Much like other well-traveled chefs, Andrew Zimmern has his fair share of favorite cities across the globe which have provided him with the best food he’s gotten to eat over the years. While Massachusetts native Chef Emeril Lagasse, for example, raves about the cuisine in New Orleans and considers the Southern city one of the best food towns in the world, Zimmern was less willing to go against the city where he was born. The “Bizarre Foods” host stands firm in his belief that New York City is the pinnacle of food not only in America, but also across the globe; saying that it beats out popular destinations like Tokyo, Mexico City, and France to take that top spot.
Zimmern revealed this belief in a guest appearance on musician Scott Lipps’ podcast “Lipps Service,” noting that not only is New York City the best food city in the world, but that one specific borough within the city surpasses any other he’s visited in his several decades as a chef. “If you just took the borough of Queens, and partitioned it, and it was its own city, Queens would be the number one food city in the world,” Zimmern professed.
Read more: 15 Old-School Cafeterias In The US You Need To Visit
Why does Andrew Zimmern believe Queens is the best food city in the world?
Cars driving on a rainy day in front of a diner in Queens, New York – Carstenbrandt/Getty Images
While a choice so close to home may surprise some longtime fans of Zimmern who know him for his appreciation of strange foods like donkey meat (which is illegal in the United States but legal in countries like China), it’s actually Queens’ remarkable diversity of cuisines that makes it stand out over other cities across the globe and the other four boroughs of New York City. “Just in Queens alone, you have 150 different ethnicities and cultures represented in populations of 8,000, 9,000, or more, with new arrivals all the time,” Zimmern explained, adding that you’re able to find the best version of practically any cuisine within the city’s largest borough.
Now, this assertion may seem hyperbolic, but it’s actually far from it. Queens’ diversity of cuisines gives the borough a vibrant, unique, and expansive food culture overall. In the neighborhood of Astoria alone, you can find Pye Boat, a Thai restaurant known for being among mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s favorites in the city; Taverna Kyclades, a paradise for lovers of Greek food; and the old-school Bel Aire Diner, which famously transformed into a drive-in movie theater during the pandemic and specializes in American diner food. These three restaurants are all minutes away from one another while providing drastically different kinds of delicious food and are just a small sample of how remarkable a food hub Queens, New York truly is.
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