> The confusion of "authenticity" with "quality" in the comments here is really embarassing. I don't necessarily disagree, but a lot of the time "authentic" ca

> The confusion of "authenticity" with "quality" in the comments here is really embarassing. I don't necessarily disagree, but a lot of the time "authentic" can be a decent indicator of quality. In my experience, the best food comes from people who actually eat the food themselves and people who are making the food for motivations other than simple monetary motivations. That's the issue with a lot of "inauthentic" food - the people who make it don't necessarily like it or enjoy eating it, but and are often making it to appeal to what they view as the norm for the surrounding culture in an attempt to make more money. It's not that non-authentic food can't be great, it's just that often times it's more of a cheap cash-grab. It's the same reason you wouldn't expect food at a movie theater or sports stadium to be great (though there are exceptions). I don't think it's even about what country you're in. You have similar situations with American food in downtown Manhattan, Italian food in downtown Rome, Chinese food in Shanghai, etc., leading to a lot of low quality food in those places. I actually had more luck finding good, authentic Chinese food when I was traveling through the tourist areas of Italy than I did finding good authentic Italian food.