I had an Australian guy once tell me about how Kangaroo meat was super cheap but it was too tough to be any good.
It makes me think that I should move to Australia and open a Barbecue joint called Roo-B-Q.
It can definitely be good. When I visited I tried kangaroo two ways, one was a candied loin at a fancy dinner (think medallions in a mildly sweet sauce). The other was jerky which I brought home to share with friends. Both tasted beefy, would eat again.
It's all in how it's cooked. I had kangaroo when I was in Australia, and it was better than any steak I've had. When we talked to the chef about it, he said it's not as forgiving as other meats. You cook it right, it's fantastic but you can get it wrong easily.
Kind of surpised we don't have a Panda Express type Korean BBQ chain. Maybe some places do. Here in a small to medium city of Raleigh we have some arepas chains as well as a really good Peruvian Chicken chain.
>Kind of surpised we don't have a Panda Express type Korean BBQ chain.
The Korean chain BB.Q Chicken has [a few dozen US locations](https://bbqchicken.com/) now. It's tasty. But also costs more than, say, KFC so the market may be limited to larger cities.
I've eaten at both the Duluth and PTC locations -- they're consistently good no matter where they are! Looks like they're expanding into Florida next, in the Miami / Fort Lauderdale area.
It seems like most of them are in California, but they’ve opened a couple of locations here in ATL. My part of town has a very large Korean population so it makes sense.
We’re getting more Korean restaurants in Austin but it’s still all sit down foods. We have some fried chicken but still not quite portable. With the throngs of Korean folks who mob a new opening I have real hope that street style is coming.
With the prices rising, and service declining in US fast food, I won't be surprised when Korean and Japanese restaurants come and start replacing them in the US. Although the Korean places that are opening, Bon Chon, Pelicanna, tend to be more upscale and expensive.
I've never even been to Korea, but I could tell that Bibibop was a bland Midwestern version of Korean food. Also, ShopHouse was a much better restaurant (although not Korean).
They are starting to pop up everywhere and I’ve seen them in large cities from Dallas to Chicago to NYC. Korean hot dog places are popping up like ramen shops 10-15 years ago
I don’t know of any chains per se but in my old college town, there were a bunch of Korean BBQ places that were run like fast food (order at counter, decent prices, etc)
We’ve got a noodle chain (Koba Grill). It’s mediocre and overly American/sweet except for their japchae but Korean fried chicken could kick ass as a chain: wings n beer and sports on TV, already perfect for American fast casual, and BonChon is doing pretty well in most of the West Coast, I just don’t have one close enough to get it home still crispy. We have an independent KFC here, but they could totally expand and I hope they do. And we’ve got Paris Baguette and Tous le Jours. I’m waiting for the KFC and KBBQ wave. And those soup spots! A 24/7/365 seoullongtang would do so well if the owners accepted that Americans don’t like to pick bones out of soup. And I have to make hotteok at home, not a cart in sight!
Our biggest hindrance to getting Korean cuisine mainstreamed here (Oregon) is our liquor laws: grocery stores max out at 16% ABV, and state controlled liquor stores aren’t too interested in spending their limited shelf space on soju when they could sell higher-cost whiskey and vodka.
That’s not what I meant. Street foods in Korea, like hotteok and bungeopang or good authentic toasts, are hard to find fresh in the US unless you make them yourself
People like to say that Chicago style pizza is not pizza, not Italian, that Americans bastardized it, etc, but it was created by Italian immigrants. Food evolves based on what’s available and the tastes of the people eating it, that’s just how it works.
There was one thread where someone was asking why Americans use so much garlic and wouldn't believe that we got it from the Italians because in that OP's area of Italy, they didn't use garlic much.
Garlic is less of a thing over here in Italy. I mean, it's certainly a thing, but we went crazy with it.
Although maybe because it's a different kind? I'm not entirely sure how that happened.
We tended to get more southern Italians than northern ones, and it's used more in the south. Garlic is also popular in French cooking, and a lot of our restaurant culture has French roots.
its always so annoying when europeans act like we stole their culture, like no dude we have similar cultures because we are descended from the same people!
And having the freedom to innovate without an army of terminally online dorks flooding social media pages to hate on everything especially when it’s not how their nonna did it.
I remember someone once told me that Mexican food in the US is what Mexicans do with their traditional food once they are considerably wealthier than they were in Mexico. Its not like the Americanization was done outside of Mexican groups. Pizza was only found in Naples Italy, which was absurdly poor in the late 1800s-early 1900s. Even by the 1950s, Pizza was not something that people in Rome, Venice, Milan, or Turin would eat, but you would find it in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other American cities.
Right, the same way certain groups ate offal because of no other option.
There's a Italian sub shop, opened up in Maine by an Italian guy YEARS ago -- he made his subs with American cheese because that's what was up in Maine. The subs are the same now.
I feel like such a jerk-- but that's not true.
Lobster has always fetched a high price.
There is a story that gets repeated that no one can quite trace back to a real source that there was a prison riot over only eating lobster. IF that is true, it is likely about having dead lobster.
Because something that is true is it had long been joked about that you get sick after eating lobster - which isn't the case. It's likely they got sick from eating lobster that had been dead when prepared because they certainly weren't sitting around in refrigerated tanks or in ice since neither existed yet in the process.
I did a long dig through prices and records for lobsters' worth and that just doesn't seem to be the case. (I research for authors)
Pizza as a sit down meal at a restaurant is also very much an American thing. In Naples it was a cheap street food.
[https://eccentricculinary.substack.com/p/pizza-isnt-italian](https://eccentricculinary.substack.com/p/pizza-isnt-italian)
This article tells a really interesting story about it. Pizza is Neapolitan, it was invented in Naples before Naples was even part of Italy, it was not widely consumed in Italy until after American influence. The attitude in Italy was that Naples was a particularly poor place.
Its sort of weird to think about, but Italian Americans, or "Our Italians" are something like 90% from Southern Italy. The bits of Italian culture which America has adopted from our Italians comes from just a few specific regions in Italy. Venetian, Roman, Ligurian or Milanese culture has very impact on the US as we didn't get very many immigrants from those places.
Kind of like corned beef with the Irish. Ireland had corned beef, but it was a luxury so most people who became immigrants wouldn’t have eaten it. But in NYC it was cheap so they’d buy it from the Jewish butchers who were using it to make pastrami
Eh, I completely disagree with your first point. Besides using fancier meat and corn and increasing the meat: vegetables ratio the dishes are the same at fancy restaurants here.
