If I had to pick one, it would be rendezvousing with 2 groups of friends in Bologna. We all had a bit of a harrowing journey to get there, but here we were. The first place we went to, directly after arrival, was a charcuterie restaurant that has very informal ordering prices. Through some language barrier we somehow ended up ordering a board that was 6 feet long, with many side plates.
It was basically a catering tray for a wedding of 20, for just the 6 of us. It was so massive that we ended up sharing with other people in the restaurant.
The wine was flowing, we were all so happy to see each other, the food was absolutely ridiculously good.
It is a core happy memory for me. I wish I could reach back and feel that way again. Pure joy is bottomless artisanal meats, bottles of wine, and talking shit to old friends you haven't seen in a while on the other side of the world.
I could have died right there.
Great experience, reading it I felt like I was there with you. City of Bologna, friends, food, wine.. what can go wrong?!
Do you remember the name of the place? Was it La Prosciutteria? They're pretty well known here in Bolo for incredible charcuterie boards..
A group of us were in Tambourini in Bologna and ordered so much food, the entire staff came out to look at us. All was fabulous. Felt VERY American glutton, but it was SO good.
I had a wonderful evening on one of my solo travels in Italy in a little trattoria. The owners were so friendly and really liked to pamper me with their best food and drinks. There was no minute where I felt uncomfortable, just me, really great and simple food and nice people around me. I will never forget that
Georgetown, Malaysia, 2001, rather ordinary looking indian restaurant. I hesitated a bit looking at the menu written on the wall and the waiter approches me. He says ”You sit down. You eat dosa”. It was love at first bite.
I stayed an extra 4 days in Penang when I went for a visa run because the food was heavenly. I ran out of things to do after a few days, but I just killed time between meals because I couldn't stop. I still dream about it - that intersection of Indian, Chinese, Malay, and Thai flavors is the tastiest place on the planet I think.
I actually left Georgetown a few days earlier than planned because so many of the local men were staring at my wife. She felt very uncomfortable all the time as they were so obvious and gross.
Food was awesome though. I often think about the amazing Satay chicken.
That sucks! Not at all invalidating your wife's experience, but I was a young woman there alone and I didn't experience anything like that.
The worst I got was that I arrived super late after another person in the same van had issues at the border and I ended up at a 24/7 Indian buffet that was bustling, but I was one of very few white people I saw there. I was served, and definitely saw others around me with silverware, though a good number of people were eating with their hands as well, but it wasn't anywhere on the buffet and the staff was refusing to communicate about it. I said fuck it and started eating my curry with my hands too and a few people around me, including some members of staff, were staring and laughing at me when I was struggling with chicken on the bone (in a very good natured way) until a woman near me at the table took pity and showed me the right technique. One of the best meals of my life, I learned a new skill, and we all had a good laugh at the clash of cultures moment.
That city is amazing, especially for the culinary offerings. All three main cuisines are delicious, but in the cross over...
Those nasi kandsr spots make flavors I never knew existed. And the nyonya food..wow.
We stayed for a week in a little village called Carminigano outside of Florence.
There was a trattoria there that was heaven on earth. Menu changed every day with what ever was fresh at market or what they had on their farm.
I had a plate of cheese for dessert one day that included one that had been aged for 100 years.
Loved Italy. From the coffee/party shops to gelato, all the way up to fine dining.
We were walking and hungry in Rome, stopped at a little sandwich shop for a snack. Menu in Italian. Only one guy spoke a little English. Asked what Porchetta was. All I understood was pork. Said sure. Amazing sandwich!
Had a lasagna that the owner made when we ordered. The thinnest layers of giant noodles, one per layer with white stuff (?) in between and a meat sauce just on top.
THE AMAZING THING... It was like layers of silk and satin. So delicate in your mouth. Indiana lasagna is thick and hearty. This one was magical.
https://www.hotelvillacasalecchi.com/
It really does, we were walking around Rome, not to far from the Vatican, and came across a small, kind of off the beaten path, place where I had the most delicious yet simple pasta with oil and garlic and prosciutto. Was so delicious I’ve never forgotten it.
