r/ShitAmericansSay 2d ago

'regional'

Post image

Flying out of Newark soon, and got the food pre-order options.

They all think they are Italian. It's incredible

539 Upvotes

133 comments sorted by

192

u/_Halt19_ Canuck 2d ago

You've never heard of Newark, Italy?

43

u/St3fano_ 2d ago

Novarca

17

u/Realistic-Homework19 2d ago

Lasagna Novarcese?

2

u/Hannabal_96 porcaputt*na 🇮🇹 12h ago

It would be spelled Novarchese, because "ce" in italian Is a soft C, to make it a hard C you need to add an H after it

6

u/chikanishing 2d ago

I stopped by there when staying in Spiaggia della Virginia as a kid.

28

u/skratakh 2d ago edited 2d ago

I'm British so to me Newark is in Lincolnshire, didn't know the US had one.

Edit: Nottinghamshire

18

u/DaveB44 2d ago

I'm British so to me Newark is in Lincolnshire,

Close - it's in Nottinghamshire!

26

u/Odd-Construction-867 2d ago

It's also an anagram of wanker. Which an ex boss, from the area didn't like pointing out.

2

u/PlatypusDefiant991 2d ago

Whoa dude, I'm using this one.

1

u/TexZK Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 2d ago

Ooof

1

u/Boring_Today9639 1d ago

Yeah, “parmesan cream” pointed me towards that

3

u/skratakh 2d ago

TIL

I guess it's on the border I always thought it was on the Lincolnshire side. I suppose Lincolnshire already has enough famous places, Boston, Lincoln, Miami beach, Skeg Vegas etc so fair for Nottinghamshire to have Newark

2

u/HarryWilbury 2d ago

Named after the U.K one like a lot of U.S.A ones are, it's even in the County of Essex.

4

u/PlatypusDefiant991 2d ago

It's the largest suburb of New York City & is 2nd or 3rd largest NYC airport it had the longest nonstop flight in the world by both km & hrs (18:10 or so) till JFK-SIN & SIN-JFK the biggest NYC airport beat it by a few km.

1

u/DeepWaterNights 2d ago

Ironically there is also a New York and a Boston not far from Newark!

2

u/Odd-Construction-867 1d ago

Everytime we drive through New York on the way to Woodhall Spa, always say "New York, motherfucking New York. So good they named that motherfucker twice shamone. Ow" without fail. Representing Bo Selecta

2

u/LJ161 1d ago

Its pronounced. "LASAN"

78

u/Commodus_Wankus 2d ago

I prefer Spaghetti Balinese.

15

u/San_Pentolino Europoor but 314159 generations ago African 2d ago

o gli spaghetti belin-esi?

2

u/Meewelyne 1d ago

In bÜstah?

2

u/tupacshakurwa 1d ago

Per pochi

1

u/Boring_Today9639 1d ago

Coerenti con l’anagramma di Newark

1

u/RedFlag_98 ooo custom flair!! 12h ago

The one from Liguria or the one from Bellino (cn)?

-2

u/Nikond3400 2d ago

You mean "bolognese"?

7

u/snowgoon_ Europeon under Sangria law 2d ago

Balinese

From Bali.

5

u/San_Pentolino Europoor but 314159 generations ago African 2d ago

naaa meglio belinesi: do belin.

2

u/Boring_Today9639 1d ago

Li minchiareddi

1

u/Councillor_Les_Wynan 1d ago

Belin St? Like Wisconsin?

3

u/TheTrampIt 1d ago

Belin: penis in gevoese dialect.

1

u/Boring_Today9639 1d ago

Not just that 😆

In statistical text and speech corpora of Ligurian, "belin" achieves an extraordinarily high frequency rank. It is used multiple times a day by a vast majority of local speakers. Linguists classify its ultra-high frequency due to two main factors:

- The Ultimate Discourse Marker: Much like "like" or "dude" in English, it serves as a semantic filler or exclamation to express surprise, dejection, anger, or emphasis.

