Hot dogs are European in origin. the Germans exported it to the United States. it integrated within American culture during the 20th century.

A hotdog is nice, and around in the Netherlands since the the 70’s (or longer), but the Dutch alternative; broodje rookworst is even better. Especially on a windy winter day.

black friday has only been really like this for about 3-5 years now, and not everyone is as enthousiastic about it..

Fun Fact: McDonalds has been active for decades in The Netherlands. I remember somewhere in the 80s/90s, when USAF was located in Soesterberg, the closest McDonalds got a McDrive. That was something totally new overhere. When they opened it caused traffic jams of all the people wanted to order their fast food from their car.

Ava when I was in university, a linguistics professor argued that Dutch people are bilingual already -- not because their English is flawless (which it isn't) but because there is so much exposure to English. And believe it or not, there are already situations in which Dutch students will have to think longer to come up with the Dutch word for a given phenomenon, than to find the English one. And it often happens that they dutchify an English word into bad Dutch. Black Friday is evil but what are you gonna do.. 😑

Those College hoodies remind me so much of the 90s when it seemed like the whole world decided to embrace the height of popularity of basketball in the US...by wearing hoodies, shirts, caps etc. from Chicago Bulls or LA Lakers or whatever. Even though I'm pretty damn sure half the people didn't even really know these teams or the rules of basketball for that matter. It wasn't a popular sport at all back then. I specifically remember wanting to look at games as 12 y/o kid to see what all the fuzz was about, only to discover they were SO hard to find, lol! I thought it was quite ridiculous back then, and I still giggle thinking about it today :)

Ava, you mentioned it only very briefly, but I would love to see a video on us Dutch speaking English and especially on how we tend to mix American and British English. I don't know if you have experienced this a lot, but I can imagine there might be things we say which strike you as an odd combination of American and British? I learned most of the language by watching the BBC and TV series from the US and when speaking or writing I almost never have a clue if I am using one or the other. Or maybe about things we say which do not mean what we think. I don't know, I guess I mostly would like to see a video about the fun you had with us Dutch speaking English. Anyway, love your channel. The stuff in our country that surprises you or which you find odd, gives me as a Dutch person a new view on the things I always saw as perfectly normal, which is fun to experience. Thank you.

I don't really agree with your remarks on takeaway. Takeaway is traditional in the Netherlands too, but mostly just at the Chinese restaurants and the cafetarias - which probably not accidentily are usually the cheapest types of restaurants. Also, that they didn't do takeaway at the beginning may have more to do with the Corona rules than not being used to it. The Chinese restaurant that I frequent, has separate take away and eat in parts, but at the beginning of the March lockdown they only had delivery - no takeout, but you could have them deliver it to you "at their doorstep". Later there was some slight change in the Corona rules, and then they had take out again, using the eat in part of the restaurant as waiting room for the take out.

You know that donuts are a invention of the Dutch 😏

The thing about the American things in hoog Catharijne and the new station is that somehow, they managed to find like five or six super American chains to open their first store in the Netherlands, right here. It seems like it was literally a goal. Including Dunkin’, I believe.

The hotdog from the Hema is delicious!(with the Unox hotdog sauce also the rookworst from them is to die for) I've always liked them ever since I was young, so no they are not a hipster or trendy thing, it's something people around me, including myself, have enjoyed for as long as I can remember!

We rushed them in so you feel at home a bit. When we finished Dutchiefying you...we kick them out again. :)

Take out/home is a pretty normal thing in the Netherlands, except for delivery, that started in the 90's! All my life ('71) we've got, Chinese, Italian, Indonesian, Indian, Shoarma and of course fries and snacks from the Snackbar to take home, but we don't do it as often as in the States, for us it was ones a week!

Another reason I can think of for American products/brands to be in the Netharlands is the connection to the dutch caribbean islands (as for example Aruba). Some of the islands are very oriented to the American tourist market. Therefore there are a numerous amounts of American chains there, American products in supermarkets and tv channels. Lots of students from the islands study in the Netherlands and are very exited when chains like Taco Bell open their doors. In Utrecht there is this American store that sells things like frootloops, Aruban students go there to buy products that make them feel a bit at home :)

Valentine' Day and Halloween -- to a limited degree -- are also imported holidays that aren't being celebrated but are used as commercialized themes in stores because it sells.

halloween is being pushed by the retailers just like black friday..

