Interesting subject. I spent time overseas in the U.S. military back in the '70's, and would like to share some of my experiences.
Most places I'd been in western Europe, in cities like London, Frankfort, Madrid, etc., they do have a limited amount of American cuisine, if you know how to ask for it. In Italy I was told pizza is not really an Italian invention, but an American one, same with the hamburger. Southeast Asia was a whole different story (back then).
I'd been in Spain for a couple of years and had a craving for an American hamburger, McDonalds, Burger King, whatever. Went into a Burger King in Madrid and noticed mostly teenagers sitting at all the curved booths. NONE of them were eating, and only very few were drinking anything. But along two walls there was this stand-up bar, little above waste high. Those who were eating were at the stand-up bar along the wall.
Took me a while to figure it out, and my Spanish girlfriend at the time mentioned the nickname "Bogart Joint". To the Spaniards, no one in their right mind would pay what Burger King charged for a meal, because you could go next door and get a full seven course meal, with wine, for about half the cost. It wouldn't have soybean ingredients in it either, nor cooked in fatty oil. So the teenagers treated those places like Burger King, McDonalds as a Bogart Joint, a place to hang out.
There was a good hamburger joint in Madrid called Foster's Hollywood's that I recall. It was evidently an American franchise. Good milkshakes. But the best hamburger place in Madrid was a Spanish cafe I can't recall the name of. The only type of lettece in Spain was Romain green leafy. And the Spaniards only used olive oil for cooking. And their beef wasn't bad. All produce was fresh daily. And the real wheat hamburger buns were cooked fresh daily there at the restaurant.
In Italy we had a pizza with the pieces cut in squares, with toppings that were not all chopped up beyond recognition. The pasta with all kinds of sauces is what I remember most, and of course the excellent red wines.
But truly in Spain (at least in the '70's when I was there), even the poor ate like kings. Their restuarants used a fork system rating, 1-5 forks, 5 being the best. But the quality of food at a one fork was just as good as a five fork. The decor was the only difference, concrete floors vs. plush settings.
Once a month the Guardia Civil (Civil Guard) came in the restaurant and asked for the Book of Reclamations. Any customer could ask for that book in any restaurant and write something good in it, or a complaint. The Guardia Civil reviewed the book and gave the restaurant its fork rating for that month. Nobody messed with the Guardia Civil either. There was a one fork spagetti house restaurant right off base with 1950's art deco era furniture and concrete floors, but very clean, and still some of the beast spagetti and meat sauce I've ever had. I tried the Madrid restaurant called Botin once, a five fork. It was in the old part of Madrid, las cuevas (the caves) where all the Flamenco shows were. Restaurante Botin was Ernest Hemingway's favorite in Madrid. It had three levels, one underground, one at street level, and another level upstairs. I had two waitors assigned to my table, only. They waited on the side wall for me to finish each course, almost like at parade rest, serving my table only, very exclusive.
I went on vacation while in Spain, to the southeast coast to Alacante (Benadorm). On the way, out in the middle of nowhwere just off the highway, I stopped at a little cafe, figured it was a type of truck stop. Had a several course meal with an appetizer plate of nothing but green sauted vegetables, cooked to perfection in olive oil, real butter, and garlic. I've never been able to reproduce it, nor find that flavor anywhere since. The main course was steak, what they called "beefsteak Avila", beef from the province of Avila. It was like eating a very tender giant porkchop, but it wasn't pork.
At Benedorm, I made the mistake of ordering a 'hamburger', without saying "hamburgesa Americano" (American hamburger). The waitor brought out a plate of raw uncooked hamburger with a raw egg yoke sitting in the middle of it. I apologized, and corrected my order. He was very understanding. Benedorm was a beach vacation spot for mostly other Europeans who could afford it, like Dutch, German, and French mostly. Some Europeans like to eat raw hamburger (for real!). Some Germans eat horse sausage (real horse meat!). The fresh pina (pineapple) for desert at Benedorm was prepared in such a way I have never been able to find it anywhere else.
Anyone hungry yet?
I'm a Southerner, so I like good ol' cornbread and pinto beans and onions and corn on the cob. In my apartment in Spain I opened up a can of kernel corn I got from the base grocery. My Spanish girlfriend was sitting at the kitchen table behind me and started giggling. I asked what the matter was; she said they don't eat corn, for that's what they feed hogs! (Come to think of it, that might be why she later left me. I really don't recall Mexican restaurants in Spain either?)
Apparently in Spain, the system of food delivery doesn't depend upon frozen stored in boxes. I do not recall frozen food sections in a Spanish grocery. The meats were butchered daily, the breads were baked locally daily, the produce was fresh daily. All the housewives would go to market daily with a small plastic shopping net. And the milk had enough cream in it you could leave it set out at room temperature for two weeks before it would start to spoil. The wheat was still stone ground the old world way, keeping its important vitamins, unlike refined 'enriched' American flour. THIS is how it used to be in many countries folks, including here in America.
And in Spain, you are 'expected' to speak out in a restaurant if anything is wrong, anything. I asked my Spanish girlfriend why she was always so rough on the waitors, especially since she ate like a bird. I only figured it out years later once I got back to the States at a Shoney's that could not, and would not cook my bland flavorless hamburger steak well done. If we had a food delivery and quality fork rating system like Spain's, which was everywhere I went in Spain, then I know a lot more Americans would be in better health.
In the Orient you've got to be very careful. You might be eating cat on a stick, or dog (not joking). Best to stick with things you can recognize, like shrimp and rice. Thai (Thailand) food is probably the best oriental style I've had.
By the way, Southern style cooking doesn't have to include pork. My dad's side of the family though would serve sausage or bacon and eggs along with the Sunday supper meal main course of fried chicken. Fried okre (okra), or fried squash and fresh garden ripe tomatoes with it. And of course we southerners had chili con carne, fish dinners (fresh Bass especially), beans and cornbread, new potatoes, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salads, collard greens, corn, limas, butter beans, minute steak and roast beef, just like everybody else.
The only pizza better than this is cooked in a brick oven. :yes
If pizza was made to be cooked in a dish, God would have commanded the Neapolitans to make it so. REAL pizza is cooked directly on top on the oven's lower surface, not in some wimpy pan! 
