This is a really fun exercise; a rare example of something that's "data-centric" without being soulless.

I think it's fascinating how it illustrates weirdness about how Americans think about and categorize "ethnic" food. For example, the author's analysis of Google data shows Glendale, CA ranks #1 for "Highest prevalence of Mediterranean Restaurants." But I am nearly certain the majority of these, given Glendale's demographics, are in fact Armenian or Persian restaurants. Both Iran and Armenia are of course quite far from the Mediterranean region, but for whatever reason (rice? flat breads? grilled things on a stick?) have gotten lumped in with some Americanized, genericized conception of "the Mediterranean" that's indistinguishable from "the Middle East." I would imagine you'd find the same thing happening on Yelp etc.

Apparently an American city of 100,000 people has:

9 Starbucks and 4 Dunkin’s 6 McDonalds, 3 Burger Kings and 3 Wendy’s 4 Taco Bells and 2 Chipotles 9 Subways 3 Dominos and 2.5 Chick-Fil-A’s

There seems to be some correlation with how NIMBY a city is, and its access to diversified food options. (And probably entrepreneurship in general?)

Similarly, I would expect that the greater the dependence a city has on cars, the less diverse their food options are (leaning heavily into fast food.)

Houston standing out makes sense though. Despite its insane car infrastructure, I believe there are comparatively few restrictions on property use.

Wow, what is Carrollton like?

Highest prevalence of Korean Restaurants:

Carrollton, Texas 14.67%

Federal Way, Washington 12.45%

Santa Clara, California 8.74%

Garden Grove, California 8.20%

Irvine, California 7.75%

Fullerton, California 7.46%

Ann Arbor, Michigan 5.14%

Honolulu, Hawaii 5.13%

Killeen, Texas 4.40%

Torrance, California 4.25%

Some of the best Thai I’ve ever had outside of Thailand and Malaysia was in Allentown PA. Not sure that would get a hit since there are so many Thai places (by design).

Now that Google Maps has the AI summary for restaurants, I wonder if this can be queried in the API? It would probably have the keywords for Xinjiang food or whatever the OP wants to analyze. Checking two Central Asian restaurants I've been to in my area, one is tagged "Restaurant" and one is tagged "Pan-Asian Restaurant", so not very illuminating. However, in their AI summaries both have keyword "Central Asian" and one even says more specifically "Kyrgyz"

We've got a remarkable number of West African restaurants in Laurel, MD. (Not East African, like they do in DC down the road.) I'm becoming quite the connoisseur of the differences between Ivoirien, Senegalese, Gambian, and several other types of Jollof.

The town is known for its African American and Central American populations, but there's clearly a large African immigrant population that I just don't otherwise see.