Something I hear some Americans bragging about: coleslaw! Alway ate it at KFC, without any further consideration about it as a very young child. Even I always thought it to be typical American, untill I noticed it sounded a bit Dutch. And indeed, quickly found out it derived from the Dutch "Kool-sla". So besides snacks like donut (men say they were brought over by Dutch settlers but really nobody knows for sure, even after many studies), we brought some healthy food as well! Or at least, an healthy ingrediënt😋

Pretty sure we have been eating broodje worst (sausage on bread) for longer than the US exists

In Holland, the base Hot-Dog ingredients are totally regular items, like the white bread buns ("puntjes"), and the "Knakworst" sausage. Hot-dogs got more interesting in the nineties, when IKEA gave us the "Swedish" hot-dog, where the bread is roasted, has a pre-formed hole, in which a mix of mayo & mustard is injected, then the sausage. The HEMA chain then COPIED that !

The Netherlands are a landing zone for the rest of Europe. If they fail here, they abondon Europe as a whole. This is also valid for music.

And we started to Dutchiefy America by introducing the STROOPWAFEL 😝

When I was a kid in the 70'th we went to the Netherlands for summer vacations a lot. Hotdogs where already a big thing. One food chain that might get problems coming to Europe will be Wienerschnitzel. Especially German speaking people might be shocked to find that Wienerschnitzel is a hot dog chain.

One thing I think is pretty interesting is that I feel like roast turkey has become a pretty popular Christmas dish. We obviously don't celebrate Thanksgiving but I guess we've seen the extravagant dinners in movies so we just slapped it onto Christmas instead. I also think it's kinda funny that pumpkin spice lattes are so popular even though pumpkin pie isn't at all.

American food chains do tend to localise their offerings. McDonald's has a McKroket, for example. They also offer "American" fry sauce, which is not sold in America. It is a fry sauce with herbs like parsley, onion, turmeric, and dill.

Overhere in Belgium hot dogs have been a thing for at least 40 years, particularly at sporting events like football games and cyclocross races.

I would be REALLY surprised if i was walking around. let's say New York City to find a Hema that sells oranje tompoezen. Now THAT would be a shocker ^^ And by the way, speaking of Hema, they sell their own version of a hotdog which is a sausage inside half of a French bread. Hmmm, really nice :)

Those corporations, is that American culture, or is it American marketing and American dollars? Hotdogs aren't trendy, by the way. 😁

I still think of myself as an "Oudere Jongere" (did you know that term yet ?) - but emphasizing "Oudere", I remember we had a "WIMPY" in Groningen, when I was a kid, and "Wendy's" in Antwerp, when I was a teenager ... I LOVED their Chili !! A little later, as an adolescent, I was HUGEly surprised to find a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in ISTANBUL (1991) ...

When I got to Amsterdam, I ran into this chain Bagels & Beans. Bagels also are very much an American thing (native from NY, if I'm not mistaken) so I was surprised to find these places so popular. This was back around 2000 when coffee culture in NL was starting to gain foothold. By now, you ll find them in most every Dutch city.

I’m 57 and I’ve been eating hotdogs since childhood. Every fair or weekly market has a hotdog/hamburger stand. I assume we adopted this food during WW2. The American soldiers brought a lot of new things here.

Today I saw an oliebollen drive thru, talking about combining dutch and amican things

We Dutchies just love parties. We pick up Halloween, we're stealing October fest from ze Zjermans, and so on. 😁

Yeah, English phrases are happening more and more in Dutch. I myself included. It's because we (my generation) do so much with English that we use it more in real conversation. I watch lots of English tv series/movies, my study was partly English, one of my hobbies is writing and I do that in English and I have friends abroad who speak English, so it just sneaks into my daily life I guess. Indeed with American pop colture. Same with the holidays I guess. I for one liek that Halloween is getting more popular here but not because it is American per se, just because I like the holiday ;) Black friday is decently new here. We start to take that over from the USA.

