperoni is an obvious pizza topping. It’s the perfect example of how cultural blending can create something neither from one country nor from another. It shows how Italian immigrants fused heritage with opportunity… and I’m so glad they did!
“French Dip” is certainly a misnomer – instead of originating in a classic French kitchen, these sandwiches were created in 1900s Los Angeles, California. Their exact origins are debated between two LA restaurants, Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet and Philippe The Original.
These restaurants trace the unique French Dip idea to a stale piece of bread that required gravy to soften it.
Philippe from Philippe The Original argues that his restaurant was nicknamed “Frenchy’s” by regulars, hence the French name. Interestingly, Cole from Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet claims that the sandwich’s French name relates to its French roll bread.
It is unclear exactly where the French dip sandwich originated, but one thing is certain: it’s not French. It’s American. It’s a delicious, unique sandwich – but it’s completely American. Who would’ve thought?
The French Dip’s confusing identity captures that even when branding fades, storytelling sells — and that’s what makes up American cuisine.
When dining at virtually any casual Asian restaurant in the US, crab rangoons are a staple. These fried wontons filled with a creamy blend of cream cheese and imitation crab may remind people of Asian cuisine, yet their true origins might disappoint you. You guessed it: crab rangoons were first established in the US.
In the 1950s, Polynesian cuisine and culture swept across America, growing in fame, appreciation, and mainstream appeal. Trader Vic’s, a trendy restaurant that further popularized the tiki aesthetic, worked off the increased Polynesian popularity and officially introduced the first crab rangoon.
With the goal of blending American innovation with Asian flavors, the crab rangoon has since become a crowd-pleaser that never fails to impress.
What’s fascinating is that cream cheese – one of the most memorable ingredients in a crab rangoon – cannot be found in any traditional Asian dishes. As a strictly American ingredient, it reveals the crab rangoon’s true identity as an American invention rather than an authentic Asian dish.
The crab rangoon is a reflection of America’s obsession with the “exotic.” It shows how the country borrowed flavors from other cultures through a lens of American curiosity and indulgence.
I find this story entertaining: In 1922, while working in a restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, Monica Flin accidentally dropped a burrito into a vat of hot oil. While trying to avoid saying a Spanish curse word, “chingada,” she blurted out “chimichanga,” a nonsense word – unknowingly naming a well-loved Mexican-American treat. After tasting her fried burrito mistake, Flin was struck by its delicious flavor and crispy texture.
Since then, the chimichanga has spread across America. I myself would’ve never guessed that they aren’t actually authentic, but that doesn’t make them any less finger-licking.
The chimichanga’s accidental creation mirrors the American cuisine trend of improvisation, adaptation, and storytelling.
Nothing smells more delicious than garlic bread in the oven. Often paired with an inviting bowl of spaghetti, garlic bread is generally associated with Italian food. Surprisingly, it actually originated in America, when Italian immigrants re-created familiar flavors using the ingredients they could find here – swapping olive oil for butter and turning a simple snack into a national favorite.
Historians presume that Garlic bread is modelled after traditional Venetian bruschetta, made from toasted bread rubbed with garlic. After arriving in the US, Italian immigrants substituted certain ingredients with more accessible ones. Butter was far more attainable than olive oil, and French baguettes were easier to obtain than Italian bread. Thus, garlic bread – both my favorite taste and my favorite smell – was formed!
Delicious, yes, but more importantly, garlic bread is a reminder of how immigrant communities preserved comfort through creativity, making the most of what they had.
Final Thoughts
People so often ask, “What is American food?” The truth is, there’s no single answer.
American food is built from adaptation and reconstruction. American food isn’t a specific flavor or style; it’s a story. A story of immigrants persevering in their traditions to build something new. Of a country built on reinvention, one dish at a time!
