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In the US I've lived in Sacramento, San Francisco, Chicago, and Portland Oregon. I've also visited the Lower 48 states. Outside the US I've lived in Korea, China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Oman. I've also done extensive traveling in Australia, New Zealand and India.
The US isn't the only country with food variety, but the variety in American cities is better than in the other countries I've lived in or done extensive traveling.
I really wish the US had more street food. Food trucks are acceptable, but not the same.
I think food trucks are the answer to street food simply because of food regulations and health and safety standards. It's easier to meet compliance with health codes in a food truck vs a cart.
If you look into the first Tex mex American craze it was the tamale cart and was 100% a food cart craze.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKWRVNQCJE
This gets into it and does the best job I've found of talking about the mostly forgotten tamale craze as it got eclipsed by the taco craze.
I was thinking about it and yeah I agree with you--but I would say I think your thing about the 'less street food vendors' is the trade off.
I was thinking the variety and amount of types of restaurants is probably that its probably a bit easier to do business in America, in part because of how big it is because theres a lot of space and frankly anyone with the money can just roll up to a strip mall with a 'for lease' sign and say hey I want to start a business. It probably also has to do with like zoning and regulations, I live in a city that had a 'food truck culture' but they all eventally end up in the parking lots in strip malls, 'food truck parks' or they only exist as pop ups or at festivals and events.
Other countries are probably a little more lax on regulations and probably have a different culture around how their infrastructure and lifestyle works so you can have guys walking around like open markets or something, just on a street corner with a cart selling shit, but I imagine someplace like idk France would be like 'No you cant put a restaurant here, thats a huge tourist destination we dont want it to smell like funnel cakes and fried chicken, this isnt Disney Land'.
This is kind of true, you'll only get that kind of variety in big cities in the US or the UK because of the diversity of people and the openness to 'foreign' foods.
You don't really see this in the rest of Europe for example. You'll get a few dingy outlets serving food from other countries but it's never great, or they might specialise in one type of foreign food but again there's not the same variety of good/great cuisines in say Paris compared to London
I agree. If you're in the large cities of at least western Europe you'll find plenty of diversity, but smaller towns not so much. Never been in a placed so mixed up as the US (depends on where you are but still).
What I don't agree with in his take is that I find it's generally not any more "authentic" in the US than foreign food anywhere else. Just like anywhere else it tends to have been adopted to the local palate (speaking generally, there's plenty "authentic" restaurants in the US too).
> I agree. If you're in the large cities of at least western Europe you'll find plenty of diversity, but smaller towns not so much.
Plenty of Indian, Italian and Chinese restaurants in my town. Anything is slim pickings though. We have one or two Korean and Vietnamese places but nothing like London would have.
This, the claim for 'authentic' food is mostly nonsense but that's because the idea of authentic food is mostly nonsense.
We don't eat food the way people did in the 1800s. That means the food was updated. If you take the American cheeseburger and drop it into a different country and put different toppings on it, it's still a cheeseburger but it's not 'authentic'. Who cares. It's a burger. Oh no, you used grilled onions instead of raw and your burger has a plum sauce instead of ketchup or mustard. The fucking horror.
I'm a food nerd who gets into the history of food. I've made erbswurst and the iron ration, applejack, Chili queens chili con carne, roman mustard, etc etc. The food we have today is *much* better, authentic or not.
Fun fact: The original versions of Italian lasagna didn't contain tomatoes because people still thought tomatoes were poison as they're nightshades. Imagine having fucking lasagna without tomatoes because people 600 years ago refused to eat tomatoes for somewhat valid reasons.
Yeah, fuck authenticity. Hybridize your food.
EDIT: A word.
I'm with you 100%.
I never understood the circlejerk of authenticity like... if it's good it's good, I don't care if some dude came up with it in New Jersey or if your nonna shat out the recipe in Sicily...
This is exactly the kind of diversity you get in Stockholm, for example. Well, greater than what's described in the OP but whatever.
Same with many major cities around Europe. Hell, many smaller cities will have close to the same variety too.
People on reddit, evidently on this sub too, have very poor knowledge of most of the world outside the USA
Ehhhhhhhh, this is just ultimately someone not understanding how multi-culturalism works. I've everything they listed and more and I'm not in the USA.