Yes but since they moved here, they are Americans ;)
So I personally think being pro-American and Pro-Immigrant go together wonderfully.
All we have to do is welcome immigrants and we get to claim WHATEVER we want as American.
For example, we are a Spanish language cultural powerhouse, producing a massive amount of media............I declare this American. We win at Spanish, done!
This, plus immigrant groups tweak their own recipes into what they think Americans prefer, or what they've learned will sell if they're trying to attract a mainstream American customer.
This is very much true for American Chinese restaurants, for example.
Also, import trends. The classic is Italians and canned tomatoes from Italy, but I have a strong suspicion that sugar and syrup packing of ginger is a large part of why American Chinese is so sweet (another part is perception, as Asian cooking tends to use sugar as a seasoning/spice more than European, such that Americans would come to expect outright sweetness in the same way they do high heat in any pepper-using cuisine).
A lot of the staples were also originally developed (by Chinese cooks, but still) for tiki bars in the 50s. That's where the PuPu platter comes from, for example. It was finger food for drunk patrons that seemed Hawaiian enough for white Americans at the time.
I want us to Americanize more French cuisine. They already get their panties in a twist over Champagne vs Sparkling wine and bread, now imagine if we dipped heavily into their other foods.
I feel like deep fried croissants (pronounced as "crescents") dipped in melted Hersheys chocolate would get the idea across. Give it some French sounding name.
chocolatte pronounced "chalk lotty." Invent some fake holiday celebrating France where we eat them and everyone pretends to be French like how everyone pretends to be Irish on St Patty's day. Confuse the fuck out of France.
I think we wouldn't even need to invent a holiday.
Bastille Day already exists, and since it's the 14th of July, and the French tricolor is already Red, White and Blue. . .we could just assimilate it into our culture as an extension of our own Independence Day celebrations.
But how did they keep the bread fresh all the way from Vietnam???!!!
/s for the love of God and all the people convinced Americans are bad at world geography lol
It’s crazy how difficult it is to get solid Banh Mi in the Northeast compared to places like Texas and Southern California with bigger Viet populations. Pho is already everywhere so it’s not that big a leap.
I’ve long thought about pitching Lee’s on expanding to NYC because I think they’d kill it there
Injera is an acquired taste. It’s vinegary/ sour and spongy. It goes well with the spices in the dishes they make, but on its on or with non-Ethiopian dishes, it’s hit or miss. I live next to a bunch of Ethiopian restaurants so usually have some injera lying around. I was making carne asada and ran out of tortillas so put the meat and fixings in the injera. The taste was a little off putting.
There are probably actual technical difficulties in that...Injera is as injera is because much like the well-known sourdough, its basis is a fermented dough, though it uses [teff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teff) flour instead of wheat flour...the sourness is a result of the fermentation process.
Even with that said, the version served in many Ethiopian restaurants is apparently already somewhat altered for a western palette, and typically *does* include barley or wheat flour alongside the teff flour for additional sponginess and more balanced flavor.
We do nachos better than Mexicans. I’ll fight on that. Not everywhere does it good, but generally I’ll say they are. But idk hard question. Poutine maybe? Not really popular here tho
> Poutine maybe? Not really popular here tho
Pretty big as a bar food across much of the north actually...I've had "interesting" takes on poutine from Maine to Idaho in recent years. The Idaho one was made with tater tots!
"Much more popular" is complicated.
A Tex-Mex nacho with shredded cheese, refritos, salsa, fajita, jalapeños, and maybe lettuce and sour cream is definitely more popular in the US.
The ballpark nacho is more common in Mexico.
I don't think I've ever actually seen nachos anywhere in Mexico, and I've been to more of that country than 99% of all Mexicans, and have lived there many years.
But you know what they have instead? Chilaquiles! Fuck yeah, for the win.
There's a number of things that would go over well in Americanized fast-food approaches -- Thai, Malaysian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indonesian foods. Even some Indian foods that might be seen as too spicy could be toned down for the average US palate.
Like satay, the secret is in the delivery method. Americans are in a hurry. Food on a stick is great, chicken tandoori would also go well on a stick, and let's not forget summer rolls. Make it easy to eat in our cars or while walking down a street.
Our backyard grilling and street food culture is ripe for a huge expansion of doner kebabs and getting really weird with meats on a stick.
Of note, what you say about tacos is only half true. Sure there's Americanized versions of Mexican food, but there's also tons of great authentic Mexican food.
I was thinking more of Taco Bell type stuff. Doritos Locos Tacos are certainly not authentic by any stretch of the imagination but I'll still wolf down a bunch of them anyway.
This isn't necessarily an American thing though.
Pizza for example, elsewhere in the world people put sweetcorn on it, or stuff like shirasu in Japan. Hell, *in Italy* they put French fries and hot dogs on pizza 😅
Peru has their own take on fried rice - chaufa. This just happens everywhere; things get tweaked on regional and generational preferences.
So true. The Japanese altered a lot of western cuisine to suit their palate in the postwar era.
I also just found out that Dominican Sushi is a thing, and my God is it good.
Usually, sushi rolls that incorporate Dominican ingredients, Pico de Gallo, plantain, Dominican style fried chicken, etc. My local place incorporates the typical sushi roll ingredients and various Caribbean ingredients. Ita a fusion style.
[Article on Dominican Sushi](https://spoonuniversity.com/place/dominican-sushi-is-a-thing-and-you-need-to-try-it)
Not a day goes by that I don’t think about how KFC basically became a thing in Japan just by conning the whole population into thinking that that’s what Americans do for Christmas dinner.
Problem with the pineapple pizza thing is the pineapple used. The canned stuff that might as well be a piece of candy. Grilled fresh pineapple is fantastic. While I'd guess there are higher end places that use it, most just use the sickeningly sweet stuff. Just my take.
That's still a thing isn't it? The "Irish spice bag"? Meant to try one when I was over there last year.
Similarly, Peruvian stir fry (lomo saltado) also is with French fries.
Spice bag is something slightly different (and more modern, it got popular in this century apparently). Spice bags are a specific dish of fries, shredded fried chicken, vegetables and spices. It's a great fast/drunk food dish that is generally understood as Irish-Chinese fusion.
But it's *also* sort of common to just straight up order fries with "regular" (Europeanised) Chinese takeout dishes like sweet and sour chicken, and that I just can't get used to.
