[toread] Stalking the Statistically Improbable Restaurant… With Data!
Fun real-world data exploration of US restaurants, from Ethan Zuckerman:
Last summer, I wrote about the statistically improbable restaurant, the restaurant you wouldn’t expect to find in a small American city: the excellent Nepali food in Erie, PA and Akron, OH; a gem of a Gambian restaurant in Springfield, IL. Statistically improbable restaurants often tell you something about the communities they are based in: Erie and Akron have large Lhotshampa refugee populations, Nepali-speaking people who lived in Bhutan for years before being expelled from their county; Springfield has University of Illinois Springfield, which attracts lots of west African students, some of whom have settled in the area.
Also, wow, I didn't realise how lucky I was in Costa Mesa, CA -- so much good ethnic food all around that area!