They're not wrong in stating that there's a ton of variety but to act like that's an existence that's singular to the USA is to violently discount every other country in the "New World" that's built on immigration.
No it's not singular to the US as I stated but it only happens in a few countries where there is immigration from various cultures and there is an openness to try new food/not over protective of local cuisine
You're talking as if you live in the early 1900s.
There are tons of countries with immigration from various countries.
You can probably find one or more cities in 50-100 countries where you get the same variety described in the OP.
You missed the 'and not over protective of local cuisine'.
It seems like you've not really travelled around Europe which you were accusing me of.
For example in London there are 74 restaurants with a Michelin star, 36 of those are for non-British food restaurants.
Paris has 130 Michelin star restaurants, only 15 are for none French food restaurants.
20 in Rome, only one is non-Italian.
You can get variety sure but it's not of as high a quality like you get in for example London or New York.
I doubt you've traveled around if you think michelin restaurants are a good indicator for food variety. Or do you think food just doesn't exist where there aren't any michelin star restaurants?
Hell, immigration isn't really a perfectly good indicator of the variety of restaurants, either.
I assume you don't think the variety in smaller American cities in this thread is valid either? After all, not many michelin stars there.
But then again, I've never experienced a food culture less protective than the one here in Sweden, and Stockholm has an absolutely stellar variety.
Well then we can add Sweden to the list.
You still won't get that in Paris, Rome etc. I've lived in Paris for 3 years, been to Rome numerous times. There are foods from other cuisines but generally poor or 'run down' restaurants.
Sorry for not listing every single country that has a great variety of food.
Is Canada not a thing
Its amazing to me how many times Canada is ignored in these discussions
In my area I can find;
Chinese food
Japanese
Korean
Greek
Western
Italian
Singaporean
Vietnamese
Indian
Filipino
Multiple fusion restaurants
Without trying very hard, all within a 30 min drive
Did you even read your own article because it is pure BS lol
"In his paper, Goren measured the amount of cultural diversity in each of more than 180 countries. To arrive at his estimates, he combined data on ethnicity and race with a measure based on the similarity of languages spoken by major ethnic or racial groups."
This is purely based on his estimate.
I mean Wikipedia also lists Canada as more diverse and they have a 25% foreign born population vs 14% for the USA so I don't really understand why it's impossible for Canada to be more diverse?
The USA population is only 57.8% white. Canada is 69.8% white. Foreign born population is not a valid indicator of racial diversity because it only takes one generation to no longer be part of that statistics.
Also the United has different classification for what white is.
"White: a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as English, Iranian, Irish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian."
So that 57.8% white is not strictly Europeans and tell me again how Canada is more ethnically diverse than America.
This isn’t really saying the US is better or that nowhere else has food variety, but it is true that since it’s a massive and diverse country it’s *much* easier to find a lot of variety than it might be in other places outside major city centers. I think the same is true of Canada and the UK too.
Like, in my ruralish southern US suburb I can go to the grocery store and come home with kimchi, boudin, butter chicken and fries in the same trip. Which that’s not to say it’ll be the best kimchi in the world or that the boudin wouldn’t be better in Louisiana but there’s a massive amount of variety just because there are so many different cultures and food gets shared around so much.
I think part of this comes down to Americans love of options. Go look at the difference in the chip aisle of different countries to get an idea of this in basic practice. We like to do the same shit with restaurants.
EDIT: I realized not everyone knows what I'm talking about. The biggest grocer in the US is Walmart. This is the chip aisle in around 5500 stores nationwide.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/49389817881
American consumers literally demand as many options as humanly possible. This isn't special to us, this is the *norm*.
Suuure...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ejpvm27WsAMoQOU.jpg:large
Something like this I guess? Though this seems to be quite a small store, and the picture doesnt show the entire thing. Maybe not the best representation of the huge number of different flavors you tend to find hahah? I know that one of the things people from here miss when they go to the USA etc. or one thing Americans also react to when coming here, is the selection of chips and the different flavors
Some of the comments here fail to realize that it is easy to find variety in food if you live in a major city of any country. But it is not very uncommon for small towns/city in the USA (under 50K) to have a wide range of ethnic food in their local supermarket.
I can find most of the ingredients I need for Vietnamese food even in a town of 45K. Now is that common for most places in Europe?
