Under-represented cuisines

[fmed]

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Pizza and burgers are also consistently depressing. Ah Beetz is great pizza (but all alone, and far away), and there are a couple serviceable burgers in town, but nothing freshly ground, hand-formed and cooked medium, like a burger should be.

Hamilton Street Grill's new burger is all that. Check it out if you haven't!

[Beebs]

If we're talking about representation by population, I'd say that Asian/South Asian/South East Asian street food is under-represented. With the exception of the Richmond and Chinatown night markets in the summer, you'd be hard-pressed to find stinky tofu or takoyaki. I suppose "street food" - meat skewers, samosas and what not - is readily available in restaurants, but you certainly don't find food carts on every street corner selling this stuff. I envy the sheer number of halal carts in New York and I like to think there's a sizeable market for Asian street food. I guess there's a little bit of "we wish we had more of this kind" as well!

[fmed]

If we're talking about representation by population, I'd say that Asian/South Asian/South East Asian street food is under-represented. With the exception of the Richmond and Chinatown night markets in the summer, you'd be hard-pressed to find stinky tofu or takoyaki. I suppose "street food" - meat skewers, samosas and what not - is readily available in restaurants, but you certainly don't find food carts on every street corner selling this stuff. I envy the sheer number of halal carts in New York and I like to think there's a sizeable market for Asian street food. I guess there's a little bit of "we wish we had more of this kind" as well!

The topic of street food probably deserves its own thread. There have been rumors of impending changes to the bylaws regarding street food for while. I don't know how much flexibility our draconian heath officials will give to street food vendors, though....and how much acceptance that steet food vendors will get with the food and bev industry here (which is already struggling to keep profitable.)

[Kentan]

Is it mathematically accurate to say that Mexican food is under-represented in Vancouver? There's not a large Mexican population in Vancouver, is there? Or does under-represented just mean "We wish we had more of this kind of restaurant"? If you look at it as a question of representation per population, my guess is that you get Russian as one of the most under-represented cuisines.

A very valid point Steven - I decided to investigate!

Here's the top ten immigrants in Metro Vancouver by country of birth (source here):

All immigrants

1 China 101,770 14%

2 Hong Kong 85,990 12%

3 United Kingdom 69,110 9%

4 India 67,830 9%

5 Philippines 46,220 6%

6 Taiwan 43,760 6%

7 United States 23,070 3%

8 Viet Nam 22,140 3%

9 Korea, South 20,730 3%

10 Iran 17,620 2%

Top ten countries 498,240 67%

All other countries 240,310 33%

And here's the top ten for the most recent period: 1996-2001

1 China 34,440 20%

2 Taiwan 22,110 13%

3 India 15,700 9%

4 Hong Kong 15,680 9%

5 Philippines 14,330 8%

6 Korea, South 9,930 6%

7 Iran 8,510 5%

8 United States 3,510 2%

9 United Kingdom 2,780 2%

10 South Africa 2,610 2%

Top ten countries 129,600 76%

All other countries 40,020 24%

Looking at the top ten overall (first list), I would say that UK restaurants would be the most underrepresented. There's The Diner, Cheshire Cheese, Elephant & Castle, and the Three Lions. If we include fish & chips spots we're probably up to about 15 restaurants in Metro Vancouver. The other would be Filipino cuisine. Again, there seem to be only about 15 Filipino restaurants in the region for a country that makes up 6% of the region's immigrants.

As for most recent immigrants, Filipinos still come in 5th, with 8% of the total. The other group that stands out is South African immigrants, at 2% of the total. Is there even one South African restaurant in BC?

In terms of overrepresented cuisines (looking strictly at population), I would say Japanese would be number one if we include all the hundreds of sushi joints. Even just looking at izakaya, ramen joints, gyudon-ya, and Japanese hot dog places, we're blessed with great Japanese food. Of course one of the big reasons is that while Japanese immigrants don't make up a large portion of the Metro Van population, there are around 10,000 Japanese students in Vancouver at any one time. Only China and South Korea are sources of more students.