Maybe I should start a “disappointment in ordering a local/regional specialty inside that locale” thread because I’ve had slices of pizza in NY and Chicago-style hot dogs in Chicago and neither of them seemed like anything special to me.
(Cue the inevitable “you have to go to Joe’s Diner to get the REAL thing!!”)
A while back, I was visiting the island of Malta, and I saw a restaurant advertising “American-style smokehouse barbecue.”
I was curious. Normally when I’m traveling I stick to local specialties so I can learn the cuisine, but I’d had a lot of rabbit by that point and we had a free afternoon. So we went in.
It was, uh, not American barbecue.
I’m not sure what it actually was, in fact. It sort of looked like barbecue, but the taste and texture were just wrong. In retrospect, I suspect the heavy presence of British tourists and expats influenced the recipe; the barbecue flavor had a pretty strong sour-onion undercurrent, which probably means they incorporated HP sauce or something like it in order to meet their typical clientele’s expectations.
But it was definitely not what they said it was.
Maybe a hijack, but I’ve always wondered about “Canadian bacon.” Honestly, as one who actually lives in Canada, I’ve never seen it on any menu here. The closest we can come is “back bacon” or “peameal bacon.” I don’t know why “Canadian bacon” features so prominently on American breakfast menus, when Canadians have little to no idea about what it is.
More to the point of the OP, I’ve rarely had a “Montreal smoked meat” sandwich outside of Montreal that was a real Montreal smoked meat sandwich. The closest I’ve come was in (of all places) Lethbridge, Alberta, in a place where the chef was from Montreal; and on a train out of Montreal, bound for Halifax. (I actually enjoyed my Montreal smoked meat sandwich on the train while crossing the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, so that qualifies as “outside of Montreal.”) But anywhere else in Canada or the US? Nope. It’s usually pastrami or corned beef piled high on rye bread. Tasty, but not the real thing, as advertised.
Aah, Disney World - if anyone has had what they call “bobotie” at the Boma restaurant, just know that it isn’t really anything like authentic South African bobotie. Turkey? Mushrooms? Gluten-free? Just … no. From what I hear, it used to be a bit more authentic, with lamb and soaked bread.
As an aside to the OP, though - anyone who uses “au jus” as a noun is in no position to be pointing out authenticity flaws, IMO.
I’m pretty sure that “Canadian bacon” is the US name for a type of back bacon - “Canadian bacon” is usually round and tastes more like ham that the bacon streaked with fat made mostly from pork belly.
Look, Canucks, and Brits for that matter - we’re just trying to include y’all in our most popular breakfast sandwich: the Egg McMuffin, which iz made of egg, Canadian Bacon, and American cheese, all on an English Muffin. Don’t be tellin’ us there is no such thing as Canadian Bacon in Canada, or no English Muffins in England! It’s like sayin’ American cheese is not “real” cheese.
With real N.Y. pizza, grease should have soaked through the box by the time you get it home.
I can usually tell which regional food outlets are worth patronizing, based on negative reviews from dimwitted transplants who say “I’m from X, so I know how Y should be prepared”.
I’ve been disappointed by nearly every crab cake I’ve ordered outside the confines of the Maryland state lines. So I don’t any more.
Any time I’ve been in the south I have consumed huge quantities of boiled peanuts. I love them. I have vowed never to vacation in the south again after seeing some atrocities, and I have never seen boiled peanuts for sale in western Pennsylvania. 
Here is the recipe-
I do not see Turkey or mushrooms.
Yep. Just a terminology issue. Like “biscuit”.
“Pasteurized processed cheese food” by which I infer that it is used to feed real cheese. 
That’s just someone re-posting a recipe they’ve found online for bobotie. Along with some bullshit like the wrong definition for boma. Bomas are manmade enclosures, not natural spaces. And bobotie didn’t originate with Cape Malays, it just was adopted and adapted here.
I’m going by what Disney themselves have on their menus for Boma and Epcot. As well as by what my wife has actually experienced there.
Why does that surprise you? Even Americans in America don’t agree on what “American” barbecue is.
Around here we had a rather notable series of lawsuits that included whether the person who licensed the recipe for an Italian sandwich could or could not cut the stems off the pepperoncini.
The rule of thumb is that, if a place calls their offering a “Philly cheesesteak”, it’ll bear no resemblance whatsoever to what’s actually served in Philadelphia. But if the menu just lists it as “cheesesteak”, there’s a decent chance that they might get it right.
When I was living in Montana, there was a sandwich shop just off campus that did a pretty decent approximation, and they were very surprised when I told them that.
New York pizza, though, I completely don’t understand. Whenever any New Yorker describes what makes pizza “New York Style”, they inevitably describe what folks from any other part of the country would just call perfectly ordinary pizza.
I used to get this all the time from my dad. “It’s the water in New York!” or “…the air…something something…” and “ya hafta be able to fold it down the middle!” and “If the grease isn’t running down your forearm and dripping off your elbow, it ain’t New York pizza!” I get that he was partial to the pizza he grew up with, and stuff we were getting piled high with veggies and crazy meat like ham and bacon were off-putting to him, but the pizza I have had in NYC is just good, basic thin crust pizza - not to-die-for stuff.
Fair point, so let me clarify: it was not any kind of American barbecue.
QFT. With the exception of Taco Zone*, the US has no idea what tacos are. Fish tacos are a total non-starter.
I’ve been in New Mexico this week and, while I’ve eaten plenty of good food, the tacos & burritos (from multiple places) haven’t been anything better than I could get in the Chicago area. On one hand, this was a bit disappointing since I expected some taco transcendence. On the other hand, it reinforced my belief that Mexican immigrants don’t magically forget how to make a taco once they get 200 miles past the border.
We’ve travelled some in the US, and first came across mexican food in a bunch of excellent places in Vegas. But colour us surprised when one of our favourite mexican places was in Boston (and I think is gone now, post pandemic).
Thanks for the tip, I’ll keep it in mind. But I will confirm, as you did, that if the menu says “Real Philly Cheesesteak” or “Philly-style Cheesesteak,” you should order the grilled cheese.
My favorite meal in central New Mexico is ‘flat-blue-green-chicken-over easy’. That’s stacked blue corn tortillas with green enchilada sauce and chicken topped with an egg over easy. Ordered outside of rural New Mexico you get a blank stare.