That's the thing about America. Somebody from every country is here, making their traditional foods or riffing on them with new ingredients and processes. I can go downtown and try Ethiopian, two British pubs, two Vietnamese, French (high and low styles), three Indian places, 4 Thai, 6 kinds of Mexican. All run by folks from those places.
Plenty of exceptions exist, but tend to be very local.
[1]: He expressed it as a threat.
[2]: I think the hope that we'd have a taco truck on every corner was probably more unifying than anything else that's happened or been done by anyone in the US since.
American Thai food as generally consumed is rapidly becoming it’s own thing that’s somewhat related to actual Thai food. Like California rolls or hotdogs what’s left over after the free market has it’s say is a very different thing.
And that's what we're seeing now with Thai food. As the generations get further and further removed from the original immigrants, the cuisine continues to evolve in its own direction. And why shouldn't it?
It's also worth remembering that restaurants are not always (and in fact, rarely are) representative of the actual local cuisines. There's still heavy emphasis on the good ol' home cooked meal (as hard as frozen food chains might try to supplant home cooking), and that's where you see both the preservation of tradition and the proliferation of experimentation, marketability and profit be damned. Indeed, looking at these home cooked meals, it becomes readily evident that the oft-denigrated Chinese holes-in-the-wall and small town pizzerias are far closer to authenticity than the fancy gastropubs and fusion restaurants of snobbish preference; authentic cuisine puts form over function, and heartiness over presentation. Authenticity comes from humility and self-awareness; it doesn't need to try to impress anyone's palate.
I stand by my original point that you can’t call something authentic X after you significantly later what it is. Small town pizzerias and snobbish restaurants are both very distinct from classic Italian food.
That said, if you go to Italy today they very much cater to tourists expecting food their familiar with. Further, while the tomato was only imported in the 16th century, that’s plenty far back to confuse the issue.
So does that make it "not Italian"? It was first-generation cooks that made it. Certainly not "Traditional Italian" but so what?
So we're gonna ask the next time.
PS: Hot isn’t a complex flavor it’s exactly what’s left over after you extract the complexity from many ethnic dishes.
Unless the American eats only at fast food restaurants (which is probably a decent sized group), then I can't imagine that to be true. There are fries with many difference cross section sizes even in a regular grocery freezer aisle.
And many restaurants frequently serve fries ranging from skinny shoestring to full on "potato logs" that are easily an inch diameter cross section.
Everything tastes better when you're on vacation. Less stress. Heightened senses It's science.
I do think that entirely too few people in the US have ever tried anything other than fries of smaller cross section and that properly cooked Belgian style fries would be a revelation for a great number of people over here.
Besides, the whole premise of TFA is based on snobbery and a bit of nostalgia. They're recreating the old McDonalds fries, not the new because of the perceived superiority of the old ones, after all.
I only argue that if you're going to be a snob, you should at least be a well-informed snob, though perhaps my intended humor came across poorly over the internet.
Imagine reading an article written by somebody who has never tried deep dish pizza (or any other kind) writing about their quest to replicate an old Dominos crust recipe.