“Me and my friend had an idea one day to try the food from every country in the world, only in New York City,” begins every video, voiced over a stick figure animation of two people, one in a scrawled blue baseball cap. It’s an achievable goal. The borough of Queens alone often boasts of being the most diverse place in the world, depending on which metrics you use. And so, in November 2025, the Tastebuds, aka Dillon Davis and Nichols Neff (or the “Tall Guy” and “Hat Guy”), set off on this journey, spinning a wheel every week and finding a restaurant that serves the cuisine of the country it lands on.
The first video, in which the duo visited Little Armenia Cafe, exemplifies the kinds of interactions Davis and Neff have had as they eat their way through 195 countries. The owner comes out and chats with them, seemingly thrilled to introduce them to his cuisine. He pours them Armenian wine as they ask about the culture and the food, and the two guys rave about the kindness and hospitality they’ve received. By the seventh video, in which the two visit Bhutanese restaurant The Weekender, the owner refers to them as brothers from another life, and invites them to his New Year's party (which they later attend, and it looks awesome).
After the videos began going viral, multiple friends admitted to crying while watching them. It was just so nice to see these guys operate with curiosity and joy, and be embraced for it wherever they went. Davis and Neff seem eager to learn about the cuisines they’re sampling. They ask questions, are ready to try anything put in front of them, and never make fun of anything they eat. And they seem to genuinely want to help the businesses they frequent, even inviting the restaurateurs from the first 12 restaurants they visited to a Brooklyn Nets game to celebrate the project’s success. In one video, the owner of Little Armenia Cafe comments, “You're truly becoming family to so many of us. People can really feel your love back. Not just in video. People have to meet you guys and feel your true warmth and see why people you pick and the cultures you pick all seem to claim you as family.”
I love what they’re doing. And I hate that, from the moment I started watching, I thought of how that kind of easy camaraderie isn’t automatically extended to everyone.
Growing up, I remember the rapport my dad had with the guys at the deli on our block, and I longed for that kind of community recognition. I thought it was just a matter of being friendly, greeting people when I saw them, and having a wide smile. And often, that is all it takes. But as I got older, I saw how, as a woman, that kind of openness on my part could be received differently by men. How some of my deli guys (and later restaurant guys, because they are still mostly guys) didn’t see me as a friend and sister but as an object. So I closed myself, just a bit, to avoid the awkwardness (or worse, danger) those interactions could lead to.
When I watch the Tastebuds, I can’t help but think of the stares my wife and I sometimes get in restaurants when we do something that reveals we are not just gal pals. I think of the times I’ve tried to exude warmth and curiosity, and it’s been received instead as flirtation. I think of friends who tell me they avoid certain neighborhoods, and the restaurants in them, because they assume they’ll experience racism from the people there. And I think of all the times my questions have been met with a perfectly cordial answer, yet one that never continues into a conversation. Frankly, I’m jealous of the Tastebuds. They make it look so easy.
The Tastebuds can do what they do because they’re genuinely good at it. And I’m going to guess by this point, many restaurateurs in New York know who they are and the kind of attention their videos can bring. But they can also do it because their ignorance (feigned or not) is taken as charming, not insulting. They are viewed as sons, not daughters. And the soft power of whiteness means their curiosity is seen as a welcome thrill, not a nuisance or a threat.
Experiencing discrimination on any level starts to make you wonder: When it doesn’t happen the way it does for others, is it because I’m a woman? Brown? Queer? Were they really staring, or am I overthinking things? If I were bolder, would I be welcomed the same way more often, or am I not bold because I am afraid of what happens if those interactions go wrong? Lest this sound like sour grapes, on the whole things have gone fine — great, even. There have been plenty of times a restaurateur has thrown his arm around my shoulders like an old friend and offered me a drink, so what am I talking about? But still, the suspicion is there. The assumption that I will walk in and be welcomed no matter what, and the confidence that drives it, just doesn’t exist.
I guess this is another way of saying I want what men have. We live in a unipolar society, with white, straight cis men at the top and everyone else left to claw for the safety and power that identity affords. I don’t want it all the time. Watching, I am reminded of the places where I have a secret handshake, where my identities grant me passage into worlds these boys may never see. But I can’t deny the allure of seeing a world where the tired trope of the power of “breaking bread” works because everyone automatically finds your attention a gift, and is willing to go out of their way to make you comfortable.
The Tastebuds have now expanded their entertainment offerings with a new series, Follow the Leader, in which they allow strangers to dictate everywhere they go. They continue to paint a world in which any stranger is just a potential friend, someone whose intentions are pure and who wants you to have the best day possible. I want to believe them so badly. I wish I wasn’t compelled to second guess.
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