> 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 ethn

> 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...