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Comment by xtiansimon | Hacker News Reader

Reading other posts here about local tastes and modern tastes, I feel compelled to relate something from my community on Long Island, NY.

First, I’m from Northern California and various ethnic cuisine taste very different there. Thai flavors different from Vietnamese, different from American Chinese, etc. from cheap eats to sit down.

Here in my community it all tastes the same! Haha. Thick gravies. Bland flavors.

But what flipped my lid yesterday was a new Indian restaurant (yay. I love vegetarian dishes and Marsala flavors). And what is their fare? American Hamburgers and gravy heavy American Indian. They made a meaty diner.

Town already has 2 diners, 5 American Chinese, 3 franchise hamburger, 2 private hamburger/shake, 5 pizza, 6 bodega/hot holding, 2 American hot holding w/burgers.

What were they thinking? Modern tastes are wak, with stupid money financing them.

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I'm From NYC, lived in West Babylon, worked in Farmingdale, and I have a hard time believing you. There is good ethnic food on LI, just look for it.

I love Turkish and there's a little shop on Rt 109 and Strait Path in N. Lindenhurst, Pasha Kebob and Grill. Want fast and cheap Polish lunch? Go down Great Neck rd to Oak st in Copiague and there are a few delis selling delicious hot food for $3-8 per plate. Main st in Farmingdale has Rolling Spring Roll, Awesome Vietnamese place, love their Pho (also one in Syosset). Down the street is Grecian Grill, a good Greek Joint. And these are just the few I care to mention. Granted LI is big and I named places closer to Farmingdale. But you get the idea.

Love it. Unintended consequence of complaining about lack of tasty food, someone shares their favorites. Now I have some new places to go!

I feel like we're having a debate about the health of some natural ecosystem.

You're describing an area 25mi x 14mi--We got signs of healthy ecosystem here. 1 wolf over here. 2 black bear over there. 1 brown beaver.

My rant is about just what you can find in a 1mi radius (time to spill the beans--of Glen Cove). And all I'm seeing in my ecosystem are squirrels.

If I'm going to drive, then I'd go to Hicksville, Floral Park or Flushing for Indian Cuisine.

Don't get me wrong. I invite you to visit Glen Cove for Central American cusine, and Italian cuisine of Campania and Tuscany.

And you can get a hamburger in 8 places. haha

Full disclosure, I work in consulting for the restaurant industry (not in Glen Cove). I love tasty food, and I also like to understand business decisions. So when I find bland tasteless food, it makes me sad. When I find a new businesses which decided to compete for a share of the same customers selling similar fare, I'm baffled.

I've traveled for work to Ronkonkoma many times. The variety of cuisine is embarrassing. There is some good seafood but you have to travel relatively far. I grew up in the suburbs of another large city and you could get just about anything with only a short drive. The quality might not be best but at least there is always something new down the road. Next time I go there, I'm tempted to just stay in a hotel with a mini-kitchen and just shop at the grocery store to avoid eating at chain restaurants every night.

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