hey all,
Each country seems to have a particular foreign cuisine that the natives latch onto: the US has the pizza, Amsterdam has Indonesian food (in particular, satay), and Japan has curry. In each place, you can find tons of restaurants that serve these items, and every convenience store and grocery store will carry them pre-made, or will have the ingredients you need to make them yourself.
My school has even served curry for lunch at least once.
The question is, why does this happen? Globalization and increased international contact might explain how it happens, but why does the cuisine of one foreign country get favored over others in each particular nation? The French, for instance, feel snubbed by the fact that Italian cuisine is more popular in the US and elsewhere than is French food. How did Italian food get to be more popular than French food (universally)? Crepes, chocolate mousse and duck fondue are at least as good as pizza, spaghetti, and tiramisu. Is it the snobbish Parisian attitude (the Mediterranean part of France is a whole different galaxy than Paris) and smaller number of French diaspora?
How did curry come to be more popular than Chinese, Thai, or even Italian food in Japan? Contact with China and Thailand was earlier than with India or Italy, although it must be remembered that Buddhism has its roots in India, and some cuisine might have been passed along with the religion.
Why did the Dutch latch onto satay and not curry, or even Pad Thai? The Dutch traders of 300 years ago had at least as much contact with Indonesia as India and Thailand, and even some contact with Japan. Why isn't Japanese food all the rage in Holland?
This is something of a mystery to me.
Cheers