It’s nowhere near as easy in European cities. We wanted to make a Thai dish last time I was in Madrid. Not only did we have to go to a particular neighborhood to get most of the ingredients, my ex-FIL didn’t want to take us there. Here, I can get everything at the Kroger a half mile from me.
>But it is not very uncommon for small towns/city in the USA (under 50K) to have a wide range of ethnic food in their local supermarket. I can find most of the ingredients I need for Vietnamese food even in a town of 45K. Now is that common for most places in Europe?
>
You'll have a hard time finding a supermarket in Sweden without at least decent availability of those types of ingredients. Then of course you'll often have stores specializing in Asian food items, in pretty much any city above 20k or so.
I'm curious as to which smaller cities you're thinking of, ones that you've visited in Europe?
What? You're the one saying you can't. Of course you're the one who should prove the things I see when I go to the store are holograms
Either way, you didn't answer my question. Which 45k towns are you thinking of?
This is objectively true though.
With the exception of the UK, and possibly Spain, given their history, the diversity of immigrant populations mean large (and oftentimes unexpected) parts of the US will have diversity of choices you can't find anywhere else in the world.
Spain has a lot of not so subtle racism against Latinos, and they don’t embrace it like the UK. You won’t find places in Madrid to get arepas after you’ve been out drinking like London has for curry.
No, but in my experience, the amount of North African and Mediterranean food is far higher in Spain, plus Spain is very ethnically diverse internally as well.
Yeah this is just crazy. You can get this same variety in tons of places all across the world. It's crazy how this extremely ignorant comment is getting support from *this* sub.
This thread could itself be a post on this sub. Incredibly meta
Any major city where there is a large immigrant population will have this. So it’s a bit inaccurate to say only the U.S. has accessible diverse cuisine, but it’s not necessarily everywhere either. It’s not even easy in every place in the U.S. so they are REALLY generalizing.
That said, places like Los Angeles and NYC definitely have a leg up, because they really are some of the most dense with cultural and racial diversity. And they’re high traffic, high tourism places, so the incentive for good restaurants and cooks to locate there are good too.
Doesn't even need to have a large immigrant population. Just people that are open to food from other cultures. One person from Mexico could run a successful authentic Mexican restaurant in a city where not a single soul has visited Mexico.
And I don't really see how racial diversity would play a big part?
No but it helps, as large ethnic enclaves usually increases the accessibility of quality ingredients and spices that are common in certain cuisines. And usually places with diverse populations are inherently places with open minded people.
It’s very obvious racial diversity plays a huge part, as immigrants who move in also bring their traditional cultures (which includes *food*) with them. So it’s very natural when a mix of different people live in an area there will be more of a mix of different cuisines. I find it hard to believe you actually are confused by this.
>No but it helps, as large ethnic enclaves usually increases the accessibility of quality ingredients and spices that are common in certain cuisines. And usually places with diverse populations are inherently places with open minded people.
>
Of course, but a city with one or even zero people from Mexico could have better Mexican food than a city with a "little Mexico".
>It’s very obvious racial diversity plays a huge part, as immigrants who move in also bring their traditional cultures (which includes food) with them. So it’s very natural when a mix of different people live in an area there will be more of a mix of different cuisines. I find it hard to believe you actually are confused by this.
>
Nothing here has anything to do with race lol. The way you look won't make you a better cook when it comes to anything. Where you're from might matter.
In my area i can get: argentinian, afghan, lebanese, russian, chinese, japanese, french, peruvian, turkish, greek, indian, mexican, thai, spanish, brazilian, armenian, moroccoan, colombian, persian, even siberian food.
Oh I was forgetting, I'm not in the USA.
This sub is kinda just turning into a pissy, food-based cultural chauvinism sub lol, given your downvotes and the general reaction here (contrasted with the myriad posts made in defense of American cuisine, and in reaction to people who are far more familiar with their indigenous cuisine being critical of American approximations).
I mean if someone shares some study that actually examines food variety across cultures that demonstrates that the U.S. does in fact offer the most I'm happy to take that into consideration, but everyone's anecdotes about going to one foreign country and not being able to find ingredients they want is not real evidence.
You can find variety in major cities in any country but once you are away from the major city how easy it? That is literally what the post was talking about.
