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What is it with all the posts mentioning ethnic food? I can't be the only one who finds it crazy. I eat normal grocery store food and barely have use for restau

What is it with all the posts mentioning ethnic food? I can't be the only one who finds it crazy. I eat normal grocery store food and barely have use for restaurants at all. Yet there are apparently large numbers of people who decide where to live on the basis of restaurants? It's very strange to me.

exstudent 12y ago
Do you have the skills and access to proper ingredients to cook: Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish...? That's a pretty typical (and healthy!) diet in a large city. I myself have recently relocated to a middle US city from NY and definitely miss the cuisine. I find myself feeling much less healthy and craving my old dietary variety.
justrudd 12y ago
For me, I don't like to cook or cleanup. I'd rather pay 10 USD for a salad then to deal with any of the preparation myself. I'd much rather spend my time coding, reading, working out, etc. So being near a bunch of different types of food is a must for me.
- a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
  The time argument makes zero sense. Going out to eat takes much more time than stocking and eating various zero prep foods. You don't have to cook to get complete nutrition. I often go days eating just bread, cheese/milk, OJ, and softboiled eggs, and maybe a carrot.
  - justrudd 12y ago
    I guess if I was just sitting there doing nothing waiting on my food to be cooked, sure. But I often read, sketch out ideas for my current project, figure out what my next goal in working out will be, etc. And given where I live right now, I can be to a restaurant and seated in about 5 or 10 minute walk. And bread, cheese/milk, egg and carrot - wow. How boring. Just because I don't want to cook doesn't mean I don't want my food to be good, flavorful, and exciting. I like food. I like hot, prepared food.
  - potatolicious 12y ago
    It's not about nutrition, it's about taste and variety. I can put together a fridge full of zero-prep foods that's nutritionally sufficient, but I'll probably want to shoot myself after 2 weeks. Also, one of the "things" about NYC is that going out to eat doesn't take much more time. Having food prepared for you is not an event, and you don't need to drive a few miles to get to a restaurant. From my apartment I can be ass-in-seat at 4-5 different eateries in the amount of time it'd take for you to start the car and pull out of the driveway. There's a reason so many of us complain about our small apartments but wouldn't trade them in for anything. NYC has nearly perfected the craft of preparing food for you cheaply, quickly, and tastily. You can eat cuisines from the world over, a new one each day, without breaking the bank and without traveling more than 10 minutes from your home. The sheer density of restaurants also helps quality. The are so many restaurants offering similar cuisines in any given area that they compete fiercely on price and quality. The result is that you can get an amazing quality of food at sub-suburban prices. Even if you prepare your own food, in NYC the grocery is so close by you can buy in small volume and wide variety. You can practice an incredibly varied menu in your own kitchen because you don't have to buy in anything resembling bulk. You can buy just enough of some ingredient for one meal, and switch to something entirely different the next day, with little logistical impact. Swinging by the bakery for a fresh loaf of bread is a matter of course - you don't have to pull into a parking lot, park the car, or anything - it's just on your way from wherever you were going. The "sell" for NYC food is a combination of variety, quality, and price.
    - a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
      I live in an urban neighborhood and don't have a car. I still prefer to simply take high quality produce out of the fridge over getting who-really-knows-for-sure from some fly-by-night hawker. That stuff is all loaded with cheap oils. If I'm going to eat out, it's a rare treat and I'm going to drop a couple hundred at a highly reputable place. To consider restaurants and food stands as part of your day to day life style is crazy to me. Just my opinion.
    - lilsunnybee 12y ago
      It's so nice for you to have your varied tastes catered to every meal, that you don't have to fix anything yourself because you don't "like to cook or cleanup", and would never live anywhere besides SF or NYC, so you don't have to shoot yourself, but seriously get some perspective.
  - dnr 12y ago
    Obviously, different people get different amounts of pleasure from eating, and specifically eating a wide variety of flavors and types of food. It's not that hard to imagine someone who derives a lot of pleasure from eating "exotic" food wanting to live somewhere where they could easily do that, is it?
pessimizer 12y ago
It's a cultural thing with a certain segment of US middle class under 35s. Don't try to rationalize it. It's why gentrification comes with "pan-asian fusion" and sushi rather than grocery stores, drugstores, community centers, toy stores, or anything that's not foreign food or American comfort prepared by a chef (or a bar.) My guess is that all of these people actually plan to return to the suburbs eventually, when their kids are old enough for school, and they decide to buy a house (with surprisingly little consideration to nearby Thai food offerings.) My projection of the mindset: you go to the city for exotic experiences, if you wanted to buy stuff for your house, or groceries, or a backpack, why wouldn't you go to the mall?
- a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
  Speaking of "exotic experiences" overseas travel is another over-done fixation of the modern yuppie. "What weird place have you been doing something weird?" is apparently how you size up the Joneses these days. They'll blather on about how some trip expanded their mind and so forth, despite not speaking any of the language or knowing anything of the history and only being there briefly.
  - ForHackernews 12y ago
    Beats staying at home. Certainly learning languages and history are Good Things, but I'll take somebody who has traveled extensively over somebody who's never left their own country any day of the week.
- exstudent 12y ago
  Or, you know, people who aren't "a certain segment of US middle class". If you come from a different culture (NOT "weird" as a8da6b0c91d so rudely puts it), it can be a pretty difficult prospect facing burgers and "bread and milk" to survive on. Some people have grown up eating seafood, different vegetables and a variety of spices in their food and aren't so quick to give them up.
  - cheald 12y ago

exstudent 12y ago

Do you have the skills and access to proper ingredients to cook: Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish...? That's a pretty typical (and healthy!) diet in a large city. I myself have recently relocated to a middle US city from NY and definitely miss the cuisine. I find myself feeling much less healthy and craving my old dietary variety.

justrudd 12y ago

For me, I don't like to cook or cleanup. I'd rather pay 10 USD for a salad then to deal with any of the preparation myself. I'd much rather spend my time coding, reading, working out, etc. So being near a bunch of different types of food is a must for me.

