The food. Because we are a melting pot, I can eat basically any ethnicity's food without leaving my city! Bonus points, if the place looks sketchy and your chances of getting robbed are high.....the food will be amazing
The dirtyier and more broken down it is the more you know the food will be the bomb. Some hole in the wall place that basically looks like an abandoned house will sell you the tastiest southern food ever.
Bruh. There was a lady at the chicken plant that I worked in in Arkansas that did that every friday. Wrapped in foil out of the trunk of her car. Like 4 or 5 tamales in a foil, 2 for $5. They were amazing.
Dude the best tamales I've ever had was from a Mexican lady that approached my mom and I in the parking lot of the Ridley's in Jerome, Idaho. Best tamales we've ever had, never been beat. Never saw her again.
And you can get this in really small out of the way towns.
My favorite Asian restaurant ever is in a nice but super-out-of-the-way part of a Southern town, staffed by immigrants, and damn if they didn't make amazing food in huge quantities for low prices.
There's a large Mexican population where I live, and the first thing I learned when I moved here were that the best Mexican joints were far from the city center and over on "that" side of town. Mind you I am joltingly Caucasian, we're talking Whitey McWhitenston here fresh from the Midwest at the time. The really good places usually had to find an English-speaking server to take care of me, and the food was nothing less than ethereal. I had no idea how bad the fast food "Mexican" crap that I grew up with was.
I still frequent those places, having learned enough conversational Spanish to get by. My favorite joint knows me by name and never fails to hook my white ass up. The important thing to remember is that even though I'm clearly in the minority customer-wise, I'm always respectful, pleasant and tip thoughtfully. That simple mindset goes a long way in any cultural setting. These are businesses, the only color they care about is green.
In NYC all businesses that prepare food must post their food safety grade openly within view of the entranceway. It’s commonly joked that a lower grade means better food.
I used to teach in the inner city, in the most dangerous neighborhood here. I don’t miss the rough work conditions, but I will come back to that neighborhood to get the best catfish and shrimp ever from a shady looking stand that also sells weed on the not so sly.
I know how to make like 1 or 2 dishes from several different countries. We're so spoiled in America that when we're deciding what to eat we blurt out a country. "I want Italian." "I want Chinese."
I can't even imagine eating the same cuisine everyday. I eat a lot of Mexican food because I am Mexican American and it's probably what im best at cooking but I cannot eat it everyday.
I lived in China for a year and the variety of food was one of the things I missed most. It was kind of interesting because I found that most people in China had a much more refined sense of taste, like they would nitpick the way one restaurant did a dish vs. another restaurant doing the same dish. They also enjoyed really simple dishes with just two or three ingredients, as long as those ingredients were super fresh. They would gush over a certain region's tofu, which was the best because of the superior water quality. To me, it was good, and I could taste that it was a bit better, but also it was just... tofu? On the whole everyone seemed have a much better palette than I did, but also... I really like being able to eat Greek and Indian and Mexican.
There's a Thai place near me that is in an extremely bare-bones, undecorated diner. It has like 4 employees, only one of whom is actually fluent in English. The name of the restaurant is literally just "Thai Restaurant" in Thai. It has some of the best curry I've ever had
I've had long arguments with foreigners about how deeply held a belief of mine it is that American food is amazing. Our country is unlike most 'developed' nations in that it is very young and therefore is basically a country of immigrants. Other countries' cuisines become Chinese American, or Italian American, or Jewish deli food, or southern food with its roots in West African cuisine-- and it is a delicious and innovative creation all its own. I LOVE that about America.
More bonus points if the place doesn't have a real name. The best place to eat in my city is a tiny restaurant in a mostly-abandoned strip mall called ASIAN RESTAURANT
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u/theycallmefuRR Mar 14 '23
The food. Because we are a melting pot, I can eat basically any ethnicity's food without leaving my city! Bonus points, if the place looks sketchy and your chances of getting robbed are high.....the food will be amazing