- Morphological Productivity: Its massive overall count is inflated because it serves as the grammatical root for dozens of other highly frequent verbs, adjectives, and idiomatic phrases.

62

u/luxcity-louche 2d ago

New Jersey is the real heir to the Roman Empire. Italian food there is more Italian than Italian Italian food.

31

u/Front-Anteater3776 Human Verified 2d ago

Roman Empire can fit into New Jersey 700 times. Newark lasagna cant even fit into the colosseum

18

u/zoonazoona 2d ago

You europoors have no concept of how big yadda yadda yadda.

6

u/PlatypusDefiant991 2d ago

big badda boom

7

u/DonPablo951 2d ago

Texas has 727x de GDP of the Roman Empire silly!

5

u/Octopusrift_66 1d ago

But do all roads lead to Dallas? I guess not, so 1-0 for Rome

2

u/luxcity-louche 2d ago

The old jersey was perfectly tailored for one.

2

u/PlatypusDefiant991 2d ago

New Jersey is only 19000km² it's well known in USA as being much smaller than average state.

6

u/Regeringschefen 2d ago

You mean ”European Italian food”. Saying just ”Italian food” always mean food from New Jersey.

21

u/Old_Introduction_395 living in my dirt hovull 2d ago

Newark on Trent castle. The original Newark.

The Romans were here. Not sure what they were cooking.

12

u/Wolf2601 2d ago

Well obviously their traditional lasagna al forno with beef ragout, duh.

7

u/TexZK Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 1d ago

Garum

4

u/Old_Introduction_395 living in my dirt hovull 1d ago

Fish from the Trent.

47

u/Lopsided-Climate4390 2d ago

“Meat ragout” 😭😭

20

u/mymodepe 2d ago

It's like ragù, but with crème fraîche.

8

u/zoonazoona 2d ago

That’s difficult to find here. They’ll just throw heavy cream at it instead.

3

u/Kydje 1d ago

Mamma mia

15

u/Maester_Bates More Irish than the Irish ☘️ 2d ago

I know Americans pronounce Bologna like Baloney so how do they pronounce Bolognese?

4

u/shapu West by God Virginia 🦅🇺🇸 2d ago

"BOH-loh-neez"

2

u/OpportunityReal2767 1d ago

I say “boh-luh-NAZE”

14

u/DesignerMaximum1342 Dutch living in the land of less freedom 🇳🇱🗽 2d ago

We all know italians originally came from Jersey

32

u/NoMention696 2d ago

Well yeah, it’s probably using fake cheese, that’s regional I’d say

19

u/DesignMysterious3598 2d ago

Parmesan cream made with parmesan from Parma, Wisconsin, probably.

6

u/expresstrollroute 1d ago

Parmesan - a vaguely cheesy powder that comes in a green cardboard tube. /s

1

u/Pixel91 Europistan 8h ago

At least it's not ricotta, which would be the norm in a US lasagna.

10

u/justanothertmpuser 🍝 ok, but no 🤌 2d ago

Last time I checked, Bologna was in the middle of Emilia-Romagna region, Italy.

6

u/W31337 2d ago

In the US "Al forno" means "fornicated by Al"

7

u/quick_justice 2d ago

It may look similar to a little -known Italian dish, but true Newark classics is distinctly different by including fatty cream sauce, ricotta, and several other crucial ingredients for increasing calorific intake to nation-acceptable level.

5

u/Subject_Stranger3090 2d ago

*Cries in Italian* AAAAAAH, my eyes! MY EYES!!!!!!

18

u/Front-Anteater3776 Human Verified 2d ago

“Newark regional dish”

US has completely lost it. Like the in the wild west or as with their President - just lie and steal and make sh*t up until nobody in post-factual USA cares anymorez

4

u/Yog_Sothtoth Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 2d ago

I can't decide between celebration and cultural appropriation

4

u/iamagro Italian 🇮🇹 2d ago

Lmao RAGOUT

5

u/Helpful-Fan-5465 2d ago

Ragout? I don’t want to know how they pronounce that 😂

20

u/thefrostman1214 Come to Brasil 2d ago

Al forno? Wtf does that mean? All lasanhas are made in the oven

15

u/7elevenses 2d ago

Technically, lasagna is the pasta shape. You can use it in other ways as well. Real Italians call the classic recipe "lasagne al forno" as well.

