>>
>> Another issue is the nationalisation of cuisines. A Chinese meal in London, Paris and Beijing
>> are totally different. Ditto an Indian meal in San Francisco, Birmingham or New Delhi.
>>
>> It's not even clear which food belongs to which national cuisine.
>>
I once ate in the management dining room of an IT company in Hyderbad.
"Authentic" Indian food (and very nice) but our party came under increasing scrutiny as the dishes presented were obviously arriving in ascending levels of "spiciness".
It wasn't very long before we were being asked by our hosts whether we found the food a bit "hot", to which we all replied, genuinely, that it was not any more than we were used to.
We saw the meal through to the end (by which time it was very "tasty"), and were later told that the management got some amusement from their more regular American visitors, who generally couldn't get past the second set of dishes.
I was trained by regular visits to The Darjeeling in Nottingham, where my customary Madras was at the hot end of the spectrum, the occasional Vindaloo was eye-watering, and the Phall (which I once sampled but never ordered) was thermonuclear.
Without a word of a lie, I once saw a guy (Iranian or some similar ethnicity) order a Phall, and the Chef came out of the kitchen to warn him off it! ("Do you know....?"). To his credit, he persevered and ate it (but the handkerchief went over the brow a good few times).
(I don't believe Vindaloo or Phall are of genuine Indian origin, but are non-continental inventions).
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