Monday
February

21

2005
12:04 AM

Permalink

Depressed in Seattle Round #2, February 21, 2005 — A couple of days ago I wrote about how depressed I was about the state of food options in Seattle. I wrote about the fact that while there are restaurants that I think are truly world class (or even just great), they are few and far between and I wish there was more diversity here. I got comments from several people agreeing with me. But the following comment really made me think. I'll repost it here for you to read:

Interesting rant. I can think of a number of things Seattle falls short on. I mostly chalk it up to the size of the city though. Perhaps I'm being an epicurean relativist, but how would you compare Seattle cuisine to other cities in America of similar size? Seattle is the 24th largest city in America. Here are the +/-5 list of cities:

• Milwaukee, Wis.
• Fort Worth, Tex.
• Charlotte, N.C.
• El Paso, Tex.
• Boston, Mass.
• Seattle, Wash.
• Washington, DC
• Denver, Colo.
• Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.
• Portland, Ore.
• Oklahoma City, Okla.

Only having eaten in 6 of the 11 cities listed, my initial assessment is that Seattle compares favorably overall. In comparison, Seattle is the 605th largest city in the world. The +/-5 cities surrounding it are:

• Bengbu, China
• Bucaramanga, Colombia
• Wuhu, China
• Qinhuangdao, China
• Bandar Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
• Seattle, USA
• Chon Buri, Thailand
• San Nicolás de los Garzas, Mexico
• Banjarmasin, Indonesia
• Düsseldorf, Germany
• Valenzuela, Philippines

I haven't eaten in any of those cities, but none really pop out as well-known culinary meccas. Again, I would hazard to guess that Seattle compares favorably. There are some things that leave me bemused, though, like how Chinese food in Seattle could be so mediocre given its geography and demographics. But even with such shortcomings as surprisingly weak Chinese, pizza, and lack of a really good deli, I find that for what I would expect of a city the size of Seattle that things aren't so bad. I suppose it would be interesting to do this comparison using COLA as the measure instead of population. Perhaps money might be more of a factor. However, Boston's no great culinary shakes either and the COLA there is similar to here, so maybe that's not a good measure either.

This is really an excellent point. And while it doesn't make the food situation any better, it does put it in perspective. Though to be clear, there's maybe even a more appropriate measure (at least in the U.S.) that correlates to food worthiness... media market.

According to the Media Info Center the top 30 TV Markets in the U.S. Ranked by Household are:

Now, I don't want to spark a big war about my equating "cosmopolitan-ness" with a bounty of good food. Of course Memphis (#43) has great barbecue. But my issue isn't about a city having depth in a local specialty, it's about having depth in its breadth. That's the true measure. Most people in... oh say... Seattle, for example, can't jaunt down to Memphis every time they want ribs. But looking at the list above is very edifying. Seattle may be the 24th largest city in the country, but it's the 12th largest media market. I think that's a closer indication of what's really the issue.

OK. So here's my off the cuff, sometimes completely uneducated, and unfair observations. Seattle probably beats some of the cities above it on the list - Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit, and Houston come to mind - in terms of having tons of great food. And yes, I say that never having been to Detroit (let the flames begin). But, I'll also bet that Miami and maybe even Sacramento have just as good food (or maybe even better) than Seattle. I'll also claim that Portland, all the way down at #24, is probably pretty close too.

So, what does this prove? Nothing really. That said, the perspective is helpful. I will keep trying to fashion the right algorithm to determine a city's true food worthiness. And even that might be a waste of time as it turns out that there are simply not that many cities that would meet my needs all on their own (New York, London, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, etc.). More travel appears to be in order. And instead of always going for the relatively "rich" outposts I just listed, I really am going to try and expand my horizons in my own neighborhood. Vancouver, Portland, Enumclaw... OK. Maybe not Enumclaw.