Ethnic Food in Billings – Quantity VS Variety

Many outsider bemoan the Billings culinary scene and aside from Italian, Mexican and Chinese food, which are in abundance in most American cities, there aren't many ethnic food outlets in the Magic City and surrounding areas... while it's true there aren't many ethnic restaurants compared to other cities, international cuisine is actually well represented, even if there are only 1 or 2 restaurants in each of the following categories:

Greek 2
Cajun 1
Thai 3
Indian 2
Mongolian 3
German 1
Polynesian 1
Japanese 5 (surprisingly)

Admittedly, about half of those mentioned are some version of fast food and there are still no African (love me some Ethiopian food), Caribbean, Middle Eastern, French, Scandanavian, Brazilian, Korean or Vietnamese eateries here. While our culinary scene won't get us selected as the next venue for Food & Wine magazine's annual festival it's also not as bad as some would make it out to be. Above is a pic from today's lunch at my favorite Mongolian grill in West Billings.