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
The time argument makes zero sense. Going out to eat takes much more time than stocking and eating various zero prep foods. You don't have to cook to get complete nutrition. I often go days eating just bread, cheese/milk, OJ, and softboiled eggs, and maybe a carrot.
- justrudd 12y ago
  I guess if I was just sitting there doing nothing waiting on my food to be cooked, sure. But I often read, sketch out ideas for my current project, figure out what my next goal in working out will be, etc. And given where I live right now, I can be to a restaurant and seated in about 5 or 10 minute walk. And bread, cheese/milk, egg and carrot - wow. How boring. Just because I don't want to cook doesn't mean I don't want my food to be good, flavorful, and exciting. I like food. I like hot, prepared food.
- potatolicious 12y ago
  It's not about nutrition, it's about taste and variety. I can put together a fridge full of zero-prep foods that's nutritionally sufficient, but I'll probably want to shoot myself after 2 weeks. Also, one of the "things" about NYC is that going out to eat doesn't take much more time. Having food prepared for you is not an event, and you don't need to drive a few miles to get to a restaurant. From my apartment I can be ass-in-seat at 4-5 different eateries in the amount of time it'd take for you to start the car and pull out of the driveway. There's a reason so many of us complain about our small apartments but wouldn't trade them in for anything. NYC has nearly perfected the craft of preparing food for you cheaply, quickly, and tastily. You can eat cuisines from the world over, a new one each day, without breaking the bank and without traveling more than 10 minutes from your home. The sheer density of restaurants also helps quality. The are so many restaurants offering similar cuisines in any given area that they compete fiercely on price and quality. The result is that you can get an amazing quality of food at sub-suburban prices. Even if you prepare your own food, in NYC the grocery is so close by you can buy in small volume and wide variety. You can practice an incredibly varied menu in your own kitchen because you don't have to buy in anything resembling bulk. You can buy just enough of some ingredient for one meal, and switch to something entirely different the next day, with little logistical impact. Swinging by the bakery for a fresh loaf of bread is a matter of course - you don't have to pull into a parking lot, park the car, or anything - it's just on your way from wherever you were going. The "sell" for NYC food is a combination of variety, quality, and price.
  - a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
    I live in an urban neighborhood and don't have a car. I still prefer to simply take high quality produce out of the fridge over getting who-really-knows-for-sure from some fly-by-night hawker. That stuff is all loaded with cheap oils. If I'm going to eat out, it's a rare treat and I'm going to drop a couple hundred at a highly reputable place. To consider restaurants and food stands as part of your day to day life style is crazy to me. Just my opinion.
  - lilsunnybee 12y ago
    It's so nice for you to have your varied tastes catered to every meal, that you don't have to fix anything yourself because you don't "like to cook or cleanup", and would never live anywhere besides SF or NYC, so you don't have to shoot yourself, but seriously get some perspective.
- dnr 12y ago
  Obviously, different people get different amounts of pleasure from eating, and specifically eating a wide variety of flavors and types of food. It's not that hard to imagine someone who derives a lot of pleasure from eating "exotic" food wanting to live somewhere where they could easily do that, is it?

pessimizer 12y ago

It's a cultural thing with a certain segment of US middle class under 35s. Don't try to rationalize it. It's why gentrification comes with "pan-asian fusion" and sushi rather than grocery stores, drugstores, community centers, toy stores, or anything that's not foreign food or American comfort prepared by a chef (or a bar.) My guess is that all of these people actually plan to return to the suburbs eventually, when their kids are old enough for school, and they decide to buy a house (with surprisingly little consideration to nearby Thai food offerings.) My projection of the mindset: you go to the city for exotic experiences, if you wanted to buy stuff for your house, or groceries, or a backpack, why wouldn't you go to the mall?

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
Speaking of "exotic experiences" overseas travel is another over-done fixation of the modern yuppie. "What weird place have you been doing something weird?" is apparently how you size up the Joneses these days. They'll blather on about how some trip expanded their mind and so forth, despite not speaking any of the language or knowing anything of the history and only being there briefly.
- ForHackernews 12y ago
  Beats staying at home. Certainly learning languages and history are Good Things, but I'll take somebody who has traveled extensively over somebody who's never left their own country any day of the week.
exstudent 12y ago
Or, you know, people who aren't "a certain segment of US middle class". If you come from a different culture (NOT "weird" as a8da6b0c91d so rudely puts it), it can be a pretty difficult prospect facing burgers and "bread and milk" to survive on. Some people have grown up eating seafood, different vegetables and a variety of spices in their food and aren't so quick to give them up.
- cheald 12y ago