Regional Tastes for Food

I am a huge foodie, so anything that relates to food excites me. Heck, I even write in a blog about things I eat or make. So when we were given the opportunity to write about anything that we wanted to, I knew I had to write about one of my passions – food.

I’ve recently done a lot of traveling both within the U.S. and outside of the U.S. and I’ve taken great notice to how foods are different depending on where you are in the world. Whether it’s historical culture or behavioral profiles of a society, people around the world eat different foods. What’s most remarkable to me though, is the fact that many regional foods are just that – regional. If you try to look for a very local food in a different city or country, you’d have a hard time. And if you did find it, it usually isn’t very authentic or isn’t very successful.

The regionality of foods is market segmentation at play. Only certain foods survive in specific areas because of consumer tastes and lifestyles within that region. The consumer foods market reflects the individuals within an area.

TEXAS
There’s a saying that “everything is bigger in Texas”. For the most part, this is true. Our vehicles are bigger, our land is larger, hat brims could catch Texas-sized raindrops, egos are sometimes monstrous, and our food portions are sufficient to serve 2 people. Imagine finding a 120 oz. steak in France or even in California. It is because Texans have grown so accustomed to bigger things that they have expectations for bigger foods as well. I know that I personally am shocked and a little disappointed when I go to a nice restaurant and am served an entrée that could easily fit into the size of my palm. I’ve just grown so used to eating large servings that it is almost abnormal to receive anything less. In other states and countries, such large portions would scare away the customer.

In a 2009 ranking of America’s Fattest Cities by Men’s Fitness magazine, 4 of the 15 fattest cities are in Texas. I credit the large portions to much of the ‘fattiness’ of the state. A Texan’s behavioral profile also supports unhealthy foods that survive in our state. Few Texans (minus Austinites) exercise, so it is less likely that they care what kind of bad foods they put in their bodies. Healthier states may have a problem with the large portion sizes or greasiness of Texan food offerings.

CALIFORNIA
On the flip side, I’ve noticed that California foods are much healthier and portion sizes are typically smaller. My roommate and I went to San Francisco last month and I immediately noticed a difference in the food of the western coast state. One local restaurant that we visited, Café Gratitude, offered extremely small, completely raw foods. I ordered a bowl of yogurt with homemade granola with fresh cubed apples on top, all for a whopping $10. In Texas, I could have easily gone to Applebee’s and gotten a juicy steak and buttery potatoes for that same price. If I had paid that much for a bowl of yogurt in Texas, I would have been furious, as many other Texans would have been. A friend of mine ordered a “pizza”, but it was basically a cracker topped with raw spinach, fresh cheese, and fresh sliced tomatoes for $16. None of it was cooked. Something like that could never sell in Texas.

But the demands of a San Franciscan are different than a typical Houstonian or San Antonio resident. People of San Francisco, ranked the 12th fittest city in America, value their health and beauty. They are willing to spend a little more for something they know won’t bring them to cardiac arrest. Another example of their health demands is reflected in their interpretation of Mexican food. Instead of Tex-Mex, they call theirs Fresh-Mex because it’s much lighter than the Texan interpretation. Instead of mounds of cheese, Californians add mounds of fresh vegetables to fill the consumer.

ASIA
But it’s not just behavioral profiles that help segment food markets. Sometimes cultural differences help segment consumers as well. I visited China and Japan this summer and as one would expect, the foods there are much more different than here in the states. One thing that stood out to me was the differences in McDonald’s menus. It was interesting to see how one company operated completely different in different countries. For example, I bought a McFlurry in Tokyo, but instead of the regular vanilla McFlurry with candy mix-ins, this McFlurry was a green tea flavor with Oreos. This certainly would not have sold well in the States, as most Americans would find the dessert bitter-sweet and overly powdery. American tastes have developed a taste for smooth, sweet ice creams, so the Green Tea McFlurry would be more like a punishment than a treat, whereas it’s a delight for the Japanese. Additionally, green tea is a staple in Japanese culture and diet, so it’s not so weird to see it in dessert form. Americans have not fully adopted green tea in their diets or lifestyle, so it’s still considered something strange and foreign.

Another menu item at McD’s that I figured was not in the States due to cultural differences was the spicy garlic chicken. Asian cultures have a strong liking for garlic (my mother and I fight over it in our Chinese dishes), but Americans use it in more subtle forms. I can only think of one instance where the word garlic appears in the name of a food item – garlic bread. I think Americans fear the after-smell of garlic on their breath, so are very hesitant to consume something that was explicitly heavy in garlic. Asians have much less of a problem with this (just think Koreans and kimchi), so using garlic and naming a food item with the word garlic is actually a draw rather than a turn-away.

CHICAGO
A more local example of cultural tastes is Chicago deep-dish pizza. I just went to the windy city 2 weekends ago, and had genuine Chicago-style pizza for the first time. I had experienced it once before in Florida, but this was definitely a different experience. I travel a fair amount within the U.S., and I can honestly say that I haven’t seen deep-dish pizza in many cities. Thin-crust seems to be the most popular option, and I think the reason for the scarcity of deep-dish is due to cultural differences. Chicagoans have been raised with deep-dish, so they hardly know anything else. In fact, it’s difficult to find New York-style pizza anywhere in the Second City.

Different regions both within the U.S. and outside of the U.S. all have different behavioral and cultural profiles. These different profiles affect how a marketer may segment populations. Even foods, as I have shown, can be segmented based on these differences to ensure success in specific regions. Too bad there’s not a segment for the foodie like me. Looks like I’ll have to keep exploring different parts of the world to satisfy my appetite for regional foods.