I can think of several foods named after different places. The Nanaimo bar, hamburgers, Hawaiian pizza, and so on. But I take for granted – and maybe you do too – that these foods are obviously connected to the places they are named after. Today, I go through five different foods and the locations they are named after.
Nanaimo Bars
Nanaimo bars are named for a city on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The traditional version of the bar consists of a coconut, walnut, and cocoa crumble base, topped with custard and a layer of chocolate ganache. While the exact origins are unknown, we know it came from Nanaimo, BC. Lenore Newman suggests the story of a housewife who came up with the recipe in a Nanaimo church basement. She used a recipe of unbaked chocolate cake, then added the traditional custard and chocolate ganache on top.
Though we don’t know for sure if that story is true, we do know the first Nanaimo bar recipe was published in 1952. The Women’s Auxiliary of the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook includes a recipe for a ‘chocolate square’. One year later, the Vancouver Sun published a recipe for a ‘London fog bar’, offering the alternate name ‘Nanaimo bar’.
Hawaiian Pizza
Unlike Nanaimo bars, Hawaiian pizza did not originate in the place for which it has its name. However, what Hawaiian pizza and Nanaimo bars have in common is they were both invented in Canada.
As described by John Green in an episode of his podcast, The Anthropocene Reviewed:
…Hawaiian pizza was invented in 1962, in Canada by a Greek immigrant who was inspired by Chinese cuisineto put a South American food on an Italian dish.
Sam Panopoulos ran the Ontario-based restaurant the Satellite with his three brothers. There, they cooked American Chinese dishes and pizza. Sam was inspired by Chinese cuisine, which often combined sweet and savoury flavours. Therefore, he tried adding pineapple and ham together on top of a pizza and called it Hawaiian pizza because that is where the canned pineapple he used came from.
Hamburgers and Frankfurters
Two German cities are responsible for the origins and naming of these two BBQ favourites.
The popular ground beef patty evolved from the Hamburg steak, brought to the United States by German immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Hamburg steak consists of patties minced beef, chopped onion, breadcrumbs, egg, and spices. The name was shortened to Hamburgs and then the name ‘Hamburger’ emerged when these patties were sandwiched between two pieces of bread.
The story of the ‘hot dog’, sausage, or Frankfurter supposedly begins over 500 years ago in Franfurt am Main, Germany. Vienna, Austria also claims ownership over the food, given the other name for a hot dog, weiner, comes from Wein, the German name for Vienna. Either way, the food is named for a proposed place of origin.
Sandwiches
In the case of sandwiches, the connection between the food and the place isn’t as direct as these other foods. The folktale of the sandwich begins in 1762 when John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, asked for something to eat while continuing to play cards. His staff presented him with the prototypical sandwich: cold meat placed between two slices of bread. The title “Earl of Sandwich” comes from the town Sandwich, Kent, in the UK. Hence how this food is named after a place.
References:
- How the Nanaimo Bar got its name | Monte Cristo Magazine
- Triple Threat: A History of the Nanaimo Bar | Canadian Food Focus
- Hawaiian Pizza and Viral Meningitis | The Anthropocene Reviewed
- Why Is a Hamberger Called a Hamburger If There’s No Ham? | Reader’s Digest
- Frankfurter, weiner, but still hot dogs! | Knox TN Today
- The Storied and Surprising History of the Sandwich | The Old Dutch Cupboard
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