I've been to known to do this. When I was on a stimulant for ADHD, I would get ravenously hungry whenever it wore off, which was often late in the evening.

That doesn't really explain why it's such a trope, but my theory is that you're right about it being a US thing. It is common for us to eat dinner/supper early (like 5-7 pm) relative to some parts of Europe, which means that there's more time until breakfast and therefore we're more likely to get hungry late in the evening.