I'm going out for chinese food tonight.

[Luis Anaconda]

In short, you only like food cooked in London or NY.

Right.

And the United Arab Emirates - he loves it there, too. But then that's probably just a classic case of the bland feeding the bland

[Luis Anaconda]

No, Charles is just being an attention seeking food snob and you're just being a tw@t.

The best Italian food I have ever eaten was in NY, the best French food I've ever eaten was in London. I've had terrible French food all over France, I've been to HK about 10 times and never once had a Chinese meal there that particularly impressed me. I had an inedible pizza in Verona and boring pasta in Florence. The best Spanish food I've ever eaten was in, er, um, ok well Sevilla. But that's the exception that proves the rule.

And it makes sense that a particular cuisine would be available at a high level of quality all over the world given the global nature of our economy. Cooking isn't that hard, and you can now buy fresh ingredients from all over the world pretty much anywhere. Chefs move countries and take their expertise with them, food exporters increase the variety of products they support, immigration raises demand all over the place; there are a large number of reasons to expect that you no longer need to visit the country of origin in order to experience a particular cuisine at its finest.

And let's be honest, you know f*ck all about it. That's why you're happy living in Germany.

I'm going to need a bigger boat

[Peter]

I didn't think he said that, if I may say so. I think he said that in the modern economy chefs and ingredients can move around the world allowing effective preparation of specific cuisines to be no longer dependant on local geographical parameters.

He said that anyone who insists that you can only truly experience a cuisine if you go to its home country is a complete ****, and he is right.

For example, chinese food. There is actually no such thing. China has a million different cuisines and they differ hugely. Most uk places offer a *******ised version of it, with red gloop. But some dont- some do a few dishes very ****ing well indeed.

I have been to India three times, to five different cities. The food is often good but it isnt really any better than the places I used to eat in Palmers Green, where I knew the owners. Some of the vegetable dishes are better because there is an actual demand for them. The meat and fish are generally terrible quality. The breads are better.....

In short, Sir C is talking complete crap.