Americans are a unique bunch in that we don't take much pride in our culture and are generally less conscious of our "traditions," if we even claim to have them (maybe partly because it is such a young country, it drew in so many different cultures and classes, it has a bad political/colonial track record, it has tended to smear its culture all over the rest of the world anyway, who knows). Russians on the other hand have been described to me as "highly specific" when it comes to their traditions and culture. Thus it was quite interesting to see a Russian translation of an American practice. According to my lovely roommate and her friends, the 'true traditional American club sandwich' is made with both grilled chicken and pork, and three slices of bread. While I'd admit that the club sandwich is widespread (as more of a general theme, and not in a specific form), I personally would never recognize it as a tradition, and am ready to assume most Americans wouldn't either. Here is the official version, made by my roommate, Tanya. :)
It's also interesting that relatedly, we don't really recognize an American ethnicity, which I would consider to be the group who practices a system of traditions. Perhaps there are groups who do recognize American ethnicity that I am unfamiliar with. In my experience, when people ask a white American, especially, about their ethnicity, they often trace their roots to other cultures - if they aren't white, they often hyphenate their ethnicity - e.g. Mexican-American, African-American, Asian-American. Regardless of why this is the case, it's interesting to see what it means to be American from an outside perspective, as above with the "club sandwich." American ethnicity and traditions may not be recognized as much from within, but they are certainly recognized from without (in translated ways) by other cultures.
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