I tend to diverge from a recipe, and a prime example is when I thought I'd make a tofu scramble using my homemade tempeh. Tempeh, though, is not so moist as tofu, so I thought I'd add a tomato or two for the moisture... and then I ended up not following the recipe much at all — but it was very tasty. I made a kind of spinach-&-tempeh stew.
I imagine his disappointment is nothing compared to the disappointment so many feel about the US. The US has disappointed the world — well, except for Russia, North Korea, China, and authoritarians in general.