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Sorry but this is wrong. Food scenes require diverse cultures. Small town USA doesn't have 50+ ethnic groups making restaurants downtown

porknubbins 6y ago
By this metric food scenes can only exist in 2-3 cities in the US (or world for that matter). I think food scenes that do one or two things well are totally worthwhile and a huge improvement over bland suburban chains.
- Daishiman 6y ago
  Effectively, there's never more than a dozen cities, tops, in any country in the world where you can get close to top-level food quality, and even so that applies only for a few genres of food.
  - tchaffee 6y ago
    Except for Italy, Peru, Mexico, Japan, France, Thailand, and many other countries where you can find top quality food in thousands of small towns and out of the way places. So probably not a great rule to go by.
    - howlgarnish 6y ago
      You can get top-quality Japanese food in thousands of small Japanese towns, and top-quality Thai food in thousands of small Thai towns. However, rest assured you will have a very hard time finding (say) Mexican in either. The only places in either country where you have a genuinely cosmopolitan food scene are Tokyo and Bangkok respectively.
      - freeone3000 6y ago
        What is top-quality American food, and where do you find it?
        howlgarnish 6y ago
        Not an American, but the last time I rocked up to a random small American town and chose a random small restaurant, I had a really good turkey chili burger [1]. Hardly gourmet, but delicious, and it's quite difficult to find this kind of thing outside the US. [1] The "Chili Monster" at the Dillinger in Boulder City, NV, in case you were wondering. https://www.thedillinger.com/ https://www.thedillinger.com/ (Not to be confused with Boulder, CO.)
        chipotle_coyote 6y ago
        In addition to the burger previously mentioned, off the top of my head as "American cuisine" there's obviously barbecue, as well as Southern cuisine, Cajun/Creole, and -- while some might argue -- I'd throw in Tex-Mex and New Mexican (e.g., the state of New Mexico) as gastronomically distinct. Where you find it is, well, all over. You have to do a little research. :) But you can find really well-regarded restaurants around America for those cuisines, across a wide variety of price points.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  - jupp0r 6y ago
    France begs to differ. You have spectacularly good restaurants in rural areas all over the county (Michelin star good).
    - kelnos 6y ago
      Sure, but you don't get the variety. If you move out to rural France but are used to rotating among eating Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Thai, etc. throughout the month, you might be disappointed with the lack of choices.
      - carlob 6y ago
        You are probably used to this rotation just because you grew up in the US. As someone who has grown up in Italy we don't think about food this way, not even regionally. I.e. don't expect a great risotto in Naples or a decent carbonara in Milan...
        Daishiman 6y ago
        This isn't a US thing, it's about cities with cosmopolitan tradition. Italians are the complete opposite of this culture.
        carlob 6y ago
        I think there is a spectrum, the US being a country of immigrants is on one extreme, Italy having been several different independent states up to 160 years ago and having many different climates and cultures is on the other. While it's true that the Italian approach to cuisine might be overly provincial I think that most of the world is closer to Italy than the US.
      - Bayart 6y ago
        Being in rural France, I like trying some new foreign cuisine once in while as much as anybody else, but it wouldn't come to my mind to make it my daily routine. Going out of your way to not eat local stuff is completely pointless to me. People take quite a lot of pride in having good stuff specific to their area.
tchaffee 6y ago
France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Basque, and Japan are all examples of places with mostly one ethnic group and great food scenes.
- kelnos 6y ago
  Very true! But I'd be disappointed if the only plentiful cuisine was the local one. As much as I love each of the cuisines you mentioned, I can't imagine predominately eating any one of them.
  - unishark 6y ago
    I think in Japan you could probably go to a different restaurant serving a different type of Japanese food (e.g. ramen, sushi, soba, tempura, steak... even the US has the more famous ones) and continue on for weeks before exhausting the possible options for different restaurant types, all of which count as "local" food. At least local to the country.
- gmadsen 6y ago
  fair point. I think my comment was US centric. There really isn't a cuisine culture in a lot of small usa towns. Probably do to the short lived actual history of the US, and the nearly forced consumption of preservative ridden and processed food following the world wars.
- dralley 6y ago
  The best Indian food I've ever had (and I only ate there once so maybe it was a fluke) was an Indian restaurant in Brno, Czech Republic, population 400k. I can't imagine there were very many Indian people there, but the food was amazing.

porknubbins 6y ago

By this metric food scenes can only exist in 2-3 cities in the US (or world for that matter). I think food scenes that do one or two things well are totally worthwhile and a huge improvement over bland suburban chains.

