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It's probably the same two cities that have been on top for several hundred years. New Orleans and San Francisco. "frisco (deal w/ it) had any sort of food you wanted from any culture, and it would be authentic.
New Orleans is tops for food in my opinion. You get Cajun, Creole and Southern, w/ lots of African and even Choctaw influences. It's not the healthiest food as most of it has lots of salt, cream and butter, but the flavor is as good as it gets. I would gladly stand in the rain outside ACME Oyster House for two hours to get a bowl of gumbo and a roast beef po boy, then head over to the Cafe Du Monde for chicory coffee and beignets. And have. You get your drink orders taken while you wait at ACME and they deliver them to you while you're in line. Felix's across the street is just as good, but different. Charlie's in the Quarter has excellent po boys.
It's probably the same two cities that have been on top for several hundred years. New Orleans and San Francisco. "frisco (deal w/ it) had any sort of food you wanted from any culture, and it would be authentic.
New Orleans is tops for food in my opinion. You get Cajun, Creole and Southern, w/ lots of African and even Choctaw influences. It's not the healthiest food as most of it has lots of salt, cream and butter, but the flavor is as good as it gets. I would gladly stand in the rain outside ACME Oyster House for two hours to get a bowl of gumbo and a roast beef po boy, then head over to the Cafe Du Monde for chicory coffee and beignets. And have. You get your drink orders taken while you wait at ACME and they deliver them to you while you're in line. Felix's across the street is just as good, but different. Charlie's in the Quarter has excellent po boys.
I would say that for "indigenous" cuisine, no US city beats New Orleans for the reasons you list above.
But several top it for varieties of cuisine available. And I would say that some of those cities (New York most notably, but also San Francisco and now Philadelphia) belong in the American foodie pantheon for that reason. (There's a lunch counter in the Reading Terminal Market here that serves up decent Cajun fare, for instance, and several noteworthy non-Ethiopian African restaurants scattered around Southwest Philadelphia. [Yes, there are Ethiopian ones as well. But Ethiopian seems to me to be the one sub-Saharan African cuisine that has gained a foothold in both foodie paradises and non-foodie paradises alike.])
FWIW: po'boys, subs, heroes and hoagies are the same sandwich at heart, with the differences among them being largely marginal (though the seeded rolls used for po'boys do make them stand out from their siblings).
I would say that for "indigenous" cuisine, no US city beats New Orleans for the reasons you list above.
But several top it for varieties of cuisine available. And I would say that some of those cities (New York most notably, but also San Francisco and now Philadelphia) belong in the American foodie pantheon for that reason. (There's a lunch counter in the Reading Terminal Market here that serves up decent Cajun fare, for instance, and several noteworthy non-Ethiopian African restaurants scattered around Southwest Philadelphia. [Yes, there are Ethiopian ones as well. But Ethiopian seems to me to be the one sub-Saharan African cuisine that has gained a foothold in both foodie paradises and non-foodie paradises alike.])
FWIW: po'boys, subs, heroes and hoagies are the same sandwich at heart, with the differences among them being largely marginal (though the seeded rolls used for po'boys do make them stand out from their siblings).
Philadelphia also seems to have thee different native traditions with the earlier settlers who stayed around with British and some African and miscellaneous other influences, a German wave that still survives with the Pennsylvania Dutch (German) communities in the countryside not far from Philadelphia, and then a later wave of Italians whose foodstuffs have merged. The first one has such wonderful soups with Philadelphia pepper pot and snapper soup. The latter is what Philadelphia is probably what's more well known with hoagies, cheesesteaks, tomato pie.
Do you know where in Philadelphia one could get Bookbinder soup or Pepper Pot Soup?
The original Bookbinders is not a new restaurant but I don't think it serves the Snapper soup.
When I search online, I find recipes for both, but would love to find a place in the area that serves it to see how the locals do it!
Snapper soup (Bookbinder soup) can be found in Reading Market at Pearl's Oyster Bar if you don't want to do a nice and more involved sitdown thing. Oyster House if you want a more formal setting, and I'm guessing others that are fancier.
Pepper pot I've only seen in one place which is the ultra tourist-y colonial era themed City Tavern. It was great for me though.
