Wanted: Items for Cultural Exchange

There are a lot of things that I like about my flat and my flatmates, but by far one of my favorites is the way food is shared. At home, it's pretty much the norm for roommates all to buy their own food and if they share anything at all, it's only stuff like condiments or milk (although I have known many houses/apartments that have five separate bottles of mustard in the fridge). Here the norm is that everyone puts money into a flat bank account each week, shopping is done together, and people rotate cooking for the whole group.

At first it was pretty weird to me to do things this way, and I always felt like I was eating someone else's food. It also felt strange to eat real dinners instead of quick stuff that can be made in single portions. And even more strange to actually have all five people eating together almost every night. Back home, even when everyone would be home eating together at the same time, it still seemed very individual because you were eating food that you'd cooked by yourself and for yourself. As cheesy as it sounds, my flat now feels more like a family.

Also fun is that I am definitely getting a taste of Kiwi culture (pun only partially intended). The foods are not that much different from what we eat, but there have been a couple things that have confused and/or surprised me:

• "Caster sugar" (what we would call white sugar)
• Hundreds and Thousands (sprinkles, like you'd use for cakes or cookies)
• Golden syrup (still not sure what the American equivalent is, but I think it's corn syrup)
• Crayfish (much bigger than our crayfish at home--no wonder it was so expensive in Australia!)
• Creme fraiche vs. double creamed vs. thickenend cream vs. sour cream (I am still not sure what the difference between all these things are, but I just buy whatever it says on the package)
• Chicken flavored potato chips (not as bad as you might expect)
• Kumara. It was described to me as a "Maori potato," and to me it seemed to be about halfway between a sweet potato and a regular potato in terms of taste. Delicious.
  

Of course they have been interested in what I eat as well. Here are some things that have confused my flatmates:

• Peanut butter and jelly. This was confusing for two reasons: first, what they call "jelly" is what we call "jello," so the combination sounds pretty gross. Second, they never put the two together. They put peanut butter by itself on toast (same with jelly/jam), but they never put the two together
• Pretty much all Mexican food. They did not know what tortilla chips were (they call them corn chips), and not only had they never heard of quesadillas, there is no equivalent! A sad life they are leading in this country...
  
• S'mores. This did not surprise me after talking to people in Australia about it, but the real surprise came when I tried to explain them and they didn't know what a graham cracker was. That was harder to explain.
  
• Twinkies, ding dongs, ho-hos etc. They have heard about these on TV, but didn't know what they were. These were also hard to explain because you just can't put into words how over-processed they are. I think I'll just have to go have some shipped over or bring some back when I go home.
  
• Corndogs. Another of America's treasures that you just have to taste to understand.
  
• TurDuckIn and deep fried turkey. This wasn't so much confusing to them, but it was the first thing they thought of as being "American" food and were disappointed to know that I have never eaten either.
  

As you can see, my flatmates have a pretty sad impression of what Americans eat, but I couldn't really think of any truly American dishes. With 4th of July coming up, I'd like to cook them something that is uniquely American. Any ideas?