Curious - I’m not conversant on many of the differences, and I probably lump cuisines together over-broadly. How does one distinguish Lebanese and Turkish cuisines from Middle Eastern? Is ME more particularly Syrian, Persian and others?
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In 
, heck no.
I am lazy and eat out of necessity so when out of the country I pick a restaurant that looks good and order off their menu. I don’t travel much now but at one time was regularly in Beijing, Tianjin, (and Tianjin TEDA). While there the food seemed as local to me as food back in the states.
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There were and are a lot of British war brides in many parts of Canada.
The British food traditions go further back, since this part of Canada where I live had a mostly British and Irish ethnic population until the past 50 years, when it has become more diverse.
Currently, 20 percent of residents in my region were born outside Canada.
35 years ago, in a class of 30 Grade 10 students, 3 of us in the class did not have an Irish or British ancestry. The same high school now is very multiculturally, religiously and ethnically diverse.
Larger numbers of non-British and non-Irish whites immigrated in waves, from Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, Hungary (1956), etc. Chinese Canadians have been in Canada since the railroad was built, and Chinese Canadians have run Western Cafés (diners in Western Canada - since that time, which serve breakfast and Chinese Canadian dishes), but Chinese food is still seen by many Canadians as exotic compared to chicken pot pie.
There is a sad history of xenophobic behaviour in Canada, against newcomers, (Anti-Greek riots after WW1, the Christie Pits riot, among others) many people who had ethnic food traditions saved them for home cooking,or holidays, until the past 30 or 40 years. It was part of assimilation for many people.
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I was rebelling against another knife thread 
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Middle Eastern tends to mean Lebanese or Syrian where I live. Other types of Middle Eastern often mention the specific region or country.
Turkish food is another cuisine, which has some common dishes with Middle Eastern and many common dishes with Balkan countries which had been under Ottoman control.
Also- one other way to keep Turkish separate from Middle Eastern is the language group. Middle Eastern food, is made mostly by Arabic speakers, so the dish names tend to be similar throughout the Middle East.
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This is so true! Maybe not hamburgers per se, but I tend to mostly eat ‘local’ food and people always think I’m crazy doing so. So, as I live in Europe, and being a die hard fan of Asian food, I rarely eat Asian here… Not even in big cities with large Asian communities, like London, Paris or my own city. Somehow it always feels like a watered down version of what I’d eat in Asia. Likewise, when I’m in Asia I won’t be eating typically western foods, like pasta or oysters.
Do the US do hamburgers better than anyone else? I’ve had good ones here in Europe as well…
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Traveling across the United States by car, I seek out Mexican food and local bakeries making regional American baked goods.
I seek out pie when I’m driving through North Dakota and Montana.
Huevos rancheros for breakfast.
The United States has so much more Mexican food than Canada.
In Hawaii, I sought out every regional Hawaiian dish I try.
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Sadly the same in the UK
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I was surprised on my last visit to Geneva in 2015, to see food trucks with the same kind of fancy over the top burgers that one finds in Canada and the US.
I stuck to Swiss food since I only had one night.
I realize people from all over the world work in Geneva, so a fancy burger food truck would do well.
–
I had a burger - a Wagyu burger apparently- in Tokyo (in Shinjuku), after circling a block for 45 minutes trying to find a gyukatsu place that my friend recommended, then finding a long line when we found it.
My burger was excellent. First time to order a burger outside North America since 1986.
Don’t we have many more folks of Mexican heritage?
I figured this was the tricky part of the question.
Ethnically/ethically is a state of mind.
Mexican, Italian, Irish, and Southern were around me everyday growing up, so I don’t think of those as anything exotic, even though to others those cuisines might fit right in their ethnic wheelhouse.
I don’t have the answers, just questions.
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You have more people in general. Canada’s population is roughly the same as California’s.
We have a considerable number of Mexican people who work here or have immigrated in the past 20 years. We don’t have the same situation with respect to restaurants. It’s changing in some cities. The menus at the Canadian Mexican restaurants owned by Mexicans tend to offer more direct -from- Mexico dishes.
The people working kitchen jobs in the Greater Toronto Area tend to be Sri Lankan or Tamil.
At the taqueria I visited on Sat, in southwestern Ontario, the Mexican owner had one employee, who was new, and was South Asian. There are a couple Mexican restaurants near me that are run by Salvadorans- so closer to Mexican, some common dishes, and maybe better than a gringo’s, but not the same as Mexican in California, etc.
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Hi Phoenikia,
Taking the interstate from LA to Madison, Wisconsin–just stopping for gas and restrooms–the only ethnic I saw was Chinese a few years ago.
Off the interstate, traveling between small to medium towns, ethnic alternatives do appear, and things slow down a bit, but finding anything ethnically interesting took a lot of time.
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We have serviceable Turkish and very mediocre Lebanese back home. Very good Pakistani, very mediocre Indian.
No Syrian, Yemeni, Persian.
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I seek it out, while traveling through Google, HO, TripAdvisor, Yelp.
I realize there is less Mexican food in parts of the Midwest .
My last trip to smalltown Montana included a visit to a tiny Mexican restaurant operating out of the Chamber of Commerce, and I got my enchilada fix. My relatives who live nearby choose to go out for steak or Pizza Hut, and didn’t know there even was a Mexican restaurant in Glasgow, Montana.
I haven’t driven from LA to Wisconsin, so can’t comment on that route. I have driven from Green Bay to Glasgow, Montana, from Glasgow, Montana to Great Falls, from Colorado Springs to Glacier Park, Reno to Mammoth, etc.
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Hi bbqboy,
I did stop at a really good Indian restaurant cross country on I-40, but didn’t catch the Punjabi connection until I read the article.
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This is what I do. Google search what I want on Google Maps.
Silver Moon had a tater tot rancheros. Close to my Residence Inn in Perrysburg.
I realize sometimes it isn’t possible to seek out the ethnic/exotic food off the Interstate.
That said, you guys in southern California even have tacos at Carls Jr. I’d be happy with that.
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yes.
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I hate to say it but i think ethnic prejudice is the rule, not the exception.
Japan, Russia and Slovakia were some of the countries with the most in your face prejudice i have seen in the last 40 years.
Canada has done a better job than most, and the UK and the US are doing better than they were but all of us can do better.
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While Mr Google is my travel partner, I would hazard that most tiny ethnic restaurants and trucks don’t have an independent web presence. We have often just taken a leap of faith and wandered into places that look busy and especially if the clientele is the same ethnicity.
As one of the most respected bloggers on Paris dining wrote, “It’s just dinner”. i.e., while sometimes a crap-shoot, it’s just one meal, for better or for worse.
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