@Cyberus
Well, I can't talk for other countries' food, but most of the times what you have there as "Spanish food" is what you Brits think a "Spanish food" should be, but many times it has little to do with it. Anyway, I guess that happens in most countries. Even in Spain, most restaurants, mainly in the coast, give to tourists what they want, what they think is "typical Spanish", doing sometimes such kind of mixtures that a native would hardly consider it as "typical". I guess same happens all around the world with Chinese food, heavily "occidentalized" and different from what Chinese people is really used to.
Same happens with other things as well: for example, do you now what's the best seller souvenir in Barcelona? MEXICAN hats!!! When asked, Brits, German and even Italian tourists said they bought it because they thought it is a "very representative Spanish symbol"... a MEXICAN hat?!?!?!?! I can understand it when told by tourists from the States, but Europeans? Well, that's the way things are...
Saluditos,
Ferrán.