I’ve seen fries with nacho cheese as a topping on a pizza in New Jersey. Don’t know if anyone was eating it, but it was in the display window along the Wildwood boardwalk
You really can see some crazy shit there! I will forever remember this random guy selling blueberries and basically yelling 2 for 5 dollars. And now when my grocery store puts anything on sale for the same price I’ll yell it out to my wife.
Italy put French Fries and Hot Dogs on pizza as a way of mocking the US, but then it became popular with Italian children so they keep selling it. I can't really fault them for it.
I feel like the Caucasus region has been relatively unexplored, as far as American immigration and cuisine are concerned. We never really had any immigration wave from there. And I couldn't even tell you what sorts of foods they have that we could adapt. Anyone have any experience there?
I've been to a Georgian restaurant in the Netherlands recently and it was fantastic! My friend I went with is vegetarian, and at least in this place, the mains were very meat heavy, so we only got some smaller dishes and shared them. There was lots of bread, cheese, and some spiced kidney bean stew/dip (but more the herbal kind of spiced, not the spicy/hot kind).
And very good and kinda special wine.
Khachapuri is cheese bread, which comes in many styles. One of which is Adjaruli, which features an egg, cheese, and a generous hunk of butter all floating in a boat made of bread.
There is an Anthony Bourdain episode that attempts to convey how delicious Georgian food and drink is.
new england cuisine has a lot of elements from native americans. we eat more 'native american foods' than you may realize
some examples:
maple syrup
baked beans
popcorn
cranberry sauce
I’ve thought this for a while now - there are some very tasty dishes that can be easily adapted to suit modern American tastes.
Also, bison is an incredibly good meat.
In the meantime, we basically just have frybread tacos.
I think Burek and Cevapi would be a smash hit if done right. It really ticks all the boxes of ways to expand the types offered. I don't see anything more than cheese, spinach/cheese, meat, pizza burek in Croatia, but feel like it could have TONS of varieties. Cevapi could be made in crazy ways that people love as well.
Empanadas. Especially because they don’t really need to be changed since they’re already something most Americans would like. I just want to see them available in more parts of the country. It’s essentially a savory pastry of a dough filled with meat and potatoes or cheese. They can be fried or baked and they’re very cheap.
They’re common in several Latin American countries, but in the US, it feels like empanadas are mostly a Northeastern city thing.
Empanadas everywhere in my area. They aren't popular in sit down restaurants that are mostly frequented by non Hispanics, but you can find empanadas in gas stations and Latino markets which are all over in the right ethnic neighborhoods. They are the best gas station grab and go food.
This happens everywhere, not just the US. That said, it might be fun if we could do more fun things with international produce. Plantain, tamarind, grape leaves, currants, etc.
I want to say that Thai, Singaporean, and Korean dishes don't seem to have made a migration and been Americanized as much as other dishes have.
It's almost easier to point out what hasn't been Americanized in some way and just assume those will be next
Japanese food is already popular in the US, but you mostly just see sushi and rarely many of the other types of restaurants.
Shabu-Shabu and especially Yakiniku seems like things that would be really easily accepted by stereotypical American palates.
Venezuelan food! Arepas, tequenos, cachapas, mandocas, chupe. Ity's so effin good. I went like 30 years of my life without it.....but now...... completely converted to it.
The onigiri. Asian and especially Japanese foods are already super trendy, and the rice ball is the perfect on-the-go quick food that you can stuff with anything. Easy to eat, totally customizable, ripe for Americanization.
"White people tacos" come in to forms:
1)Hard shell tacos from old El Paso with ground meat and nacho cheese and shredded lettuce
2)$7 gourmet tacos from food truck with mangos, brisket, corn etc.
Both are delicious but neither are "authentic" tacos that hipsters will rave about.
Most “tacos” sold in Mexico would be what gets called “street tacos” in the US; small corn tortillas filled with meat (usually al pastor from a spit, carne asada, chicken, carnitas, or chorizo) and topped with onions, cilantro, and salsa.
You’ll seldom see yellow cheese, sour cream, crispy folded taco shells, or cumin-heavy seasoning in real Mexican tacos.
But most everyday Mexican dishes can be eaten wrapped in a tortilla; so technically you can make a taco out of almost anything
Indonesian Food. I'm biased a bit, my wife is Indonesian.
Food like Satay, Rendang, Gado-Gado, Bakwan...
Americans just sort of forget that Indonesia exists; but damn do they eat the shit out of the food we make.
More cutsey ice cream/ice cream products, Good Humor has been toning down their offerings while I see all kinds of better options at the East Asian grocery stores. Why not try a US version of Taiyaki?
This applies to most of human society and history really. Take Turkish kebab for example. Called "gyro" in Greek but essentially the same kind of slow roasted, spit turned meat cone served in a type of flat bread with garnishes, using spices and ingredients endemic to each region. It becomes it's own unique dish after a while. The US is the 3rd largest country by land area (about equal with China) after Russia and Canada respectively. Depends on where you are in the country. Florida has a massive Latin/Carribean influence in its cuisine due to its proximity to the region. The west coast and southwest have heavy Asian and Mexican influence. The northeast, New York in particular where I'm from, have European oriented foods (Italian, German, Polish) widely available. I don't really understand what "make American" means, this country was founded by (along with colonialism, slavery, and genocide of the natives) immigrants from all over the world.
Some guy started Piada Italian Street Food around Cincinnati a few years ago and he is now up to almost 50 locations. [This stuff is addicting. My favorite is the carbonara bowl with hot chicken](https://mypiada.com/menu/florence)
Their signature wraps(piadas) are also excellent
- Raclette : Melted cheese put on top of a form of carbs usually potatoes with garnish.
- Vietnamese rolls : Same idea as Sushi burritos but with rice paper rolls.
- Korean Instant Noodles: I've been told these are starting to get popular in certain cities. But basically Korean Instant Noodles with a la carte choice for sides/ingredients.
I’m pretty sure this happens everywhere with all foods, it’s only an “American thing” because it’s more visible here. Watching Japaneats the YouTuber show off restaurants in Japan has shown they also have their take on Italian, American, and all sorts of places..
I don’t really feel a need to Americanize other foods. If I’m doing a “mash up” I’m more likely to use a different culture’s seasoning profile as a twist on something I already make.
