Stereofood

National cuisines are a worrisome thing. The talk of a national cuisine is worrying. Everything about it is worrying. poopy.

There are very few nations that are actually singular in culture enough to be able to legitimately come up with a set of foods and call that their national cuisine, and still have it be representative of the vast majority of cultures and foods present and prevalent within that nation.

Thus, when speaking of things such as Chinese or Italian cuisine, it is much less an actual representation of the nation than a representation of the most popular and well known food-related aspects in regards to that nation. Chinese food is certainly not all about fried rice and Gen. Tso's Chicken. There's no such thing as Gen. Tso's chicken in China.

This is worrying because once these standards are established throughout the world for what is an what isn't 'supposed' to be in a national cuisine, then there is no turning back. People nowadays are oh so crazy against stereotyping and only taking things at face value. Then why is Chinese food represented by such ridiculous things as egg-drop soup (never had it at any restaurant in China before, nor did I see anyone else ever order/ingest/talk of it), Tso's chicken, and the ever-famous fortune cookie (never have seen one in China before, nor have I seen anyone else ever order/ingest/speak of it).

Certainly, names with such rich histories as China (ancient China, 5000 plus years of history) or Italy (ancient Rome, Etruscans, and beyond, etc) should represent more than just the occasional dish of fried rice or stir-fried spinach, pan pizza and pre-fabricated lasagna dinners?