About the American phrases; we historically watch a LOT of American movies, series etc in the Netherlands, and we have subtitles so we just tend to mimic what we see on tv or at the movies

The presence of US restaurant chains depends on Dutch entrepreneurs taking out a license from the US chain to operate these restaurants in the Netherlands (or any area they buy a license for). So if a Dutch entrepreneur really likes a US restaurant chain and sees opportunities for the Dutch market he can get a license. The chain may be mediocre in the US. The Netherlands were one of the last countries where Starbucks was introduced in Europe, but as the coffee roast factory for Europe is in Amsterdam they decided to introduce it after all.

I have been to Friday's once in the States. Years later, I noticed there was a Fridays in Rotterdam, but it was closed and gone before I could take any of my friends there. I wanted to show them the concept of having different cuisine's under one roof, microwaves etc.. It was an anomaly, a mild culture shock, that needed to be shown, instead of going there to have a good meal prepared by cooks. I guess I waited too long (a couple of years, maybe).

I'm pretty sure sausages are fairly popular here so hotdogs being a thing here makes sense. But those hoodies for american universities here is weird. Personally I still want one but for the university here in the city.

Dunkin donuts and Fridays are relatively new and not (yet) really mainstream here. I saw the first of these stores pop up only just a few years ago...

Eva, did you know that Dunkin Donuts already had a shop in Budapest Hungary in the year 1994? I was there on 1 januari 1995. They were totaly sold out and we went away, but when we leaved the Dunkin the delivery van came and we went back in the restaurant and have a realy good time.

I have a university hoodie because they handed them out for free in my introduction. Literally everyone at my university had one of them

in the netherlands its like dutch is ur first language but we learn egnlish in school obviously and its a world wide language so we tend to use words from english (britisch or american) and just put them in our conversations or text messages. phrases that are typical english or populair online just sound better in english or it doesnt sound''plat''(flat) as it would in dutch. And ofcourse in america not a lot of people speak dutch so u wouldnt expect people to speak dutch words there, but english is more world wide and in general spoken bij everyone. but dutchies (like me :) starting a conversation in whole english sentences is a bit wierd, unless its like for fun or practice. because my friends and i like the sound of english and my friend can speak with a good britisch accent so we do it for funzies sometimes, hope this helped!

Hai Ava, for your information, dunkin donut is an American brand, but ( hold on to your hat) The invention of a donut was in Den Haag by the king korn Bread mill, ( the Hus backery) so a donut is a dutch product yust like a stroop wafel, but in those days there was only one kind ,only with powder sucker. All the other kinds are develept in Amerika, so the donut is Amerikan, but the base was Dutch, and dit you now that the brothers Becker in Dutch Deurne travelt to Amerika many years ago and seen with there own (ogen) eys? a hamburger. In our country we had te kroket and that was long from chape so they dit desite that a burger was no good ,so they dit develup a frikandel, so the frikandel is the Dutch sister of the hamburger so avery day there are milions burgers and frikandels sold . Dit you now that the burgers for the benelux (België, Nederland en Luxemburg)from mc Donalds in Germany stands and they make only for the mac a miljoen 1000.000 burgers a day. I hope you liket this info, succes.

Yeah. About donuts: they weren't much a thing in the 90's in the Netherlands, but gradually there were more and more donuts this century in our country. So even though I haven't found a Dunkin' Donuts in the Netherlands yet, I'm not surprised to hear it.

between 1997 and 2000 there were already dunkin donuts in the Netherlands. after that they disappeared and since 2016 they have returned. the intention was to open 25 locations in the Netherlands in 3 years, but that has not yet happened

Carnaval is only in the south, below the rivers. If you want to experience Dutch Carnaval, you'll have to go to the provinces North Brabant or Limburg in Februari. Or to Dutch Antilles. For the flower festivals, you'll have to go to the East. There is different folklore in every province, and every province also has their own dialect.

I really love wearing hoodies, they are so comforting :P

The last few years the Black Friday deals start half November and the commercials air just a few days after halloween.. It's similar to the kruidnotes sales in The Netherlands that start in September while Sinterklaas arrives 2/3 November.. It takes away the magic.. Chinese (Asia) takeout is something that exists in The Netherlands for a very long time, I think that started in the late 60s..

