I just finished reading CULINARIA.
It's a 2-volume, coffee-table set describing
the ingredients, food products, and classic recipes
of Europe. ( country-by-country )
It took me a few days to stop drooling.
But it also left me somewhat sad.

They describe an English mustard,
that's been made in the same place,
using the same recipe "since 1823"

Or a type of sausage that's made
"only in this Belgian village in the Ardennes"

Bread from a bakery in operation since Napoleon.
( It'd never pass US health codes either )

Now I understand why the French complain
of Le merde McDonalds ......

I get the impression that Europeans cherish and protect
their eating traqditions.

Imagine a GREAT mustard being made in Boondock South Dakota.
It'd be bought up by General Foods, production moved to
an automated plant in Ohio... Chemists would work tirelessly
on making it cheaper...brighter...sweeter....
In a few years, if they didn't hit a million sales,
they'd drop the product, and we'd never see it again.

Sigh.....

<rj>