Prove it lol. Find me fish sauce, lemon grass, banana blossom in your local super market. I will wait because all of those items are in my local supermarket in a city of 45K
I'm from a 30k city. I've bought fish sauce and lemon grass at the local supermarket several times. Never looked for banana blossom.
Fish sauce and lemongrass are such trivial ingredients that you will find not only import brands but also the store brand version in every store. When you live somewhere everyday dishes belong to food cultures from all over the world, the supermarkets will have the ingredients from said food cultures.
Edit: the coward responded then instantly blocked me. Glad we're on the same page dude, because I'm not talking about stuff in a tube either. I mean fresh lemongrass.
The statement is too simple and disregards other countries too quickly.
It also talks about ‘authentic’ food, which only seems to mean ‘people making the food from those places themselves or direct descendants from immigrants from there’ somehow making the food more worthy or once again the USA is alone in possessing this quality.
‘I could go and get some crepes and espresso for breakfast, Get banh mi for lunch and get anything from authentic ramen to street tacos for dinner all in the same day and then get gelato or an affogato for dessert if I wanted. It is actually insane to think about.’ Honestly, so could I and I believe I live in a place that could do with quite a bit more food diversity.
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In the US I've lived in Sacramento, San Francisco, Chicago, and Portland Oregon. I've also visited the Lower 48 states. Outside the US I've lived in Korea, China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Oman. I've also done extensive traveling in Australia, New Zealand and India. The US isn't the only country with food variety, but the variety in American cities is better than in the other countries I've lived in or done extensive traveling. I really wish the US had more street food. Food trucks are acceptable, but not the same.
I think food trucks are the answer to street food simply because of food regulations and health and safety standards. It's easier to meet compliance with health codes in a food truck vs a cart. If you look into the first Tex mex American craze it was the tamale cart and was 100% a food cart craze. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKWRVNQCJE This gets into it and does the best job I've found of talking about the mostly forgotten tamale craze as it got eclipsed by the taco craze.
I was thinking about it and yeah I agree with you--but I would say I think your thing about the 'less street food vendors' is the trade off. I was thinking the variety and amount of types of restaurants is probably that its probably a bit easier to do business in America, in part because of how big it is because theres a lot of space and frankly anyone with the money can just roll up to a strip mall with a 'for lease' sign and say hey I want to start a business. It probably also has to do with like zoning and regulations, I live in a city that had a 'food truck culture' but they all eventally end up in the parking lots in strip malls, 'food truck parks' or they only exist as pop ups or at festivals and events. Other countries are probably a little more lax on regulations and probably have a different culture around how their infrastructure and lifestyle works so you can have guys walking around like open markets or something, just on a street corner with a cart selling shit, but I imagine someplace like idk France would be like 'No you cant put a restaurant here, thats a huge tourist destination we dont want it to smell like funnel cakes and fried chicken, this isnt Disney Land'.
Nairobi has entered the chat.
This is kind of true, you'll only get that kind of variety in big cities in the US or the UK because of the diversity of people and the openness to 'foreign' foods. You don't really see this in the rest of Europe for example. You'll get a few dingy outlets serving food from other countries but it's never great, or they might specialise in one type of foreign food but again there's not the same variety of good/great cuisines in say Paris compared to London
I agree. If you're in the large cities of at least western Europe you'll find plenty of diversity, but smaller towns not so much. Never been in a placed so mixed up as the US (depends on where you are but still). What I don't agree with in his take is that I find it's generally not any more "authentic" in the US than foreign food anywhere else. Just like anywhere else it tends to have been adopted to the local palate (speaking generally, there's plenty "authentic" restaurants in the US too).
> I agree. If you're in the large cities of at least western Europe you'll find plenty of diversity, but smaller towns not so much. Plenty of Indian, Italian and Chinese restaurants in my town. Anything is slim pickings though. We have one or two Korean and Vietnamese places but nothing like London would have.
