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Do you include Tex-Mex/Mexican as 'American'? Vietnamese? I didn't know there were a lot of Viets there...
I consider Tex/Mex to be a fusion cuisine; Mexican dished with American ingredients added to or supplementing a base Mexican dish. Then again Mexican food itself is a fusion of indigenous foods (maize based products, summer sqaush, chiles) with Spanish influence (dairy products, technique, etc.). It was largely invented in an area that has bounced between Mexico, the US, and an independant state of Texas, so it is kind of ambiguous actually. I definitely consider it to be predominantly part of the Mexican cuisine sphere like New Mexican cuisine.
Tex/Mex and New Mexican cuisine are founded in the sphere of Mexican cuisine, itself a fusion of an indigenous Mexican foundation (maize based products, summer squash, chiles, etc.) with Spanish influences (dairy, pork, technique, etc.).
Since the US absorbed these regions, American influences have been applied. For example the utilization of cheeses popular in America such as Cheddar and Monterrey Jack in place of Spanish (New World) cheeses like Crema Mexicana (creme fraiche) and Asadero.
Then again, food cultures do not always equally square with borders. While Tex/Mex is part of the Mexican food sphere with its basis having been developed far to the south in Mexico, it is a variety contiguous with its source, but clearly developed within the American State boundary. Furthermore, America does not have a unifed national food culture. Cajun is an definitively American food, but it contains a pallete of flavors, ingredients, and recipes that are 'foreign' to much of the country.
As far as Vietnamese in New Mexico, they make up one of the more significant cultural minority populations in Albuquerque. Numbering fewer than Mexicans, but ahead of many other immigrant groups. Although they are a fairly small percentage of the population, they are avid entrepreneurial restauranteurs here. To our benefit.
I think the only foreign cuisine in my city is kebabs so er Middle Eastern I guess.
Not sure if it exactly qualifies, but yes.. you can find at least one Kebab-Pizzeria ran by Turkish immigrants, featuring a TV blaring the Turkish version of MTV, in any finnish town. Just today i had a work-related trip to one of the smallest, most godforsaken towns south of the Arctic Circle and guess what i had for lunch. Like i really had much of a choice
For Vancouver it's definitely Chinese. However Chinese is broken down to what type of Chinese food and style.
Japanese again very popular, but again broken down to sushi places, ramen and noodle houses, and Izakaya type places.
These top two are so numerous that they don't feel " foreign ". Vancouverites, even when I was growning up in the 1960's, learned to use chopsticks whether part of an asian family or not.
Next would be Indian. Although, I'd venture most people cook Indian ( actually the creamier Pakistani dishes ) at home.
Italian and French of course.
There is no shortage of middle eastern places either, again broken down by region.
Korean restaurants exists as well, but not as many as other asian places.
I think I'll have to pull out a restaurant list to get a better grip on the actual numbers. Like so many places today, Vancouver offers pretty much every type of cuisine out there, including several Ethiopian restaurants.
I think this thread has confirmed that you basically can find most "ethnic" cuisines in any large city throughout the US and Canada. There are very few cities that have a stranglehold on a particular type of food.
NOTE: I am not going to engage in the geopolitics of where "American" foods originated - i.e., pizza (Italy), hamburgers & hot dogs (Germany), etc. More or less everyone can agree that these foods are now so drastically different from what they originated from, and that they have been exported around the world as "American," that they are indeed more American than Italian and German.
#1. "Western/Foreign/Expat" An anagram of traditional and contemporary American, English, French, and Italian foodstuffs, you can find many restaurants and pubs that have interestingly-mixed menus that offer an eclectic (schizophrenic?) array of American, French, Italian, English, German, etc foodstuffs. It's not much different from how a Chinese restaurant in the US has food items from Szechuan, Hunan, Yunan, Cantonese, etc cooking - plus perhaps some Thai or Japanese stuff, just 'cause. Most of the "French" restaurants could also fall into this category, as they tend to be contemporary, French-style pan-European fusion. These places tend to attract foreigners as well as Chinese in good numbers.
#2. North American. American fast food joints like KFC, McD's, and Pizza Hut are popular and thought of as "upscale;" as a result, there are plenty of Chinese-owned local spots that make American-style pizzas, fried chicken, burgers, fries, etc. Hot dogs are popular and are available anywhere: many mom-and-pop corner markets have a hot dog turner and buns ready to go for a few yuan. Potato chips are super-popular and common everywhere, with Lays being the most popular brand. Some American or Canadian-owned restaurants and bars also offer dishes like mac & cheese, steak, poutaine, etc.
#3. Japanese. Despite what people would assume based on China/Japan relations, people in Guangdong province are generally less polarized than people in Beijing and you can easily find ramen, udon, and sushi restaurants all over the place. In any supermarket, you can find bags and bags of fresh noodles that are labelled "Japanese Udon Noodles" or "Japanese Ramen Noodles" in the cooler, and nearly every market has a Japanese section that sells Japanese-made soup bases and sauces, wasabi paste and powder, panko, tempura mix, etc.
#4. Italian. There are a fair number of Italian restaurants that serve various pastas, gnocchi, real/Italian-style pizzas, etc. They tend to be located in more upscale areas and charge upscale prices, but are nonetheless very popular, and many advertise specifically that they hire clasically-trained Italian chefs. If you tell a Chinese woman you know how to cook Italian food, she will get starry eyed and think that you're a kitchen master... even though it's generally simple stuff to make :P
#5. Indian/Pakistani. There are a number of Indian restaurants here, which tend to be gathering spots for local IndoPak expats and English/Americans who gained an affinity for the food at home. The one closest to my work is owned by Pakistanis and is Halal certified, but it's advertised specifically as being "Indian" on the signage and menus. The owner told me that most Chinese people know that India has its own distinct cuisine, but don't imagine Pakistani food as being much different from the food that Muslim Chinese in Xinjiang prepare, which is widely-available in town, so while many Indian restaurants are owned by Pakistanis, they brand them as "Indian." This is the case with a few of the more popular Indian restaurants here. It tends to be more on the expensive side of things (40-80 yuan per plate) and does attract some middle-class or wealthier Chinese, but is still most popular with expats.
#6. Turkish. There are a number of Turkish restaurants in GZ that are popular with Middle Eastern and European expats, and serve kebabs, aromatic rice, etc. Some of them are more casual places while there are also a few upscale full-service joints. The only Chinese people I've seen in these restaurants are the wives/girlfriends of Turkish or Middle Eastern guys, or their male Chinese friends; it doesn't seem as though many Chinese endeavor to try to cuisine on their own.
#7. Russian. Primarily frequented by Russian expats (of which there are a fairly-large number), they tend to be reasonably priced and in my experience offer very friendly service - they're generally excited to get a non-Russian in, and intrigued as to why you chose to eat there of all places. The various boiled cabbage/potato/beet/meat dishes, pierogies and piroshki are generally good and hearty, but perhaps not to the palate of most Chinese people: another situation where I don't see anyone Chinese in there unless they're in the company of a foreigner, and in this case, nearly all the foreigners present are Russian or Ukrainian, as Russian food hasn't made much of a dent in the foreign markets.
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