Memorial Day is all about that backyard barbecue, right? Well, this new map from Foursquare and Mapbox charts the food items statistically most unique to each American state. Their unique algorithm sourced menus, tips, and ratings —which represent some 55 million users and 2 million businesses worldwide— to extract the the items most popular in all 50 states and DC (normalizing for population size.) Developers also used the algorithm to determine a percentage that represents
“the affinity for that taste over the national average.”
In a just few cases, states had overlapping tastes but for the most part, the search app’s massive (6-year-old) data is telling story of America’s very specific food tastes.
So, guess where people talk about “avocado toast” at 3,143 % above the national average? New York. (I could have told you that!) But in Tennessee, restaurants and diners mention “banana pudding” at a rate some 318 % higher than the national average. Yes, Pennsylvania likes chicken cheese steaks 1,085 % more than everyone else. The Californians LOVE Chinese Chicken Salad. In Nevada (one imagines, just Vegas) they just want bottle service 842 % more than the rest of us.
This is 1000 % just for fun but you can use it as an excuse to seek out these alleged “conch fritters” and “Brunswick stew” next time you’re in the Florida panhandle. Click map below to enlarge, and for more specifics for state, go here.
(via Citylab)