One need not travel internationally to see food absurdity.
My first job out of grad school was working for a time sharing company and I ended up on a trip to Maryland because of a project for the Navy that was supported out of both Los Angeles and Bethesda. The marketing office took us out to lunch at a 'Mexican' restaurant. Of all the forms of Mexican food it came closest to Tex-Mex. But it was bland! Tasteless Tex-Mex! A double down on stupid as we traveled by jet, not wagon train, it wasn't like we were homesick and yearning for a touch of L.A. Fortunately the computers and the main offices were also in Bethesda and one of our party knew the crew in operations, the crazy people who kept the computers running, ran the backups and such (this was the dark ages when this was as much magic as science a lot of the time). They had taste, they took us to dinner at an all you can eat seafood place. Different prices for fish, shrimp, clams, crab and lobster. But it was all you could eat of what you selected and anything cheaper. Only thing that was not all you can was the beer, seems ABC took a dim view of all the beer you can drink.
