[llsf]

I believe that us, Americans are pretty good at bending international food to our limited ingredients, our own favorite chemicals, sweeteners (corn syrup in everything), our flour and butter (good luck to make pastries like in Europe, with our poor flour and butter).

So I get it when Italians get offended by our poor rendering of carbonara... and feel that what we get here is off.

[wang_li]

You are silly. In the US, if you choose to do so, you can get the same ingredient or higher quality ingredient or food stuff that you can get anywhere else in the world, barring a few banned items like the various European maggot cheeses.

[llsf]

No need for maggots, I cannot get unpasteurized cheese of less than 60 days old here in US. So, you cannot have a real raclette here in US because authentic Reblochon cheese is illegal to import to the US because it is not aged long enough. Sure, you can an older Reblochon cheese, but it does not taste the same.

The most basic ingredients in food are not the same in US. For instance, sugar, flour even butter are different in US from Europe. So yes, you would have to import those ingredients (flour, butter, etc.). If you want to get close to the "authentic/original" food you try to replicate here.