Hot Dogs originate from the Northern European habit to eat bread with sausages. Those migrants brought it to the US. It's most popular in Germany and Danmark, but the Dutch have eaten "Broodje Rookworst" or "Broodje knakworst" for a long time. This makes the Hot Dog not unfamiliar, it's just a variation on a Dutch tradition.

Hi Ava. Just watched the first part of your video but i already had to comment. Dunkin donuts i don't know about, but the donut itself is a dutch invention. And as for TGI Fridays..... we had a number of them in the '90's , one of them famous in the Jackie Chen movie "Who Am I?" in Rotterdam, so that has been, as far as i know , intergated in the Netherlands for a long time.

Hotdogs are extremely common in The Netherlands, every grocery store sells them, they've been part of our food culture for like 50 years hahaha

AAAAAAh in the next vid you have to let us meet your Cat. ;) Love your vids. ;)

I've lived in South America, Europe, and Asia and just wanted to say that both Dunkin Donuts and TGIFridays are literally everywhere. Both have a huge international presence and you can find them in quite a LOT of countries, so it's not surprising that they have locations in the Netherlands which has a relatively big expat community (including Americans) as well as just a lot of American influence overall.

There used to be a few Applebee's restaurants in the Netherlands as well back in the 90s.

Halloween is a European holiday, not an American holiday. Most of us forgot but it used to be celebrated with beets and not pumpkins. Americans didn't forget and used pumpkins, made some other changes and that version is now back in the EU.

Try going to Norway and see how popular hotdogs are there! You can buy them literally everywhere, from convenience stores to railway station concourses. And I have to say, they're a lot nicer than any hotdog I've ever eaten in the US, or here in the UK for that matter, where they're also popular. TGI Fridays is also big here too. I don't think people really go there for the culinary experience, it's just a fun night out with cocktails and greasy meat!

Can't remember the brand anymore, but one car brand had a 'black Friday month'. If the Dutch can get a discount, they'll get it. Some stores raise prices before (or the whole year), because there are so many discount moments (Black Friday, Sinterklaas, Christmas..)

I don't think Halloween will survive. Regarding take out, take out as a way to not have to cook in the Netherlands started with Indonesian/Chinese in the Netherlands, afhaalchinees isn't in the Dutch Van Dale but it should be 😀

Hotdogs carts are not a hipster thing per se. But are more a part of hipster foodcarts in general. There is lots of variety here. Even saw a "hutspot" food cart. We even have food cart festivals in the Netherlands!

black friday is just because of shops. People don't care much, except that there are discounts.

You should definitely do a comparison or reacting to US foodchains here. I remember being in Florida and thinking the McD and BK looking really shabby compared to ours. Of course, our culture is greatly influenced by US culture. We've always looked up to it, maybe because they were once our 'saviours'? Hoodies... Either are trademarked, so the college profits by them, or they are not and then anybody an use those college names. And if you feel Dutch people are more fashionable than Americans... that says a lot about Americans. The English/American speaking has to do with our growing up with subtitles instead of dubbed series and movies, but also with management speak. Black Friday, this year was spread out because....(drum roll)... Corona! Take-out was already growing with Thuisbezorgd and UberEats, but Corona has sure made it take off.

Hotdogs are Danish. They're called polser. About Fridays, yes, I'm surprised too! I'm very familiar with the American chains like Applebee's, Chili's, and my favorite Red Lobster.

Top two of reasons for saying 'how are you' instead of 'hoe gaat het?': 1: not actually caring for an answer (USA style) 2: dental anesthetics (making the 't'-sound so much more difficult)

Hotdogs are more a tourist thing I think, but there is a hipster "foodtruck" in the Amsterdam Hallen.

Broodje Unox is quintessentially Dutch. Also, hotdogs are available at any IKEA or in front of Hornbach.

Weekly town square markets will generally have a hotdog or hamburger stand. Generally they'll use long, hard rolls instead of the soft hotdog bun, unless they're doing it as a gimmick or something. I don't think you'll find many permanent hot dog stands since they sell 'em at the frituur.

