From wings to spam sushi: What food is each state ordering most during the pandemic?
Red Carpet Enterprises, Inc
Takeout and delivery have become the only viable alternatives to dining out since the coronavirus shuttered restaurants across the U.S. — prompting Yelp to compile data on the most popular foods called in for every state.
Some of the findings were surprising.
“When we first looked at the results, pizza delivery reigned supreme, which is no surprise since it delivers well and it’s perfect for a family night in,” Yelp said. “However, we dug into the data to find the most uniquely popular delivery order in every state, and that’s when things got interesting.”
To compile the list, a data scientist at Yelp mined the names of dishes people have been ordering since March 16 — when states started rolling out stay-at-home orders — using a technique known as term frequency-inverse document frequency.
According to Yelp, that’s just a fancy way of saying it “quantifies how frequently a dish is ordered in a state relative to its popularity in other states.”
By then simplifying dish names, the data scientist was able to pull out the top three dishes in each state, which Yelp identified as “the most regionally popular food-delivery items.” There was, however, a little subjectivity involved in singling out just one: Yelp left it up to its data scientist to choose.
Here’s a look at the most popular food delivery item in each state, organized by region according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
WEST
Alaska: Gumbo
Arizona: Tacos
California: Bubble Tea
Colorado: Crab Rangoon
Hawaii: Bubble Tea
Idaho: Cheese Pizza
Montana: Egg Rolls
New Mexico: Green Chile Cheeseburgers
Nevada: Spam Musubi*
Oregon: Loaded Burgers
Utah: Hot Wings
Washington: Pad Thai
Wyoming: Naan
*Spam Musubi is essentially sushi made out of Spam. According to Spam.com, it’s a “Hawaiian take on surf and turf” made from two slices of (thankfully) cooked Spam, white rice, nori and your sauce of choice. Despite Spam being manufactured in Minnesota, Only In Your State reported this dish is a classic in Hawaii that made its way to Las Vegas — home to a “bounty of Hawaiian dishes” that might otherwise be “hard to find on the mainland,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
MIDWEST
Iowa: Burgers
Illinois: Thin Crust Pizza*
Indiana: Poke Bowls
Kansas: Gyros
Michigan: Bubble Tea
Minnesota: Donuts
Missouri: Belgian Fries**
Nebraska: Sushi
North Dakota: Gyros
Ohio: Deep Dish Pizza
South Dakota: Dumplings
Wisconsin: Pad Thai
*The irony is not lost. Chicago is no doubt disappointed.
**Not to be confused with the average french fry, Belgian Fries are fried twice, according to Epicurious.com.
NORTHEAST
Connecticut: Cheese Pizza
Massachusetts: General Tso’s Chicken
Maine: Pad Thai
New Hampshire: Crab Rangoon
New Jersey: Cheese Pizza
New York: Cheese Pizza
Pennsylvania: Italian Hoagies
Rhode Island: General Tso’s Chicken
Vermont: Burritos
SOUTH
Alabama: Nachos
Arkansas: Spring Rolls
Delaware: Pho
Florida: Garlic Rolls
Georgia: Wings
Kentucky: Gyros
Louisiana: Sushi
Maryland: Gyros
Mississippi: Catfish
North Carolina: Tacos
Oklahoma: Croissants
South Carolina: Sushi
Tennessee: Chicken Tenders
Texas: Crawfish
Virginia: Tacos
West Virginia: Bao Buns*
*An editor at McClatchy News who is from West Virginia has never heard of Bao Buns. According the BBC, they are Chinese bread rolls typically filled with BBQ pork and pickled vegetables — though fillings can vary. At first glance, nothing on the internet could explain why they became so popular in West Virginia during the pandemic.