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  • Vsauce! Fortune cookies are a staple of Chinese food here in America but they're not from China.

  • The modern fortune cookie was actually invented in California.

  • One man who claimed the credit for the invention was Makoto Hagiwara -

  • a Japanese man who said to a base-it off from grilled rice wafers called senbei

  • Yet, the only place where fortune cookies aren't considered Chinese is... China.

  • English muffins were invented by Samuel Bath Thomas in New York City - not England.

  • Thomas immigrated from England to New York City in 1880 where he opened up a bakery and invented the toaster crumpet,

  • which can now be found in most English-speaking supermarkets around the world as English muffins.

  • Russian Dressing was invented... in New Hampshire

  • James E. Colburn created the mayonnaise and ketchup-based dressing sometime in the 1910s and named it Russian,

  • because it originally included a small amount of a Russian ingredient - caviar.

  • The French dip sandwich is not only not from France - they apparently don't even know or probably care what it is.

  • Two restaurants in Los Angeles claim ownership of creating the French dip

  • which consists of roast beef on a French Baguette - dipped in au jus or beef juice.

  • Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet claims they invented it in 1908,

  • while one of Philippe The Original's origin stories claims that

  • one of the cooks accidentally dropped a roast beef sandwich in some meat drippings and the customer loved it.

  • German chocolate cake is named after American chocolate maker - Sam German.

  • In 1852, German developed a dark baking chocolate and it was originally called 'German's chocolate cake'

  • - nothing to do with Germany.

  • Although not really a foreign food, the origins of Doritos are interesting in that they were invented at Disneyland.

  • Casa de Fritos cut up and fried surplus tortillas and added a seasoning similar to Mexican chilaquiles.

  • The Vice President of Marketing at Frito-Lay noticed their popularity and cut a deal to start making them locally,

  • eventually becoming so popular that they released Doritos nationwide in 1966.

  • There's a saying that something native to the US is as American as apple pie.

  • But apple pie recipes date back to 14th century England.

  • So maybe we should start saying as American as German Chocolate Cake or fortune cookies?

  • And as always - thanks for watching.

Vsauce! Fortune cookies are a staple of Chinese food here in America but they're not from China.

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