Well, I expect that in terms of the way I used "proper", it was the way that the locals to his family's town/area did it. Saying "X" country's food ought to be made, for whatever value of "X" is silly at best, stereotyping at worst. It's just that, like, as I described in my previous post, that was the best Chinese food that I have had, barring some small places. You get any country bigger than a postage stamp, you'll have many variations even on the same thing. I was just pointing out that forms of "X" food are generally adapted to the tastes of the country/region that one lives in. Kinda like the time I was talking to the owner of a Pakistani place near where I used to live in SF, and we were having a smoke and he mentioned to me how he had to explain to his parents parents what chicken-tikka was, since it was invented in the UK (for "British" tastes), and imported into the US.