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Comment by sklivvz1971 | Hacker News Reader

sklivvz1971

Yep, the article should be explicit about that. Calling American-Italian food "Italian" is incorrect, but also incredibly parochial.

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It's a regional news outlet, writing an article about regional businesses. There is literally nobody within 300 miles of Newark (a region of about 100M people) interested in the topic who doesn't know what they are referring to.

Calling anything "Italian" would be equally parochial, as Naples, Milan, Sicily, etc have broad differences in cuisine and culture.

This is actually the common usage. I've never heard anybody say they're going out to an American-Italian restaurant.

Along the same lines, when I tell my friends that I'm going to a Chinese restaurant, they know exactly what I mean. And no, it doesn't mean I'm taking the next flight out to Shanghai to eat.

The common usage in america.

It may come as a shock to you, but there are also Italian restaurants in other countries - not just Italy and America.

The same pattern is observed in other countries. In India, a Chinese restaurant will typically serve Indian Chinese cuisine rather than Chinese cuisine as it is eaten in China.

Yes, the common usage in America, because the article is about Italian restaurants in an American city.

Do you think somebody reading nj.com is really likely to be confused about what country the restaurants being discussed are in? This is like complaining about a US newscast referring to "our nation's capital" because every country has a different capital.

I live in the Boston area and I most definitely say "Chinese-American" when discussing potential restaurants. For example if my friend asked about Mary Chung's in Cambridge, that's Chinese-American, where as the Shanghai Gate in Alston is Shanghainese. Of course I don't always know. I also would refer to pizza/sub shops that are everywhere around here as Italian-American if someone asked, as opposed to the upscale places in the North End. I may be wrong about my labels, but I do use them.

If I want to make this distinction I usually use the term "Chinese takeout."

No, not really. The audience is American, the author is American; nobody is confused about what is meant.

I find a lot of Europeans - particularly Irish - to get unduly upset when Americans use the term "Irish" to mean "Irish American". Sometimes it gets downright childish, ie "you're not really Irish we are!".

People should pick up on the context a bit.

9/10 they aren't using it to mean 'Irish American' though. Many, many Americans I know and have met claim to be 'Irish' despite they and their parents never having set foot in the place and they genuinely mean they are of Irish nationality. Sure it can be used as shorthand for 'Irish American' but that's generally not what is meant (in my experience). Ireland's diaspora is more than 10x the country's population so it's definitely not something we rebel against or dislike. There are LOTS of people abroad who can rightly claim to be Irish. When you claim it with virtually no actual ties to the country mainly so you can try to claim some stereotype it's irritating. Irish people are generally pretty proud of our American links and contributions. "you're not really Irish we are!" is not a thing.

Of course they mean Irish American. What else could they mean? I don't think the Irish (in Ireland) are even on the radar. There's a real misunderstanding Europeans have of the European diaspora in general - they think they can understand it in the context of still being in Europe, but you can't.

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