Donuts are very similar to Dutch oliebollen. Also, many Dutch treats are deep fried, e.g. kroketten, bitterballen, frikandellen and all the other snacks. Oliebollen are deep fried too, and the composition of the varieties without raisins are pretty similar - just the shape is different. Hotdogs have been around for decades, to be honest. So has the knakworst we eat, in a normal bun, so it's not a leap from one to the other. College hoodies are mostly people trying to be cool. They haven't been around for that long unless someone had gone to the US and brought one back. 30ish years ago you'd see a Yankees cap at best.

You may be surprised to find that "Dutch English" isn't as British as you think. The British words will stand out to you, because American is your standard vocabulary. Sure, we know about trunk v. boot and sidewalk v. pavement, but once I moved to the UK, I suddenly noticed other Americanisms I never knew about. You don't think about the parking lot (car park), or the trash can (bin) which is collected by the garbage man (dustman, binman). Or those you do know about, but still don't notice, like store v. shop. After all, when you visit multiple stores, you're still shopping rather than storing.

A funny thing is that the hamburger was a German-Russian invention which became a huge success with usage of the Americans.

Getting things to go, is a very long tradition: Patates frites, chinese food and pizzas. I like a sweatshirt of my alma mater (Utrecht) but they are not easy to come by. I especially like those with a modest embleme : "sol iustitiae illusra nos".

Thanksgiving does exist in the form of giving prayers and giving thanks for the harvest in the protestant church. "Biddag and Dankdag". It plays a more religious part rather than a more openly celebrated national day. In the catholic church they have something similar but is not very common in the netherlands. I think thanksgiving involves a bit more in the usa because it also tells a tale of how usa came to be rather than just giving thanks to the harvest.

... AND: In recent years, many Dutch Universities started teaching mainly in English, and they are yearly drawing bigger crowds of foreign students, because in Holland you can study almost Anything for a TUITION of only about € 2,000 a YEAR !!

Hi Ava. To number four on your list: we see many American-made TV-shows and movies. Most of what we import in that respect, has its origins in American studios. So we're -- in a way -- brainwashed with American English. Also, besides the native English speakers, the Dutch are most noted for our mastery of the English language. From that viewpoint, do you really think it's surprising that a lot of American English rubs off on us? English is almost second nature to us.

Its a long time here I am 75 I new it always.

In the 80’s there was the Hamburger restaurant Wimpy’s in the Netherlands

You should check out the movie Demolition Man. There is a scene at a Taco Bell restaurant. But not in the European version. There it's Pizza Hut. If you look closely, you can even see the actors mouth the name "Taco Bell", but you hear them saying "Pizza Hut".

Black Friday is a commercial invention and it is ghastly. But it didn't provoke the "Claus 'raus" counter-action which the merchants got, when they began to sell christmas stuff ahead of Sinterklaas. That's why it is now pushed. Also because it is about a week ahead of Sinterklaas, it broadens the sales away from only the children gifts.

American chains in the Netherlands are water down version of their American counterparts. TGI Friday's serves only a third of their menu items at a much higher price. This applies also to Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks.

Our use of English comes from two things. One is the lessons from a young age in school. The other is all the tv! Lots and lots of movies, which are subtitled in dutch, but the audio is intact, so you pick up the entire language, including all the PLACES in the USA... I mean, I've never been there, never looked at a map even, and I know of Lubbock Texas... Or Paris Kentucky, or Chicago Illinois. And I couldn't name all the states to save my life! But things like this, and the things you mentioned of using English when you say hi or bye, it's just grown into our culture, and the multi-culture we are now, also contributes to that, because even if you're foreign, MOST of us do speak English. Okay, with a stiff accent you can lean on, but it's understandable nonetheless. ;-)) I mean, how do I know there are swamps and gators in Florida? I've not learned that in school you know?! It's all movies and series that depict a LOT of the culture. It's movies and series that taught me about all the different landscapes in the USA too. The Grand Canyon being famous, but I do know that Arizona is desert, and I've seen yellowstone national park in so many ways, without ever having been there. Series like Gold Rush also show a lot of the landscapes. It's awesome HOW much you can see through tv, and also google maps and earth these days. Just awesome! And all of this makes me wonder how much the rest of the world knows about us Dutchies?! ;-) And this is why I love vids like yours :-)

