Hmm. I’ll be in Long Beach in April, so maybe I’ll go on a hunt then. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve had Indian food in:
Iceland (it was pretty good)
Tanzania (Tanzania has a sizable Indian population)
London (not really a surprise)
I’m had American style pizza in Tanzania.
Going through the Yellow Pages, Mexico City has restaurants with the following cuisines:
German, Arabian, Argentine, Brazilian, Korean, Cuban, Chilean, Chinese (including the various Chinese regions), Spanish (including regions), French, Greek, Indian, “International”, Italian, Japanese, Lebanese, Mexican/Regional, Polish, Uruguayan, and fast food/general.
Once when I was visiting relatives in India, my cousin wanted to take us all out for dinner one evening. Ideas were bandied about, and then someone said, “Should we go out for sizzlers?” And, of course, I said, “Sizzler’s?,” thinking of the crappy U.S. chain. Eventually it became clear that he was talking about a type of cuisine, not the name of a restaurant. He was very surprised that I didn’t know what sizzlers were, because, “It’s American food.”
Sizzlers turned out to be meat, vegetables, and french fries grilled and served hot on an iron plate that “sizzled” when it was brought to the table. Pretty good stuff, too. Good quality steak, even. (I think it was the first time I had been served beef in India.)
The place was Yoko’s in Bombay, but apparently there were several sizzlers places around.
So, apparently in India, you can get “American” food.
In most urbanized areas or sizesable cities in Mexico have Chinese restaurants.
London has pretty well every conceivable ethnicity – though I haven’t had Indian food there, I have had Bangladeshi.
And my mother’s home town was Leicester. When I visited there a couple of years ago, I stayed in a part of town where they only had one kind of restaurant: Gujarati vegetarian restaurants. However, there are other kinds in Indian in other parts of Leicester. This is in a city where two of the four main religions are Sikhism and Jainism. (The other two are Islam and Christianity).
There are Indian-style Chinese places in the Jackson Heights section of Queens in New York City, and at least one in the “Curry Hill” section of Manhattan. There are also Cuban-style Chinese places in NYC. I can’t think of another example of this, though – a local interpretation of an ethnic food that has gained a foothold in the US. Say, a German-style Turkish place or something like that.
I’m not counting US exports of reinterpreted ethnic cuisines, because that seems pretty common (Tex-Mex, pizza, burgers and fries I suppose).
Tokyo has pretty much Japanese food or Italian.
Recently, a sort of fast-foodish Indian food has been becoming a bit popular (where you get a tray with some little bowls of curry, and a full naan to dip into them.)
Other than that, certainly you can find other cuisines, but they’re spread pretty far (…particularly by Tokyo standards–where you’ve got a convenience store every block.)
There’s a good Mexican place in Harajuku. I’ve tried some Thai restaurants, but haven’t had much success. Chinese restaurants can be found in most downtown areas, but they seem a lot more fake or plasticy or something than American Chinese places so I never much feel like going in. Some yakiniku places are truer to their Korean heritage, but most are pretty well on their way to being Japanese food.
For the most part though, like I said, it’s mostly just Japanese (noodles and fish) or Italian (noodles and fish.)
A final note: Italian is the most universal food.
Forgot to add that you can also find sushi and similar general Japanese cuisine along Chinese cuisine in Chinese restaurants in Mexico. There are a good number of carry out pizzerias and there are restaurants that have a large section to Italian cuisine. The only thing I have found out is that most cooks in Mexico make the pastas too watery, as in, they don’t collate the pasta to “dry” it out.
When I went to Korea, we had homemade Korean food most of the time, cooked by my friend’s Mom, but while she was at work, we ordered in Chinese. Delivery Chinese in Korea was exactly the same as takeout Chinese in California - the sweet and sour pork and fried rice were like a little slice of home amid all the kimchee.
Sage Rat, really? I could have sworn I’ve heard/read that French cuisine has made huge inroads into Japan over the last two decades or so. Not so?
In Canada almost every little town has Chinese restaurants. The Coolies that built the railroads stayed and made food.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a French restaurant in Japan.