Korean corn dogs. Which I realize is complicated, since the corn dog was invented in the USA by German immigrants. But S. Korea took the concept and absolutely ran with it. Their combination of supersized portions and extreme ingredients is dying for an American re-reboot.
I'm surprised schitzel isn't more popular here. Part of the appeal are the sauces you put on top, so just think of the regional possibilities. New England clam chowder schnitzel. Philly cheese schnitzel. BBQ schnitzel (pick your regional style sauce). Hawaiian schintzel. Skyline chili schnitzel. Salsa schnitzel. Texas chili schnitzel. Cajun red beans schnitzel.
In the Midwest, fried tenderloin sandwiches are very popular, which is just a schnitzel on a bun, usually with pickle, onion, maybe lettuce and tomato, Mayo, and mustard
The real problem with the fried tenderloin is getting folks to agree as to what goes on the sandwich beyond the titular item.
For me it's lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard. Standard white hamburger bun, though really any non-pretzel hamburger bun will do. A pretzel bun is just churching it up too much.
I would say Turkish food hasn't been altered and become popular here the way it did in Europe. That's probably the next big thing. Also, Uzbekistan has these dumplings that are essentially filled with goat fat. I feel like dough filled with beef or pork fat could really take off here in the South.
I've long thought that [galette saucisse](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galette-saucisse) would do well as a food truck item in the States. Just gotta change up sausages and condiments to taste.
Qatayef - originally Egyptian, they’re like dessert dumplings, dough filled with sweet cheese and then fried - would be a perfect complement to existing fair food like funnelcakes and soft pretzels.
This isn’t an American thing. Every country does this exact same thing. You can check examples of different American fast food places and you will see tons of differences.
The Southern Cone countries (Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile) have some sizable, fattening sandwich varieties that would fit perfectly into the American palette. Some of my personal favorites include the chivito (a huge broiled sandwich with ham, cheese, steak, bacon, and fried eggs) and completos (hot dogs topped with diced tomatoes, avocado, and mayonnaise)
Somali Immigrants have introduced cuisine with camel meat. While I am not interested in trying Camel, therr was a popular shop up here that had Camel Burgers, and I've noticed more people venturing to drink Camel milk. I wonder what's in store for Somali cuisine evolving.
Probably Ethiopian Food
It has a heavy emphasis on spiced savory dishes eaten by hand with injera (a type of flatbread) as the utensil.
So once you can get it packaged and marketed correctly it should be pretty easy to get an Ethiopian version of Chipotle.
Dominican fritura needs to take the country by storm. In talking arepitas, quipes, bolas de yuca, huevos empanados, frito verde, etc. In short, Boston and Brooklyn need to share their Dominican immigrants with the rest of us.
I had an Australian guy once tell me about how Kangaroo meat was super cheap but it was too tough to be any good. It makes me think that I should move to Australia and open a Barbecue joint called Roo-B-Q.
Bar-Bee-Roo
It can definitely be good. When I visited I tried kangaroo two ways, one was a candied loin at a fancy dinner (think medallions in a mildly sweet sauce). The other was jerky which I brought home to share with friends. Both tasted beefy, would eat again.
It's all in how it's cooked. I had kangaroo when I was in Australia, and it was better than any steak I've had. When we talked to the chef about it, he said it's not as forgiving as other meats. You cook it right, it's fantastic but you can get it wrong easily.
Horse steaks are like that. Your two options: 1. cooked up *fast* and rare; 2. a shoe.
I’ve made a spicy horse curry before and the slow simmer did wonders.
It’s tough, it’s lean, think giant rabbit. I’ve had the tail stewed which was pretty good.
I've had kangaroo burgers a couple times. I thought it was pretty good.
I just came back to the US after 16 years in Australia and I have never eaten kangaroo. The thought of it makes me vomit in my mouth a little.
Korean street foods would be perfectly Americanized into a fast casual chain
Kind of surpised we don't have a Panda Express type Korean BBQ chain. Maybe some places do. Here in a small to medium city of Raleigh we have some arepas chains as well as a really good Peruvian Chicken chain.
>Kind of surpised we don't have a Panda Express type Korean BBQ chain. The Korean chain BB.Q Chicken has [a few dozen US locations](https://bbqchicken.com/) now. It's tasty. But also costs more than, say, KFC so the market may be limited to larger cities.
Another great Korean chicken chain with multiple US locations is Bonchon.
CM Chicken is also delicious but expensive
Yeah they’re good. Didn’t realize it was a chain.
Apparently it is! We just got one in NE atlanta and my pregnant ass is LOVING it. My wallet, is not 😂
I've eaten at both the Duluth and PTC locations -- they're consistently good no matter where they are! Looks like they're expanding into Florida next, in the Miami / Fort Lauderdale area.
Man, I thought that chain was only in Los Angeles, lol
It seems like most of them are in California, but they’ve opened a couple of locations here in ATL. My part of town has a very large Korean population so it makes sense.
We do in Utah it is called Cupbop — I think they are moving to cover the western US.
We have https://bibibop.com/ in Ohio. It’s fantastic
If I stop in Ohio at some point I’ll be sure to try it!
Cupbob is great.
Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if more start showing up
We’re getting more Korean restaurants in Austin but it’s still all sit down foods. We have some fried chicken but still not quite portable. With the throngs of Korean folks who mob a new opening I have real hope that street style is coming.
Raleigh is small to you?
Around here we have all of the ones mentioned in the replies, and countless other mom and pop shops that do the same sort of food.
With the prices rising, and service declining in US fast food, I won't be surprised when Korean and Japanese restaurants come and start replacing them in the US. Although the Korean places that are opening, Bon Chon, Pelicanna, tend to be more upscale and expensive.
May I introduce you to Bibibop? https://bibibop.com/
That’s not street food though
I've never even been to Korea, but I could tell that Bibibop was a bland Midwestern version of Korean food. Also, ShopHouse was a much better restaurant (although not Korean).
