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I want to say this about Peruvian food, and that it's the second best after Mexican for Latin American food. Miami and then (small gap) NYC are the places for it in the USA. After that Los Angeles. Chicago is or was never on the radar for Peruvian food.
Have you ever lived in Chicago? Not to sound like an arse, but I don't think a few visits to the city warrants you having all the knowledge about the Latin food scene in Chicago. I am just saying.
The food in LA is good but I am also not going to downplay it in certain areas because I can admit that I haven't been there enough to really say. Does LA have better Mexican food? That's probably a known fact, but Chicago does not have bad Mexican food. Ever try Mexican food in places like Indianapolis or Seattle?
Is LA leaps and bound ahead of Chicago in certain areas? I am not going to pretend that I know, all I know is both cities have good food and do it well regardless what ethnic food it is. From my experience the quality and diversity of food in Chicago is on par with SF and LA.
NYC has the best Mexican cuisine? Not even close.
Best Chinese? Nope.
Best Japanese? No.
Korean? Yikes.
Vietnamese, Thai? Meh
Burger joints? No.
Is it in an agriculturally rich region with year round fresh produce at its feet? No, it's not.
Other than that, yeah NYC is "way above" other cities. Hand dooowwwn!
I agree with the 5 you used but not the order. LA and Houston have been real underrated in this thread especially for 2 of the most diverse cities in the country, possibly world. Any reason why Chicago lands 5th for you?
I also think D.C., Las Vegas, and Miami deserve high remarks. D.C. is another very diverse city with exquisite food. Honorable mentions to Boston and Dallas.
Chicago is a strong #5, it had its strengths, but weaknesses with regards to diversity. It's Asian offerings leave a lot to be desired. What it does it does well, it's food is beloved for a reason.
L.A has the best mexican & chinese food hands down
Far as NYC having the best food it depends on what like if we're talking pizza & italian food than yeah of course
I think everybody is being bias about the city they're from but i gotta give it up to the N.O they're very different from the rest of southern cities
I've been to many places in NOLA as a visitor can be. I never lived there so I haven't seen every corner of the city but when I stay, I stay with my friend and he doesn't live in the touristy areas (he lives off charles ave in the lower end of central city). I usually walk in NOLA because I love to discover areas of the city. I have walked from the Metaire to the 9th (checked out Sallys right before, there's a mediocre taqueria here too), and it took me the whole day with my stops etc (to get back I broke down and took a bus lol). That being said I never discovered a Vietnamese community, I don't doubt it exists but my standards are high for Vietnamese food being from LA.
I did discover a mexican town of sorts off of canal (if my memory is being good to me). It was mostly a collection of the mexican workers now in NOLA. The bars for example were practically 100% male, with the only exception being the waitresses. The food however was really bad. Maybe in the suburbs, it's better. I did notice that NOLA has a lot of Mexican/Creole fusion places. I liked those very much.
NOLA was the first city that popped into my mind for the 5th spot. I'm just starting this thread to see what everyone thinks. The first 4 on this list have tremendous variety, NOLA doesn't. Houston does, and even though Houston is more a blank when it comes to food cities I'm not sure if NOLA's strong dishes should outweigh Houston's strengths across the board. As to get to your point (how can I judge): I spent only 1 week in NYC and I ate pretty good but I have eaten a lot better food in LA. However, I can see that as a tourist I won't be eating as good as if I was a resident and I can easily see as a clueless tourist I easily stumbled into good food in NYC (which is why I'm predicting it's the number one spot). When it came to ethnic eats in NOLA, not at all.
The Vietnamese community is located way out in New Orleans East around the intersection of Alcee Fortier Boulevard and Cher Mentuer Highway. There are also some communities on the Westbank as well. The communities have been around since the 1970's and New Orleans even had the first Vietnamese American to serve in congress with Joseph Cao. The Mexican population really started to increase in population after the hurricane and they have not really totally established themselves yet. I think the area you are talking about is near Canal and Carrollton in Mid City. But New Orleans does have a long established Central American population and I think the city ranks in the top 10 in Honduran and Nicaraguan populations (most of them seem to live in Kenner, Metairie, or some other suburbs). New Orleans of course does not have the ethnic variety of cities that are 10 times larger than it but for a city this size it does do very well. I just find it strange how some people are like "after Creole/Cajun/seafood/southern what else does the city offer?" First off it is just a regular city with a wide range of ethnic cuisines that most good sized cities will have (obviously not as much quantity and sometimes quality as cities that are much larger) but then the city is lucky enough to have a unique regional cuisine on top of that which for the most part cannot be found in the rest of the country. Even the foods that originated in the area fit into a wide range of categories from the Italian Muffuletta to Bananas Foster to the 50 different varieties of po-boys to Oysters Rockefeller to Beignets to King Cake to Gumbo to Crawfish to Yaka Mein to BBQ shrimp etc.. The city was also a major destination for European immigration back in the day, so it will have the established communities that come with that. But really I dont think any city is as obsessed and in love with food as people in New Orleans.
NYC has the best Mexican cuisine? Not even close.
Best Chinese? Nope.
Best Japanese? No.
Korean? Yikes.
Vietnamese, Thai? Meh
Burger joints? No.
Is it in an agriculturally rich region with year round fresh produce at its feet? No, it's not.
Other than that, yeah NYC is "way above" other cities. Hand dooowwwn!
NYC has an awesome burger scene. Not sure where you got that.
You are taking a very short sighted view of things, focusing only on Asia. You forgot Europe, Mid east, SE Asia, etc. Also, what about American ?!!? What about going broader and talk about fine dining? Expand that checklist and cumulatively NYC beats all other cities in the US.
Agriculture? Yeah, sure that's good, but all that means is you have good produce/ingredients, not food. I'd argue its the skills of the chef that more important, and NYC has the best of breed.
NYC has an awesome burger scene. Not sure where you got that.
You are taking a very short sighted view of things, focusing only on Asia. You forgot Europe, Mid east, SE Asia, etc. Also, what about American ?!!? What about going broader and talk about fine dining? Expand that checklist and cumulatively NYC beats all other cities in the US.
Agriculture? Yeah, sure that's good, but all that means is you have good produce/ingredients, not food. I'd argue its the skills of the chef that more important, and NYC has the best of breed.
And agree that the criteria seemed only on asian (of which NYC is actually pretty stellar on the whole) and mexican (to me the SW and WC are best in this regard) but excludes many european and other cuisines.
The CA mantra is typically if it aint Asian it is no good (I love asian food BTW no doubt)
FWIW I personally find SF and LA to be among the top food cities in the country no doubt
I can get Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, north Indian, south Indian, Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Burmese, etc. ... restaurants in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
So someone convince me I need to fly out to the west coast for the "real" thing. I need menus! ;-)
which cities piles on the cheese, red meat, oil, sugar, fat in general?
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