There are some exotic foods we tend to take for granted exist. Almost every city for example has a Chinese restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, and maybe an Outback Steakhouse. But this isn't universal for some reason. Someone asked me if I wanted to go to an Egyptian restaurant and I was like "wait, they have restaurants?"
A question for all those who would say they consider themselves ethnically fluent. What are all the cultural categories of food you've had?
I've had my fun around here and lately found more unusual ones... Here's stuff I remember off the top of my head that aren't the "local" around here (Lisboa, PT), append restaurant to the following:
Indian Nepalese Tibetan Cantonese Chinese Cantonese dimsun Japanese Several Fusion sushi, ramen, udon, tempura etc Spanish tapas Mexican Peruan Peruan cheviche Argentinian grilk Brazilian rodízio Brazilian(Paulista) pizza, Indian pizza, Israeli pizza, local pizza, actual Italian pizza Italian Greek Greek pita Levantine Morrocan Thematic medieval American American diner American grill Mozambican Angolan Cape verdian Ethiopian German sausage Vietnamese Indonesian Australian grill Belgian fries Canadian fries
Whenever I added something to the nationality the place focused on a dish rather than a broader cuisine. I'm surprised I never visited a self entitled French restaurant over here... The Swiss and French have all those tartar and grilled tiny chicken that could make success in a thematic restaurant.
Edit: might also add, I'm sure all of these are adapted to the local taste. We don't handle spice like most of Asia and Mexico for example. Friends who ate in Shanghai described a very different experience to what we get in a Chinese restaurant here, even if the dishes are the same.