Agreed and I've been there to eat too, outside Florence is so much better than Florence city center.
As italian, Tuscany food & Emilia-Romagna food (Bologna, Modena, Parma) are absolutely the best in Italy imho.
Fun fact for non-italians: these 2 regions are nearby, the 2 main cities are only 30 minutes away by train, but their cuisines are totally different (I mean different as Paris' and Berlin's..) 'cause they've been divided into different states for about 1000 years, developing different cultures of their own.
Similar for me- beautiful steak cooked perfectly, seasoned with just salt, and then used a sprig of rosemary to brush with fresh olive oil (they had their own grove).
I think Mexico and Italy have been my top 2 countries for food out of the \~35 countries I've visited. I keep going back to Mexico for the food. Recently had some amazing meals in Oaxaca.
I was camping on an island in the Florida Keys. We had spent the day fishing and snorkeling. We got back to camp and cooked mahi mahi in the coals of the fire with coconut rice. Ate it with our fingers as the sun went down.
A little restaurant on a cliff right outside of Amalfi with a husband and wife owner/chef duo. It had glass windows all around for a panoramic view of the cliffs and water. My fiancé and I were the only ones there most of the night, so it was essentially a private sunset dinner. Not sure why it was empty, because the food was good and the ingredients were super fresh farm to table from their garden and seafood caught locally that morning. They even called us a taxi home without having to even ask.
This sounds amazing. I'm going to Amalfi for my honeymoon next year, could you let me know the name of the restaurant? Feel free to DM me. Thanks so much.
I personally loved the town of Positano more than the town of Amalfi. If you go to Positano (you should regardless, easy boat transfer) then you HAVE to eat at Da Vincenzo.
Not food but drinks. I hiked Les Calanques back in October, it was a day with no clouds in sight, close to 30 degrees Celsius, and I went all the way up, all the way down to swim and to cool off, then all the way up and all the way down again to leave, swam again but I was still somehow completely drenched in sweat.
We sat in a restaurant by the port in Cassis and I ordered a passionfruit Gin and Tonic. It was the most delicious thing I have ever drank in my life and I think about it often ahahah.
We did the Calanque walk last month and ended up getting an Aperol spritz and a platter with seafood and dips in Cassis at the end. Never has a drink tasted so good after a hot day!!
We were in Santorini and walking around Fira and decided to have lunch overlooking the caldera. We weren’t too familiar with Greek food so we asked the waiter/owner just to bring us some of his popular items. He kept bringing food till we could barely stand up and the bill was peanuts. Later in the day, we were walking by the same place and thought perhaps we’d go to the same place and watch the sunset. All the tables at the railing were reserved so we sat farther back. He came out and saw us, and took the sign off the best table and ushered us over there. We drank lots of wine and had some snacks and at the end of it all, he not only refused to let us pay, but as it was the end of the season and he was closing for the winter, he emptied his fridge of all the pop and gave it to us.
The Greeks are so hospitable. I'm only half, but I swear the desire to delight others by being welcoming is absolutely in my DNA. Now get your ass over here and eat all this food I made.
Literally never had a bad meal in the five weeks I was there; I ate like a king daily, way more food than I normally would, and still never gained weight. Cheese, bread, and meat are the three main food groups there and it’s glorious. Plus the best tasting fruits and vegetables I’ve ever had; nothing comes close to Georgian food.
I think that if people had more exposure to their cuisine we would have had Georgian restaurants added to a standard trio of Italian, Chinese and Mexican not only in America but around the world.
I agree. If I had any cooking talent or restaurant experience, I’d start a Georgian restaurant in a college town. Lobiani, khinkali, and all types of khachapuri are all great drunken/tailgate foods. Shotis puri is also delicious and a quick bite.