Over the last two decades more and more American holidays have been introduced to Dutch consumers by retailers as a bellows to boost sales. The holidays never really took firm cultural hold, but the consumerism associated with them and with American popculture, did. It started with Valentines Day in the late nineties, culminating in the latest craze: BlackWeek 2020 (Black Friday on steroids due to covid19)

Quite a few times when I tell people I’m American they will comment in a positive way about our pop culture and our TV series! Maybe this is where all the American sayings are coming from 🤔

Doughnuts are deep-fried cakes with a long European history and roots in still earlier Middle Eastern cuisine. They were introduced to America by the Dutch in New Netherlands to America as oliekoecken (oil cakes or fried cakes).

first there were "oliebollen" and then there were donuts.....try it: buy both and compare not only the taste but also the texture. also you can google it

A lot of those companies you mention have only a few or one locations, and they are using NL as a testing ground for the whole EU. But they also have a different niche than they have in the USA, unlike McDonalds. Dunkin donuts and TGI Fridays are doing well right now because of the novelty aspect and as a sort of 'American restaurant.' We don't go there just because, people go to TGI *because* of the obscene amounts of disgusting fatty food and thus the 'typical American dining expereince.' They are not going to supplant the market is all I am saying, they are only popular now because they are a novelty typicallly American experience. And those hotdogs are popular because of Germany, we already were used to eat hotdogs on the styreets like they do in Germany. You are looking at a thing that was already a thing in Germany and got exported to America and The Netherlands.

The college hoodies... I've personally only ever seen the university of utrecht hoodies and as an alumni there i really wanted one but I never found the shop where they sold them

Hotdogs have been around in the netherlands forever. Basicly a slightly different variation on the german knackwursten

Take out from chinese restaurants have been popular since way back here in The Netherlands. Lots of jokes were made about that “sambal bij?”.

I've been to McDonald's only twice in my entire life (I'm 48) once in Utrecht, once in Eindhoven, both times I was with a larger groups so I didn't have much say in the matter. I can't say however that I've eaten at McDonald's twice, as I don't think that what they served me meets the legal definition of food. Both times after I got home I went to the local frituur to get some "proper" fast food. I honestly can't see the charm of that place and why it's so popular.

The strangest things about dunkin donuts in Utrecht is that two of their stores are within a very short distance. Both at the central station

Honestly though, while take-out is convenient, it’s also much more expensive, less healthy on the whole and uses so much plastic and packaging. All in all it’s really not a good thing to incorporate into a society. But I can imagine it’s nice to see the development in this direction when you’re used to having it and miss having it now.

The "Thuisbezorgd" brand is owned by "Justeat" And even 3 years ago they did deliveries for a lot of different kinds of restaurants. You could order italian, indian, thai, surinaams (roti!), chinese etc etc.

Applebee's we also had but it's gone now..I wished we got an american bbq restaurant with low and slow cooked meat.

American foodchains. I would like to see my fav foodchain for when i'm in the south east USA: Cracker Barrel! i love that restaurant with the rocking chairs outside. Hotdags have been here since i was born, so for over 50 years. It's acually a German sausage that the USA renamed as 'Hotdog'.

Hot Dogs are culturally considered American by man, but Hot Dog Culture is as big and as old in Denmark (with a pretty big difference in toppings), so I think Hot Dogs are not as exclusively american as we all seem to think. I don't think Hot Dogs are a trendy thing, they just exist and that's good, cause they are nice, fom tim to time.

When my hometown was liberated in september 1944 (by American and British army) the people started to use English in their language almost immediately. I have a news paper snippet from october 1944 where the mayor of Nijmegen thanks Grave (don't be scared of the name, we're pretty much alive 😂) for their help in bringing food, milk and other needs to the Nijmegen hospital. He uses the phrase "last not least" and writes "there's the English influence already". See here: www.bommeltje.nl/website/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/DD310B88-7C27-45C5-9D4E-0DC06CCE880E.jpeg And don't forget that we have seen almost any American action and sci-fi movie since then. So most of us don't need explaination when we hear certain US brands. And hotdogs... are you sure that's an American thing? The name maybe, but the idea is pretty European 🌭😋 Have a good Christmas Aeva 🎄👍