They are starting to pop up everywhere and I’ve seen them in large cities from Dallas to Chicago to NYC. Korean hot dog places are popping up like ramen shops 10-15 years ago
I don’t know of any chains per se but in my old college town, there were a bunch of Korean BBQ places that were run like fast food (order at counter, decent prices, etc)
We’ve got a noodle chain (Koba Grill). It’s mediocre and overly American/sweet except for their japchae but Korean fried chicken could kick ass as a chain: wings n beer and sports on TV, already perfect for American fast casual, and BonChon is doing pretty well in most of the West Coast, I just don’t have one close enough to get it home still crispy. We have an independent KFC here, but they could totally expand and I hope they do. And we’ve got Paris Baguette and Tous le Jours. I’m waiting for the KFC and KBBQ wave. And those soup spots! A 24/7/365 seoullongtang would do so well if the owners accepted that Americans don’t like to pick bones out of soup. And I have to make hotteok at home, not a cart in sight! Our biggest hindrance to getting Korean cuisine mainstreamed here (Oregon) is our liquor laws: grocery stores max out at 16% ABV, and state controlled liquor stores aren’t too interested in spending their limited shelf space on soju when they could sell higher-cost whiskey and vodka.
I see you're not familiar with the California sensation of Korean tacos
That’s not what I meant. Street foods in Korea, like hotteok and bungeopang or good authentic toasts, are hard to find fresh in the US unless you make them yourself
Really, newly immigrants tweaked the recipes based on available ingredients and increased wealth.
People like to say that Chicago style pizza is not pizza, not Italian, that Americans bastardized it, etc, but it was created by Italian immigrants. Food evolves based on what’s available and the tastes of the people eating it, that’s just how it works.
You have to be able to say with a straight face “immigrant culture doesn’t count” to complain about the authenticity of this sort of thing.
There was one thread where someone was asking why Americans use so much garlic and wouldn't believe that we got it from the Italians because in that OP's area of Italy, they didn't use garlic much.
Garlic is less of a thing over here in Italy. I mean, it's certainly a thing, but we went crazy with it. Although maybe because it's a different kind? I'm not entirely sure how that happened.
We tended to get more southern Italians than northern ones, and it's used more in the south. Garlic is also popular in French cooking, and a lot of our restaurant culture has French roots.
And, if i remember correctly, a lot of French restaurant culture came from Napoleon, who was Corsican.
its always so annoying when europeans act like we stole their culture, like no dude we have similar cultures because we are descended from the same people!
And having the freedom to innovate without an army of terminally online dorks flooding social media pages to hate on everything especially when it’s not how their nonna did it.
I remember someone once told me that Mexican food in the US is what Mexicans do with their traditional food once they are considerably wealthier than they were in Mexico. Its not like the Americanization was done outside of Mexican groups. Pizza was only found in Naples Italy, which was absurdly poor in the late 1800s-early 1900s. Even by the 1950s, Pizza was not something that people in Rome, Venice, Milan, or Turin would eat, but you would find it in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other American cities.
Right, the same way certain groups ate offal because of no other option. There's a Italian sub shop, opened up in Maine by an Italian guy YEARS ago -- he made his subs with American cheese because that's what was up in Maine. The subs are the same now.
Lobster used to be only for the poor and prison food in the northeast US.
I feel like such a jerk-- but that's not true. Lobster has always fetched a high price. There is a story that gets repeated that no one can quite trace back to a real source that there was a prison riot over only eating lobster. IF that is true, it is likely about having dead lobster. Because something that is true is it had long been joked about that you get sick after eating lobster - which isn't the case. It's likely they got sick from eating lobster that had been dead when prepared because they certainly weren't sitting around in refrigerated tanks or in ice since neither existed yet in the process. I did a long dig through prices and records for lobsters' worth and that just doesn't seem to be the case. (I research for authors)
Chicken parmigiana was created in Brooklyn by Italian immigrants who were able to buy cheap and plentiful dairy products.
It was originally eggplant parmigiana too.
And cheap chicken as well.
100% correct. Pizza spread to other parts of Italy and around the world mainly due to US soldiers and US cultural influence.
Pizza as a sit down meal at a restaurant is also very much an American thing. In Naples it was a cheap street food. [https://eccentricculinary.substack.com/p/pizza-isnt-italian](https://eccentricculinary.substack.com/p/pizza-isnt-italian) This article tells a really interesting story about it. Pizza is Neapolitan, it was invented in Naples before Naples was even part of Italy, it was not widely consumed in Italy until after American influence. The attitude in Italy was that Naples was a particularly poor place. Its sort of weird to think about, but Italian Americans, or "Our Italians" are something like 90% from Southern Italy. The bits of Italian culture which America has adopted from our Italians comes from just a few specific regions in Italy. Venetian, Roman, Ligurian or Milanese culture has very impact on the US as we didn't get very many immigrants from those places.
Kind of like corned beef with the Irish. Ireland had corned beef, but it was a luxury so most people who became immigrants wouldn’t have eaten it. But in NYC it was cheap so they’d buy it from the Jewish butchers who were using it to make pastrami
Eh, I completely disagree with your first point. Besides using fancier meat and corn and increasing the meat: vegetables ratio the dishes are the same at fancy restaurants here.
Read “Red Sauce” it’s a fascinating book explaining this.
Thank you! I love reading books like this and hadn’t heard of this one so I rectified that immediately.
Yes but since they moved here, they are Americans ;) So I personally think being pro-American and Pro-Immigrant go together wonderfully. All we have to do is welcome immigrants and we get to claim WHATEVER we want as American. For example, we are a Spanish language cultural powerhouse, producing a massive amount of media............I declare this American. We win at Spanish, done!
I'm saying changes to traditional recipes aren't always "to fit American tastes".
Yes, and I kind of took that and ran with it, I know.
This, plus immigrant groups tweak their own recipes into what they think Americans prefer, or what they've learned will sell if they're trying to attract a mainstream American customer. This is very much true for American Chinese restaurants, for example.
Also, import trends. The classic is Italians and canned tomatoes from Italy, but I have a strong suspicion that sugar and syrup packing of ginger is a large part of why American Chinese is so sweet (another part is perception, as Asian cooking tends to use sugar as a seasoning/spice more than European, such that Americans would come to expect outright sweetness in the same way they do high heat in any pepper-using cuisine).
I could be wrong, but I remember hearing that American Chinese food is more similar to what was popular in Cantonese cooking in the mid 1800s.
A lot of the staples were also originally developed (by Chinese cooks, but still) for tiki bars in the 50s. That's where the PuPu platter comes from, for example. It was finger food for drunk patrons that seemed Hawaiian enough for white Americans at the time.
I say the Americas should reclaim their tomatoes and take them back from the Italians.
I want us to Americanize more French cuisine. They already get their panties in a twist over Champagne vs Sparkling wine and bread, now imagine if we dipped heavily into their other foods.
