American Food and Drink
“American” food is part Italian, part British, part German, part Mexican, part Chinese, etc. When people from other countries came to live in the US, they brought different cooking traditions. Some of them opened restaurants. Today Americans enjoy food from all over the world. Over the years some foreign dishes changed a little.
The US is most famous for “fast foods”. The first fast food restaurants served hamburgers. The first hamburgers were made and sold in Connecticut in 1895 by an American chief Louis Lassen. He called them hamburgers because he was given the recipe from Hamburg in Germany. Now fast food restaurants serve other kinds of food too. Inside there is often a “salad bar”, where you can help yourself to as much salad as you want.
Hot dogs also came to America from Germany. At first Americans called this food “dachshund sausages”. A dachshund [ˈdæksənd] is a dog from Germany with a very long body and short legs. Dachshund sausages became popular especially at baseball games. Their sellers kept them warm in hot-water tanks. As they walked up and down the rows of people, they shouted “Get your dachshund sausages! Get your dachshund sausages!” People bought the sausages and put them on buns. One day in 1906 a newspaper cartoonist Tad Dorgan drew a bun with a dachshund in it – not a dachshund sausage, but a dachshund. Dorgan didn’t know how to spell dachshund. So, under the cartoon, he wrote “Get your hot dogs!” If you go to a baseball game today, you can still see sellers walking around with hot-water tanks. As they walk up and down the rows they shout: “Get your hot dogs here! Get your hot dogs here!”
Doughnuts were originally from Holland. In 1847 a young American boy told his mother that her doughnuts were never cooked in the middle. He cut out the centre and his mother cooked them — and they were very tasty!
Americans eat a lot, and when they go to a restaurant, they don’t expect to be hungry afterwards. Most restaurants will put a lot of food on your plate — sometimes it can be too much. But if you can’t finish it all, don’t worry: they will give you a “doggy bag” (or a box takeaway) and you can take it home.
Most Americans now have a light breakfast instead of the traditional eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice and coffee. But on weekends there is more time, and a large late breakfast or early lunch is often eaten with family or friends.