a berlin blog


Saturday, May 06, 2006
 

Blogging Britain


This is from a train station in Newcastle last month. Does anyone know what "American" muffins are? Are they some kind of revenge for "English" muffins? (Or "Swiss cheese"? Or "French toast"?)

I have solved the puzzle of "cafe americano," though. Whatever Starbuck's serves under that name, it's not just a cup of filtered coffee, and it's not (unfortunately) a bottomless cup of okay-but-not-great diner coffee. No, a cafe americano is diluted espresso. Completely disgusting. I assume it was invented in Italy after the war, with a dose of sarcasm, when American soldiers roamed the streets looking for styrofoam cups of translucent sock juice and the locals had to water down their local product. (Filtered coffee is still largely unknown in Italy.) Why it's on the menu in some Berlin cafes I won't ever understand.

posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:19 AM
Comments:
The one I liked was filet americaine in Belgium. Turned out to be raw hamburger with some onions and other stuff on it, spread on a baguette. Then there was sauce americaine as one of the six million things to put on french fries, and that was basically a ketchup/mayo mix.

Muffins have become a big trendy item these days, and they're identified with America because, unsurprisingly enough, they actually are American.

Now if we could just figure out the identification Germans make between doughnuts and Indians...
 
I can confirm that the Doughnut Boy just happens to love curry!

but on a more helpful note:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muffins
 
Speaking of ketchup. (Scroll all the way down, since the direct link, again, has no photograph.)
 
Of course there's also German chocolate cake. Oh, and St. Pauli Girl beer! Germans think that one's hilarious.
 
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