huh, really? Whenever I get back from traveling I feel the opposite.
Sure in places like NY you can get any kind of food. But in my mono-cultural hometown there is little besides hamburgers or pizza.
Even in my (relatively) small-medium town in New Hampshire[1] there's an amazing variety of high quality restaurants. A lot of people abroad in their own similiar-sized towns don't get to ever try authentic Mexican, or Cajun, or American comfort, or sushi, or Greek, etc, all of which are available here.
For most tourists, especially tourists from small towns going to NYC or Boston or SF, America is a cultural delight of food.
I think it's more about the stereotype that is expected of the restaurant rather than actually being authentic. For example, Greek gyros is almost always pork, never lamb. If you get lamb gyros, it's middle-eastern.
I remember growing in Taiwan and having "pizza" there - it doesn't really resemble the pizza you might find in Italy, nor the Americanized version. For one thing, pizza was high-class, eaten at a sit-down place with cloth napkins, forks, and knives... and toppings featured things like lobster and crab.
The reverse is true too - there is no such thing as "chicken balls", that crazy east-coast invention that claims to be Chinese, nor General Tso's chicken either. In fact, mostly everything you find in an American Chinese restaurant would never be found at the dinner table in China. But if you think that's crazy, wait till you try Chinese-Indian food. Hoo boy.
But that's the great thing about the new global society - we can remix, borrow, replace to our heart's content. I had Peking duck tacos a couple of weeks ago, it was delicious. And there's this food truck near here that has an amazing (Korean-style) roast pork Chinese bao that's garnished with Japanese pickled radishes with some Mexican flavor thrown in to boot. Sublime.
Food is, in the future, extremely unlikely to stick to its geographic and ethnic roots, and what an amazing change that is.
There are many nice restaurants in Italy that are just like this.
Well, as a Greek, I beg to differ. We eat lamb more than "once a year" (you probably refer to easter, but forget the mighty paidakia). Plus, this cow meat we mostly eat now is a recent development.
The traditional meat until 4-5 decades ago was lamb and goat (mostly because Greek domestic cows where too skinny and the grass unfit to support them. Post 1981 they were replaced with foreign cow breeds plus tons of imports).
As for hummus: "Greek" restaurants abroad are often mixed Greek/Middle-Eastern, and some are run by Lebanese and use the "Greek" just to attract some additional customers.
A funny aside: the traditional american "diner" (the chrome plated, hamburger joint etc) was more often than not, a Greek business. Greeks pwned the diner business in the US in the '40 to '80s. If you check a series like "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives", a disproportionate percentage of iconic food joints are still in Greek hands, including the majority of NY hot dog stands. I have travelled extensively in the US (only missed Vermont), and I chanced upon several, such as:
• Lou Mitchels, the Chicago diner at the start point of Route 66. • Nick's, in Albq., NM at the crossing of Route 66 (old route) and Route 66 (later bypass) (!), • Leopold's, considered the best ice cream in Savannah, GA (and featured in top-10 US lists)• Ariston, on Route 66, IL, suggested by every guide, • Mike's Chilly Parlor, in Seattle, etc. nom nom nom nom...
The US has, overall, amazing food. In large cities there is not only immense diversity (after all, the US is more diverse than most Western nations), but also a culture of experimentation at all price ranges. It's possible to eat amazingly in most major cities for anywhere between $5 and $500.
In the country and small towns there is a tremendous variation across the nation. The food of the Northwest vs. the food of the Southwest vs. the food of the South vs. the Northeast.
It's only when you get into strip-mall-landia where things start appearing incredibly boring and monocultural, and just plain not good.
A famous economist / foodie has written an entire book about how you've got it EXACTLY backwards:
http://www.amazon.com/An-Economist-Gets-Lunch-Everyday/dp/05...
The best food, he asserts, is in strip malls. You just have to know a few tricks to find it.
Great book. Go read it.
And of course, Cowen includes a section on exactly how hard it is, and how creative he had to be, to get decent Chinese food in rural Virginia.
It is obviously not true that the best food overall can be found in exurban and rural strip malls.
For example - at the time (early nineties) almost no Indian food anywhere. In the UK even small villages often have an Indian take out. On the flip side - in the US you have texmex everywhere. It's still fairly rare over here (and of a.... erm.... different level of quality :-)
Bread was another one. At even small rural shops you had soughdough, rye, bagels, etc. In the UK you get white bread and brown bread ;-)
And the portion sizes... wow... so different. I remember going out with a family chatting away snacking away and suddenly realising that I was now "full" on the "free stuff you eat before your meal"...
Yes, Umberto Eco wrote an interesting article on the cultural significance of "more" to Americans. This is quite obvious in restaurant portion sizes among other.
Amazing how a minor thing like running India as a colony for 400+ years can have that effect!
Similarly, I imagine that Tex-Mex is a bit more common here than in Wales...
Indeed :-)
(Really it was about 200 years-ish of "running" India. It's usually dated from 1757 and the East India Company's victory at the Battle of Plassey.)