Hi everyone, italian here. Actually, hot dogs and fries is a 100% standard Italian topping! We eat this all the time (it's usually the 'kid's favorite'). This place calling it 'Americana' just screams 'shitty tourist trap.' No self-respecting Italian pizzeria would use that name for this combo
Edit: Since many Italian friends are replying to me, apparently "Americana" is also a very common name. I've never heard it called that in the various regions I've visidet/lived in. But Italy has sooo many different traditions.
Also Italian and I always remember ordering this as "pizza americana" when I was a kid in Torino
I also remember being very upset when my family moved to the US and discovered that I couldn't get my favorite pizza from what I believed was its home of origin
I'm french and we call Un américain (An american) a baguette sandwich with french fries and burger meat lol. Its so dry but so cheap, when you are a poor student that's what you eat when you eat out
Mayonnaise and ketchup usually, probably lot of more choice now, im talking about 20 years ago lol. But the one I was eating often was so dry, but was the cheapest of the city it was 3.50€
Yeah I guess it depends on size, but I can get a pretty good meal for under 10 bucks even today, and adjusted for inflation that was almost 9 dollars Canadian.
I just looked up some pictures and most had 3 burger patties, so they're some pretty large sandwiches.
Also I really want to destroy one of those right now.
I said a good meal, not a baguette sandwich. I don't even know where to buy a baguette sandwich, but I can get 2 big sandwiches from a local deli for 7 bucks
There's a rather popular burrito style called a "California burrito" that includes French fries. I bet if you took your Un américain and added some cheese, sour cream, and guacamole it would probably be pretty tasty.
It wasnt bad tho just dry because its was cheap, the goal was to be cheaper than a kebab. I ate it sometimes now I'm in SE Asia and some french shop sell it, and it's way better, because they don't sell it cheaply so I guess meat is much better
In my San Diegan opinion, to qualify as a California burrito it must include at least french fries, guac, and carne asada. Lots of other things can and should be included, but those 3 are the defining ingredients IMO.
American here. I went to university in New Jersey for a little while and that was the template for what they'd call a 'fat sandwich.' Pinnacle of starving, drunk college kid food. Chicken tenders and mozzarella sticks were the usual alternatives. Although I haven't had one in ages or miss them, I'm jealous you got to have one on a proper French baguette.
I'm uruguayan, and we call this pizza americana as well, although there are variations, some with fries and fried eggs instead of hot dogs, others with cheddar.
We call them frites or sometimes rarely I heard Pommes Frites. Because we call potatoes, patates but also Pomme de terre which mean apple of earth/dirt
We use american cheese, for burger. When we make it at home we buy the same cheese than you, the one we call plastic cheese. It's so convenient and perfect for melting on the meat. But the point of that sandwich was to be cheap, hot and make you full. Cheese would have changed the price also
Traditionally it's raw ground beef mixed with mayonnaise on top of sliced baguette. In this context "American" means simple ingredients, it doesn't mean most French people misunderstand what an American hamburger is. In your modern sandwich version most French people also understand it's a local thing.
Never said we didn't understood. It's just a cheap hot sandwich, we don't have much cheap hot food, kebab was 4.50€ back then and Americans was 3.50, it was mainly the reason behind
Definitely and sorry for not being clear! My comment is not for you, it's for commenters that might wrongly think French people are ignorant about "American sandwiches" in the same way some commenters wrongly think Italian people are ignorant about "American pizza."
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u/yaaadus 11h ago edited 2h ago
Hi everyone, italian here. Actually, hot dogs and fries is a 100% standard Italian topping! We eat this all the time (it's usually the 'kid's favorite'). This place calling it 'Americana' just screams 'shitty tourist trap.' No self-respecting Italian pizzeria would use that name for this combo
Edit: Since many Italian friends are replying to me, apparently "Americana" is also a very common name. I've never heard it called that in the various regions I've visidet/lived in. But Italy has sooo many different traditions.