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Very popular cheap and tasty street food culture consisting of mainly local foods. Difficult to find local foods worked into fine dining . Most fine dining restaurants would be Italian, French with maybe some local influence.
In the last 10 years American food has become very popular. It is easily the most popular foreign cuisine.There are several American family dining chains which do well here (think TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesday) and locals enjoy the feeling of stepping inside and feeling like they are in the US with all the Americana props these restaurants house.
Very little South American influenced food despite the presence of the continent less than 10 miles away. However immigrants from Venezuela and Colombia have gradually increased their presence in the street food scene and there are also now a couple churrascarias.
Very little non Trinidadian Caribbean influence. I would find it easier to find American food than Jamaican or Cuban for eg.
The Chinese minority who has been here for over 150 years have made Chinese food hugely popular and extremely prevalent to the point that it is considered local. Locals of all ethinicities will cook Chinese in the home.
Despite the large majority of locals of Indian descent, authentic Indian (from the subcontinent) cuisine is not too popular maybe due to a heavy Indian influence throughout the local food.
Similarly to America, the people most open to foreign foods tend to be younger.
lol, i forgot mentioning french. of course very present here too, specially in the pastries (typical argentinain breakfast consist on coffe with croissants -we call them medialunas and they are selled in every corner). Now "macarons" are the new in thing here.
In the Washington, D.C. area, I have yet to find an ethnic kind of restaurant that is not available somewhere. This is about as international as it gets.
Speaking for Minnesota, there are Mexican, Italian, and Chinese restaurants pretty much everywhere - in Bemidji, MN (pop. 13,300), a town which has few (if any) immigrants, there are three Chinese restaurants, one Italian restaurant, and one Mexican restaurant. Of course, they are all likely to be adapted to fit local tastes. Note that rural Minnesotans are not particularly reputed to be "cosmopolitan" in their food tastes.
In the Minneapolis - St. Paul metro area - not even within the top ten largest metro areas in the United States - you can find restaurants serving food from Colombia, El Salavdor, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda, Morocco, Kurdistan, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, Russia, Israel, Greece, Lebanon, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, India, Nepal, Tibet, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan (usually owned by Hmongs!), Korea, Laos, Cambodia, and probably some others that I've forgotten. These are mostly located in the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, with mostly American and the standard chain restaurants being in the suburbs, although some ethnic cuisines (I think of Russian right now) are mainly located in the suburbs. There are also a multitude of ethnic grocery stores and markets, especially East African and Southeast Asian supermarkets. Sometimes grocery stores devoted to one type of cuisine venture into others based on the community's ethnic composition, so one grocery store specializing in Russian and other Eastern European goods also stocked Ethiopian injera bread.
On the other hand, in Madrid - a urban agglomeration with about the population of Minnesota - there are relatively few ethnic restaurants. Immigrants seem to have any easier time establishing businesses, like restaurants and grocery stores, than they do elsewhere.
Fine dining in the U.S. in 2011 consists mainly of "New American", steakhouse, French, Italian, and Japanese restaurants, with Spanish cuisine and Brazilian/Argentinian rodizios / churrascarias making an entrance. It is interesting to mention the role of Thai food in the United States: Thai cuisine is found even in smaller cities, and several Thai restaurants are found even in cities with small Thai populations. Thai restaurants are generally in what I call the "sub-fine dining" price range: more expensive than Mexican or Chinese restaurants, but not as expensive enough to be fine dining, and generally attract a white, middle/upper middle class clientele. Many times they are even run by non-Thais, such as immigrants from other countries in Southeast Asia. You can say that Thai food is generally considered stylish, or at least was five years ago. Compared this with Vietnamese restaurants, which are often frequented by Vietnamese people and are very cheap.
Yes I know its version of a traditional Indian dish but I think it shows how popular Indian food is in the UK. From the age of about 10/12 we regularly ate Chinese and Indian food and in my early teens I remember eating at African, Vietnamese, Thai and Sri lankan restaurants. Nowadays there are restaurants serving almost every ethnicity to be found sometimes in very unexpected bits of the UK..... someone married a Birt, moved to the UK and opened a restaurant..... usually small restaurants but great found can be stumbled upon....
A lot of the Mexican restaurants in the UK are still the crappy chain style places like TGI - IMO
Manchester - My home city has a population of about 500,000 and the Manchester metropolitan area (That I personally wouldn't call Manchester but that's another story ) has a pop of about 2.5 mil and there are Australian, Korean, Nepalese, Bengali, Moroccan, Caribbean, Brazilian, Persian, Russian, Spanish, American, Mexican, Lebanese, Armenian, Malay, Japanese, Mongolian, Jamaican, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and I'm sure there are a few I missed...Restaurants in Manchester
On the other hand, in Madrid - a urban agglomeration with about the population of Minnesota - there are relatively few ethnic restaurants. Immigrants seem to have any easier time establishing businesses, like restaurants and grocery stores, than they do elsewhere. .
So true. I lived near Valencia for six months and the non-Spanish options were nearly non-existent. Even the supermarkets had a very small conducive to local tastes only selection.
We, Malaysians. live to eat and short of Eskimo food, I think we have everything from every country imaginable. Walk into any food court and you'll find pizzas, sushi, Thai Tom Yam, Korean Bibimbap, Indonesian Ayam Penyet, an endless variety of Chinese cuisines, a smorgasbord of Malay, Indian, Mamak (Indian Muslim) and other Asian foods. The list is inexhaustive! In the swankier restaurants, you will be spoilt for choices for Spanish, French, Mexican, Swedish, Swiss, Canadian, American (from sloppy joes to burgers), Brazilian, Middle Eastern cuisines and others. Then of course, we have the fast food chains - Burger King, McDonald's, A&W etc. Our street foods seem to have gone international too. You'll be surprised at what you can find at our night street markets!
And we have restaurants that open for 24 hours, just in case you have hunger pangs at an ungodly hour!
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) has a pop of about 2.5 mil and there are Australian, Korean, Nepalese, Bengali, Moroccan, Caribbean, Brazilian, Persian, Russian, Spanish, American, Mexican, Lebanese, Armenian, Malay, Japanese, Mongolian, Jamaican, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and I'm sure there are a few I missed...
