Things with Geographic Names #1

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Because the idea doesn't belong to you, perhaps?

ditto. I almost missed the American one. Tokyo Express, Dream what? Bison, should have given it away, but I blanked. Not really sure how the answer came to me.

Got all but Chicago too. Darn it.

Nah, NY pizza is that thin, crappy, cardboard-y stuff that New Yorkers are weirdly proud and defensive over. Chicago and Detroit are the deep dish cities.

It's the only one I missed. I kept thinking Jiu Jitsu was some type of Asian martial arts. North Korean Bikini Wax, anyone?

And the English horn is neither English nor a horn; it got the name "English" because the German word for "Angelic" resembles the word for "English." Similarly the Jerusalem artichoke has nothing to do with that place; "Jerusalem" is a corruption of "girasole," the Italian word for "sunflower." So let's not fret too much about how words get misapplied, much less bash any particular group for mistakes like these; after all it was the Brits who turned "Livorno" into "Leghorn" and transformed "quelque chose" into "kickshaws."

I've thought about doing a quiz of the origins of foods that are named for places other than their place of origin, though the french fries thing is a bit contentious. I started another quiz on foods with disputed origins (France does actually have a claim), but never finished it.

french fries are definitely not belgian, belgian fries looks totally different! French fries are like half a cm max, more like 0.3 normal fries are like 0.8-1 cm and belgian (flemish) fries 1.5-2 cm !(sometimes almost resembling potato wedges and sometimes the skin is left on)

The word french fries most likely came into being not because it was the place it was invented. But referring to the way of cutting things. A french cut (of the potatos) .French cut is the same as jullienne a term that is often used to slice vegetables in strips (the place of invention has been disputed)

While we're at it (over the last 8 years), French vanilla isn't a kind of vanilla, but a flavor (of custard and ice cream mainly, but also other things that resemble it) that uses vanilla in combination with eggs and I think does originate in France (the style of ice cream and custard, not vanilla or vanilla-flavored things in general).

Kept trying Manilla, guessing I'm not alone. But still wrong.

you know, jamaica actually hás a bobsledteam. In real life, since 1988. That was actually what the movie was based on. So it is the other way around..