American culture has been pretty prevalent for a long time in media, like TV shows and movies, in the Netherlands. Because of our small population size and general decent grasp of the English language it has been more profitable to license American (and to a lesser degree British) movies and shows than it is to make our own for the most part. You can't spend too much money on a product with a small target audience, so native Dutch media is usually a lot lower budget than imported media. So American foods, brands and holidays are well known in the Netherlands, and media depictions like that will make things gain in popularity. At some point it will hit a critical mass and it will at some point not even be seen as something foreign anymore. Brands like McDonald's and Starbucks were known from movies and TV before they got popular in the Netherlands. If I am not mistaken he early McDonald's in the Netherlands were opened around American military bases to service the troops and they became popular with the locals because of the already existing name recognition due to American media on Dutch TV and in the movie theaters. And there is a certain allure to things that seem exotic. The combination of exotic and familiar is highly attractive to a lot of people. America has gone through the same thing numerous times, with many foods or parts of food being imported, Americanized and then being exported again to other countries as an American thing. Sometimes you can see it in the names like Hamburger (from Hamburg, Germany), Hotdogs (Frankfurter sausage from Frankfurt, Germany), Wiener sausages (from Vienna/Wien, Austria). I sometimes joke that the most original American food is American Chinese food, since it's so far removed from anything eaten in China, but the Dutch are not all that much better with our Chinese food. We consider eating potatoes incredibly Dutch, and they were most definitely a (South American, not USA) import originally. But the longer something is common, the less foreign it will seem. Some people want to keep their culture "pure" and free of foreign influence, not realizing that everything had to have started at some point as a new thing and most things have been imported at some point. Nearly all our common food crops in the Netherlands are either south/central American or middle eastern in origin if you trace them back far enough. The Dutch language is part of the Indo-European language group which originated either in the Pontic Steppe or in Anatolia and Dutch genetic makeup shows many waves of migrating groups. When people talk about their traditional cultural things, they usually mean how it was in their childhood, they have no memory of before that. I know some old people who don't trust kiwi-fruit or mangoes because they are foreign, but will gladly eat bananas and oranges. Ok, that was way too much of a tangent, anyway, culture is an ever changing thing, American culture has been a big influence for a while now and certain aspect are getting incorporated into Dutch culture, and maybe get a bit Dutchified in the process.

The presence of a fast food chain near utrecht centraal or shop doesn't signify that it's popular in the entire country. It means an american brand is trying it out in a popular place where a lot of people pass.

