DailyDirt: That's A Spicy Meatball, But It's Not Italian...?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It can be difficult to nail down the definition of American food since immigrants from all over the world have settled in the US and created a distinctly different varieties of their traditional cuisines. If you didn't realize it, fortune cookies are not a Chinese dessert (Chinese-American, yes). So what other foods aren't as authentic as you might think? Here are just a couple other examples.

• Spaghetti and meatballs sounds like a classic Italian dish for dinner, but it's actually not a common meal for people in Italy. Meatballs in Italy are generally smaller than their American counterparts and served separately from pasta. [url]
• The names of pasta varieties can be confusing because there are so many kinds and they look vaguely similar to the casual observer. Thankfully, there's an infographic to help you figure out the difference between rotini and marziani. [url]
• Italian restaurants in the US have created several dishes that are definitely not from Italy. One example is Lobster Fra Diavolo. Lobsters are not common in Italy, first of all. However, there could have been a similar dish with a different kind of crustacean. Maybe. [url]

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Filed Under: cuisine, entree, food, infographic, italian, lobster, meatball, pasta, spaghetti