California is famous for its world-class food scene, from its farm-to-table eateries and Michelin-starred restaurants to its rich agricultural lands and renowned wine destinations. Aside from being the country’s largest food producer, California is also the country’s most populous state; its nearly 40 million residents make up more than 10 percent of the entire United States population. With that sizable number comes a melting pot of people and cultures—over 200 languages are spoken in California, including up to 90 indigenous languages, making it one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the world.
Given the linguistic, cultural, and culinary diversity of the Golden State, culinary website Chef’s Pencil set out to determine: What are Californians’ favorite ethnic cuisines? To answer this question, Chef’s Pencil turned to Google Trends data on national cuisines. When gathering this data, Google looks at the number of searches centered on a certain cuisine—such as Japanese food, Japanese restaurants, Japanese rice, sushi, sushi recipes—and the names of well-known eateries serving that specific cuisine, and allocates an interest score based on the percentage of people in a state or city that made those searches.
Chef’s Pencil used the Google Trends data to determine the five most popular ethnic foods in California—and the results may surprise you.
5. Japanese (Interest Score: 16)