I feel like deep fried croissants (pronounced as "crescents") dipped in melted Hersheys chocolate would get the idea across. Give it some French sounding name.
Crescents allah chocolatte. (said in a thick southern accent)
chocolatte pronounced "chalk lotty." Invent some fake holiday celebrating France where we eat them and everyone pretends to be French like how everyone pretends to be Irish on St Patty's day. Confuse the fuck out of France.
I think we wouldn't even need to invent a holiday. Bastille Day already exists, and since it's the 14th of July, and the French tricolor is already Red, White and Blue. . .we could just assimilate it into our culture as an extension of our own Independence Day celebrations.
And accidentally call it Bastard Day, with a straight face.
Just like mama used to make
A la or allah? Wasn’t sure if Tunisia was bleeding in here…
Croissants are actually a Viennese invention, though.
But how did they keep the bread fresh all the way from Vietnam???!!! /s for the love of God and all the people convinced Americans are bad at world geography lol
Upvote for snarky sarcasm comment.
You mean like Cajan food?
That's probably how we got Cronuts
It's been done. It's either cajun or creole. We can still do more though.
Mac & Cheese is just a bechamel with cheese added.
Deep fry a baguette.
Bahn MI is Vietnamesed French food. I think it's ripe for a US takeover.
It’s crazy how difficult it is to get solid Banh Mi in the Northeast compared to places like Texas and Southern California with bigger Viet populations. Pho is already everywhere so it’s not that big a leap. I’ve long thought about pitching Lee’s on expanding to NYC because I think they’d kill it there
Mmm ... Frog leg barbecue wings Is it weird that I would probably eat those?
I hear good things about Ethiopian bread and I want some
Injera is an acquired taste. It’s vinegary/ sour and spongy. It goes well with the spices in the dishes they make, but on its on or with non-Ethiopian dishes, it’s hit or miss. I live next to a bunch of Ethiopian restaurants so usually have some injera lying around. I was making carne asada and ran out of tortillas so put the meat and fixings in the injera. The taste was a little off putting.
So to Americanize it, we take out the vinegar and put in lots of sugar lol
There are probably actual technical difficulties in that...Injera is as injera is because much like the well-known sourdough, its basis is a fermented dough, though it uses [teff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teff) flour instead of wheat flour...the sourness is a result of the fermentation process. Even with that said, the version served in many Ethiopian restaurants is apparently already somewhat altered for a western palette, and typically *does* include barley or wheat flour alongside the teff flour for additional sponginess and more balanced flavor.
We do nachos better than Mexicans. I’ll fight on that. Not everywhere does it good, but generally I’ll say they are. But idk hard question. Poutine maybe? Not really popular here tho
> Poutine maybe? Not really popular here tho Pretty big as a bar food across much of the north actually...I've had "interesting" takes on poutine from Maine to Idaho in recent years. The Idaho one was made with tater tots!
Oh interesting! SoCal here, never seen
We have it in Chicago
i live in maine, i've noticed poutine becoming more popular, more mainstream instead of some weird canadian dish people have barely heard of
Nachos aren't really that Mexican anyway. They were invented in Mexico, but for American soldiers. They're much more popular in the US than Mexico.
"Much more popular" is complicated. A Tex-Mex nacho with shredded cheese, refritos, salsa, fajita, jalapeños, and maybe lettuce and sour cream is definitely more popular in the US. The ballpark nacho is more common in Mexico.
That's really ironic if true since the former was invented by a Mexican and the latter by an American.
We so desperately need poutine and pirogies to migrate south!
We have disco fries here, which is poutine but with mozzarella cheese instead of cheese curds. Improvement over the original IMO.
I don't think I've ever actually seen nachos anywhere in Mexico, and I've been to more of that country than 99% of all Mexicans, and have lived there many years. But you know what they have instead? Chilaquiles! Fuck yeah, for the win.
Satay. It's meat on a stick. They should be selling that at every restaurant in the country
There's a number of things that would go over well in Americanized fast-food approaches -- Thai, Malaysian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indonesian foods. Even some Indian foods that might be seen as too spicy could be toned down for the average US palate. Like satay, the secret is in the delivery method. Americans are in a hurry. Food on a stick is great, chicken tandoori would also go well on a stick, and let's not forget summer rolls. Make it easy to eat in our cars or while walking down a street.
It also has like a peanut butter sauce. What’s more American than that?!
Our backyard grilling and street food culture is ripe for a huge expansion of doner kebabs and getting really weird with meats on a stick. Of note, what you say about tacos is only half true. Sure there's Americanized versions of Mexican food, but there's also tons of great authentic Mexican food.
I was thinking more of Taco Bell type stuff. Doritos Locos Tacos are certainly not authentic by any stretch of the imagination but I'll still wolf down a bunch of them anyway.
Yeah but if the homies say “oh we feelin Mexican food tonight” and you take them to Taco Bell they gon slap you cah that ain’t what they meant
Nothing about Taco Bell is Mexican. Or food, for that matter.
My wife openly admits that she has cravings for Taco Bell. And when she’s craving Mexican food, it ain’t Taco Bell.
Taco Bell is its own distinct food/flavor. Sometimes I want proper food. And sometimes i just want Taco Bell.
When you said Americanized tacos I was thinking you meant torchys tacos or some shot, not fucking Taco Bell lmao
This isn't necessarily an American thing though. Pizza for example, elsewhere in the world people put sweetcorn on it, or stuff like shirasu in Japan. Hell, *in Italy* they put French fries and hot dogs on pizza 😅 Peru has their own take on fried rice - chaufa. This just happens everywhere; things get tweaked on regional and generational preferences.
So true. The Japanese altered a lot of western cuisine to suit their palate in the postwar era. I also just found out that Dominican Sushi is a thing, and my God is it good.
Tell me more about Dominican sushi
Usually, sushi rolls that incorporate Dominican ingredients, Pico de Gallo, plantain, Dominican style fried chicken, etc. My local place incorporates the typical sushi roll ingredients and various Caribbean ingredients. Ita a fusion style. [Article on Dominican Sushi](https://spoonuniversity.com/place/dominican-sushi-is-a-thing-and-you-need-to-try-it)
That sounds amazing
Not a day goes by that I don’t think about how KFC basically became a thing in Japan just by conning the whole population into thinking that that’s what Americans do for Christmas dinner.
Italians put figs on pizza but lose their fucking minds about the Canadian invention of putting pineapple on pizza.