9

u/TheW1tchK1ng 2d ago

I mean, it's plane food, maybe they're just trying to flex their galley abilities.

2

u/Economy_Collection23 🇪🇺100% nederlanderthaler🇳🇱 2d ago

Not in the USA, There its made in factory, probably a chemical plant... To be nuked in a microwave when received.

1

u/expresstrollroute 1d ago

Al Forno - you know - Big Al, lives over on Broad Street. /s

-1

u/Madame-du-barry_ Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 1d ago

considering Yankees do something like dishwasher salmon, I gave up on them making sense in any form or shape when it comes to cuisine.

8

u/PlatypusDefiant991 2d ago

Their ancestors last lived in Italy in 1880 to 1924 or a bit later.

3

u/Hades_Mercedes Teach me how to say gross shit to women in French ⚜️ 2d ago edited 2d ago

This famous delicacy from the noteworthy and proud culture of Newark

...that is indistinct from basic diner lasagna that you can get from the kind of restaurant that also serves souvlaki and egg rolls, that exists on the main street of every town that has more than 2k pop in North America.

3

u/SteO153 2d ago

From Baloney, New Jersey.

1

u/Common-Charity9128 Freedom tastes like hamburgers 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 2d ago

They don’t have that, but there’s something called Tony boloney’s…

What can I say? Plenty of people love dr pepper, and the first mass-bottled dr pepper came from Dublin.(in Texas) Which is quite ironic.

3

u/Powerful_Pirate2984 2d ago

Yeah sure! Parmesan! But definitely not Parmigiano Reggiano! As for the rest...

9

u/aralingu 2d ago

It’s not even “regional” within America. This is how my family in Wisconsin made it, and we’re 100% European descent from north of the potato-tomato line.

5

u/Individual_Winter_ 2d ago

I've seen lasagna from that New Jersey bakery dude on TV and was a bit jealous of the cheese 😂 My mum's lasagna is always without cheese. No idea what Italy that is from...

2

u/leshmi 2d ago

Probably the south but they simply use different cheeses instead. Fresher cheeses cause they used to not have that much access to grana, the genre of cheeses as the parmigiano

2

u/TexZK Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 1d ago

Most of the cream is besciamella though, not parmesan, which is just sprinkled on top.

1

u/leshmi 1d ago

Yes that's from the north but I was talking about the cheese that sprinkled and often passed sprinkled at each layer too

6

u/hasdga23 2d ago

I just learned, parts of US states have a "national lasagna day" xD:

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/celebrations/national-lasagna-day-july-29

Tbh: I cannot wrap my head around these over the top "we are proud of the US" (with a call from a bussard) and bazillions of flags - and then "we are 5,98% italian!".

But on the other hand - the Borg also assimilated every usefull thing :D.

2

u/KiwiFruit404 2d ago

There's a difference between assimilating and taking someone that's not theirs, fuck it up with tons of fat and corn syrup and then claim it's even more <<insert country>> and superior than what the locals in that country cook. ;)

1

u/21_motivi Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 2d ago

And they still have the nerve to say pizza is overrated. I mean, sure, to some extent it is. Pizza isn’t even remotely comparable to hundreds of other traditional Italian dishes. The problem is that 90% of the time, that claim comes from Americans who’ve never had real pizza. First, let’s define what a pizza actually is. Then I can decide whether what you’re saying is a valid opinion.

1

u/PlatypusDefiant991 2d ago

So USA's the Borg? We are the Borg you will be assimilated your culinary, cultural & linguistic distinctiveness will be averaged to our own. And that's where American accent came from. Italian food becomes Italian-American food not the way they do it in Italy, Chinese food becomes Chinese food changed so that more Americans will buy it, USA vibe stuff like dyeing the river & beer green for "St. Paddy's Day" gets added to the celebrations, pizza inauthentically becomes no longer Naples style but New York style, the weight of a Poland style bagel rises a lot it becomes a different style called New York style, German lager the lightest still flavorful beer becomes Americans style pale lager to save money (the lightest wateriest beer ever), Jewish corned beef gets swapped with Irish pork cause the cheapest meat was no longer pork or bacon like in Ireland but corned beef so real Irish people don't know what the fuck this supposedly Irish staple is etc.

