When tourists arrive on America’s fair shores, they have plenty of options when it comes to food. There are familiar brands like McDonald’s and KFC, but since many travelers can get that on home soil, the kind of “American” food that they’re curious about usually goes a bit further than burgers and fries.
Thrillist rounded up a few of the most surprising responses when an Ask Reddit thread asked people from all corners of the globe what sort of traditional American food they were most interested in tasting.
Redditor vitalogy95 posed the question to non-Americans: “People not from the USA, what ‘American’ food are you most interested in trying?”
With 36,000 replies, there’s a wide range of answers. But Thrillist distilled the most common ones and found a few standouts that may make Americans scratch their heads. With so many options, it could be seen as strange that corn dogs seemed to draw plenty of questions.
Redditors responded that they had similar battered sausages, but that their options were missing one key addition: the stick. (Note to all international readers: a stick makes just about any food item better.)
Several responders mentioned that corn dogs were all over TV shows and movies, but they'd never seen one in real life. Same goes for s'mores, which seemed to be a mystery in and of themselves.
Another response that came up again and again was traditional Thanksgiving fare. Things like green bean casserole (which gets featured in holiday montages but doesn’t appear on menus all that often), stuffing, roast turkey and mashed potatoes seemed intriguing to people from all over.
Redditor H3ll0KITTYBEC may have the one true answer, however. Bringing together food on a stick, traditional fare, and all things American, H3ll0KITTYBEC said simply, "I want to go to an American state fair and eat everything in sight."
With deep-fried Oreos, super-sized turkey legs, and corn dogs available, it seems like the perfect place to get a taste of everything.
By: Christopher Luu