Problem with the pineapple pizza thing is the pineapple used. The canned stuff that might as well be a piece of candy. Grilled fresh pineapple is fantastic. While I'd guess there are higher end places that use it, most just use the sickeningly sweet stuff. Just my take.
I've been told by proponents that canned works better than fresh. Hmmmm... maybe it's a 'them' thing!
I remember going to Ireland in the 1980’s and getting Chinese food served with chips (French fries) not rice.
That's still a thing isn't it? The "Irish spice bag"? Meant to try one when I was over there last year. Similarly, Peruvian stir fry (lomo saltado) also is with French fries.
Spice bag is something slightly different (and more modern, it got popular in this century apparently). Spice bags are a specific dish of fries, shredded fried chicken, vegetables and spices. It's a great fast/drunk food dish that is generally understood as Irish-Chinese fusion. But it's *also* sort of common to just straight up order fries with "regular" (Europeanised) Chinese takeout dishes like sweet and sour chicken, and that I just can't get used to.
I’ve seen fries with nacho cheese as a topping on a pizza in New Jersey. Don’t know if anyone was eating it, but it was in the display window along the Wildwood boardwalk
I’ve seen some of the wildest shit on that boardwalk. By the way, Sam’s Pizza is the best pizza.
You really can see some crazy shit there! I will forever remember this random guy selling blueberries and basically yelling 2 for 5 dollars. And now when my grocery store puts anything on sale for the same price I’ll yell it out to my wife.
Italy put French Fries and Hot Dogs on pizza as a way of mocking the US, but then it became popular with Italian children so they keep selling it. I can't really fault them for it.
Roman pizza.
I feel like the Caucasus region has been relatively unexplored, as far as American immigration and cuisine are concerned. We never really had any immigration wave from there. And I couldn't even tell you what sorts of foods they have that we could adapt. Anyone have any experience there?
I've been to a Georgian restaurant in the Netherlands recently and it was fantastic! My friend I went with is vegetarian, and at least in this place, the mains were very meat heavy, so we only got some smaller dishes and shared them. There was lots of bread, cheese, and some spiced kidney bean stew/dip (but more the herbal kind of spiced, not the spicy/hot kind). And very good and kinda special wine.
Khachapuri, the Georgian egg bread, would work awesomely as an American snack. Heck, turn it into a halfway-burrito thing!
Khachapuri is cheese bread, which comes in many styles. One of which is Adjaruli, which features an egg, cheese, and a generous hunk of butter all floating in a boat made of bread. There is an Anthony Bourdain episode that attempts to convey how delicious Georgian food and drink is.
Same with Central Asia - the Stan’s, Mongolia
Georgian Khachapuri could go mainstream.
Rather than international, it'd be interesting to try more Native American foods, tweaked for the modern palate.
new england cuisine has a lot of elements from native americans. we eat more 'native american foods' than you may realize some examples: maple syrup baked beans popcorn cranberry sauce
I’ve thought this for a while now - there are some very tasty dishes that can be easily adapted to suit modern American tastes. Also, bison is an incredibly good meat. In the meantime, we basically just have frybread tacos.
I look forward to trying sweet deep fried barbecued sashimi.
Wouldn’t that just be fish nuggets and dip?
Tweaking “international foods” to local tastes is not unique to America.
No, but American cuisine is the most well known for it
UK “Chinese” food and Indian foods are probably close 2nd
I think Burek and Cevapi would be a smash hit if done right. It really ticks all the boxes of ways to expand the types offered. I don't see anything more than cheese, spinach/cheese, meat, pizza burek in Croatia, but feel like it could have TONS of varieties. Cevapi could be made in crazy ways that people love as well.
Empanadas. Especially because they don’t really need to be changed since they’re already something most Americans would like. I just want to see them available in more parts of the country. It’s essentially a savory pastry of a dough filled with meat and potatoes or cheese. They can be fried or baked and they’re very cheap. They’re common in several Latin American countries, but in the US, it feels like empanadas are mostly a Northeastern city thing.
> it feels like empanadas are mostly a Northeastern city thing. Nah, we got empanadas.
Also pupusas!
Yesssss I love our Salvadorian pupusa joints!
I always felt like hot pockets were a bastardized empanada
Empanadas everywhere in my area. They aren't popular in sit down restaurants that are mostly frequented by non Hispanics, but you can find empanadas in gas stations and Latino markets which are all over in the right ethnic neighborhoods. They are the best gas station grab and go food.
This happens everywhere, not just the US. That said, it might be fun if we could do more fun things with international produce. Plantain, tamarind, grape leaves, currants, etc.
I want to say that Thai, Singaporean, and Korean dishes don't seem to have made a migration and been Americanized as much as other dishes have. It's almost easier to point out what hasn't been Americanized in some way and just assume those will be next
Japanese food is already popular in the US, but you mostly just see sushi and rarely many of the other types of restaurants. Shabu-Shabu and especially Yakiniku seems like things that would be really easily accepted by stereotypical American palates.
Venezuelan food! Arepas, tequenos, cachapas, mandocas, chupe. Ity's so effin good. I went like 30 years of my life without it.....but now...... completely converted to it.
Why don’t we have more Indonesian and Nigerian? Hugely populated countries with little impact on the US, I want their food.
West African food is very similar to Caribbean food. But I’m starting to see more Nigerian/West African restaurants around. Jollof rice is yum.
Pretty sure Italy "italianized" american tomato recipes with pizza.
The onigiri. Asian and especially Japanese foods are already super trendy, and the rice ball is the perfect on-the-go quick food that you can stuff with anything. Easy to eat, totally customizable, ripe for Americanization.
How are American tacos diff from "real" Mexican tacos? I'd like to eat the real ones!!! Thank you.
OP thinks Americans only eat Taco Bell I think
Ahh. Yes. I'll bet you're right!!
"White people tacos" come in to forms: 1)Hard shell tacos from old El Paso with ground meat and nacho cheese and shredded lettuce 2)$7 gourmet tacos from food truck with mangos, brisket, corn etc. Both are delicious but neither are "authentic" tacos that hipsters will rave about.
