Around here, combination Thai and Southern BBQ restaurants are surprisingly common (though it's a two category menu rather than fusion) and I can think of a Cajun sports bar run by Koreans with assorted Korean items on the menu.

I'll joke that if we ever do develop a regional cuisine around here, it's going to be Thai-Cajun fusion, given the demographics of my part of the Florida panhandle.

Beachmouse, is that because there is a growing Thai population in the FL panhandle, or just that one Thai place opened, locals liked it, and so more appeared as a result?

As for the largest city in the Cajun region, aren't there a substantial number of Filipinos in New Orleans/its environs?

Did taco rice make you think of the combo? Now if Mexico started using a lot more bitter gourd and shikuwasa, I'd be on the bandwagon...even more so.

Mexican-Italian

http://www.mexitaliansantacruz.com/

Cuisines That Shouldn't Start with "Fusion"
 

Palm Springs Mexican Sushi restaurant
www.margaritasrestaurant.net

The Thais are in the central Panhandle because of Eglin AFB- lots of Vietnam-era Thai 'War Brides' ended up in the area with their American spouses after he retired from active duty. Then they've often daisy-chained other family members over here under family reunification visas since that first woman in the family set up shop, I mean restaurant. The first Thai restaurant in the area opened in something like 1966, and since that worked out well, many others have followed over the years. Considering how Ft. Walton Beach effectively didn't exist before WW2, the Thais have now been part of the food of the metro area for more than half of its history.

We've also got a good-sized Filipino population from the days of bases over there, but they don't seem to have the same culture of restaurant entrepreneurship as the Thais.

Not sure about Filipinos in New Orleans, but southern Louisiana does have a pretty large Vietnamese population, and a lot of the shrimping boats in the Mississippi Gulf Coast and coastal Alabama are also now run by the Vietnamese these days.

Thanks for the background, beachmouse. I'm always curious about why certain ethnic groups can be found in various locations, not just because they are community-centric, so when one family went, all of them did, but also because I'm legitimately intrigued by immigration patterns. Lewiston, Maine and Somalis? Fresno, California and the Hmong? Koreans in Uzbekistan? No matter why they left their home country (to which I also add, Americans in Shanghai?...kinda), they've probably (or, hopefully) taken some of their culinary acumen with them. The Thais in the FL panhandle are a good example.

I had only eaten at their Bread Bar, but I thought their food was more like "schizophrenic Indian." It was like the food couldn't decide if it wanted to be Indian or not. But my bias was because I love everything about Indian cuisine but don't really like French cuisine, so mixing the two just didn't work for me. I met a girl whose boyfriend was a chef there, and she said the dude would tell everyone the cuisine was "New American" because people were confused by a French-Indian restaurant.

One good tv show about that is called 'Chinese Restaurants', which aired in the US on Link TV a while back:

http://www.chineserestaurants.tv/index.html

Some good stuff about how Chinese families and small communities ended up in all corners of the globe from Cuba to Israel (by way of Vietnam) to Norway to Trinidad, and how much of their culture and food they've kept or not.

In an old neighborhood of mine there was a late night Mexican/Chinese restaurant. Never ate there. ;)

I'm not into fusion restaurants in general. It gives me the impression of a jack-of-all-trades type if situation. I'd rather go see the master.

We have a food truk here in town serving Korean tacos. Quite tasty.

Vending Machine fusion.

I was reading an article (not exactly Economist-worthy) 'bout how there may be too many taco places popping up in the Dallas metro area. swag, what do you think? Weren't there decent taco places around already, as in, Mexican taquerias? And now it's the fusion, er, infusion what with the Korean variant as you mentioned? NYC is undergoing (or maybe it passed already?) this trend too.

This summer we popped into a place in Soldotna, Alaska, and discovered that in addition to their Greek/Italian/Mexican cuisine, they now offer sushi as well. :eek:

I don't really know - from what I've seen, the true taquerias are mostly located in the neighborhoods with lots of Mexican residents. I don't get to those areas often enough, I can't really judge the marketplace.

The Mexican fusion I've seen tends to lean more on the fused flavors, and use Mexican for the construction. For example, the Ssahm truck's tacos are meats (or soy) with a korean marinade, plus Sesame Soy Vinaigrette Salad, Caramelized Kimchee, Cilantro & Onion, Korean Salsa Roja, Spicy Mayo, served on 6″ Corn Tortillas. I'd say the cilantro is the only real Mexican flavor.

Likewise, a local Irish pub serves "Irish nachos", but it uses potato slices instead of tortilla chips, and corned beef and cabbage as the dominant toppings. The jack & cheddar cheeses add some mexican flavors, but it's more Irish in flavor, Mexican in appearance.