But then, walking the street in the US I’m not sure you would ever “see” a French restaurant. Usually they are ritzy enough to not be on the street. And since I don’t seek out French food, I couldn’t say.
Everytime I’ve gone to France, it pretty much seems like French people for the most part eat Italian. And personally I would say there’s a reason for that.
I’ve been to two Indian resturaunts in Japan, one in Nagoya and the other in Tokyo/ Both were quite good although pretty deserted. I also remember lots of pizza and spaghetti. I used to frequent a Japanese-style italian resturaunt in West L.A. which was an excellent cheap lunch stop.
Also, doner shops (kebab and falafel) were huge in the student areas of Valencia when I visited last fall.
You have to know where to look!
I know of places in Toronto, Kitchener, and London that are fantastic. Actually, scratch that, the one in Kitchener closed. People started asking to woman who made the food (it was a REALLY momma’s homemade food, kind of place!) to cater weddings. She got so popular catering, that she closed the restaurant, since she no longer had the time for it.
I tend to find that a lot of the Mexican restaurant in Toronto are heavily influenced by the Latin American palate. The Tex-Mex ones, mostly do suck.
The most fabulous Italian restaurant I’ve ever eaten at (and remember, I live in Chicago!) is in a little town in Bali. Utterly fantastic. Also good French, decent Mexican and really good Chinese which wasn’t quite American style, but close. And one fantastic “Shrimp on the Barbee” Australian-tourist type place (but I don’t really know what “Australian food” is) where I got surf and turf for two for under $30, drinks and a tip that made the waiter’s head spin included.
Also in Bali, we saw signs at the local McDonald’s for “McSpaghetti”. No, we didn’t stop.
Do you remember the name of the Mexican restaurant in Harajuku? Is that the one in the basement with the faux stone interior walls? They had a chocolate chicken dish that was pretty good, as I recall.
With regard to your description of available restaurants, you and I must be eating in different Tokyos, because your characterization is completely at odds with my experience! Over the last five years, I’ve eaten in a dozen different first-rate Indian restaurants, in Asakusa, Ochanomizu, Azabu-Juban, Kichijoji and Shibuya. I can name four or five middle of the road French restaurants (and a few high end ones) off the top of my head, and I’ve been to literally dozens of good Italian places (even excluding chains like Bene Bene, which are pretty decent). There are lots and lots of great Thai places, too!
I’ll be back in March. I think I’m gonna have to drag you around a bit. 
I don’t know if Russia is considered “ethnic” or not, but we’ve got most of the major cuisines covered to some extent: French, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, German, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Japanese (every friggin’ second restaurant in Moscow has sushi); unfortunately, most of them are unbearably blandified for the Russian palate or ridiculously overpriced, or both. For some reason, Indian food is the exception. There are a few Indian restaurants here that would be contenders in London or Toronto or New York. There are also a few cuisines that aren’t found elsewhere: Georgian food is really yummy, and generally reasonably priced; Uzbek is, well, worth trying (mmm… horsemeat sausage). Plus the usual “American” chain restaurants, if that’s what you’re into…
Out of curiousity what was the one in Kitchener. That’s my hometown. I think I’ve only been to a Tex-Mex place once back in TO (Mississauga) after I moved to Texas. It was pretty bad from what I recall.
The only other foreign country I spent much time in is Taiwan and they had an abundance of ethnic restaurants in Taipei. I think I may tend to agree that almost every city worldwide of at least a decent size has a Chinese and Italian restaurant.
Oh, and to actually approach the OP, I travelled throughout West Africa and every city and largish town has a Middle Eastern food place (falafel and such), often run by expat Lebanese. French food is easy to find in cities of the former French colonies – in fact, even tiny remote places in Senegal and Mali all seem to have a local baker of baguette. I’m sure Dakar must have had Chinese and Indian food, but I can’t recall offhand.
A friend’s mom travelled through Norway maybe 30 years ago, and was excited to see “pizza” on a local menu. She got less excited when one arrived at the table next to her, and it was a pizza crust with melted cheese, brown gravy, and a whole smoked fish, with head and tail.