In a departure from my recent navel-gazing, I’m writing about something I’ve pondered in the past, which was originally brought to mind years ago by my interest in eating and fashion. (Note I said an interest in eating, not an interest in cooking or baking!)
There are foods that are often associated with a particular country, as well as fashions. Beer and lederhosen are likely to make someone think of Germany. Sushi and kimonos for Japan, curry and the sari for India, etc.
As an American, living in a nation comprised largely of the descendants of immigrants and slaves originating from a staggering variety of places around the globe, where the cuisine and fashion of many different nations can be eaten/seen on a daily basis in the major metros, what food and fashion would make people think of the US?
The answer I arrived at was burgers and blue jeans. As I personally love both burgers and blue jeans, I’m okay with this answer. I feel like with these, we’ve actually made a positive contribution to the world (which is more than can be said for us in many other areas).
Blue jeans certainly aren’t the most beautiful or visually interesting fashion by any stretch of the imagination – but they are very durable, practical, and versatile. (They can also make a person’s ass look great.)
Burgers are also incredibly versatile, and can be modified with an incredible variety of sauces and toppings to get a very different experience from one burger to the next. (Less likely to make a person’s ass look great, though.)
I wonder if people would generally agree with my assessment of burgers & blue jeans as the most American food/fashion.
On A Good Day 
As someone from the UK who’s never visited America, I’d go with burgers and blue jeans as well – plus big portions and terrible chocolate 😛
The cowboy identity is also uniquely American, though no longer around, and I also associate the rise of coffee-to-go with America.
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Oh those are fascinating tidbits and yes, I’d agree those are very American! (Oh my god our portions are huge, and a lot of us grew up being told we HAD to clean our plates, it’s no wonder we’ve got issues with weight here.)
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>Less likely to make a person’s ass look great, though.
lol
On a more serious note though, from one Japanese person’s point of view, burgers and jeans being American sounds right to me. Though I would throw in hotdogs and pizza as a close contender (prolly me consuming too much Spiderman, but this is another story).
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Thanks for weighing in! Pizza and hotdogs are definitely pretty common here, too – I just wasn’t sure if they get exported as much as burgers. (I’m under the impression one of the most common American food places found outside the US is McDonald’s?)
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Yeah I grew up in an English speaking country so I’m kind of cheating here but at least in Japan hotdogs are recognized as a thing that people eat in Central Park and in a baseball stadium lol.
“Pizza” in Japanese internet slang (in extremely crude online forums) would be used as an adjective for “obese”.
When I invite a friend to get some pizza, I’ll often get “you have American tastes” as a response.
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I’m convinced one of the biggest problems Americans have isn’t our food, it’s how much of it we eat. Our portions are insane! Sometimes a restaurant serves an entry that could easily feed 2-3 people! And in some regions, children are taught to ‘clean their plates’ so they get used to eating everything they’re served even if it’s far more than they need.
Plus, we add a lot of unnecessary sugar to our food, and that doesn’t help!
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Yeah, you’re probably right. People in Japan eat western food all the time but they generally aren’t overweight.
I wonder why the portions are so big though. Could it be related to America’s past? Maybe with the peasant immigrants historically not having much access to food, so as a culture they see big portions as a celebration of abundance somehow?
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That’s definitely a reasonable hypothesis! Especially consider how many groups were chased over here by famines in their homelands.
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