Recall the piece on That Doesn't Come From Where You Think It Does? Basically, a particular dish that is synonymous with a specific country, ingrained into our psyche, actually hails from some place else. It was meant as informative, an eye-opener, and a bit of fun - but as this is the internet, there apparently were those defending a dish as their own despite all evidence to the contrary. It was funny.
But let's take it one step further shall we? Country A's dish actually comes from country B, but country C eats more of it than both of them. Some are obvious, possibly more so if you happen to live there, whilst others definitely are not, leaving you questioning reality. And we will also include dishes that were not covered and just throw random stuff at you because why not?
Pizza
I mentioned the USA and Italy squabbling amongst themselves as to who claims to be the home of pizza ... and then told you where it actually comes from.
But if one or the other eats more of it - per capita - than the other, then they can truly settle this debate for good. It goes to follow, yes?
For reasons known only to themselves, Norway reigns (pizza) supreme; on average, each person eats 11kg/25lbs per year.
Sushi
Everyone knows it's Japanese, right? Wrong. Go read the article. However, in the words of the great Leslie Nelson, "But that isn't important right now".
And speaking of Canucks, Vancouver has more sushi eateries than Starbucks, placing Canada in the #1 spot.
Croissants
Seriously, read the other article, or at least refresh your memory. Naturally you would think France would claim the top spot with their extensive boulangeries, but you would also be incorrect. This one is actually hard to nail down but it appears that Italy is the Pastry King, or at least they are with this particular item.
Italian coffee and a pastry is a pretty decent breakfast in my book.
Ice-cream
Must be a warm country? And home to one of the largest ice-cream manufacturers on the planet, surely? Nope, and nope. And that wasn't another subtle Leslie Nelson clue, because it isn't Canada.
It's New Zealand ... for reasons.
Coffee
We mentioned coffee earlier, so is this me nudging you back towards Italy? No, of course not, because as everyone would guess, it would obviously be the USA; only it isn't, and it's not even a close race.
Apparently they don't like sleeping in Luxembourg, and much prefer bouncing off the walls, because these guys down over 25kg of the stuff annually. Each.
Steaks
A good steak done really well (as in prepped, seared, cooked, served, and not 'cooked well done') is a great steak, and lifting a great steak to heavenly, and a heavenly one to being outlawed for fear of people not being able to cope.
If you said access to cows and lots of outdoor cooking, you'd be correct. But if you said any other country bar Argentina, you'd be wrong. The reason for this is simple: all Argentinians are presented with a herd of cows at birth in accordance with the law.
Shortbread
It is 'short' (no liquid), but it isn't bread; it's a biscuit (cookie, if you really must, but it definitely isn't one of those), and hails from Scotland. No, it really does, which is why I did not include it in that other article.
It is also a protected product (like Champagne), so naturally Scotland is very very proud of it and therefore eats more of it than anyone else?
Ireland says "No, we do". Obviously it is robust enough to hold up to being dunked into Guinness (rusks for teething babies to chew on, do not hold up to being dunked into Guinness; I know this because I have tried it).
Pancakes
Firstly a bit of history. 'Pan' 'Cake' first appeared in Middle English around the 15th century, but a possible older mention of it, 'pankôke', in Germanic exists, but if we go further back to Ancient Greece in the 5th century BCE, there is mention of 'tagenias', which are pancakes.
Now synonymous with Shrove Tuesday (or Pancake Day), as perishable foods had to be used up before Lent.
There are now basically three different types of pancakes: the crêpe, a very thin pancake; a flat pancake, where the eggs do the heavy lifting; and the thick fluffy pancake, that uses chemical raising agents.
All of that took you down a very long and winding road to tell you that you were right - the USA eats them by the truckload.
_(26).jpg)