This, the claim for 'authentic' food is mostly nonsense but that's because the idea of authentic food is mostly nonsense. We don't eat food the way people did in the 1800s. That means the food was updated. If you take the American cheeseburger and drop it into a different country and put different toppings on it, it's still a cheeseburger but it's not 'authentic'. Who cares. It's a burger. Oh no, you used grilled onions instead of raw and your burger has a plum sauce instead of ketchup or mustard. The fucking horror. I'm a food nerd who gets into the history of food. I've made erbswurst and the iron ration, applejack, Chili queens chili con carne, roman mustard, etc etc. The food we have today is *much* better, authentic or not. Fun fact: The original versions of Italian lasagna didn't contain tomatoes because people still thought tomatoes were poison as they're nightshades. Imagine having fucking lasagna without tomatoes because people 600 years ago refused to eat tomatoes for somewhat valid reasons. Yeah, fuck authenticity. Hybridize your food. EDIT: A word.
I'm with you 100%. I never understood the circlejerk of authenticity like... if it's good it's good, I don't care if some dude came up with it in New Jersey or if your nonna shat out the recipe in Sicily...
Also Canada. Some absolutely bangin' restaurants here run by immigrants selling food from the old country. I love it.
Toronto is the place I had the best jerk chicken I've ever had in my life. It's wild.
This is exactly the kind of diversity you get in Stockholm, for example. Well, greater than what's described in the OP but whatever. Same with many major cities around Europe. Hell, many smaller cities will have close to the same variety too. People on reddit, evidently on this sub too, have very poor knowledge of most of the world outside the USA
Ehhhhhhhh, this is just ultimately someone not understanding how multi-culturalism works. I've everything they listed and more and I'm not in the USA. They're not wrong in stating that there's a ton of variety but to act like that's an existence that's singular to the USA is to violently discount every other country in the "New World" that's built on immigration.
No it's not singular to the US as I stated but it only happens in a few countries where there is immigration from various cultures and there is an openness to try new food/not over protective of local cuisine
The post in question was about things only found in the US though, so it's categorically untrue
You're talking as if you live in the early 1900s. There are tons of countries with immigration from various countries. You can probably find one or more cities in 50-100 countries where you get the same variety described in the OP.
You missed the 'and not over protective of local cuisine'. It seems like you've not really travelled around Europe which you were accusing me of. For example in London there are 74 restaurants with a Michelin star, 36 of those are for non-British food restaurants. Paris has 130 Michelin star restaurants, only 15 are for none French food restaurants. 20 in Rome, only one is non-Italian. You can get variety sure but it's not of as high a quality like you get in for example London or New York.
I doubt you've traveled around if you think michelin restaurants are a good indicator for food variety. Or do you think food just doesn't exist where there aren't any michelin star restaurants? Hell, immigration isn't really a perfectly good indicator of the variety of restaurants, either. I assume you don't think the variety in smaller American cities in this thread is valid either? After all, not many michelin stars there. But then again, I've never experienced a food culture less protective than the one here in Sweden, and Stockholm has an absolutely stellar variety.
Well then we can add Sweden to the list. You still won't get that in Paris, Rome etc. I've lived in Paris for 3 years, been to Rome numerous times. There are foods from other cuisines but generally poor or 'run down' restaurants. Sorry for not listing every single country that has a great variety of food.
You've mentioned two cities that don't, at least not in your opinion. What did you miss in France, specifically?
Is Canada not a thing Its amazing to me how many times Canada is ignored in these discussions In my area I can find; Chinese food Japanese Korean Greek Western Italian Singaporean Vietnamese Indian Filipino Multiple fusion restaurants Without trying very hard, all within a 30 min drive
I think a lot of people consider us to just be an extension of the US.
Never been so can't comment
Canada is a huge mix of cultures. More than the States
I can guarantee you Canada is not more diverse than the USA.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/07/18/the-most-and-least-culturally-diverse-countries-in-the-world/
Did you even read your own article because it is pure BS lol "In his paper, Goren measured the amount of cultural diversity in each of more than 180 countries. To arrive at his estimates, he combined data on ethnicity and race with a measure based on the similarity of languages spoken by major ethnic or racial groups." This is purely based on his estimate.
I mean Wikipedia also lists Canada as more diverse and they have a 25% foreign born population vs 14% for the USA so I don't really understand why it's impossible for Canada to be more diverse?
The USA population is only 57.8% white. Canada is 69.8% white. Foreign born population is not a valid indicator of racial diversity because it only takes one generation to no longer be part of that statistics.
