Pau Torres

[Dave]

Pau Torres Paella!
https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1708878902016331865

Jeez that is the most unappetizing paella I’ve ever seen. But at least his garden is pest free.

I know - how do you burn Paella!

Aren’t you supposed to burn paella?  The bottom should have a crust.

You're supposed to burn paella - the bottom is supposed to be black and crunchy, the socarrat

[Dave]

There is no worldwide modern Spanish diaspora as there is with those other nationalities.

I'd also wonder whether the original claim is correct. There are thousands of Indian restaurants in the UK for obvious colonial reasons, but I wouldn't say they're particularly prevalent in many other countries compared to other cuisines.

Without looking it up, I'd bet that in most cities outside the UK and the Indian sub-continent you're going to find more Japanese than you would Indian. Probably Thai as well.

[paul_e]

There is no worldwide modern Spanish diaspora as there is with those other nationalities.

I'd also wonder whether the original claim is correct. There are thousands of Indian restaurants in the UK for obvious colonial reasons, but I wouldn't say they're particularly prevalent in many other countries compared to other cuisines.

Without looking it up, I'd bet that in most cities outside the UK and the Indian sub-continent you're going to find more Japanese than you would Indian. Probably Thai as well.

In my experience Indian food is very common all over northern and central Europe.

[Bad English]

"Burnt" is a bit strong to be honest. The socarrat is made by cooking on a high flame (wood if purist) for the last five minutes so you get a caramelised, toasted, crunchy layer of rice at the bottom of the pan.

[Dave]

There is no worldwide modern Spanish diaspora as there is with those other nationalities.

I'd also wonder whether the original claim is correct. There are thousands of Indian restaurants in the UK for obvious colonial reasons, but I wouldn't say they're particularly prevalent in many other countries compared to other cuisines.

Without looking it up, I'd bet that in most cities outside the UK and the Indian sub-continent you're going to find more Japanese than you would Indian. Probably Thai as well.

In my experience Indian food is very common all over northern and central Europe.

I know. I didn't suggest that it wasn't very common. I'm just not sure I'd be making the claim that worldwide it's one of the "3 most popular foods that appear in almost every major city in the world".

Edit - I did a quick check on Tripadvisor on a few random cities to satisfy my curiosity, Oslo has 78 Indian vs 106 Japanese, Paris has 279 Indian vs 958 Japanese, Melbourne has 344 Indian vs 429 Japanese, Seville 7 Indian vs 84 Japanese...

[charlatan]

There is no worldwide modern Spanish diaspora as there is with those other nationalities.

I'd also wonder whether the original claim is correct. There are thousands of Indian restaurants in the UK for obvious colonial reasons, but I wouldn't say they're particularly prevalent in many other countries compared to other cuisines.

Without looking it up, I'd bet that in most cities outside the UK and the Indian sub-continent you're going to find more Japanese than you would Indian. Probably Thai as well.

And Mexican where lots of the staff speak Spanish?

[paul_e]

There is no worldwide modern Spanish diaspora as there is with those other nationalities.

I'd also wonder whether the original claim is correct. There are thousands of Indian restaurants in the UK for obvious colonial reasons, but I wouldn't say they're particularly prevalent in many other countries compared to other cuisines.

Without looking it up, I'd bet that in most cities outside the UK and the Indian sub-continent you're going to find more Japanese than you would Indian. Probably Thai as well.

In my experience Indian food is very common all over northern and central Europe.

I know. I didn't suggest that it wasn't very common. I'm just not sure I'd be making the claim that worldwide it's one of the "3 most popular foods that appear in almost every major city in the world".

I think you might be right but for the wrong reason. It's easy to dismiss it but American food is everywhere, I'd put Indian above Sushi and Thai in my experience though. That is very European biased so maybe it's different elsewhere.

[Dante Lavelli]

The fact the UK has no food culture has turned out to be such a blessing.  We are happy to steal any cuisine (and do it well) whereas France/Italy/Spain seem stuck and restricted by their heritage.

[pauliewalnuts]

There is no worldwide modern Spanish diaspora as there is with those other nationalities.

I'd also wonder whether the original claim is correct. There are thousands of Indian restaurants in the UK for obvious colonial reasons, but I wouldn't say they're particularly prevalent in many other countries compared to other cuisines.

Without looking it up, I'd bet that in most cities outside the UK and the Indian sub-continent you're going to find more Japanese than you would Indian. Probably Thai as well.

In my experience Indian food is very common all over northern and central Europe.

I know. I didn't suggest that it wasn't very common. I'm just not sure I'd be making the claim that worldwide it's one of the "3 most popular foods that appear in almost every major city in the world".

I think you might be right but for the wrong reason. It's easy to dismiss it but American food is everywhere, I'd put Indian above Sushi and Thai in my experience though. That is very European biased so maybe it's different elsewhere.

Anecdotal and 25 years out of date, but I remember living in Milan at the end of the 90s and there being about 3 Indian restaurants in the city and about 300 Chinese.

[Bad English]

The fact the UK has no food culture has turned out to be such a blessing.  We are happy to steal any cuisine (and do it well) whereas France/Italy/Spain seem stuck and restricted by their heritage.

Very misinformed opinion if I may say so.

[Dave]

There is no worldwide modern Spanish diaspora as there is with those other nationalities.

I'd also wonder whether the original claim is correct. There are thousands of Indian restaurants in the UK for obvious colonial reasons, but I wouldn't say they're particularly prevalent in many other countries compared to other cuisines.

Without looking it up, I'd bet that in most cities outside the UK and the Indian sub-continent you're going to find more Japanese than you would Indian. Probably Thai as well.

In my experience Indian food is very common all over northern and central Europe.

I know. I didn't suggest that it wasn't very common. I'm just not sure I'd be making the claim that worldwide it's one of the "3 most popular foods that appear in almost every major city in the world".

I think you might be right but for the wrong reason. It's easy to dismiss it but American food is everywhere, I'd put Indian above Sushi and Thai in my experience though. That is very European biased so maybe it's different elsewhere.

There might well be European anomalies to counter the point, but to add to my list above - Lviv 33 / 3, Aalborg 11 / 3, Athens 122 / 60, Krakow 79 / 41.

I've not found any city in Europe yet where the quantities are in favour of Indian over Japanese.

[charlatan]

How did we get from major world cities to Lviv, Aalborg and Krakow?

[Dave]

How did we get from major world cities to Lviv, Aalborg and Krakow?

Fair, but I wanted to get a good range of cities / sizes to make sure that I wasn't weighting things in favour of more cosmopolitan places.

If Japanese were the cuisine of the elites and tourists in capital cities, and smaller cities were packed out with Indian restaurants for the rank-and-file then I'd give Aftab his point.

edit - not that I expect he wanted his musings to be turned into an argument when I'd be in any position to give him "his point..."

[pauliewalnuts]

Only on this site could a discussion of a player who posts a picture of his dinner on instagram wind up with an argument about the international prevalence of foreign cuisines, which in turn mutates into "what constitutes a major international city?" 

[eamonn]

I hope Pau is reading this thread with interest. Looks like he's got plenty of brains and curiosity in his handsome head.