The claim gets made often enough that it risks becoming a cliché — but the numbers back it up. Queens is home to residents from more than 160 countries. The food they cook and eat has turned the borough into one of the most remarkable places on earth to eat well, eat cheap, and eat something you've never heard of before.

This isn't a list of restaurants. It's a neighborhood map — a way to orient yourself if you're new to the borough or new to actually exploring it.

Jackson Heights — South Asian, Latin American, and everything in between. Walk 74th Street and you'll pass Bangladeshi sweets shops, Nepali chaat stalls, Colombian bakeries, and Indian curry houses in the same two blocks. Weekend vendors narrow the sidewalks. Roosevelt Avenue runs Colombian and Ecuadorian deep — some of the best in the country.

Flushing — East Asian, full stop. The New World Mall food court, the Flushing Mall basement, the Golden Shopping Mall stalls. Sichuan, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Korean BBQ, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Filipino. Cash only, plastic stools, best food you'll eat anywhere.

Astoria — Still the Greek capital, now layered with Egyptian, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, Ethiopian, Japanese izakayas. Steinway Street ("Little Egypt") alone is worth the trip.

Woodside — Filipino and Thai, both punching above their weight. Whole-roasted lechon on weekends. A Thai food scene that draws from across the borough.

Jamaica — Caribbean and West African. Jamaican patties, jerk chicken, Guyanese roti, Nigerian fufu, Ghanaian egusi, Senegalese suya. Southeast Queens is growing fast.

A food tour of Queens covers a dozen countries in an afternoon, most of it under $15 a stop. No other borough comes close. No other city in the country comes close.

The only mistake is staying in one neighborhood.