What makes someone "truelly" American?

[elam]

Source: Business Insider (Australia)
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/he...-aussie-2017-2

The Source article outlines what Aussies thinks makes someone truely an Aussie, but it also includes stats about elsewhere in the world. Which made me wonder what the American consensus is regarding what makes someone "truelly" American (?)

There is an old Oz joke that dates back to the Viet days, which suggested Oz had been (unoffically) absorbed into the USA as its 51st state, and we Aussies were as American as apple pie!

To quote the Huffington post: "...apple pie...may be an apt metaphor...it was brought here from foreign shores, was influenced by other cultures and immigration patterns, and spread throughout the world by global affairs..."

Sounds like the Oz experience to me!

These days, here in Oz, in pretty well all the basics of life, we are outwardly American! Our TV shows & music are mostly the same (American productions often have Oz content), we dress the same, look the same, are mostly C/christian and our national language is English. Ah! But there is a difference in climate and therefore food! For instance: we like our apple pie chilled with a large dollop of vanilla ice-cream on top (or in winter, warm apple pie with the ice-cream melting on top)...

What does it mean to be an American?

[Starlight]

"...apple pie...may be an apt metaphor...

One sad thing about visiting America is that as much as they might proverbially specialize in apple pies, they don't seem to have discovered the meat pies that us Aussies and Kiwis consider a staple.

[Roy]

IIRC there was a competition to find a Canadian equivalent to "As American as apple pie".

The winning entry was "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances."

[elam]

One sad thing about visiting America is that as much as they might proverbially specialize in apple pies, they don't seem to have discovered the meat pies that us Aussies and Kiwis consider a staple.

I've gone off commercially manufactured meat pies - these days, even the premium "Angus Beef" pies are full of sinew and I hate the crusts they now use. I grew up in the the eastern suburbs of Syney in a beach side suburb called Coogee. When I was a kid we had a shop that only opened on Saturday mornings and sold just one product = "boats". These were the most exquisite meat pies you could ever partake. Alas, no more! I've come across a couple of shops that sold "one-off", "home made" meat pies (made by some housewife/s that supplied the local shops), they were excellent. And at Double Bay there was a french patisserie that made pies with chunky beef pieces instead of beef mince.Correct me if I'm wrong, but I vaguely remember a Samoan friend of mine telling me the "chunky meat" pie was the norm across the ditch (?)

As for the Yanks, I imagine they found our meat pies too messy so made them tasteless by reducing the gravy, or added too much salt (eg::KFC gray). Hot dogs are eaier to manage when you are on the move...or jumping up to cheer a team...

[elam]

IIRC there was a competition to find a Canadian equivalent to "As American as apple pie".

The winning entry was "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances."

I would have thought a winning entry would be something like "As Canadian as Maple Syrup" = not as good as alternatives and is really clingy.

Just joking son, just joking...

[Starlight]

I've gone off commercially manufactured meat pies - these days, even the premium "Angus Beef" pies are full of sinew and I hate the crusts they now use. I grew up in the the eastern suburbs of Syney in a beach side suburb called Coogee. When I was a kid we had a shop that only opened on Saturday mornings and sold just one product = "boats". These were the most exquisite meat pies you could ever partake. Alas, no more! I've come across a couple of shops that sold "one-off", "home made" meat pies (made by some housewife/s that supplied the local shops), they were excellent. And at Double Bay there was a french patisserie that made pies with chunky beef pieces instead of beef mince.Correct me if I'm wrong, but I vaguely remember a Samoan friend of mine telling me the "chunky meat" pie was the norm across the ditch (?)

That sounds sad. Yes you can always get steak pies here that are chunky rather than simply mince-based ones. But the average bakery will have half a dozen to a dozen varieties from chicken satay through to steak 'n mushroom etc. I tend to favor green thai chicken curry flavour... though I've been trying to be vegetarian lately so I guess I'm stuck with pies like 'kumara and cashew' flavour now or 'vege supreme'.

[Starlight]

We would have a saying "as kiwi as..." but the darned aussies keep stealing all our stuff and claiming it was theirs originally... pavlova, flat whites, lamingtons, black swans.

I guess we can keep instant coffee because nobody else really wants to claim that one? (Though wiki tells me the French are, sadly) And though it seems like the kiwi itself should be referenced in any proverb, the sentence "As kiwi as rare and endangered flightless nocturnal birds that barely anyone who's a kiwi has actually ever seen in the wild" doesn't have a great ring to it.

I suggest "as aussie as a thong having a blow-out" for Australia, just to troll everyone with your colloquial use of those words.

[elam]

That sounds sad. Yes you can always get steak pies here that are chunky rather than simply mince-based ones. But the average bakery will have half a dozen to a dozen varieties from chicken satay through to steak 'n mushroom etc. I tend to favor green thai chicken curry flavour... though I've been trying to be vegetarian lately so I guess I'm stuck with pies like 'kumara and cashew' flavour now or 'vege supreme'.

Same here at "the cake shops". I tend to go for the beef & mushroom or the chicken mornay and occasionally get the urge for a meat pie (and after a couple of bites swear never again as I throw it in the bin).

My Somoan friends have seven kids, part of the family lived with me for a while and the mum introduced me to wraps. Leb flat bread filled with shredded chicken lettuce, tomato and heaps of mayo. I dislike mayo, but I found her wraps really nice.

Years back i use to make crepes, fill them with a beef bolognese & lettuce, roll & fold like a giant dim sim, but I'm told by my friend's kids that that doesn't rank as a wrap.

On TV in the USA sitcoms they are always going on about the NY Delli. In your experience whats the difference beteen a NY Deli and a sandwich shop?

What do the rest of the USA do for mobile eats?

[Mountain Man]

"Truly American" to me would be someone who embraces the history, traditions, laws, language, and culture of this great nation.

[rogue06]

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Just keep clicking on the image until it enlarges.

[MaxVel]

What does it mean to be an American?

You can spell 'truly' correctly?



(even if there are a host of other words that you can't, and even more you mispronounce.... )

[seer]

What does it mean to be an American?

To think like me!

[guacamole]

Carl Sandburg wrote a poem that I think captures the American Experience almost perfectly. Though it's called Chicago, it might as well be called America.

BY CARL SANDBURG
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

The only thing he's missing in there is some kind of a prayer meeting, but that's about it. That's urban America.

fwiw,
guacamole

[Sparko]

One sad thing about visiting America is that as much as they might proverbially specialize in apple pies, they don't seem to have discovered the meat pies that us Aussies and Kiwis consider a staple.

sure we have, we just don't call them "pies". We call them Burritos. Or Hot Pockets. Oh and we do have "Chicken Pot Pie"

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96d6ea33-f310-46ba-85fb-7cd8aa5a3122.jpg

[Sparko]

IIRC there was a competition to find a Canadian equivalent to "As American as apple pie".

The winning entry was "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances."

Canadians are Americans.