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Comment by nkozyra | Hacker News Reader

> There is a widespread misconception that Kennedy accidentally said a malapropism that he was a Berliner, a German doughnut specialty. This is an urban legend which emerged several decades after the speech, and it is not true that residents of Berlin in 1963 would have mainly understood the word "Berliner" to refer to a jelly doughnut or that the audience laughed at Kennedy's use of this expression.[2]

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Especially because in Berlin they are known as "Krapfen" and not as Berliner.

Pfannkuchen in Berlin not Krapfen, I think?

Yes, Pfannkuchen is the name used in Berlin.

That's what someone who grew up in Berlin would probably say, but the city being what it is it genuinely depends on which shop you're standing in. I've seen it every which way.

I've seen them sold here in Berlin under the names "Pfannkuchen" (not to be confused with pancakes), "Krapfen" (not as rude as it sounds in English), "Amerikaner" (not to be confused with an oversized iced soft cookie), and "Berliner" (not to be confused with the alcohol).

Sometimes they're even sold as "Donut".

Indeed, Pfannkuchen in Berlin

Buying a Berliner in Germany can be very challenging if you travel a lot. There are so many words for it depending on the region. At least: "Berliner", "Krapfen", "Pfannkuchen", "Kräppel", "Küchli" and probably others I don't know..

Try buying a hogie, sub, hero, Italian, grinder, wedge, or spuckie in the US.

Ich bin ein Hoagie

For all its faults, we can thank Subway for partially solving this problem.

Spuckie?

Apparently from spucadella, an italian-american word for a type of bread.

I've never heard anyone use it myself, but then I've never tried to order the sandwich otherwise known as a sub in the parts of the country where that name is used.

Wedge will get you a salad most places in the us. Hero might get you a gyro or ask for clarification. Grinders seem specities in much of the us.

A 'hero' is just a gyro with bastardized spelling.

The terms are unrelated [a sandwich named hero predates the appearance of the Greek item]; though they may sound the same depending on how they are pronounced. A hero is just a submarine sandwich by another name. A gyro is a pita-wrap --mostly pronounced like the 'gyro' in gyroscope but also like /yirou/ or /hirou/

I have seen Heroes that are much more like hoagies and I am seeing Heroes like the Greek rap depending on where you are in the countrymy point overall is there doesn't seem to be definitive things or just a lot of regional uses and spellings of these differentfood types by region so if you're cleaning that there's only one it probably means you haven't traveled enough

Weird, I always have seen them in my nearest Rewe advertised as “Berliner”. Never thought it was a problem in other stores.

Has anyone made a map, like they do for eg soda/pop in the US?

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