History GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff / Food

* Ichiran is a ramen chain restaurant originated in Kyushu which specializes in tonkotsu ramen. It is known for being designed for introverts by having individually divided seats. They have branches across Japan and a few overseas and it also sells instant ramen kits. The business seem attract a lot of international tourists in major cities leading to long lines because of the hype on social media and being foreign-friendly by providing multilingual signage, thus reducing the language barrier.

** Several regions in the U.S. are noted for their Mexican food scenes. Most of these are extremely unsurprising, since they are regions that used to be ''part'' of Mexico and are still near the border--Oh, Texas and Southern California have great Mexican food? Tell us, is the sky still blue at noon on a clear summer's day?[[note]]In all seriousness, ''do'' try to have Mexican food if you are ever in Texas, Southern California, Arizona, or New Mexico, and to a lesser extent Colorado and even Nevada and Utah. It really is quite excellent.[[/note]] The really interesting "good place for Mexican food" in the U.S. is actually Chicago, which one doesn't normally associate with Mexican anything, being 1,200 miles from the border and, well, Chicago--it's Midwestern and cold. But the Mexican community in Chicago is ''massive'' through decades of immigration,[[note]]A little over 20% of Chicagoans claim Mexican ancestry.[[/note]] to the point where the city stands still on Mexican Independence Day every September. (The only other ethnic group that stops the Windy City like this is the Irish, who shut the city down for St. Patrick's Day.)[[note]]The Poles ''probably'' could do the same but for whatever reason never have. There's probably a Polack joke in there somewhere, but we won't go looking for it.[[/note]] There is thus a large population both of cooks who know what they're doing and customers who demand high-quality and authentic Mexican cooking, making Chicago a destination for aficionados of Mexican cookery. An important caveat: Because Chicago's Mexican restaurant scene caters heavily to the largely working-class Mexican community of the city, the cuisine in question runs towards street food and simple, hearty working-people fare--stuff like elote,[[note]]Corn on the cob in the Mexican style, coated in lime-flavored mayonnaise and chili powder[[/note]] tortas de milanesa de pollo,[[note]]Chicken cutlet sandwiches with all the Mexican fixin's[[/note]] menudo,[[note]]Tripe soup/stew[[/note]] and tacos de lengua[[note]]Tacos filled with slow-cooked beef tongue and (different) Mexican fixin's[[/note]] rather than the more elaborate, arty dishes you might find in, say, L.A. (or for that matter in Mexico City).

* In general, this is true of any American restaurant chain with limited regional distribution. Many people will go out of their way to pursue a location of a "cult" chain while passing up its more mainstream competitors, even to the point of making a whole road trip out of it, though some people [[HypeBacklash are inevitably disappointed when finally sampling a restaurant they've heard is so good]]. Examples include:

* In general, this is true of any American restaurant chain with limited regional distribution. Many people will go out of their way to pursue a location of a "cult" chain while passing up its more mainstream competitors, even to the point of making a whole road trip out of it. Examples include:

* The whole concept of a doughnut shop is popular in the New England region of the US. Doughnut shops are everywhere and the region is considered to be Dunkin' Donuts' home territory for good reasons; they were founded in Massachusetts and have locations almost everywhere in the New England region. This is likely helped by plenty of regions having some form of a fried dough snack already, from the New Orleans ''beignet'', to the Native American frybread, to the Itailian ''zeppole '', to the Chinese ''youtiao''. The doughnut itself is thought to have originated in the Netherlands and evolved into its modern form in New York City when it was a Dutch colony.

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* Sushi seems to be specially prone to this. Mexicans love it, for instance, and it's seen as a elegant-ish food there. The fun part comes when the new culture localizes the food. Guacamole California rolls and chipotle dressing for your onigiri hmm-hmmm.

* Pasta, while originally Italian, is popular everywhere in the world, but especially in the U.S., primarily in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, where a large amount of Italian immigrants flocked there and made it one of the nation's most popular dishes. In the U.S., spaghetti is typically served with meat sauce or meatballs, something that is rarely done in Italy. Italian and American pasta recipes have diverged so much that Italians consider American pasta to be ForeignQueasine, often [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHJhB4pmPCg&vl=en finding it inedible]]. (That said, "Italians find diasporan/foreign versions of Italian dishes inedible" is a meme/phenomenon on the Internet[[note]]There's even a Website/{{Twitter}} account dedicated to [[https://twitter.com/ItalianComments Italians Mad at Food]][[/note]]to the point where one wonders if the Italians are serious or just exaggerating for effect.)

