Authenticity - how important is it to you?

Random thought which crosses the vast, arid plains of my mind from time to time ;-) how important is authenticity in a recipe to you when you cook?

I confess to indulging surviving a Chinese takeaway meal last Friday evening, having just returned home at 6pm from a week away on business. I really just did not fancy the idea of trolley rage down at the local supermarket on a Friday evening. I also had not been organised enough to do an online shop (during a lunch break at work obviously and not in company time - God forbid!! ;-)

So my husband helpfully suggested that he would "cook." In "Pete" language this translates to "what sort of takeaway would you like?" We opted for Chinese and duly arrived back home with Sweet and Sour Pork "Hong-Kong style" (whatever that really means and yes I know that was a totally uninspired choice on my part but hey, I was dead tired and brain was functioning even less than usual!) and "Chicken Chinese-style."

Now for those that haven't read my "About" page of profile, I am actually half Chinese and was brought up on authentic Chinese food, both family style and restaurant style. My mother is a very accomplished cook and at one time my parents had a large share in Hong Kong's largest floating restaurant and considered themselves real foodies. I therefore believe I have a fair idea of what constitutes typical Chinese fare across a variety of regional styles and I have never come across a recipe for "Chicken - Chinese style." Just like Chop Suey doesn't really exist in China (the way we understand the term) or Balti isn't authentically Indian, Chicken Chinese style means nothing to my mother, yet it appears with boring regularity across many Chinese takeaway and restaurant menus.

It appears to have a theme consisting of slices of chicken breast laid on top of soggy beansprouts in a gloopy brown sauce which mainly tastes of oyster sauce. My husband nearly always orders this dish if we have a takeaway and I think he just enjoys watching me wrinkling my nose in derision as I huffily make snide comments about it ;-)

This really isn't very fair of me if I am honest, as I personally am not at all bothered about how authentic a dish is that I make! If it tastes good is all that matters to me. I am no slave to keeping a recipe completely unadulterated from its first mention in the Doomsday book. After all you see lots of native people debate over whether a Lancashire hotpot, for example, should contain carrots/peas/whatever and they never agree with each other! Does it really matter?

To me, far more important that everyone partaking of said dish thoroughly enjoys it and asks you to make it again or for the recipe. Maybe the mistake is to give a "bastardised" dish the same name as an original hallowed dish? Now that I am not guilty of - friends around my dinner table often ask me what I call the dish they have just devoured and I always find that a hard question to answer. I usually end up saying something along the lines of "weeeelllll...it's sort of a .... but kinda isn't ...it started off as a .... but then I added ......." so my guests leave none-the-wiser but they are happy and sated and not outraged that I dared to mess with a centuries old recipe!