America is a nation built on immigrants. Over 40 million immigrants live in the US today, and most Americans have a family history of immigration. As people come here from all over the world, different cultures are incorporated into our own community. One of the most interesting (and tasty) aspects of culture is food, and America has no lack of good eats.
Most cities have restaurants of all types to cure your cravings. From Italian restaurants to Cuban restaurants, many have dishes inspired by other cultures and family recipes. WorkWise Software recently conducted a study of the best cities for international cuisine in the U.S. By using Yelp data, they were able to find the amount of restaurants by category in the top 50 cities.
Unsurprisingly, the most popular types of international food in the US is Italian and Mexican food. WorkWise also made a graphic of the second most popular international food types by state to get more variety in the results. The second most popular types of food in the US include thai food, chinese food, cuban food, sushi, and comfort food.
Chinese food was a very popular option, as it was the second most popular in 18 cities. Some cities had more unique favorites, like Miami, which has no lack of authentic Cuban restaurants. This is heavily influenced by the large Cuban population living in Miami. If you’re ever in Miami, you’ll have no trouble finding a croqueta to munch on or a cafe con leche to sip on.
To find the best city for each type of international cuisine, check out the graphic above. Mexican food is the most popular in El Paso, Texas, where a staggering 50% restaurants are Mexican. For Italian food, you’ll have plenty of options in Columbus, Ohio, where almost a quarter of restaurants are Italian. Miami again appeared a lot for Latin American inspired restaurants. This isn’t surprising for a city that is 70% hispanic.
Not only is eating international cuisine an experience in itself, it’s a good way of introducing yourself to other cultures. Opening up to other cultures can be a great way to enhance creativity, and it can help you become more connected to the rest of the world. Eating international cuisine is also a great idea if you have kids. By introducing different types of foods to your kids, they will become more accepting and will likely incorporate more diversity into their own meals once they start living on their own.
If you live in any of the cities listed in the study, do yourself a favor and go try out some new restaurants — especially if your city is listed as the best option for a specific type of food. Hopefully, this can be used as a resource to try new things out and learn more about where you live. If you’re traveling, you can also use this to try things you may not have the opportunity to try in the city you live in.
Bon Appetit!
