3 ms·

This is an amazing post. To give a sort of +1, I'll state that one never knows just how well they have it until they experience elsewhere. I'm a Northern VA na

This is an amazing post. To give a sort of +1, I'll state that one never knows just how well they have it until they experience elsewhere. I'm a Northern VA native, but I lived in Germany for 3 years (returned last year). Germany is lovely, but came nowhere close to the cosmopolitan area I was used to. Everything bane described is true. The limited options for food was the most noticeable. If we were lucky, we could find some esoteric Asian spices for our paneer from the Feinkost downtown, but you'd pay 10EUR for a tiny glass jar. I missed the Lotte or H-Mart where I could grab a bag of the same stuff for $2. And the diversity prepares you as well. People in Northern VA, have to, as a matter of circumstance, interact with people who may not speak the same language. (Some don't like this, I, don't mind.) Jobs are filled by people of all types. The services economy is hugely diverse, and you can quickly see all of the different facets to the economy and the issues people discuss in a few square miles. Fairfax did toy with the idea of incorporating. Tyson's I'd agree is probably the closest we have to a city outside of D.C. Fairfax around Rt 50 and Rt 29 is pretty dense. I visited S.F. once, and I'm envious of the atmosphere there, with the exception of the insanely high prices. (my perceptions of what constitutes reasonable rent is already distorted by my growing up here) That S.F. still keeps that vibe in the face of such prices makes me wonder how much it will last. But D.C. is gentrifying quick, and there's old sections of the city that are under threat of losing some of its diversity.

bane 10y ago
> I missed the Lotte or H-Mart where I could grab a bag of the same stuff for $2. It's really hard to explain to people not from the area how embedded the ethnic diversity of the food scene in NoVA is and it really forms itself in the consciousness of the locals. It really is its own thing. For example, when I was in Portland, the locals talked up the local foodie scene quite a bit, and the food really was excellent. But the diversity was totally different, e.g. thousands of variations of a few kinds of foods -- like microbreweries. The local competition in that limited menu-space made for excellent eating, but the non-American food selection wasn't there. It wasn't until I was in NoVA with some Portlanders that they "got it", we literally ate food for lunch from a different country every day of the week for weeks before we started ranging too far. I think the only place I've been to that is similar in "feel" is NYC, but you really have to hunt down the food in the various historic ethnic enclaves. Here's an example [1]. Nowhere particularly interesting NoVA, a couple small neighboring strip malls like anywhere, except there's: 3 Mexican places, a Peruvian place, 2xVietnamese places, a Szechuan place, Indian food, Thai, and an Indian grocer -- all mixed in with the usual assortment of fast-food, Starbucks, autobody shops and other typical things. This isn't even a particularly "ethnic" part of NoVA. Here's another right up the road [2]: Pakistani, Turkish, Indian next to a Dunkin' Donuts and a Subway. Here's one strip mall [3]: Salvadorean, Guatamalan, American-Chinese, Russian, Afghan, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern grocer, and a Middle Eastern restaurant mixed in with a Panera, Italian deli, Popeyes, Subway and McDonalds. These three places are probably within 15 minutes of each other. When I'm in Europe, it's great eating the local food for a few days. But then I find I start craving the diversity again and it's simply never there. Even very cosmopolitan cities like London aren't quite there. 1 - https://www.google.com/maps/place/@38.9009113,-77.4508584,19z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b6415619677219:0x4041f0fc4316ad83!8m2!3d38.8942786!4d-77.4310992 https://www.google.com/maps/place/@38.9009113,-77.4508584,19... 2 - https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9775979,-77.4099158,19z https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9775979,-77.4099158,19z 3 - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Granada+Restaurant/@38.9688033,-77.385335,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x7b6eb65d0fc0d80!8m2!3d38.9687061!4d-77.3744747 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Granada+Restaurant/@38.968...

bane 10y ago

> I missed the Lotte or H-Mart where I could grab a bag of the same stuff for $2. It's really hard to explain to people not from the area how embedded the ethnic diversity of the food scene in NoVA is and it really forms itself in the consciousness of the locals. It really is its own thing. For example, when I was in Portland, the locals talked up the local foodie scene quite a bit, and the food really was excellent. But the diversity was totally different, e.g. thousands of variations of a few kinds of foods -- like microbreweries. The local competition in that limited menu-space made for excellent eating, but the non-American food selection wasn't there. It wasn't until I was in NoVA with some Portlanders that they "got it", we literally ate food for lunch from a different country every day of the week for weeks before we started ranging too far. I think the only place I've been to that is similar in "feel" is NYC, but you really have to hunt down the food in the various historic ethnic enclaves. Here's an example [1]. Nowhere particularly interesting NoVA, a couple small neighboring strip malls like anywhere, except there's: 3 Mexican places, a Peruvian place, 2xVietnamese places, a Szechuan place, Indian food, Thai, and an Indian grocer -- all mixed in with the usual assortment of fast-food, Starbucks, autobody shops and other typical things. This isn't even a particularly "ethnic" part of NoVA. Here's another right up the road [2]: Pakistani, Turkish, Indian next to a Dunkin' Donuts and a Subway. Here's one strip mall [3]: Salvadorean, Guatamalan, American-Chinese, Russian, Afghan, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern grocer, and a Middle Eastern restaurant mixed in with a Panera, Italian deli, Popeyes, Subway and McDonalds. These three places are probably within 15 minutes of each other. When I'm in Europe, it's great eating the local food for a few days. But then I find I start craving the diversity again and it's simply never there. Even very cosmopolitan cities like London aren't quite there. 1 - https://www.google.com/maps/place/@38.9009113,-77.4508584,19z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b6415619677219:0x4041f0fc4316ad83!8m2!3d38.8942786!4d-77.4310992 https://www.google.com/maps/place/@38.9009113,-77.4508584,19... 2 - https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9775979,-77.4099158,19z https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9775979,-77.4099158,19z 3 - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Granada+Restaurant/@38.9688033,-77.385335,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x7b6eb65d0fc0d80!8m2!3d38.9687061!4d-77.3744747 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Granada+Restaurant/@38.968...