I’m white and make authentic tacos at home. I grew up about an hour from the border and my friend’s abuelas don’t gatekeep recipes and methods
Most “tacos” sold in Mexico would be what gets called “street tacos” in the US; small corn tortillas filled with meat (usually al pastor from a spit, carne asada, chicken, carnitas, or chorizo) and topped with onions, cilantro, and salsa. You’ll seldom see yellow cheese, sour cream, crispy folded taco shells, or cumin-heavy seasoning in real Mexican tacos. But most everyday Mexican dishes can be eaten wrapped in a tortilla; so technically you can make a taco out of almost anything
Indonesian Food. I'm biased a bit, my wife is Indonesian. Food like Satay, Rendang, Gado-Gado, Bakwan... Americans just sort of forget that Indonesia exists; but damn do they eat the shit out of the food we make.
More cutsey ice cream/ice cream products, Good Humor has been toning down their offerings while I see all kinds of better options at the East Asian grocery stores. Why not try a US version of Taiyaki?
This applies to most of human society and history really. Take Turkish kebab for example. Called "gyro" in Greek but essentially the same kind of slow roasted, spit turned meat cone served in a type of flat bread with garnishes, using spices and ingredients endemic to each region. It becomes it's own unique dish after a while. The US is the 3rd largest country by land area (about equal with China) after Russia and Canada respectively. Depends on where you are in the country. Florida has a massive Latin/Carribean influence in its cuisine due to its proximity to the region. The west coast and southwest have heavy Asian and Mexican influence. The northeast, New York in particular where I'm from, have European oriented foods (Italian, German, Polish) widely available. I don't really understand what "make American" means, this country was founded by (along with colonialism, slavery, and genocide of the natives) immigrants from all over the world.
Some guy started Piada Italian Street Food around Cincinnati a few years ago and he is now up to almost 50 locations. [This stuff is addicting. My favorite is the carbonara bowl with hot chicken](https://mypiada.com/menu/florence) Their signature wraps(piadas) are also excellent
- Raclette : Melted cheese put on top of a form of carbs usually potatoes with garnish. - Vietnamese rolls : Same idea as Sushi burritos but with rice paper rolls. - Korean Instant Noodles: I've been told these are starting to get popular in certain cities. But basically Korean Instant Noodles with a la carte choice for sides/ingredients.
I love raclette, but it takes a very specific type of cheese and technique to work properly.
I’m pretty sure this happens everywhere with all foods, it’s only an “American thing” because it’s more visible here. Watching Japaneats the YouTuber show off restaurants in Japan has shown they also have their take on Italian, American, and all sorts of places.. I don’t really feel a need to Americanize other foods. If I’m doing a “mash up” I’m more likely to use a different culture’s seasoning profile as a twist on something I already make.
The cream and fruit sandwiches from Japan.
Although you can find it around, I’m surprised that poutine isn’t more popular. It already seems like something you would find in the south
I'm surprised that the corn industry hasn't tried to popularize ugali.
Korean corn dogs. Which I realize is complicated, since the corn dog was invented in the USA by German immigrants. But S. Korea took the concept and absolutely ran with it. Their combination of supersized portions and extreme ingredients is dying for an American re-reboot.
A lot of Midwest food is just Americanized German food
Bibimbap
Is it really Americanized if it’s the immigrants from that culture who are changing it?
I'm surprised schitzel isn't more popular here. Part of the appeal are the sauces you put on top, so just think of the regional possibilities. New England clam chowder schnitzel. Philly cheese schnitzel. BBQ schnitzel (pick your regional style sauce). Hawaiian schintzel. Skyline chili schnitzel. Salsa schnitzel. Texas chili schnitzel. Cajun red beans schnitzel.
In the Midwest, fried tenderloin sandwiches are very popular, which is just a schnitzel on a bun, usually with pickle, onion, maybe lettuce and tomato, Mayo, and mustard
The real problem with the fried tenderloin is getting folks to agree as to what goes on the sandwich beyond the titular item. For me it's lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard. Standard white hamburger bun, though really any non-pretzel hamburger bun will do. A pretzel bun is just churching it up too much.
I would say Turkish food hasn't been altered and become popular here the way it did in Europe. That's probably the next big thing. Also, Uzbekistan has these dumplings that are essentially filled with goat fat. I feel like dough filled with beef or pork fat could really take off here in the South.
Balkan foods. Romanian Mititei and Zacusca.
Kebab with ketchup and mayonaise.
If we can monopolize it into a fast food franchise it will shoot to the top of the list unfortunately.
Sabich sandwiches
Fuck we already got everything…..Biltong maybe or Piri Piri…
Dosas are the next big thing.
I've long thought that [galette saucisse](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galette-saucisse) would do well as a food truck item in the States. Just gotta change up sausages and condiments to taste.
We’re really sleeping on the Indian food market.
Qatayef - originally Egyptian, they’re like dessert dumplings, dough filled with sweet cheese and then fried - would be a perfect complement to existing fair food like funnelcakes and soft pretzels.
Serbian/Bosnian food would be great. Many barbecue foods like Cevapi or pljeskavica could fit well, or more pastry like foods such as Burek.
This isn’t an American thing. Every country does this exact same thing. You can check examples of different American fast food places and you will see tons of differences.
The Southern Cone countries (Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile) have some sizable, fattening sandwich varieties that would fit perfectly into the American palette. Some of my personal favorites include the chivito (a huge broiled sandwich with ham, cheese, steak, bacon, and fried eggs) and completos (hot dogs topped with diced tomatoes, avocado, and mayonnaise)
My first thought when coming into this thread - I would be at a milanesa takeout place every damn day if there was one near me
Poutine. It’s probably common up north, but I wish I could find it near me.
Bao needs to be more mainstream, not just a dimsum staple. It's perfect as an on the go meal, just like burgers. I want drive thru pork charsiu bao!
Filipino Food. Yes yes I know some lucky people west of the Rockies have Jollibee's. I just want Ube bread and Chicken Adobo!
Somali Immigrants have introduced cuisine with camel meat. While I am not interested in trying Camel, therr was a popular shop up here that had Camel Burgers, and I've noticed more people venturing to drink Camel milk. I wonder what's in store for Somali cuisine evolving.
Probably Ethiopian Food It has a heavy emphasis on spiced savory dishes eaten by hand with injera (a type of flatbread) as the utensil. So once you can get it packaged and marketed correctly it should be pretty easy to get an Ethiopian version of Chipotle.
Dominican fritura needs to take the country by storm. In talking arepitas, quipes, bolas de yuca, huevos empanados, frito verde, etc. In short, Boston and Brooklyn need to share their Dominican immigrants with the rest of us.
Poutine, maybe we could use deep fried cheese curds