What exactly is Miami obsessed with? A Yelp study just figured it out

Miami, you are crazy about Cuban food.

And also Publix.

None of this comes as much of a surprise, but now we have official proof of your obsessions, thanks to Yelp.

The crowd-sourced review site is celebrating its 15th anniversary by figuring out the most popular words used in Yelp reviews over the past 15 years. Yelp examined the most popular phrases in each city and compared them to language used in other cities.

And what it found out is that Miami loves Cuban food - and also lots of other food-related things.

The phrase “Cuban food” cropped up the most for Miami, with “Publix” a close second. Let us guess: People were extolling the virtues of Pub subs (or falsely claiming Wawa’s are better).

The no. 3 phrase wasn’t a surprise - “Cuban sandwich.” You all really love your Cuban food, don’t you? Still, no. 4 was “Peruvian food.” Let’s hear it for ceviche.

After that came “de leche,” “grilled octopus” and “key lime.” How “grilled octopus” came before “mojito” we do not understand, nor do we understand why “croquette” and not “croqueta” made the list. We blame tourists.

Yelp created word cloud graphics for Miami and other cities, including Tampa. The most popular phrase for our friends across the state was “Cuban sandwich,” a phrase that was almost certainly followed by “let’s ruin it with salami.”

The most popular word in Orlando’s word cloud wasn’t food-related; it was wizard related. “Harry Potter” was no. 1, and “Disney” no. 2. But don’t think the people in Orlando don’t care about Publix; that was no. 3.

And in the most mystifying development, the no. 1 search term in Atlanta and Charlotte, N. C. was “pimento cheese.” What the hell, American South?

If you want to see Yelp’s other findings about users’ habits and preferences, visit yelp15.com

This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 9:57 AM.