Great post (from an Italian who has heard about Marco Polo ☺ ). I like the way you have put it: permanence. It's also the need to belong to a tribe, which much more deeply it's a manifestation of human vulnerability that we all have. I prefer to address that with football (equally irrational, but fucking exciting!)
I think food is a great example about how the interaction between different cultures (peaceful or violent) creates new forms of pleasure and beauty in life
I tend to be proud only of what I do. I don't feel proud at all about Italian food, nor being Italian makes me a great chef. I just feel incredibly happy about having all that food in my country and I love the food culture that we have, which goes a lot with the way we socialise.
But when I am abroad I very rarely eat Italian outside my house. I absolutely love trying food from every country, and to be honest, the more I go around the more I love both foreign and Italian food
Here in UK I like pretty much everything. I don't find anything particularly original, but give me some fish and chips

or a cooked breakfast and I feel super happy
Nothing in UK can beat ale, though: best beer in the world