French Dip au Jus
General Tso's Chicken
General Tso's chicken is the result of Chinese immigrants trying to get Americans to like their food. The food from the Hunan region was too spicy for the bland Euro palate. So New York restaurateurs dumped in a bunch of sugar and — surprise, surprise — it became an instant (American) classic.
Image via wikipedia
Nachos
A Texas tortilla factory came up with the idea of melting cheese and piling on other available ingredients in order to sell the leftover bits of their unsold tortillas.
Image via studio212
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Nothing says Italian like spaghetti and meatballs — but only to Americans. Because it's not even really an Italian dish, certainly not with such big meatballs.
Image via Food Network
Vichyssoise
Nothing says old-school French like a bowl of chilled potato vichyssoise soup. But only if that old school is in New York, where the dish was created.
Image via Capital New York
Cuban Sandwich
The Cuban sandwich was created to sell to Cubans working at cigar factories — in Florida. Which really is what explains that whole yellow mustard thing.
Image via Food Network
English Muffins
Somehow, crumpet-like things called English muffins happened, but it was in, again, New York, where apparently all fake ethnic food made its debut.
Image via BrowneyedBaker
