rayiner wrote:Who cares how many restaurants are Michelin-rated if the food is good? Being a legit foodie and having sampled some of the "nice" NYC places, I can say I was more impressed with the food in Portland. NYC definitely has some great places to try if you're on vacation here, but it's really difficult to beat the insanely fresh food (particularly seafood) that you get even with a relatively cheap meal in Portland. Unless you're just really into prestige-eating, it's not going to impact your day to day QoL. Also, good tex mex >> Per Se.
And who goes to museums more then once? I grew up next to some of the best museums in the world (in DC) and didn't visit more than once a year. And if you're into opera and shit, Dallas has that too. Is it as famous? Does it matter?
I dont' necessarily care about Michelin stars, but I do care about good, quality food. Are you really trying to tell me that Portland has better food options than NYC? Perhaps you don't venture out enough, but there is amazing food at any price point in NYC. Moreover, authentic food that you likely won't find anywhere else. And it does impact my QoL. No I don't eat out at great places every day, but you can be assured that I go to a great meal every week. Maybe it is a great sushi place one weekend and a pop-up restaurant the next weekend, but every week I go to a great restaurant.
Here is the thing about culture. Yes, other cities have cultural options to a degree, but they don't compete with NYC in terms of amount. The fact that you can go to just about anything any day of the week is pretty damn impressive here. Yes, Dallas probably gets some traveling Broadway shows, but it isn't getting the marquee shows with the marquee actors that NYC has. Likewise, NYC museums are abundant. More so than just the big name museums, NYC has a ton of smaller museums that focus on subsets of art - e.g., photography museums. Other cities don't have them. And the big name museums get the big traveling art shows - Picasso's "Guitars" was just at the Moma.
The fact is that you don't like this stuff and don't think it is noteworthy, but to many people this is what NYC is about - the ability to have great experiences that you can't get in the same quantity as other cities.