FOOD

Hot Dogs and Apple Pie: Just Some of America’s Favorite Foods

This is America, Voice of America

1.VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA.

2. Today we tell you about some of the foods that Americans like best – America’s favorites.

3.You may have heard that Americans like hot dogs and hamburgers best of all foods. Well, farmers and owners of public eating places might happily agree. But there are also people whose favorites are pizza and apple pie.

4.    Most Americans came from other countries. The United States owes many favorite dishes, or the ideas for these foods, to the rest of the world.

5.For example, that traditional American favorite, the hot dog, had its modern beginning in Germany.   Americans eat about seven thousand million of these sausages during a summer.

6. A hot dog is usually made from pork, the meat of a pig. Or it is made from beef, the meat of a cow. Another version is made from turkey. A vegetarian version of a hot dog has no meat at all. It is often made from soy plants.

7.The hot dog is shaped like a tube. It is served between two shaped pieces of bread called a bun. Americans often say they especially like hot dogs cooked over a hot fire in the open air. People at sports events buy plenty of hot dogs.

8.VOICE ONE: For many people, it is not just the meat that tastes so good. These people enjoy colorful and tasty additions. For example, they include a yellow or yellow-brown   mustard. They may also put vegetable called onion on their hot dogs.

9.Hot dog eaters often add pickle, a salty green vegetable. Some people place barbecue sauce on top of all this. Or they use a spice called horseradish. It gives the hot dog a pleasant bite. Germany is often said to be the birthplace of this sausage.

  11. VOICE ONE: Americans also eat lots of hamburgers. This ground meat comes from beef. It can be cooked in many ways. Like hot dogs, hamburgers are a favorite picnic food. Many public eating places in the United States say hamburgers are their most popular foods. People often eat them in places that serve quickly prepared, moderately priced food.

12. Like hot dog experts, hamburger historians disagree about how their subject got started.   People in Hamburg, Germany, made something like a hamburger from pork and beef.

  14. In two thousand one, people in Seymour cooked a hamburger that weighed more than three thousand kilograms.   Thirteen thousand people ate it. Like hot dogs, Americans like their hamburgers with additions. Things like mustard, catsup, horseradish, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, onion and perhaps a pickle.

15. A hamburger with cheese melted on it is called a cheeseburger. For many people, eating both hot dogs and hamburgers does not seem right without potatoes. They eat French fries and potato chips with these meats. French fries are strips, or pieces, of potato cooked in oil. Potato chips are extremely thin, cooled pieces of potato. They usually are also cooked in oil. Eating Pizza.

16. Americans also buy or make large amounts of pizza. A basic pizza contains tomato sauce or cheese, or both, on a bread-like material. Food writer Linda Stradley tells about the history of pizza on her computer Web site, “What’s Cooking America.”  Maybe Greeks or Romans   invented pizza.   Anyone  could  mix  flour with water and cook  it on a hot stone.

17. Italians probably brought pizza to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. In nineteen-oh-five, Gennaro Lombardi reportedly opened the first pizza store in New York City. In the nineteen thirties, he added tables to his pizza place. Lombardi also began serving spaghetti. Spaghetti is a traditional Italian favorite that also has become an American favorite. It is made from flour and water and sometimes eggs. 

18. All kinds of foods can be added to both pizza and spaghetti to add to their taste. For example, people like these foods with different meats on top. Or they like toppings of fish or mushrooms. Some people like all the additions at once.

19. Another favorite food, macaroni, is similar to spaghetti. Many Americans remember that their mothers made macaroni cooked with cheese on cold winter days. People sometimes call this dish “comfort food,” because it makes them feel better.

20. Others praise hot soups prepared in their childhood homes. 

21.To end a meal, or between meals, Americans often eat chocolate in some form. They eat millions and millions of kilograms of chocolate a year. Chocolate is produced from cocoa beans. It is used in sweet foods like candy, pies, puddings and cakes. Many people say chocolate makes them feel happier.

22. People have praised chocolate for its taste for many years.   But chocolate   has a large amount of fat.

23.  Some experts now say a moderate amount of chocolate can be healthful. The Heart Center suggests choosing dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. 

24. Like people in many parts of the world, Americans love pie. These sweet dishes have fruit, nuts or some other filling. Some people say pies are the best comfort food ever. That can be debated.

25.Pie can be the most inviting food ever. A red strawberry pie or a yellow lime pie can defeat the strongest resolution of people trying to lose weight. But apple pie may be the top American favorite.