I think with American chains, especially younger people (who tend to be more internationally connected) tend to hear from their international friends about these places, or having travelled and been there themselves, which creates a demand for that specific chain here in The Netherlands. I think The Netherlands is also a country that really likes having tastes from all over the world, so having a 'typically American' restaurant alongside Italian restaurants and Irish pubs etc. fits in well. I also think that, whilst Utrecht may not be the prime tourist destination, it is very central and well connected, it is probably the major train hub in The Netherlands. I think that Amsterdam and Utrecht are the two most likely places for new concepts to be introduced in the country, because Amsterdam gets a lot of tourists so they have some safety that even if the Dutch might not like it, they can probably still make a profit from tourists, and Utrecht is just most accessible and gets a lot of commuter traffic, so it's a good place to see if there's enough interest in a brand to expand to more locations in The Netherlands. Aside from the major chains like McD's and SB's, I haven't been to many American chains (partially because I don't live in a major city that has them; we don't even have SB's or McD's in our town); one chain I have been to in Amsterdam and several other countries (but I think Amsterdam is the only location in the NL) is Hard Rock café, I had a period in which I really enjoyed (Hard) Rock and Metal, so that got me interested, and I enjoy the vibe there, and they have some good food (I've had their vegetarian burger in Amsterdam years ago, and it was so good, I really had to check a couple of times if they were sure it was vegetarian; I also absolutely love their Hot Fudge Brownie) I think with hotdogs, it's similar to the typically Dutch Broodje Knakworst that many of us grew up with, but probably with a better sausage than what you'd get from a can at home. Also Germanic countries (such as The Netherlands, Germany, and Austria) have quite a history with sausages; the hotdog is even based on German Frankfurters and/or Austrian Vienna (Wiener) sausages. With college hoodies from US colleges, I think it's partially just that we see that sort of stuff a lot in American films and series, and thus people associate it with that. There's also universities here that sell their own hoodies and other branded apparel, and I think it's partially just blown over from American custom (also because we get quite some international students, including American ones) and it's partially people who want to show off pride about going to (their specific) university (can be to set themselves apart from the 'burgers', a term meaning citizens/inhabitants/townspeople but sometimes used in student towns/cities to refer to non-students/permanent residents; or if they're going to something with students from various universities to show off the University they're associated with) I think with speaking (American) English, this is another thing coming from us consuming a lot of American films and series, and generally subbed rather than dubbed (and now with the internet this is intensified even more trough things like youtube, and having international contacts); people just pick up on these, and then also use them with local friends who might copy them, etc. 11:45 cute rebel cat ^_^ Halloween originates from the UK and has general pagan and christian influences, although I do think the way it is celebrated is more and more copying from American, again as a result from American films and Series, and international connections. Yeah, carnival is really more of a Southern/Catholic thing; also carnival costumes are generally trying to be as ridiculous as possible, whereas Halloween is more trying to be spooky. Black Friday is more due to increasingly international markets; if your US competitors are offering big sales, then you better do the same, and once a couple of big stores start doing it, it's quickly adopted by smaller stores as well to be able to keep up, and it starts living its own life. I think pumpkins in part come with Halloween, although pumpkins and squashes have been a bit of a fall thing in The Netherlands for longer I think. Pumpkin Spice probably really came here thanks largely due to starbucks. Yeah pumpkin spice shouldn't contain pumpkin, although due to people getting confused, many brands, including starbucks, have started to include (negligible) amounts of pumpkin in their pumpkin spice products to calm down the uninformed outraged masses. I think Pumpkin spice and speculaas do taste quite different (although even speculaaskruiden have variance in the exact recipe) and I like them both in their own contexts. Yeah, take out for dinner has been a thing for ages here, although even then it was more that a place was either set-up for dining in, or for take-out, but not often for both; but for smaller items such as a coffee, sandwhich or a bagel, it used to be (before covid) mostly in places such as stations where you'd have a lot of people on the move, but not very typical for regular cafés and such to offer on-the-go options, of if they do they didn't really advertise it. I think there's threeparts of that: first of all, the two things you already mention: the price difference and the 'gezelligheid', and thirdly also the way Dutch vs American city planning is set up: the US is very car-centric and most shops will be along car streets, people are generally more likely to commute by car, even public transport is typically close to these roads as well, and there's more segregation between housing, shops, and business zones; meanwhile in the NL, we have a much more mixed commuter profile, with a lot of people using public transport for long distances, and cycling or walking for shorter distances, shops are often in pedestrian areas, public transport is often a bit more removed from the roads, and we generally have more mixed zoning where housing, shops, and businesses exist much closer together. Personally even now I don't get that much take-out (at least not much more than usual, certainly not enough to compensate for how often I would go to for example Bagels&Beans for lunch) because I partially do that for the atmosphere, and as a place to hang out with friends, and it's just more expensive; but occasionally I do get it when I really feel like having something from a place, I do order take-out, although many places don't (yet) offer delivery or make it even more expensive, so I tend to just go and collect it myself, but if I have the choice of going there to collect it and then take it back home, or go there and eat it there, I'd prefer eating it there.

Dutch Americano, the whole medication-advert thing: John Oliver from Last Week Tonight actually has a good piece on this, look for a piece called "Marketing to Doctors".

Carnaval is not so much a southern thing, but a Catholic thing. In the old days Carnaval would mark the start of the season of lent which ends at Easter, but I don't think people still do that. Catholics also have a pretty direct replacement for Halloween, namely the feast of Saint Martin on 11/11. My guess for Halloween growing in popularity is that people do like the idea behind Saint Martin, but don't like the link with Catholicism. It's also commercially more interesting because Saint Martin does not have the dress-up, only the candles.

On Dutch television many subtitled American series are shown. When you often hear particular short sentences it is difficult not to adopt them.