Pittsburgh has been blessed with its 1900 era immigrants from Europe, especially Italians and Eastern Europeans. Some of the Italian (old school Italian/American to be more exact) great red sauce houses that almost every town has. The biggest difference is basically is the red sauce sweet or tangy, and that is your personal preference. And Eastern European foods, you can get here as good as anywhere.
The Pittsburgh metro area has the smallest Latino population of any top 25 metro area. And the lack of quality Mexican restuarants show. Like I posted in the underrated thread, the best Mexican place is a taco stand in front of Las Palmas groceria in Beechview. It is really good and more importantly, it is really authentic. What we get here Mexican wise is some bastardized, almost chain worthy crap of Anglicanized Mexican food. Very uninteresting. I would even kill for just some damn good Tex Mex, and that is also not found here. So.....when you see people of the Latino descent moving in, don't be fearful, be happy. Because their food will follow them. This is where immigration and melting pots make places great to live, when their food and culture follows.
Which brings me to Chinese. Which again, is like saying "American" which is too broad. Saying "American" and then fitting Creole/Cajun, Southern, Midwestern, Cali, New England, etc...all of those is the same as saying "Chinese" because are that many and more regions and variations of Chinese food. What we get is an Americanized version of Chinese food. While yes, we all love our spicy, sweet General Tso's chicken, it is no way representative of Chinese food. The dearth of "real" Chinese food in Pittsburgh is scary. A lot of restaurants have their Chinese American menu, then have a real Chinese menu that is not publicized. My ex boss was Chinese, so I found this out by going to restaurants. We would make him order off the real menu. It is fantastic. The only real places are all in Squirrel Hill, I think. Especially Sichuan Gourmet. What sucks, is I, like most Pittsburghers, live in the suburbs. The suburbs of Pittsburgh is a veritable wasteland for cuisines like Chinese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Latino, Mid East etc.... Just horrible, either chains or Americanized versions and dumbed down versions of these foods.
It pisses me off. I travel, so I see other cities of equal size or smaller, who have ethnic enclaves in different suburbs and have real, authentic representations of these types of foods located outside of the "city". I don't mind going into town occasionally, but man some evenings I would like the ability to quickly order take out that is interesting and not the same, instead of feeling like I am in Sioux City SD. The AK Valley, where I live, is probably the WORST of the suburban areas of Pittsburgh for anything but pizza, Italian, and chicken wings along with "old people food"..
So.....bring me you tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and bring me someone with a cuisine other than pizza and seasoned whole, chicken wings. On that note, you cannot even get a decent Buffalo style chicken wing in the AK Valley for chrissakes! The same type of foods that my parents grew up with, still dominate the local dining scene.
Us Route 28ers, we need to band together and start a revolution!
The Pittsburgh metro area has the smallest Latino population of any top 25 metro area. And the lack of quality Mexican restuarants show. Like I posted in the underrated thread, the best Mexican place is a taco stand in front of Las Palmas groceria in Beechview. It is really good and more importantly, it is really authentic. What we get here Mexican wise is some bastardized, almost chain worthy crap of Anglicanized Mexican food. Very uninteresting. I would even kill for just some damn good Tex Mex, and that is also not found here. So.....when you see people of the Latino descent moving in, don't be fearful, be happy. Because their food will follow them. This is where immigration and melting pots make places great to live, when their food and culture follows.
Which brings me to Chinese. Which again, is like saying "American" which is too broad. Saying "American" and then fitting Creole/Cajun, Southern, Midwestern, Cali, New England, etc...all of those is the same as saying "Chinese" because are that many and more regions and variations of Chinese food. What we get is an Americanized version of Chinese food. While yes, we all love our spicy, sweet General Tso's chicken, it is no way representative of Chinese food. The dearth of "real" Chinese food in Pittsburgh is scary. A lot of restaurants have their Chinese American menu, then have a real Chinese menu that is not publicized. My ex boss was Chinese, so I found this out by going to restaurants. We would make him order off the real menu. It is fantastic. The only real places are all in Squirrel Hill, I think. Especially Sichuan Gourmet. What sucks, is I, like most Pittsburghers, live in the suburbs. The suburbs of Pittsburgh is a veritable wasteland for cuisines like Chinese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Latino, Mid East etc.... Just horrible, either chains or Americanized versions and dumbed down versions of these foods.
It pisses me off. I travel, so I see other cities of equal size or smaller, who have ethnic enclaves in different suburbs and have real, authentic representations of these types of foods located outside of the "city". I don't mind going into town occasionally, but man some evenings I would like the ability to quickly order take out that is interesting and not the same, instead of feeling like I am in Sioux City SD. The AK Valley, where I live, is probably the WORST of the suburban areas of Pittsburgh for anything but pizza, Italian, and chicken wings along with "old people food"..
So.....bring me you tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and bring me someone with a cuisine other than pizza and seasoned whole, chicken wings. On that note, you cannot even get a decent Buffalo style chicken wing in the AK Valley for chrissakes! The same type of foods that my parents grew up with, still dominate the local dining scene.
Us Route 28ers, we need to band together and start a revolution!