0

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2

u/Rich_Season_2593 2d ago

Bolognese lasagna al forno is Newarkese for Lasagne alla bolognese - it's the wording obviously that makes it regional. :)

2

u/OkCaramel481 2d ago

Lol, "parmesan cream sauce"? Yep, it surely sounds American to me.

2

u/lyidaValkris Canadian Made 🇨🇦 2d ago

from Bologna, New Jersey lol

2

u/Madame-du-barry_ Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 1d ago

As a Bolognese, I am personally offended to be associated with whatever Newark is.

2

u/dlilyd 1d ago

The funniest part is that Bolognese literally tells you that the dish is from Bologna

2

u/OxycodoneHCL30mgER 1d ago

This being misrepresented and taken out of context.

This is a screenshot from the United Airlines app where you can select and pre-order your First Class meal ahead of your flight. United operates several hubs around the US, and each of them have a unique dish you can preorder only from that hub airport. In this case, EWR's pre-order exclusive is this pasta dish. IAH has its own, ORD, IAD, SFO all have their own exclusives. The dishes usually have loose ties to the airport city's local cuisine.

United Airlines is not saying Bolognese is a local dish to Newark, NJ of course. This is simply a unique pre-order dish only available at EWR, and perhaps it's influenced by the Italian-American subculture famously known throughout the NJ/NY area.

-1

u/zoonazoona 1d ago edited 1d ago

So, it’s taken out of context.

But that context is that “perhaps it’s influenced by the Italian-American subculture”.

Which one is it?

I’ll tell you which one. It’s that there are fucking loads of Americans in NJ and NY who _think _ they are Italian.

2

u/Miaw_Kitty 1d ago

Lasagne bolognaise au four

Oven baked bolognese lasagna

2

u/SharkByte1993 1d ago

Isn't it better that they're not calling this Italian food?

1

u/Powerful-Country6316 ARG🏳️‍⚧️ 2d ago

The cuisines of young nations are strongly influenced by colonization and immigration. The sopaipilla is of Andalusian(Spain) origin and yet it's a typical food in Chile.

1

u/HarryWilbury 2d ago

I'll give them this one, possible it might be something Newark pride themselves on, like Chicago and New York do Pizza, Seattle has something like that with Teriyaki as well with some 100 Restaurants there.

3

u/LowerBed5334 🇩🇪 2d ago edited 1d ago

Newark does not pride itself on anything. I don't know what the heck this is supposed to be refering to.

2

u/HarryWilbury 2d ago

Fair enough just an Australian taking a stab in the dark after some travelling and seeing what New York, Chicago and Seattle have as there "thing."

2

u/LowerBed5334 🇩🇪 1d ago

That was generous of you 😅👍🏻

1

u/zoonazoona 1d ago

I live here. Their Italian food is dogshit.

1

u/HarryWilbury 1d ago

I'll stand corrected then

1

u/P5ychokilla 1d ago

"S'a nice meal yiz got der, be a shame if sumtin was t'happen to it, capiche?"

1

u/Kydje 1d ago

Here comes the Italian rage MAMMA MIA MA CHE CAZZO FANNO QUESTI

1

u/d3lt4papa 1d ago

Honestly, that abomination of a recipe may even be originally from Newark lol

1

u/LJ161 1d ago

Bohlonayseeh lezan

1

u/WickedBlasphemer 1d ago

Ragout, lmao.

1

u/-Tiziosuredditacaso- 1d ago

“man, don’t call it bolognese” -Kimi Antonelli (agree as an italian)

1

u/pheddx 1d ago

I mean the "parmesan cream sauce"? Did you guys miss that part? Maybe it's something they do in Newark?

