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What's a Tootsie Roll? 11 American foods explained

Finally, we have answers.

GROWING UP, YOU probably became accustomed to hearing a lot of American foods referenced in TV/movies that had you scratching your head and generally thinking, “What is that?”

Fear not, because we’re here to help.

1. Meatloaf

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Aside from being the go-to dinner on American TV, meat loaf is basically ground beef, egg, breadcrumbs, onion and whatever else you have lying around that’s formed into a loaf shape and served up. Bon appetit.

2. Twinkies

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A golden sponge cake filled with vanilla cream. (Fun fact: they were originally filled with banana cream until rationing during WW2 meant that they had to revert to vanilla filling.)

3. Pork rinds

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Pork rinds are a traditional southern snack. Perhaps you grew up thinking they were like Rancheros crisps?

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They’re actually deep-fried pig skin. Yum.

4. Graham crackers

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Graham Crackers are essentially the US equivalent of digestive biscuits: sweet, but ultimately a bit bland. Commonly used in baking recipes and to make the campfire stalwart S’mores. (Roasted marshmallow and chocolate between two graham crackers.)

Fun fact: they were originally conceived as a bland food eaten to combat and suppress sexual urges. No, really. 

5. Corn dogs

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Corn dogs are hot dog sausages coated in sweet cornmeal batter. As you can imagine, they are incredibly healthy and are known for their life-extending properties.

LOL jk, it’s basically a clogged artery on a stick.

6. Milk Duds

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Relatively unexciting when compared to other American sweets, Milk Duds are chocolate-covered caramels that are popular amongst cinemagoers.

( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

7. Sloppy Joe

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You may remember that sloppy joes played a pivotal role in It Takes Two, the classic Olsen Twins movie, but did you know that it’s just mince meat served in a sandwich?

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Mmmmm.

8. Candy corn

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Candy corn is basically a sugar-flavoured sweet that is yellow, orange and white to represent the appearance of corn. Oh, did we mention that it tastes like sugar?

Bonus: Google reckons it tastes like crayons.

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9. Tootsie Roll

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Chewy chocolate-flavoured sweets with the consistency of caramel or taffy. No more, no less.

10. Lucky Charms

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Most Irish kids can probably relate to hearing about or seeing Lucky Charms on TV and being like:

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But just what are they? Well, it’s basically an oat cereal (think Cheerios) with multi-coloured marshmallows in the shape of  hearts, stars, clovers, horseshoes and more thrown in.

Magical.

11. Kraft Mac & Cheese

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A dietary staple if movies and television are to be believed, macaroni and cheese is basically pasta and cheese. The Kraft variety is arguably the most popular and comes in a box, with each box containing a few servings of pasta and powdered cheese sauce. (Yes, powdered.)

Kids love it.

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