A list of cultural foods includes specific regional or ethnic dishes that help define a culture. For example, such lists may include tacos and enchiladas for Mexican food, egg rolls and dim sum for Chinese food, udon noodles and sushi for Japanese food, and pizza and lasagna for Italian food.
Many different cities in the United States and around the world offer a variety of available foods from different cultures. Large cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Detroit, have areas that are culturally diverse and populated with restaurants that serve cultural foods from across the globe. For example, many large cities have a Chinatown that offers a range of Chinese food restaurants and markets. Also common in some of these cities are food trucks that serve food from various cultures. Sometimes a city has an abundance of restaurants from a certain culture because of its geographical proximity to the country or city of origin of the food. For instance, southern California has a huge variety of Mexican restaurants, primarily because of its close proximity to Mexico. Likewise, New York City has many restaurants offering Caribbean-style foods because of its relatively close proximity to Caribbean islands such as Jamaica and The Bahamas.
