Grocery shopping on Saturday reminded me of something that I found amusing the last time I was in Germany -- food products that claim to be "American Style", or in the style of a particular U.S. state or region.
The item that first caught my eye was a packet of "California-style" noodles -- "with a fruity curry sauce!" You know, I can't count the number of times that I sat down with my friends back in California to enjoy those noodles and their fruity curry sauce. (In my experience, the word "curry" on a German food label just means "spicier than regular German food", rather than what an American might expect it to mean. They weren't kidding about the "fruity" part, though -- the list of ingredients claims to contain powdered apple, banana, and citrus!)
We move on to a tall glass jar with a stars-and-stripes label that purports to contain "real American-style hot dogs". First, these hot dogs are half again as long as a typical American hot dog -- second, they're in a glass jar, floating in some unidentifiable liquid. They remind me more of sad biology specimens -- the kind that sit in their jars of preservative on the back shelf of every high school science classroom -- instead of looking like something I'd actually want to cook and eat.
And then there are the ice cream ads in the subway, inviting us to experience the real taste of New York City -- where the taste of New York seems to be vanilla ice cream with some kind of frozen strawberry product swirled in. I can remember TV ads for a "New York Dream" ice cream something-or-other from the last time I was here -- the dream was, again, vanilla ice cream with something else swirled in. Apparently New Yorkers are unable to take their ice cream straight.
(On a side note, what is it with Germans and ice cream? Last night I watched a guy buy ice cream bars for himself and his girlfriend -- this on a day where it was snowing earlier in the day, and where they'd be going outside into near-freezing weather after they finished their ice creams ...)
Posted by at February 9, 2004 05:59 PM