> What the conversation boiled down-to- are foods that use 'all the cheat codes', ie, adding sugar, salts, fats, acid; going to taste better than foods that are

> What the conversation boiled down-to- are foods that use 'all the cheat codes', ie, adding sugar, salts, fats, acid; going to taste better than foods that are traditional? This is one of those unquantifiable sentiments that will just devolve into one person's personal biases against another's. What counts as a "cheat code"? What is the definition of "traditional"? In fact, the rest of your post belies a bias against American food and American interpretations of non-American food. In fact, three of your "cheat codes" (salt, fat, and acid) are fundamental elements of cooking world-wide. The differences are in how those elements are brought, figuratively and literally, to the table by various cultures.