San Francisco: Variety / diversity

We’ll see your juke joint sequestered in a strip mall and raise you our Richmond District, a micro-continent sustained by Burmese tea-leaf salad and Shanghai-style soup dumplings. We’ve got a Chinatown, a Japantown, a sprawling Latin quarter, and tiny pockets stuffed with everything from Latvian pierogies to Laotian larb gai. Best part: This ethnic smorgasbord sits within a manageable 7- by 7-mile city where people on their way to dinner have been known to, get this, walk.

Score: 8