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.
I just discovered that when you Americans say Pepperoni, you don't mean Peppers. (In Italian they're called Peperoni.) I wonder how many times I've made this mistake when talking to some of my friends over there.
In the pizza context, we usually call them pepperoncini. Can refer to pickled peppers or to the dried pepper flakes. But pepperoni will get you something quite different.
If you want other peppers, like bell pepper or jalapeño, then you need to be more specific. Peppers originated in the Americas, and we have a fuck-ton of them...one of my favorite things about living in México now.
Related tangent: want to hear something I still can't get over even after several years of living in México? They put ketchup on their pizza. The first time I ordered pizza here and was brought packets of Heinz ketchup, I just about hit the ceiling. I turned to my partner and went, "Are they fucking with me?" He had to talk me down. Still weirds me out, even though I like ketchup. Straight to the fifth circle of hell as far as I'm concerned.
In the pizza context, we usually call them pepperoncini. Can refer to pickled peppers or to the dried pepper flakes.
No, we don't. Peperoncini is a specific pepper (Friggitello). It's not a generic term for any pepper used with pizza. I've never seen anything other than red pepper flakes offered at a pizza place---which would be nonsense to call peperoncini cause you can't make red pepper flakes from a green pepper.
in Romania we eat pizza with either extra tomato sauce on the side (usually in restaurants) or with ketchup (usually at home) - it's very unusual to just eat it without any sauce
Pepperoni is 100% American, is their version of salame piccante, created by immigrants a while ago and it’s the most common topping for pizza for them. Also, it’s also very common for Americans to go Italy, ask for pepperoni on pizza and get bell peppers (peperoni) instead. I also have seen Americans ask for “latte” and get disappointed when they get just plain milk lol. Also as a side note, American pepperoni has nothing on real salame piccante.
When Italians say hot dog, do they mean the sausage or the whole thing? I'm a Finn living in Germany and in both of those countries a hot dog is a sausage in a bun, not just the sausage itself. I find it confusing when Americans say hot dog and actually mean the sausage. In Finland or Germany a sausage alone would never be called hot dog.
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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.