Italian spaghetti and meatballs are now more popular in Italian-American recipes than in Italy itself
People from various nations immigrating to the United States often adapt their own culinary traditions to local conditions and create famous dishes that can conditionally be called American.
How does this happen? Sometimes immigrant chefs cannot find their favorite ingredients in the new country and look for substitutes. Or they discover new types of products in America and improvise. Often such creations introduce Americans to their native cuisines. And sometimes chefs adapt their favorite dishes to the tastes of their new compatriots.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Italians who immigrated to the United States had, of course, already prepared dishes using spaghetti, marinara sauce, and meatballs, or "polpette." But they did not mix everything together in one dish. The availability of canned tomatoes and lower meat prices led to larger meatballs. This also helped red marinara sauce become more common in Italian-American recipes than in Italy.
General Tso's Chicken
The real General Zuo Zongtang lived in China in the 19th century, but died long before a chef who learned his trade in Hunan province and worked in New York created the recipe for a dish named after the general in the 1970s. Chinese cuisine was already popular among Americans, but some found traditional Hunan dishes too spicy. The chef added sugar to the traditional fried chicken to tone down the heat. Today, General Tso's chicken is a staple on the menus of Chinese restaurants in the United States. Few residents of Hunan province have ever heard of this dish.
Chimichanga
Two Arizona chefs claim that they invented the deep-fried burrito. It can be served either as a main dish, stuffed with meat, beans, and cheese, or as a dessert – with chocolate and whipped cream. Both chefs say they created the chimichanga by accident.
Vichyssoise
Named by French immigrant chef Louis Diat after the town near which he was born, this soup was based on a recipe for potato and leek soup that he remembered from childhood. But Diat always liked to cool the soup with milk before serving. At the Ritz-Carlton in New York, where he worked, the recipe he created in 1917 for a soup of potatoes, heavy cream, chicken broth, and chives, served cold, instantly gained popularity – despite the fact that the chef added leeks to it almost 50 years later.
As ShareAmerica notes, there is no doubt that American menus are becoming more diverse. Fusion cuisine, which combines dishes from different regions of the world, inspiring new recipes, is winning new fans. But this is a two-way street.
Thus, outside the United States, "American" fast food restaurants add menu items that most Americans have never heard of. For example, in Japan at Pizza Hut you can order a pizza with seafood and mayonnaise, and in India at McDonald's you can buy a "Maharaja Mac" chicken sandwich.