Daishiman 6y ago
Effectively, there's never more than a dozen cities, tops, in any country in the world where you can get close to top-level food quality, and even so that applies only for a few genres of food.
- tchaffee 6y ago
  Except for Italy, Peru, Mexico, Japan, France, Thailand, and many other countries where you can find top quality food in thousands of small towns and out of the way places. So probably not a great rule to go by.
  - howlgarnish 6y ago
    You can get top-quality Japanese food in thousands of small Japanese towns, and top-quality Thai food in thousands of small Thai towns. However, rest assured you will have a very hard time finding (say) Mexican in either. The only places in either country where you have a genuinely cosmopolitan food scene are Tokyo and Bangkok respectively.
    - freeone3000 6y ago
      What is top-quality American food, and where do you find it?
      - howlgarnish 6y ago
        Not an American, but the last time I rocked up to a random small American town and chose a random small restaurant, I had a really good turkey chili burger [1]. Hardly gourmet, but delicious, and it's quite difficult to find this kind of thing outside the US. [1] The "Chili Monster" at the Dillinger in Boulder City, NV, in case you were wondering. https://www.thedillinger.com/ https://www.thedillinger.com/ (Not to be confused with Boulder, CO.)
      - chipotle_coyote 6y ago
        In addition to the burger previously mentioned, off the top of my head as "American cuisine" there's obviously barbecue, as well as Southern cuisine, Cajun/Creole, and -- while some might argue -- I'd throw in Tex-Mex and New Mexican (e.g., the state of New Mexico) as gastronomically distinct. Where you find it is, well, all over. You have to do a little research. :) But you can find really well-regarded restaurants around America for those cuisines, across a wide variety of price points.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
- jupp0r 6y ago
  France begs to differ. You have spectacularly good restaurants in rural areas all over the county (Michelin star good).
  - kelnos 6y ago
    Sure, but you don't get the variety. If you move out to rural France but are used to rotating among eating Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Thai, etc. throughout the month, you might be disappointed with the lack of choices.
    - carlob 6y ago
      You are probably used to this rotation just because you grew up in the US. As someone who has grown up in Italy we don't think about food this way, not even regionally. I.e. don't expect a great risotto in Naples or a decent carbonara in Milan...
      - Daishiman 6y ago
        This isn't a US thing, it's about cities with cosmopolitan tradition. Italians are the complete opposite of this culture.
        carlob 6y ago
        I think there is a spectrum, the US being a country of immigrants is on one extreme, Italy having been several different independent states up to 160 years ago and having many different climates and cultures is on the other. While it's true that the Italian approach to cuisine might be overly provincial I think that most of the world is closer to Italy than the US.
    - Bayart 6y ago
      Being in rural France, I like trying some new foreign cuisine once in while as much as anybody else, but it wouldn't come to my mind to make it my daily routine. Going out of your way to not eat local stuff is completely pointless to me. People take quite a lot of pride in having good stuff specific to their area.

tchaffee 6y ago

France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Basque, and Japan are all examples of places with mostly one ethnic group and great food scenes.

kelnos 6y ago
Very true! But I'd be disappointed if the only plentiful cuisine was the local one. As much as I love each of the cuisines you mentioned, I can't imagine predominately eating any one of them.
- unishark 6y ago
  I think in Japan you could probably go to a different restaurant serving a different type of Japanese food (e.g. ramen, sushi, soba, tempura, steak... even the US has the more famous ones) and continue on for weeks before exhausting the possible options for different restaurant types, all of which count as "local" food. At least local to the country.
gmadsen 6y ago
fair point. I think my comment was US centric. There really isn't a cuisine culture in a lot of small usa towns. Probably do to the short lived actual history of the US, and the nearly forced consumption of preservative ridden and processed food following the world wars.
dralley 6y ago
The best Indian food I've ever had (and I only ate there once so maybe it was a fluke) was an Indian restaurant in Brno, Czech Republic, population 400k. I can't imagine there were very many Indian people there, but the food was amazing.