10-12-2011, 10:28 AM
Zirak Wrote:Then I'm not sure what city/towns you lived in in the South or what kind of blinders you had on but as someone who has lived in the South for almost my entire life and has experienced the North, West, and East of the US through business travel I honestly see no difference between the regions in the availability of both fast food and specialty food in eateries.
I will grant you that it is easier to find good food of certain ethnic backgrounds depending on what region of the country you are in but that does not mean that the option is absent in the other regions or that when you do find the option in another region that it is automatically bad. The Greek restaurant I went to in Chicago on a business trip many years ago was better than anything I have found locally but the local stuff is still good - just not as good.
Your first paragraph says one thing and your second paragraph says the complete opposite. I am not sure if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me. In the South I lived in Atlanta, Springfield, Memphis and Augusta by the way.
Just to make my point lets take Mexican food for example.
In any major city in California you don't have to drive more then 5 minutes from anywhere to find Mexican food and more then 10 to find good Mexican food. Are their bad Mexican places in California? Sure, but it is purely a matter of volume.
In Atlanta their were only a hand full of Mexican places and the majority of those were chains. If I wanted good Mexican food I would have to drive 45 minutes down to Newnan since that was the only good Mexican restaurant with in 100 miles of the city. I know I ate at them all.
Why is this?
Carne Asada: Finding flank steak in the South is hard enough because people in the south don't eat it. I have trouble anywhere this side of the Mississippi buying it. It is a special order item only and cost about $8 more per lb. You order a Taco in the South and it comes with ground beef in a hard shell.
Avacado's: In California and Arizona you can find it fresh all of the time. Getting it the South is like eating road kill because you simply can't get it fresh. It is like eating Sea Food in Omaha NE.
Pasole/Manudo: People in the South don't eat it so restaurants in the South don't serve it. In order to make it myself I had to drive an hour just to find the dried chilies.
Tamale's: Forget buying that anywhere. In California their is a guy rolling a cart around on every block selling them for $1.
Hot Salsa: Can't buy Habanero's in the South that aren't moldy (even in the stores like Publics) since they don't grow there.
The bottom line is even if you could take the best Mexican places in California and open them up in say Atlanta or Buffalo. The restaurant would fail. People in Atlanta eat blander foods and think Korean run Taco Moe's constitutes Mexican food.
You can duplicate my example above with Greek, Italian, Chinese, Russian or any other food type anywhere in America. Where you live does determine the quality of the type of food you order. Does that mean their isn't one quality Mexican place in the South somewhere? No, but it would be rare.
You sure as hell can't good grits in California or New York, they eat spicier foods in California. You need to go to Mississippi for that!
Vllad