Chinese food is an interesting case too. For one, it's a moving target. Stuff like mala xiang guo (dry hot pot), skewer hot pot, boba, and so on are all modern

Chinese food is an interesting case too. For one, it's a moving target. Stuff like mala xiang guo (dry hot pot), skewer hot pot, boba, and so on are all modern inventions. And of course, these modern inventions were borne out of experimentation and fun ideas. What if we took hot pot base and made a stir fry out of it? What if we took grilling skewers and dumped them in hot pot? What if we took tea and added tapioca pudding? So why bother with an obsession on authenticity that requires slavish reproduction of how things are done in the old country? With that said, I do think there's something to be said about keeping the provenance of ingredients and flavor. I don't think you need to make mapo tofu exactly how they make it in Chengdu, but it might be good to understand the core ideas of mala (spicy-tingly flavor) or the importance of doubanjiang (fermented chili bean paste). Likewise there's something to be said about Italian food's focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients.