I think it's fascinating how it illustrates weirdness about how Americans think about and categorize "ethnic" food. For example, the author's analysis of Google data shows Glendale, CA ranks #1 for "Highest prevalence of Mediterranean Restaurants." But I am nearly certain the majority of these, given Glendale's demographics, are in fact Armenian or Persian restaurants. Both Iran and Armenia are of course quite far from the Mediterranean region, but for whatever reason (rice? flat breads? grilled things on a stick?) have gotten lumped in with some Americanized, genericized conception of "the Mediterranean" that's indistinguishable from "the Middle East." I would imagine you'd find the same thing happening on Yelp etc.
The same happens with the food itself. I had a chat with a restaurateur in Switzerland, and he explained all the modifications he had to make in order to sell "Chinese" food. "They didn't have bean sprouts when I first came, and they will look like they are dying if there's any amount of spice in it."
The famous example of this is Chicken Tikka Masala, which is a British take on Indian food. You can't open an "Indian" restaurant in the UK and not put it on the menu, just as you must have the step-ladder of spice with Indian sounding names (Korma, Madras, Vindaloo). IIRC similar to General Tso's Chicken when it comes to ordering Chinese in the US, gotta be on the menu.
People simply come to expect certain things with certain foods, often disconnected with the the place that inspired it. When you open an ethnic restaurant, it's almost like joining a franchise. You aren't formally paying MacDonald's when you open a Chinese takeaway, but you do have to have things on the menu that people recognize, so the labels "Thai", "Ramen", "Japanese", etc function a bit like a franchise.
A more historical example of the same phenomenon may be commedia dell'arte.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Chinese_cuisine
Indian Chinese and Japanese Chinese are even more divorced from their Chinese origins.
You get the regional food the chef's mother made. Occasionally, there are local substitutions (different mangos, peppers, meat cuts).
The town is known for its African American and Central American populations, but there's clearly a large African immigrant population that I just don't otherwise see.
Similarly, I would expect that the greater the dependence a city has on cars, the less diverse their food options are (leaning heavily into fast food.)
Houston standing out makes sense though. Despite its insane car infrastructure, I believe there are comparatively few restrictions on property use.
How are you measuring NIMBYness?
I believe, this is simply if not reversed. A city with a good car infrastructure is far more likely to have niche restaurants, because people can easily _get_ there.
Highest prevalence of Korean Restaurants:
Carrollton, Texas 14.67%
Federal Way, Washington 12.45%
Santa Clara, California 8.74%
Garden Grove, California 8.20%
Irvine, California 7.75%
Fullerton, California 7.46%
Ann Arbor, Michigan 5.14%
Honolulu, Hawaii 5.13%
Killeen, Texas 4.40%
Torrance, California 4.25%
There are many interesting restaurants up there. There is a place that flies in live fish from Korea and has them swimming around in tanks and a place with some remarkable method of preparing plain white rice -- in special bowls -- that gives it a phenomenal quality and texture. There are also a lot of interesting desert and coffee places with things like specialty walnut-based sweet snacks, corn lattes, and green tea grown in Korea.
There are a lot of good, more standard KTown things like Korean BBQ and Paris Baguette, as well. One of Carrollton's Koreatowns is the old Japantown in this area (the Japantown has since dispersed and become JSuburbia -- a lot of it is to the north and east) and you can find a Daiso there as a sort of commemoration.
If you're used to the Koreatowns, Japantowns, or Chinatowns of LA, San Francisco or other large American cities, then the layout and expanse of the Carrolton situation is novel and surprising. There is always plenty of parking. The restaurants are huge and spacious and the grocery stores are gigantic. They are sometimes concentrated into shopping centers with enormous parking lots that let out onto three and four lane roads which bridge over or connect directly to the freeway. It's a very Texan experience in some ways.
There are a few Korean chaebols with offices in DFW. Samsung Electronics and Hyosung are the largest.
Carollton, Texas is like the deep south met H-1B jobs.
9 Starbucks and 4 Dunkin’s 6 McDonalds, 3 Burger Kings and 3 Wendy’s 4 Taco Bells and 2 Chipotles 9 Subways 3 Dominos and 2.5 Chick-Fil-A’s
Now that I think of it, there's a subway. It must be for tourists because I've never heard about any local eating there
100k/305 residents= 325 people/restaurant. Average per capita spending on food away from home is $4500. That means that each restaurant has $1,475,000 of addressable market on average, which seems totally viable? (https://www.michiganfarmnews.com/boom-in-spending-at-restaur...)
In the town of 125k I used to live in there was a SB inside a bookstore, inside the mail, and a standalone building within 1000 meters of each other.