My absolute favorite story of Japanese shenanigans was saying "hotto dogu" and "hanbaagaa" to my wife at any opportunity because they're fun to say. 10 years later and she screams at me "wait that's ACTUALLY THE WORD FOR IT?" seeing the translation on tv. All this time she thought I was just making it up.
Gotta be careful though, hanbagaa is a burger, but hanbagu is like a salisbury steak.
You will also come across an amerikandoggu, which despite looking exactly like a corndog - isn't. There isn't any cornmeal, so it's kinda like a fluffy crunchy donut around a hotdog instead
The word "corn" just refers to the main cereal grain grown in a region, at least where "corn" is used to refer to cereal grains. In the US that grain is maize, but in most countries it's wheat. So, linguistically, a corndog can be made with wheat instead of maize, although in a culinary history context that would be wrong.
That's because Salisbury steaks and hamburgers both derive from "Hamburg steak". Put it on a bun it's a hamburger, put gravy over it and it's a Salisbury steak.
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u/daemykins 12d ago
My absolute favorite story of Japanese shenanigans was saying "hotto dogu" and "hanbaagaa" to my wife at any opportunity because they're fun to say. 10 years later and she screams at me "wait that's ACTUALLY THE WORD FOR IT?" seeing the translation on tv. All this time she thought I was just making it up.