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_pie Moon Pies]], snacks consisting of marshmallow cream sandwiched between two cookies (traditionally Graham crackers) and covered in chocolate, are originally from the American South (Chattanooga, Tennessee, to be exact). In TheSeventies, an R&D man from a South Korean confectionery company visiting UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} on business became fascinated with the Moon Pies at the hotel[[note]]Moon Pies being popular across the South generally, and in Atlanta particularly--their home of Chattanooga being only about 100 miles away, which is nothing in the U.S.[[/note]] and brought the idea back to Korea, where the company soon came out with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choco_Pie Choco Pie]]--a fairly successful offering, and an example of this trope on its own.\\

* Hot dogs were invented in Germany, being derived from the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurter_Wurstchen Frankfurter Würstchen]]'' (literally, "little sausage from Frankfurt") traditionally made in Frankfurt-am-Main[[note]]A very fine sausage with a delicate method of preparation, for centuries only made when a new [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmperor Holy Roman Emperor]] was crowned (the coronation was always supposed to be in Frankfurt).[[/note]] (hence the term "frankfurter" for the sausage), with some influence from the similar ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_sausage Wiener Würstchen]]'' (literally, "little sausage from Vienna") (hence the alternate term "wiener"). They are more popular in America than they ever were back in Europe, where it became synonymous as the food consumed at ballparks everywhere. Meanwhile in Denmark the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_polse Rød pølse]] is a social institution and a Dane who has never eaten at one of the stalls selling them is a rare find indeed.

* Heinz Baked Beans are very popular in the United Kingdom, where they're considered an essential part of the "full English breakfast". It's also used in the staple dish "beans on toast", [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which is baked beans served on toast]], considered a ComfortFood the way a grilled cheese sandwich is stateside. As with Kraft Dinner in Canada, Heinz Baked Beans' popularity, and beans on toast with it, is largely a legacy of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era rationing. This is in direct contrast to the product's home country, the United States, where they haven't been sold since ''1928'' outside of specialty stores focusing on British goods and the odd supermarket with a "British food" aisle catering to expatriates and the occasional anglophile (and even then, it's imported from Britain).[[note]]Baked beans are still made and sold in the US, of course, but other companies chased Heinz out of the market in 1928.[[/note]] The product's popularity has been immortalized in pop culture, most notably by Music/TheWho. It's also stereotyped outside the U.K. as an example of "inedible British cuisine." We should also note that the British mania for tinned baked beans in general also represents this trope: baked beans originated in 17th-century colonial New England as a way of using the beans--a crop indigenous to the Americas--that the Natives had taught the immigrant Europeans to grow, in a manner that the immigrants found tasty and used ingredients New Englanders found plentiful (hence the use of molasses and salt pork; salt pork was relatively inexpensive, owing to the good pig-raising land in rural New England and the industry in salt pork for the shipping trade, and New England being a major depot for molasses coming from the Caribbean).[[note]]Remember, "[[Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix Molaaaassess, to rummm, to slaaaaaves]]"....[[/note]] The dish was (and remains) a traditional New England meal,[[note]]The Boston version in particular was invented by the Puritans as a way of avoiding doing work on the Sabbath, as you could dump everything in the pot on Saturday evening and not have to worry about food on Sunday[[/note]] but preserved in cans it first made its way to Old England in the 1880s as a foreign delicacy.

* Heinz Baked Beans are very popular in the United Kingdom, where they're considered an essential part of the "full English breakfast". It's also used in the staple dish "beans on toast", [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which is baked beans served on toast]], considered a ComfortFood the way a grilled cheese sandwich is stateside. As with Kraft Dinner in Canada, Heinz Baked Beans' popularity, and beans on toast with it, is largely a legacy of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era rationing. This is in direct contrast to the product's home country, the United States, where they haven't been sold since ''1928'' outside of specialty stores focusing on British goods and the odd supermarket with a "British food" aisle catering to expatriates and the occasional anglophile (and even then, it's imported from Britain).[[note]]Baked beans are still made and sold in the US, of course, but other companies chased Heinz out of the market in 1928.[[/note]] The product's popularity has been immortalized in pop culture, most notably by Music/TheWho. It's also stereotyped outside the U.K. as an example of "inedible British cuisine." We should also note that the British mania for tinned baked beans in general also represents this trope: baked beans originated in 17th-century colonial New England as a way of using the beans--a crop indigenous to the Americas--that the Natives had taught the immigrant Europeans to grow, in a manner that the immigrants found tasty and used ingredients New Englanders found plentiful (hence the use of molasses and salt pork; salt pork was relatively inexpensive, owing to good pig-raising land and the industry in salt pork for the shipping trade, and New England was also a major depot for molasses coming from the Caribbean).[[note]]Remember, "[[Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix Molaaaassess, to rummm, to slaaaaaves]]"....[[/note]] The dish was (and remains) a traditional New England meal,[[note]]The Boston version in particular was invented by the Puritans as a way of avoiding doing work on the Sabbath, as you could dump everything in the pot on Saturday evening and not have to worry about food on Sunday[[/note]] but preserved in cans it first made its way to Old England in the 1880s as a foreign delicacy.