This is a really fun exercise; a rare example of something that's "data-centric" without being soulless.
I think it's fascinating how it illustrates weirdness about how Americans think about and categorize "ethnic" food. For example, the author's analysis of Google data shows Glendale, CA ranks #1 for "Highest prevalence of Mediterranean Restaurants." But I am nearly certain the majority of these, given Glendale's demographics, are in fact Armenian or Persian restaurants. Both Iran and Armenia are of course quite far from the Mediterranean region, but for whatever reason (rice? flat breads? grilled things on a stick?) have gotten lumped in with some Americanized, genericized conception of "the Mediterranean" that's indistinguishable from "the Middle East." I would imagine you'd find the same thing happening on Yelp etc.
> some Americanized, genericized conception of "the Mediterranean" that's indistinguishable from "the Middle East."
The same happens with the food itself. I had a chat with a restaurateur in Switzerland, and he explained all the modifications he had to make in order to sell "Chinese" food. "They didn't have bean sprouts when I first came, and they will look like they are dying if there's any amount of spice in it."
The famous example of this is Chicken Tikka Masala, which is a British take on Indian food. You can't open an "Indian" restaurant in the UK and not put it on the menu, just as you must have the step-ladder of spice with Indian sounding names (Korma, Madras, Vindaloo). IIRC similar to General Tso's Chicken when it comes to ordering Chinese in the US, gotta be on the menu.
People simply come to expect certain things with certain foods, often disconnected with the the place that inspired it. When you open an ethnic restaurant, it's almost like joining a franchise. You aren't formally paying MacDonald's when you open a Chinese takeaway, but you do have to have things on the menu that people recognize, so the labels "Thai", "Ramen", "Japanese", etc function a bit like a franchise.
A bit like writing a fantasy novel. You aren’t paying any Tolkien Estate licensing fees, but people expect the established elves, trolls, dwarves, goblins, dragons, etc.
A more historical example of the same phenomenon may be commedia dell'arte.
I recently spoke with someone who traveled to Thailand. She didn’t like the Pad Thai in Thailand and instead preferred the one in NYC with yellow color on the noodles.
I'd say that the step-ladder of spiced Indian dishes are more associated with takeaways and cheaper restaurants. High quality Indian restaurants in the UK will tend to feature a specific region and only have a handful of dishes.
Same with higher end restaurants in the US for Chinese and Indian food.
Depending on where you are the cheaper restaurants in immigrant communities will be similar.
You get the regional food the chef's mother made. Occasionally, there are local substitutions (different mangos, peppers, meat cuts).
Agreed, I am wondering if you could extract food truck data from the various licensing databases. That question arises because in some places food trucks have replaced the statistically improbable 'hole-in-the-wall' restaurant for some of the same reasons those restaurants existed, relatively low cost of entry.
Plus lots of salad and olive oil. I believe the use of "Mediterranean" is to avoid strange expectations about Middle Eastern food, which many people seem to erroneously expect to be more like Indian.
Now that Google Maps has the AI summary for restaurants, I wonder if this can be queried in the API? It would probably have the keywords for Xinjiang food or whatever the OP wants to analyze. Checking two Central Asian restaurants I've been to in my area, one is tagged "Restaurant" and one is tagged "Pan-Asian Restaurant", so not very illuminating. However, in their AI summaries both have keyword "Central Asian" and one even says more specifically "Kyrgyz"
There seems to be some correlation with how NIMBY a city is, and its access to diversified food options. (And probably entrepreneurship in general?)
Similarly, I would expect that the greater the dependence a city has on cars, the less diverse their food options are (leaning heavily into fast food.)
Houston standing out makes sense though. Despite its insane car infrastructure, I believe there are comparatively few restrictions on property use.
> Similarly, I would expect that the greater the dependence a city has on cars
I believe, this is simply if not reversed. A city with a good car infrastructure is far more likely to have niche restaurants, because people can easily _get_ there.
The Italian city where I live (~100k) has 4 McDonald's, no burger kings (there was one, it closed years ago) and that's quite it in terms of fast food.
Now that I think of it, there's a subway. It must be for tourists because I've never heard about any local eating there
Some of the best Thai I’ve ever had outside of Thailand and Malaysia was in Allentown PA. Not sure that would get a hit since there are so many Thai places (by design).
This is a really fun exercise; a rare example of something that's "data-centric" without being soulless.
I think it's fascinating how it illustrates weirdness about how Americans think about and categorize "ethnic" food. For example, the author's analysis of Google data shows Glendale, CA ranks #1 for "Highest prevalence of Mediterranean Restaurants." But I am nearly certain the majority of these, given Glendale's demographics, are in fact Armenian or Persian restaurants. Both Iran and Armenia are of course quite far from the Mediterranean region, but for whatever reason (rice? flat breads? grilled things on a stick?) have gotten lumped in with some Americanized, genericized conception of "the Mediterranean" that's indistinguishable from "the Middle East." I would imagine you'd find the same thing happening on Yelp etc.
