Foodscape

Why are reviews of dishes at the same Cantonese restaurant so divided? What words do you use to evaluate the same Cantonese restaurant? What are the different preferences for Cantonese food in different cities? In this project we compared Cantonese restaurant reviews on Yelp made by Chinese and American foodies from six cities in the U.S. To visualize and map our findings, we conducted a text analysis of the reviews using the Python NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) library. We then conducted a sentiment analysis, measuring the differences between the positive and negative ratios of “foodies” reviews. We found these differences arising from personal experiences and history(s). Based on these findings, we designed an app, (Cantonese cuisine exchange platform), where users not only explore Cantonese restaurants in different cities but gain a deeper understanding of how food connects different cultures and personal histories.