I really wish Philadelphians had kept these two wonderful dishes going with more pride as New Orleans do with their somewhat funkier foods as they are unfortunately quite rare. I'd like to see these part of bar / tavern or diner staples or some such.
Bookbinders 15th Street, which the Bookbinder family ran until its demise nearly 20 years ago, became an Applebee's and is now a nightclub called Vinyl.
There's no snapper soup at The Olde Bar. Nor can I find it on the menu at the other three places in Center City I know of that specialize in seafood: the Oyster House, Pearl's Oyster Bar and Ocean Prime. (However, as the Oyster House menu varies from day to day, you might want to try stopping by to see if it's on the menu there that day.)
It's even disappeared from local supermarket shelves, as the company the Taxins founded to manufacture food products bearing the Bookbinder's name — based in Eau Claire, WI, now — now makes only condiments, no soups. I share OyCrumbler's dismay at this turn of events.
If you're willing or able to travel beyond the city when you visit, you can still find snapper soup on the menu at the Pineville Tavern in Bucks County. Or maybe you can try making it at home if you can get your hands on turtle meat.
You might find this article about snapper soup by Kae Lani Palmisano, who I hired as a contributor to the real estate blog I ran for Noah Ostroff in the early 2010s and is now my colleague at Phillymag as our food and drink ("Foobooz") editor, interesting.
Edited to add: As for that other Philly classic, pepper pot soup, it's even scarcer than snapper. The National Park Service is looking for a new operator for the City Tavern, which closed after the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 09-21-2023 at 05:05 AM..
Bookbinders 15th Street, which the Bookbinder family ran until its demise nearly 20 years ago, became an Applebee's and is now a nightclub called Vinyl.
There's no snapper soup at The Olde Bar. Nor can I find it on the menu at the other three places in Center City I know of that specialize in seafood: the Oyster House, Pearl's Oyster Bar and Ocean Prime. (However, as the Oyster House menu varies from day to day, you might want to try stopping by to see if it's on the menu there that day.)
It's even disappeared from local supermarket shelves, as the company the Taxins founded to manufacture food products bearing the Bookbinder's name — based in Eau Claire, WI, now — now makes only condiments, no soups. I share OyCrumbler's dismay at this turn of events.
If you're willing or able to travel beyond the city when you visit, you can still find snapper soup on the menu at the Pineville Tavern in Bucks County. Or maybe you can try making it at home if you can get your hands on turtle meat.
You might find this article about snapper soup by Kae Lani Palmisano, who I hired as a contributor to the real estate blog I ran for Noah Ostroff in the early 2010s and is now my colleague at Phillymag as our food and drink ("Foobooz") editor, interesting.
Edited to add: As for that other Philly classic, pepper pot soup, it's even scarcer than snapper. The National Park Service is looking for a new operator for the City Tavern, which closed after the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
What. You're telling me both the Oyster House and Pearl's Oyster Bar no longer serve snapper soup? This is horrendous.
I think freshness of ingredients is important, but it is one of many aspects that makes a good food city.
For example LA definitely tops Chicago on freshness, but I personally feel Chicago's food scene is better. Granted I only lived in Chicago 2 years vs. my 24 in LA, but I find Chicago's culture is more centered around food than LA.
Either way, they are both top 3 food cities along with NYC.
You think LA is a better food city than San Francisco?
Fifth? Seems a bit high. I’d think the following would have better Mexican food: LA, SF, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Chicago, Vegas. I know NYC has gone through a sort of Mexican food renaissance recently. Just can’t think which of it would’ve surpassed the said cities in this regard.
Denver's Mexican food is actually not that great, despite being on the cusp of the Southwest. NYC definitely beats Denver. Chicago is probably on par. Otherwise I agree with your list. I'd add Tucson and Albuquerque as well.
I lived in Japan for a bit and that is the cuisine that is most disappointing in the US. The only places I've had decent Japanese food in the US was in Seattle, Honolulu, and LA.
I also lived in Japan a while and I could not agree more. As snobby as this sounds, I don't think people who have only eaten sushi in the US (even the most high end places) have any idea how good sushi can actually be. That said, I agree Seattle and Honolulu are among the very best in the US for Japanese food.
Seattle also is easily in the top 3 for Thai and Vietnamese food.
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