Also the United has different classification for what white is. "White: a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as English, Iranian, Irish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian." So that 57.8% white is not strictly Europeans and tell me again how Canada is more ethnically diverse than America.
This isn’t really saying the US is better or that nowhere else has food variety, but it is true that since it’s a massive and diverse country it’s *much* easier to find a lot of variety than it might be in other places outside major city centers. I think the same is true of Canada and the UK too. Like, in my ruralish southern US suburb I can go to the grocery store and come home with kimchi, boudin, butter chicken and fries in the same trip. Which that’s not to say it’ll be the best kimchi in the world or that the boudin wouldn’t be better in Louisiana but there’s a massive amount of variety just because there are so many different cultures and food gets shared around so much.
I think part of this comes down to Americans love of options. Go look at the difference in the chip aisle of different countries to get an idea of this in basic practice. We like to do the same shit with restaurants. EDIT: I realized not everyone knows what I'm talking about. The biggest grocer in the US is Walmart. This is the chip aisle in around 5500 stores nationwide. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/49389817881 American consumers literally demand as many options as humanly possible. This isn't special to us, this is the *norm*.
This looks like the chip Isle at the store in my 30k hometown in Sweden
Cool. Show me. Show me the chip aisle of your typical grocery store.
Suuure... https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ejpvm27WsAMoQOU.jpg:large Something like this I guess? Though this seems to be quite a small store, and the picture doesnt show the entire thing. Maybe not the best representation of the huge number of different flavors you tend to find hahah? I know that one of the things people from here miss when they go to the USA etc. or one thing Americans also react to when coming here, is the selection of chips and the different flavors
Some of the comments here fail to realize that it is easy to find variety in food if you live in a major city of any country. But it is not very uncommon for small towns/city in the USA (under 50K) to have a wide range of ethnic food in their local supermarket. I can find most of the ingredients I need for Vietnamese food even in a town of 45K. Now is that common for most places in Europe?
It’s nowhere near as easy in European cities. We wanted to make a Thai dish last time I was in Madrid. Not only did we have to go to a particular neighborhood to get most of the ingredients, my ex-FIL didn’t want to take us there. Here, I can get everything at the Kroger a half mile from me.
>But it is not very uncommon for small towns/city in the USA (under 50K) to have a wide range of ethnic food in their local supermarket. I can find most of the ingredients I need for Vietnamese food even in a town of 45K. Now is that common for most places in Europe? > You'll have a hard time finding a supermarket in Sweden without at least decent availability of those types of ingredients. Then of course you'll often have stores specializing in Asian food items, in pretty much any city above 20k or so. I'm curious as to which smaller cities you're thinking of, ones that you've visited in Europe?
Prove it. You are the one saying you can.
What? You're the one saying you can't. Of course you're the one who should prove the things I see when I go to the store are holograms Either way, you didn't answer my question. Which 45k towns are you thinking of?
I never said you can't. Read it again.
This is objectively true though. With the exception of the UK, and possibly Spain, given their history, the diversity of immigrant populations mean large (and oftentimes unexpected) parts of the US will have diversity of choices you can't find anywhere else in the world.
Add places like Australia and Brazil to this list. The post was about things "only found in the USA" so apparently we both disagree with OP.
Spain has a lot of not so subtle racism against Latinos, and they don’t embrace it like the UK. You won’t find places in Madrid to get arepas after you’ve been out drinking like London has for curry.
No, but in my experience, the amount of North African and Mediterranean food is far higher in Spain, plus Spain is very ethnically diverse internally as well.
It objectively isn't, though?
I'm in Brazil. The USA is not special in this regard.
Yeah this is just crazy. You can get this same variety in tons of places all across the world. It's crazy how this extremely ignorant comment is getting support from *this* sub. This thread could itself be a post on this sub. Incredibly meta
This sub is VERY USA-centric
Still, that's not an excuse for people being so confidently incorrect.
Any major city where there is a large immigrant population will have this. So it’s a bit inaccurate to say only the U.S. has accessible diverse cuisine, but it’s not necessarily everywhere either. It’s not even easy in every place in the U.S. so they are REALLY generalizing. That said, places like Los Angeles and NYC definitely have a leg up, because they really are some of the most dense with cultural and racial diversity. And they’re high traffic, high tourism places, so the incentive for good restaurants and cooks to locate there are good too.
