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Vsauce! Fortune cookies are a staple of Chinese food here in America but they're not from
China. The modern fortune cookie was actually invented in California.
One man who claimed credit for the invention was Makoto Hagiwara - a Japanese man who said
he based the cookie off of grilled rice wafers called senbei. Yet, the only place where fortune
cookies aren't considered Chinese is...China.
English muffins were invented by Samuel Bath Thomas in New York City - not England. Thomas
immigrated from England to New York City in 1880 where he opened up a bakery and created
the toaster crumpet. Which can now be found in most english-speaking supermarkets around
the world as English muffins.
Russian Dressing was invented... in New Hampshire. James E. Colburn created the mayonnaise and
ketchup-based dressing sometime in the 1910s and named it Russian because it originally
included a small amount of a Russian ingredient - caviar.
The French Dip sandwich is not only not from France - apparently they don't even know or
probably care what it is. Two restaurants in Los Angeles claim ownership of creating
the French Dip which consists of roast beef on a French Baguette - dripped in au jus or
beef juice. Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet claims they invented it in 1908 while one
of Philippe The Original's origin stories claims that one of the cooks accidentally
dropped a roast beef sandwich in some meat drippings and the customer loved it.
German chocolate cake is named after American chocolate maker - Sam German. In 1852 German
developed a dark baking chocolate and it was originally called German's chocolate cake
- nothing to do with Germany.
Although not really a foreign food the origins of Doritos are interesting in that they were
invented at Disneyland. Casa de Fritos cut up and fried surplus tortillas and added a
seasoning similar to Mexican chilaquiles. The Vice President of Marketing at Frito-Lay
noticed their popularity and cut a deal to start making them locally eventually becoming
so popular that they released Doritos nationwide in 1966.
There's a saying that something native to the US is as American as apple pie. But Apple
Pie recipes date back to 14th century England. So maybe we should start starting as American
as German Chocolate Cake or fortune cookies? And as always - thanks for watching.