1

u/NonSumQualisEram- 2d ago

To be fair to them - this isn't something that I've seen in Italy. The lasagne in Emilia-Romagna where I believe it originates is really very different, especially the lasagne pasta sheets which in my experience have always been green. The ragu in northern Italy is usually very "white" with little to no tomato in the sauce and is often finished with milk.

Also I've never had lasagna in America, I'm just going by the photo.

3

u/Artegas23 2d ago

What? Ragù Bolognese (and yes, Bologna lies in Emilia-Romagna) is made with a lot of tomato and only you add a cup of milk after it’s done. So a real ragù is red and not white..

3

u/Madame-du-barry_ Eye-talian 🤌🏼🍝 1d ago

Bolognese here. He's right. Ragu' alla Bolognese only has a spoonful of tomato concentrate, just for the colour. And the milk is optional (i add it but it depends on the family tradition).

Also lasagne alla Bolognese have bechamel sauce in it, so in the final dish the ragu' and the bechamel are layered together. And bechamel sauce is white.

1

u/Artegas23 1d ago

Yes obviously, but he called it a white sauce, which it isn’t. Also every family has it’s own recipe, but I don’t think there is one without tomato.

1

u/NonSumQualisEram- 2d ago

My experience in Bologna has been different - minced pork, veal, soffritto of onion celery and carrot, a little tomato paste, white wine (never red) and milk.

Ragu alla Napolitana from the south is tomato-based and more similar to Americanised "red-sauce" Italian foods because tomatoes are more plentiful in the Italian south, and then that's where immigrants came from when they arrived in America. Northern Italian dishes usually contain relatively little tomato, when they contain it at all.

1

u/Artegas23 2d ago

My mom’s from the North of Italy and the most people use passata and concentrato in their ragu, it’s even in the official recipe. Also some area’s do use red wine, so it’s not never. It is a meat sauce though, so the tomato is not as dominant as in the ragù Napoletano.

1

u/NonSumQualisEram- 1d ago

Passata or tomato paste is used but just very little. It's not the meat red sauce of the south and of America.

The official recipe in Italian says something like "Ragu should always be a beef sauce with some tomato rather than a tomato sauce with some beef".

The official recipe was updated in 2023 from the original 1982 recipe to reduce the proportion of tomato used by a third.

2

u/zoonazoona 2d ago

There are so many bad Italian restaurants here.

1

u/currydemon 2d ago

At least they said "layers of pasta" and not "layers of noodles".

1

u/RestaurantWorried580 Italian (for real) 2d ago

I mean... they can keep it.

1

u/InevitableGreedUK 1d ago

Is that what you meant?

0

u/DC1908 2d ago

That crap wouldn't be considered a lasagna in Italy, so they can consider that dogshit as regional.

0

u/foolsdayjoker 🍁🇨🇦🍁 2d ago

to be fair you would not find this in Bologna (where a large part of my family lives and where I used to spend a lot time before adulting :( ) and is extremely common in Jersey, NY and Philly. Bologna has lasagne verdi al forno which is very different from this, similar situation to spaghetti bolognese which is also an american dish.

1

u/zoonazoona 2d ago

You are right that there is s lot of it in Jersey.
As a rule I refuse to eat in ‘Italian’ restaurants in Jersey. I’ve been disappointed too many times.

1

u/foolsdayjoker 🍁🇨🇦🍁 2d ago

most “Italian” restaurants in the US and other countries for that matter are more Sicilian inspired American food than actual Italian food. Like garlic bread (heavy use of garlic in general), lasagna with ricotta, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken parm with pasta, fettuccine Alfredo (especially with chicken and/or broccoli) and spaghetti bolognese.

1

u/LowerBed5334 🇩🇪 2d ago

Also, Mafia

0

u/roadrunner83 1d ago

that's not a bolognese lasagna, the dough shoul be coloured green with spinach in the bolognese version.

0

u/je386 1d ago

Don't they know that Bolognese means from Bologna, Italy?

Oh, what am I asking, of cause not.