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How many Chinese restaurants have you guys even eaten at? Seriously?
I don't get all these food threads, considering that whenever you travel to a place casually, you can only eat one, or at most, two different restaurants.
And that becomes representative of the whole city. Awesome. Just awesome.
How many Chinese restaurants have you guys even eaten at? Seriously?
I don't get all these food threads, considering that whenever you travel to a place casually, you can only eat one, or at most, two different restaurants.
And that becomes representative of the whole city. Awesome. Just awesome.
That's not necessarily true. It just depends on what your priorities are when you visit a place. Some people like to drink their way around a place, some people like to go sightseeing, and some people like to eat their way through a city. My family and I are the type that likes to explore places through the local restaurants, not the local attractions.
That's not necessarily true. It just depends on what your priorities are when you visit a place. Some people like to drink their way around a place, some people like to go sightseeing, and some people like to eat their way through a city. My family and I are the type that likes to explore places through the local restaurants, not the local attractions.
Yeah, but do you go to a place and eat at 10-20 different Chinese restaurants, or do you eat at 1 Italian place, 1 Deli, 1 sushi place, 1 Chinese place, and 1 Indian place? I get the impression that most people do the latter, not the former.
This is especially because none of the cities that are being talked about in this thread are SOLELY known for their Chinese food. If that was the only cuisine that existed in that city, that would be one thing. But since other cuisines do exist, I kind of doubt any tourist really gets a feel for how good or bad a certain cuisine is in a place unless they spend an extended amount of time there.
Not true. NYC in the past several years has become part of the same tier as LA due to massive mainland migration (to the point where its metro has a much larger chinese population than los angeles's does) and the Bay Area, while a step down from both NYC and LA, is arguably at least within the same ballpark.
In terms of Chinese food, obviously yes. NYC has far more Chinese than the Bay Area, and a much higher proportion of recent Chinese immigrants.
There is no place outside of Asia that is more solidly Chinese (and really with representation from all of parts of China, HK and Taiwan) than Flushing. The only place that compares would be the SGV east of LA, though it's tough to make a direct comparison, because you are comparing a concentrated urban area with scattered suburban communities.
Yea, in everything except for canto. Bay Area's Chinese American population is much more overwhelmingly from the pearl river delta region (hence, good canto) and has generally been established and far more assimilated overall. A lot more of the recent Chinese immigrants to the Bay Area are students and/or white collar professionals and not opening up that much in way of restaurants. NYC's massive spike in Chinese immigration in the last decade and a half has altered things significantly and the area yearly receives more Chinese immigrants than the Bay Area and Socal combined and its been that way for the last several years.
These more recent migrations are different from those of previous waves in that nearly all regions of China are fairly well-represented rather than only the pearl river delta regions which gives NYC a really large variety of regional Chinese cuisines compared to anywhere else except for the SGV in Los Angeles. However, since such a large proportion of the community are really recent (and with many recent arrivals poor and/or of uncertain immigration status), the recent arrival haven't necessarily have had the time and capital to have established as many restaurants and establishments as would be commensurate to its comparatively large population size.
LA's population of Chinese is somewhat smaller than both NYC's and the Bay Area's, but SGV seems to sort of getting the best of both worlds with a large, varied, and recent community and one established enough and with enough capital and pull to actually make some pretty great higher end authentic restaurants.
So yea, overall, the three are in the same ballpark with I think LA at the top by a smidge compared to NYC and the Bay Area just somewhat behind.
Also, NYC gets extra points for all the 串儿 stands littered across the different chinatowns.
In terms of Chinese food, obviously yes. NYC has far more Chinese than the Bay Area, and a much higher proportion of recent Chinese immigrants.
There is no place outside of Asia that is more solidly Chinese (and really with representation from all of parts of China, HK and Taiwan) than Flushing. The only place that compares would be the SGV east of LA, though it's tough to make a direct comparison, because you are comparing a concentrated urban area with scattered suburban communities.
Flushing is just the largest of several connected major nodes, but it is by far the most "cosmopolitan" (covering many larger regions and ethnic minorities of China and includes a fairly large population of both recent and more established affluent Chinese families) of the nodes.
I wouldn't say the community is all that scattered in the SGV--it does cover a larger physical area and nowhere near as dense, but since everyone drives and owns a car, it still pretty much operates as a unit and does so out all the way to Riverside and parts of Orange County.
In terms of Chinese food, obviously yes. NYC has far more Chinese than the Bay Area, and a much higher proportion of recent Chinese immigrants.
There is no place outside of Asia that is more solidly Chinese (and really with representation from all of parts of China, HK and Taiwan) than Flushing. The only place that compares would be the SGV east of LA, though it's tough to make a direct comparison, because you are comparing a concentrated urban area with scattered suburban communities.
This isn't a census thread, it's a thread about Chinese food. Very rarely do Chowhounds rate NYC's offerings ahead of San Francisco's, much less the SGV. This can be chalked up to a number of reasons, though I suspect SF's deep historic connection to China, and enviable access to California produce, are big factors.
Having large numbers of one demographic is useful, but it's not end-all be-all (see: New York's Mexican food).
This isn't a census thread, it's a thread about Chinese food. Very rarely do Chowhounds rate NYC's offerings ahead of San Francisco's, much less the SGV. This can be chalked up to a number of reasons, though I suspect SF's deep historic connection to China, and enviable access to California produce, are big factors.
Having large numbers of one demographic is useful, but it's not end-all be-all (see: New York's Mexican food).
The breadth of what's in NYC simply doesn't have a counterpart in the Bay Area. However, I can see something like this happening through the rubric of Chinese restaurants more easily accessible to people who aren't Chinese, though even that seems a bit odd to me.
Also, by a similar process of having had massive recent immigration but now having had several years of this, the Mexican community in NYC now actually does offer pretty good Mexican food--not Los Angeles good by any stretch, but good.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 02-14-2015 at 09:51 PM..
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