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Aussie expat 'laughed at' over detail in US restaurant order

The woman has expounded on what regular menu lingo from Australia is completely misunderstood in the US.

An Aussie woman has revealed a major difference between fast food in Australia and the US after her attempt to make an order was met with laughter, she claims.

TikToker Kirale moved to Hawaii from the Gold Coast two months ago and has noticed a bunch of cultural differences between the two countries.

While ordering a chicken burger at a popular fast food store, the expat claimed, "everyone laughed at me". And while it might be a staple menu item in chains across Australia — like McDonald's or Oporto — chicken burgers aren't quite the same in the US, she says.

Australian TikTok woman Kirale in the US talking about chicken burger.
Australian woman Kirale said Americans say 'chicken sandwich' rather than 'chicken burger'. Source: TikTok/Getty

"They don’t call it a chicken burger, they call it a chicken sandwich," she revealed in a video on TikTok. "A chicken burger from Mcdonald's or from anywhere with buns – that’s called a chicken sandwich."

She also said chicken salt doesn't seem to exist in the US, and when ordering fish and chips, she's always given regular salt instead.

Social media reacts to 'chicken burger' claim

The revelations shocked other Aussies who commented on her video, while foreigners questioned "what in the world is chicken salt". One pointed out that chicken salt is very much "an Aussie thing".

"Why do they call it a chicken sandwich? The sliced bread with chicken on it, are they also a chicken sandwich?" one asked, hung up on the minor detail.

"Chicken burger makes way more sense," a second commented. "I so don't get the burger thing," another shared.

One person, presumably from the US, attempted to explain the difference between a burger and a sandwich. "If the bun is open on all sides it's a sandwich, if it is closed at the back it's a burger," he said.

Key differences between fast food in Australia and the US

Others on social media have previously made some other fairly obvious comparisons between the food in the US and Australia including serving sizes, with those in the US being much bigger.

Meanwhile, an American expat living in Australia previously noted the quality of fast food is 'much better' in Australia which she put down to fewer preservatives being used.

On TikTok, Australian woman Leah joked she "needed a translator" to order food in America, claiming fast-food workers rarely understand the Aussie accent. A video shared last year shows her asking for a bottle of water several times in a drive-thru, but to no avail. Not until she replicated the American pronunciation swapping the 'T' sound for a 'D'.

Commenting on her video, others agreed with some sharing their own experiences while ordering food overseas. "I was trying to order a cheeseburger in the United States and they had to get the manager," one man wrote. "In the end I had to point to a photo."

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