> some Americanized, genericized conception of "the Mediterranean" that's indistinguishable from "the Middle East."
The same happens with the food itself. I had a chat with a restaurateur in Switzerland, and he explained all the modifications he had to make in order to sell "Chinese" food. "They didn't have bean sprouts when I first came, and they will look like they are dying if there's any amount of spice in it."
The famous example of this is Chicken Tikka Masala, which is a British take on Indian food. You can't open an "Indian" restaurant in the UK and not put it on the menu, just as you must have the step-ladder of spice with Indian sounding names (Korma, Madras, Vindaloo). IIRC similar to General Tso's Chicken when it comes to ordering Chinese in the US, gotta be on the menu.
People simply come to expect certain things with certain foods, often disconnected with the the place that inspired it. When you open an ethnic restaurant, it's almost like joining a franchise. You aren't formally paying MacDonald's when you open a Chinese takeaway, but you do have to have things on the menu that people recognize, so the labels "Thai", "Ramen", "Japanese", etc function a bit like a franchise.
A bit like writing a fantasy novel. You aren’t paying any Tolkien Estate licensing fees, but people expect the established elves, trolls, dwarves, goblins, dragons, etc.
A more historical example of the same phenomenon may be commedia dell'arte.
I recently spoke with someone who traveled to Thailand. She didn’t like the Pad Thai in Thailand and instead preferred the one in NYC with yellow color on the noodles.
I'd say that the step-ladder of spiced Indian dishes are more associated with takeaways and cheaper restaurants. High quality Indian restaurants in the UK will tend to feature a specific region and only have a handful of dishes.
Same with higher end restaurants in the US for Chinese and Indian food. Depending on where you are the cheaper restaurants in immigrant communities will be similar.
You get the regional food the chef's mother made. Occasionally, there are local substitutions (different mangos, peppers, meat cuts).
Agreed, I am wondering if you could extract food truck data from the various licensing databases. That question arises because in some places food trucks have replaced the statistically improbable 'hole-in-the-wall' restaurant for some of the same reasons those restaurants existed, relatively low cost of entry.
Plus lots of salad and olive oil. I believe the use of "Mediterranean" is to avoid strange expectations about Middle Eastern food, which many people seem to erroneously expect to be more like Indian.
To me, this is less about how Americans incorrectly categorize food (not that they don't do that) and more about how lazy algorithms do so.
Now that Google Maps has the AI summary for restaurants, I wonder if this can be queried in the API? It would probably have the keywords for Xinjiang food or whatever the OP wants to analyze. Checking two Central Asian restaurants I've been to in my area, one is tagged "Restaurant" and one is tagged "Pan-Asian Restaurant", so not very illuminating. However, in their AI summaries both have keyword "Central Asian" and one even says more specifically "Kyrgyz"
There seems to be some correlation with how NIMBY a city is, and its access to diversified food options. (And probably entrepreneurship in general?)
Similarly, I would expect that the greater the dependence a city has on cars, the less diverse their food options are (leaning heavily into fast food.)
Houston standing out makes sense though. Despite its insane car infrastructure, I believe there are comparatively few restrictions on property use.
> There seems to be some correlation with how NIMBY a city is, and its access to diversified food options.
How are you measuring NIMBYness?
> Similarly, I would expect that the greater the dependence a city has on cars
I believe, this is simply if not reversed. A city with a good car infrastructure is far more likely to have niche restaurants, because people can easily _get_ there.
Wow, what is Carrollton like?
Highest prevalence of Korean Restaurants:
Carrollton, Texas 14.67%
Federal Way, Washington 12.45%
Santa Clara, California 8.74%
Garden Grove, California 8.20%
Irvine, California 7.75%
Fullerton, California 7.46%
Ann Arbor, Michigan 5.14%
Honolulu, Hawaii 5.13%
Killeen, Texas 4.40%
Torrance, California 4.25%
Apparently an American city of 100,000 people has:
9 Starbucks and 4 Dunkin’s 6 McDonalds, 3 Burger Kings and 3 Wendy’s 4 Taco Bells and 2 Chipotles 9 Subways 3 Dominos and 2.5 Chick-Fil-A’s
The Italian city where I live (~100k) has 4 McDonald's, no burger kings (there was one, it closed years ago) and that's quite it in terms of fast food.
Now that I think of it, there's a subway. It must be for tourists because I've never heard about any local eating there
Some of the best Thai I’ve ever had outside of Thailand and Malaysia was in Allentown PA. Not sure that would get a hit since there are so many Thai places (by design).