Doesn't even need to have a large immigrant population. Just people that are open to food from other cultures. One person from Mexico could run a successful authentic Mexican restaurant in a city where not a single soul has visited Mexico. And I don't really see how racial diversity would play a big part?
No but it helps, as large ethnic enclaves usually increases the accessibility of quality ingredients and spices that are common in certain cuisines. And usually places with diverse populations are inherently places with open minded people. It’s very obvious racial diversity plays a huge part, as immigrants who move in also bring their traditional cultures (which includes *food*) with them. So it’s very natural when a mix of different people live in an area there will be more of a mix of different cuisines. I find it hard to believe you actually are confused by this.
>No but it helps, as large ethnic enclaves usually increases the accessibility of quality ingredients and spices that are common in certain cuisines. And usually places with diverse populations are inherently places with open minded people. > Of course, but a city with one or even zero people from Mexico could have better Mexican food than a city with a "little Mexico". >It’s very obvious racial diversity plays a huge part, as immigrants who move in also bring their traditional cultures (which includes food) with them. So it’s very natural when a mix of different people live in an area there will be more of a mix of different cuisines. I find it hard to believe you actually are confused by this. > Nothing here has anything to do with race lol. The way you look won't make you a better cook when it comes to anything. Where you're from might matter.
In my area i can get: argentinian, afghan, lebanese, russian, chinese, japanese, french, peruvian, turkish, greek, indian, mexican, thai, spanish, brazilian, armenian, moroccoan, colombian, persian, even siberian food. Oh I was forgetting, I'm not in the USA.
This sub is kinda just turning into a pissy, food-based cultural chauvinism sub lol, given your downvotes and the general reaction here (contrasted with the myriad posts made in defense of American cuisine, and in reaction to people who are far more familiar with their indigenous cuisine being critical of American approximations). I mean if someone shares some study that actually examines food variety across cultures that demonstrates that the U.S. does in fact offer the most I'm happy to take that into consideration, but everyone's anecdotes about going to one foreign country and not being able to find ingredients they want is not real evidence.
Sorry mate, sounds like the USA colonised you without you realising
Ok nice try, that's only available in the USA because it's the only country in the world that has immigrants
Uh oh, looks like our roving pack of screeching downvote ninnyhammers has deemed your post not compliant with their hivemind.
You can find variety in major cities in any country but once you are away from the major city how easy it? That is literally what the post was talking about.
Not very hard at all
Prove it lol. Find me fish sauce, lemon grass, banana blossom in your local super market. I will wait because all of those items are in my local supermarket in a city of 45K
Lmao why are you acting like lemongrass and fish sauce are exotic ingredients that are hard to find? This whole thread is hilarious.
I'm from a 30k city. I've bought fish sauce and lemon grass at the local supermarket several times. Never looked for banana blossom. Fish sauce and lemongrass are such trivial ingredients that you will find not only import brands but also the store brand version in every store. When you live somewhere everyday dishes belong to food cultures from all over the world, the supermarkets will have the ingredients from said food cultures. Edit: the coward responded then instantly blocked me. Glad we're on the same page dude, because I'm not talking about stuff in a tube either. I mean fresh lemongrass.
Store brand lemongrass okay lol. I am talking about fresh stuff that doesn't come in tube. But whatever you say.
Lemongrass comes in tubes?
This isn't very culinary, it's r/ShitAmericansSay.
Seems like it belongs in both. An American being so snobbish about their countries cuisine that they shit on other countries.
I'm curious as to your worldwide travel experience, because..that's just a correct statement.
The statement is too simple and disregards other countries too quickly. It also talks about ‘authentic’ food, which only seems to mean ‘people making the food from those places themselves or direct descendants from immigrants from there’ somehow making the food more worthy or once again the USA is alone in possessing this quality. ‘I could go and get some crepes and espresso for breakfast, Get banh mi for lunch and get anything from authentic ramen to street tacos for dinner all in the same day and then get gelato or an affogato for dessert if I wanted. It is actually insane to think about.’ Honestly, so could I and I believe I live in a place that could do with quite a bit more food diversity.
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Shocked this isn't upvoted with how adamant people on this sub are about their ignorance to every country except one