Excerpt
German food is a lot more familiar than many Americans expect; in fact, you might not even recognize it as "ethnic," because so many family-style American meals, from family diner blue-plate specials right down to the quintessential Fourth of July picnic, have German roots. Potato salad, deviled eggs, pickled beets, dill pickles, sugar cookies, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, pot roast, beef stew are all typical German fare. The whole meat-and-potatoes concept is primarily a German import, not to mention beer: Every year, 35 gallons per person of this quintessentially German brew is consumed in the United States. Hamburgers and frankfurters even get their names from German cities, and what could be more American than they?