Proof positive that Vancouver is neither a melting pot nor a mosaic can be found by tracking our city’s ethnic restaurants, which suggest that it is instead a combination of both.

You won’t find a Burmese district or a Honduran quarter on any civic map; instead, immigrant restaurateurs tend to cluster together in economically cohesive but ethnically diverse hot spots. Not coincidentally, these tend to offer affordable retail space for rent, most likely because they’re well away from the rapid-transit lines that have been a financial boon to other, posher neighbourhoods.

Among the most promising zones for cut-price culinary tourism are Hastings-Sunrise in East Vancouver, Fraser Street between King Edward and 49th, and the corresponding low-rise retail strip on Victoria Drive. You can’t take the SkyTrain to any of these areas, but here are a few neighbourhood delights that will make an expedition more than worthwhile.

Change is already coming to Hastings-Sunrise, although the community has successfully resisted a business-driven initiative to rebrand it as the East Village—which we all know exists only in New York City. Hipster eateries like Red Wagon Café (2296 East Hastings) and Tacofino Commissary (2327 East Hastings) boast lines out the door most days, and for good reason: their overkill breakfasts and upscale tacos are expensive by area standards, but boast top-quality ingredients.

The same can certainly be said for the neighbourhood’s top Vietnamese eatery: Mr. Red Café (2234 East Hastings) offers unusually fresh and light Southeast Asian food, perhaps because it leans toward the leaner, greener fare of Hue and Hanoi rather than the more familiar Saigon style. Those looking for umami-bomb pho might want to go elsewhere, but Mr. Red’s version of the iconic Vietnamese soup is sparklingly fresh-tasting, and the restaurant also boasts an array of rarely found dumplings and sticky-rice dishes.

A little further east on Hastings you’ll find what’s probably Vancouver’s only Palestinian restaurant, Tamam (2616 East Hastings). Ultrafriendly service neutralizes the rather rundown dining atrium, but the real attraction here is Tamam’s assortment of dips. If there’s a better hummus or mutabal in Vancouver, it’s probably being made in someone’s home kitchen—and the lamb freekeh is excellent too. (Tamam is currently closed for renovation, although it’s slated to reopen at the end of March.)

If you’re looking for spicier fare, Laksa King (2546 East Hastings) is a better option; we haven’t delved far into the Burmese side of this bicultural operation, but its Malaysian-style laksa—a coconutty seafood soup with noodles, bean sprouts, prawns, chicken, and a hard-boiled egg—is a reliably revivifying lunch on a rainy spring day.

Burmese cooks have also established an outpost in Kensington–Cedar Cottage at Amay’s House (5076 Victoria). This is an excellent place to go for Myanmar tea-leaf salad, and if that leads to a craze for caffeinated greens we’re all for it. Also on the menu are an array of unusual noodle dishes, with bean powder, lime leaves, and catfish among their components.

While in the vicinity, you can support Turkish émigrés by dining at Istanbul Lounge and Gourmet (5552 Victoria). It’s definitely the place to go if you like your coffee thick, black, and sweet, and note that it opens for Turkish breakfast—featuring sucuk, a spicy beef salami—at 10 a.m. most days. The family-run El Caracol Café (5190 Victoria Drive), on the other hand, is the go-to locale for Honduran-style cheese-bean-and-pork pupusas: thick, stuffed cornmeal patties that come with a serve-yourself carafe of vinegary coleslaw. Judging by what others were eating on our last visit, it might almost be worth courting a hangover in order to rehydrate with a large bowl of sopa de mondongo, or tripe soup.

Over on Fraser, it’s worth pointing out that Sal y Limón (701 Kingsway, at Fraser) is no longer the chaotic hole-in-the-wall it once was, having expanded into a larger and brighter but still busy space. Best tacos in Vancouver? Quite probably—at least according to Georgia Straight readers, and we wouldn’t dare disagree. Further south, enjoy a rare opportunity to eat excellent Pakistani naan and spicy beef-foot soup at Al-Watan Tandoori (6084 Fraser). Haleem, a porridgelike mix of shredded beef and ground lentils, is probably an acquired taste, but we can see why those who have acquired it consider it the perfect comfort food.

So by now we’ve loaded up on pork, beans, sausage, noodles, horchata, Turkish delight, and baklava. If you need a healthier option, head back to Kensington–Cedar Cottage for the Vietnamese Buddhist specialties at Chau Veggie Express (5052 Victoria), where the Rice Fields Bowl and its accompanying litchi-date broth absolutely rule. But not before trying the salted-caramel ice cream at the original Earnest Ice Cream location (3992 Fraser), where long summer lineups suggest that salt and sugar are soul foods for all.