0
0
One of the things that we will miss about California, and hope we can find in our new home at least to some degree, is the variety of food we’ve enjoyed having access to.
We didn’t realize how special the dining experience can be here until we started looking at some other parts of the country. And I’m not talking about In-N-Out Burger or California-style tri-tip BBQ (which I have to admit I’ll probably miss but not grievously), but rather the fact that there are so many different kinds of food from all around the world that you don’t have to leave your county to get to, not just in the bigger cosmopolitan areas but even if you live in a small town.
If I had to venture to explain why that is, I’d credit a convergence of three main factors. First would be the way California was the land of golden opportunity for the most of the last century and a half. That was a big driving force behind the second factor, which is how so many people from all over the world have immigrated here over those years, bringing their culture and food with them. And Californians do seem to have more willingness, indeed even desire, to experience new things, including when it comes to food. So there have been a lot of people making success here by offering their unique flavors to our adventurous palates. And even though California is in decline and likely to remain as long as their governance follows its current path, this dining scene will probably stay strong for the foreseeable future.
Mexican food is only the beginning. You have your pick of the Far East from Thailand to Japan, Europe from Ireland to Greece, and the Near East from Lebanon to India. And you can usually choose between more and less expensive versions of each, and both will be good.
So there’s always something new to discover, and we enjoy just about all of it. We also enjoy watching shows about how they enjoy food in other countries and would totally do food tourism if we had that kind of money. I don’t know if we could be called “foodies” but I do know that adventures in food have enriched our lives.
We quickly realized how much more we would enjoy a new home if it offered a similar level of dining diversity, and as we started our search we were surprised by how some parts of the country don’t have as much of it as we expected. Conventional wisdom would hold that bigger cities would offer more of what we’re looking for, and that’s generally the case, but for instance we were looking at one potential area that had a big city of 500k, only to discover it didn’t have Korean food anywhere. Korean food in particular is special to my family and me, so if we can help it, we would rather not live in a place without it.
Admittedly, that is a big “if,” as our means are not great, so it’ll be more important to move where we can afford than where they have the food we’re used to. But at this early stage of planning our emigration, we’re looking for ideal forever homes, and food has become a good way to vet them. That’s a part of California we wouldn’t mind getting to keep.
Or maybe we could just move to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. I’ve heard you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.
