Fast food before the US took over

A tale is told of a visitor to these shores who asked his young host to serve him a typical Hong Kong meal. 'I don't want the stuff the tourist restaurants serve, I want the stuff you people really eat,' said the traveller. The host disappeared, only to reappear 10 minutes later with a typical Hong Kong meal: one Big Mac, one Filet-o-Fish, two large fries and two Diet Cokes. Most people think fast food is from the United States. History reveals that many of the popular items were invented elsewhere, but were popularised by the Americans. French fries or chips: The first potato farmers grew the things in South America in 2500 BC. It was their secret for the next four millennia. From about 1565 AD, French chefs bought the hard lumpy vegetable from merchant sailors and experimented with it. Cooking strips of it in hot oil, they created the french fry, the universal panacea for hungry children worldwide. Now the McDonald's chain alone turns 1.4 million kilograms of potatoes into french fries every day. Ketchup: Historians list the food sauce made in the Roman kitchens in 300 BC as the first ketchup, but it wasn't really. It was made of oil, vinegar, pepper and mashed-up anchovies. Heinz Ketchup, an American product made from tomatoes and sugar, became the standard brand this century. Ketchup, incidentally, is one of the very few Cantonese words that has slipped into common usage in English. It is the final two syllables of the three-character phrase usually pronounced in Hong Kong as faan ke tsup (literally, 'foreign tomato juice'). Burgers: These were originally called hamburgers after the German city of Hamburg. A German-American named Frank Menches is credited with bringing the hamburger to New York. But some give the credit to a 15-year-old Wisconsin cook called Charlie Nagreen. He started selling his meatballs, which were served too hot to hold, wrapped in slices of bread in 1885. After a while, Charlie got into the habit of flattening the meatballs, so they wouldn't roll out. The first McDonald's burger restaurant in the no-waiter style that has became standard today was opened in 1948 in California, by a man named Ray Kroc. Through the late 1980s and early 90s, the branches of McDonald's in Hong Kong had the highest turnover of any outlets in the 100-plus countries in which the chain appears. Sandwiches: John Montagu, the fourth earl of Sandwich, was an Englishman addicted to gambling. In 1760, he insisted his meat, cheese and bread be assembled into a construction he could hold with one hand. These became known as 'sandwiches'. Sandwiches in Hong Kong were ghastly, flat, British-style things until Oliver's Super Sandwiches introduced the over-stuffed American sandwich to the territory in the late 80s. The simple and tasty 'Hong Kong Sandwich' (toi daan tsee) is a square of ham and a freshly fried egg served in white bread, typically priced at $11. Pizza: Italians are furious when American children arrive in their country and say, 'Look mom, they got pizzas here too.' It was the Italians who had the idea of sticking leftovers on to a dough plate, cooking it into a tasty melting mess, and then eating the whole thing, plate and all. The first pizzeria in the US opened in New York City in 1895, and they gradually spread throughout the country. A man in Kansas City opened the first Pizza Hut restaurant in 1958. There was great resistance to the idea of selling pizzas in Hong Kong, since it was believed that no persons of Chinese race would eat dairy products. However, perseverance was rewarded. By 1987, anyone eating at a Pizza Hut in Hong Kong had to queue outside for the privilege. Coke: Coca-Cola was first brewed in 1886 as a tonic health drink. It was called 'coca' because there were tiny traces of cocaine in it - now no longer in the recipe. Kentucky Fried Chicken: A chicken restaurant in Kentucky, US, was not very successful, but the manager was convinced his secret recipe was good. He hit the road, selling fried chicken products, and eventually landed deals to sell his foodstuffs through other restaurants in 1955. It became a worldwide hit, and also took off in Hong Kong, after a slow start, in the 80s. Hot dogs: Way back in 1500 BC, the Babylonians had the bizarre idea of chopping up bits of dead animals and stuffing the result back into the animals' own intestines. These were the first sausages. Sausages eventually became popular around the world, particularly in Germany. In 1852, butchers in Frankfurt developed an aerodynamic sausage with a super-thin casing. In 1900, an American street hawker started selling German 'frankfurter' sandwiches. The fashionable dog of those days were dachshunds, long thin hounds described as 'half a dog high and two dogs long'. These were also known as 'sausage dogs'. The jovial hawker decided that if dogs could be called sausages, his sausages could be named after a dog. He called his product 'hot dachshund sausages'. This was too hard for the average New Yorker to pronounce, so they became 'hot dawgs'. In Hong Kong bakeries, little red sausages from China are sold in sweetened bread, and are enormously popular, although despised by serious hot dog aficionados. Asian preferences are starting to influence American fast food firms. Many, such as KFC, now offer 'spicy' versions of their dishes. Hardee's in Hong Kong added rice to their menu, and McDonald's in the Philippines sells noodles.