[Tainnor]

> My second thought is: Maybe the market is telling us that we don't need so many cuisines. Think about it: There are probably 100+ distinct cuisines in the world. How many people have tried every single one? How many people have gotten tired of a substantial fraction of that 100+, and are seeking further novelty? Probably not very many.

That's like saying that the billions of people on the planet are mostly worthless because you're not going to meet every single one of them.

Local culture doesn't exist to satisfy some "market" or as a sort of collectathon for well-off travelers seeking novelty through fake "authentic culture", it's about the way of life of sppecific people living in specific areas.

[lmm]

> Local culture doesn't exist to satisfy some "market" or as a sort of collectathon for well-off travelers seeking novelty through fake "authentic culture", it's about the way of life of sppecific people living in specific areas.

When local dishes are displaced by international dishes it's normally because the international dishes taste nicer (adjusted for cost etc.). If the locals wanted to preserve the cuisine for their own sake they would do so.

[Tainnor]

"Tasting nice" is not an objective rubric.

[lotsofpulp]

The whole claim would be “tastes nicer to a greater proportion of people”.

[Tainnor]

People's tastes aren't innate and static. They're a function of trends, marketing, and importantly, availability.

[jterrys]

and comfort and familiarity. I can easily imagine tourists in a foreign land preferring McDonald's or generic fast food when they can't/don't/won't make up their minds about what to eat. It's entirely possible for people to basically "vacation wrong" and many do it.

[ElevenLathe]

Agreed. Traditional cultures are downstream of traditional political economies. Globalization was always going to homogenize culture and hey look that's what's happening.