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Comment by moron4hire | Hacker News Reader

Oh, get the fuck over yourself. You ain't got the corner on good food.

No, I've been around the block. There is a legitimate and drastic difference between everywhere else (in the U.S. and Europe, at least) and this city. The only other place in the U.S. that competes is L.A., and S.F. but only for burritos (why doesn't NYC have burritos?).

I've eaten well in every major city of the east coast, and a few in the UK. NYC is a monoculture of food. A distinct culture of its own, but a monoculture nonetheless. You won't find good BBQ in NYC. Decent fried chicken is easier to find in some backwards farm town of Pennsylvania than it is in NYC. I still assert that the best burger in the world is in Harrisburg, PA, and I specifically look and test everywhere I go. Pizza comes in one form, as do Ramen noodles. Yes, there are some amazing French restaurants there, but there is no shortage of amazing French restaurants in the country. And they have no clue what they are doing with a crab.

"Pizza comes in one form"

That is not a critique, that is a statement. Pizza comes in one form, and that form is NY/Neapolitan style. The rest is some kind of bizarre cheese/tomato pie bread thing.

You have terrible taste if you can only appreciate a dish in one form. Deep Dish is different but its great. Personally I think its even better. Deep dish feels more special and like a meal, but I would only ever want to it once a month.

I like NYC pizza, at least from the major famous places. Your typical corner pizza is no better than any other corner pizza place on the east coast.

I live in Tokyo right now and I definitely eat better than I did in NYC. NYC only has Tokyo beat on prices, since both places only have mediocre Mexican food.

It's a bit of a monoculture, but one that spans more cuisines than anywhere else. There are definitely certain aesthetics that are prized over others that are arguably worthwhile, but it's cross-cutting. You can get more diversity in, say, fried chicken, in PA, but you can't get the same diversity across cuisines, combined with the same depth and quality of execution, anywhere else.

so you're the food court of food then? You've got a lot of it but you can't make fried chicken for shit?

Where in Harrisburg? I've found many burgers in NYC to be substantially better than anything I was able to find in Harrisburg, admittedly more expensive.

Good fried chicken, I would expect can be found outside of midtown/downtown Manhattan although I haven't explicitly gone looking. Good BBQ is pretty easy to find, especially compared to most places on the East Coast, obviously it doesn't compare much to SC or KC proper.

A place calle The Jackson House near the capitol complex. It is difficult to get in there, as they are only open for lunch on weekdays. By noon, the line is out the door.

Interesting, I'll have to try it. Best one I had in Harrisburg was at Parev on Pine Street, sadly it closed years ago.

wow, you've been to the US AND THE EU... impressed. I'm impressed that only SF and LA have burritos. YOU ARE A WORLD TRAVELLER. Whee, immediate -4 karma.

But seriously nyc has some good food but it doesn't have a stranglehold on great ingredients. The west coast in fact has better access and makes better use of it because it's natural to just assume that those things exists.

Some of the best food I've had is actually in local quality resturants in detroit, stl, pittsburgh, and boston, when they are showing off their natural 300 mile radius ingredients and how to use them in season.

LA has a lot of good food, SF only has good burritos.

I presume this is just trolling, but in case you actually think that, for New York, Michelin lists 7 three-star restaurants, 9 two-star, and 46 one-star. San Francisco's numbers are 2, 6, and 39. [1] So not as high, but given that the SF Metro area has a third the population of New York, we do ok.

(For those unfamiliar, Michelin stars are sort of like the Academy Awards of food. Even a 1-star restaurant is an extraordinary meal, and you should expect to pay $100-200 a person. 3-star places are reputedly the best of the best; a meal there runs $300-600 per person.)

[1] http://sf.eater.com/archives/2012/10/23/michelin_guide_2013_...

You have to be careful though, because Michelin-starred restaurants aren't where most people eat, and the correlation between the sort of high-end exotics that get the stars and the overall food-scene is going to vary from place to place... It can go either way of course.

If you're a super rich socialite, then yeah, focus on the stars, but otherwise....er, well. [No diss on Michelin-starred restaurants intended! I've eaten at such places a couple of times in my life and they were very nice.]

They also tend to like really pretentious bullshit in their restaurants. So you have to watch out.

Some of the ones in NYC that have 1 star appear to just be regular American style Chinese takeout type places. Not sure how pretentious they are (or can be).

Noted. Though I have to say that while LA does have good food, they should get out more and compare. Not the people who make the food, they obviously get out. The people who eat the food. Well they get out, but not OUT. But all in all, good food. Well and a lot of shit overpriced food. But lots of great food in really shitting looking locations. And lots of really shitty food in really great looking locations.

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