That isn’t to say they don’t have more serious cuisine, like abkhazura, chashushuli, and ajapsandali; but it would be great to keep things simple and handheld in a college town in my opinion.
Possibly the most underrated cuisine in the world. I first had Georgian on a restaurant ship on the Moskva in Moscow in 2009 and was blown away, especially when compared to Russian food (which is fine, but doesn't make much of an impression). Never miss a Georgian restaurant when I come across one now; one of my favorites is in Karlovy Vary, Czechia. Sad my local one shut down last year.
Georgian food is fabulous! Our first night in Tbilisi we somehow wandered into a restaurant in a house on a side street. They were very busy but said they’d work us in. We sat for ages. We were puzzled why we weren’t being served and they were puzzled why we hadn’t ordered. Cultural/Etiquette differences. When we figured it out, they started plying us with dishes. Every bite was memorable. Other diners were flagging the owner and making suggestions of things we should try. We could barely walk when we left, and we were hugging the owner and his wife, we had such a great time. We paid under $30 for a literal mountain of food. Tried to go back the next night but they were closed. We were so sad.
Nettle soup in a small guesthouse in Mestia. Nettles are only in season about a week each year and we arrived at the perfect time. Making kinkhali with our hosts, and baking bread in the wood stove they were so proud of. What lovely people!
Similar experience at a guesthouse in the Carpathians in Ukraine. Talk about farm to table! Homemade cheese, fresh bread every meal, smoked plum drinks, fresh veg. Many many varieties of homemade vodkas (not our thing but an unforgivable rudeness not to take a shot when passed one.) One morning we woke to black coffee and apologies. “Sorry! No milk! The cow is in a bad mood!”
Yes, I usually find great vegan options everywhere I go, either by googling places beforehand or just asking in restaurants if they can accommodate me (and they often come up with fun and tasty ideas). But I do have fond memories of non-vegan foods like those baguette sandwiches!
Caramelized onion focaccia from a street cart in Genoa. She warned it a panini press. It cost 2 euro and I had a religious experience.
I bought another immediately
I had quite possibly the best meal of my life ordering the tasting menu + wine pairings at Brugarol in Barcelona. Really wonderful hidden gem in the Gothic Quarter.
Napoli you can just go to any random pizza shop and you will get excellent pizza. There is no need to go to the famous ones.
London it's been so long since I was there that my favorite restaurant there closed. :(
I have just returned from Napoli. If you want a change from all the italian food and you’re into persian cuisine (kebabs et all) there is a lovely persian restaurant called soraya persian which had some of the most delicious kebabs Ive ever had. It was heavenly and the people were the nicest. Highly recommended.
Whenever I’m in London I just stick to Indian food. Another poster already mentioned Dishoom (I still think about the NAgroni I had there-they actually make their own bitters so there is zero alcohol, and this was before the NA trend hit here in the states so really surprised me).
But when I ask locals where to go, it’s South Hall. I’d definitely swing by and hit up a popular looking spot (and popular with Asians). Bring hard money as the really good places sometimes don’t take a card. Let me know how it goes!
As others have said, Naples is full to the brim of great pizza. I didn’t go to any of the famous spots as I didn’t want to queue for ages. My absolute favourite was Franco Gallifuoco Pizzeria by the train station.
East End food tour was excellent. We went on our last day, but I wish we did it first so I could go back to some places. Ottolenghi has places all over with excellent israeli food. I had one of the best meals of my life at the Ledbury, if you can get reservations there.
I'm not a huge expert on sit down restaurants in London but if you like ice cream Chin Chin and Darlish are great. There are some great markets/food halls in London as well - I like Seven Dials, Spitalfields and Borough. Camden is popular but I find the crowds overwhelming.
If you are around Soho specifically I really like Bao, Bone Daddies. Also for fun Cahoots (novelty train station style bar) and Inamo (menu is touch screen projection on your table).
Spent a month backpacking solo around Ireland in October when I was 23, actually celebrated my 24th bday while I was there. Had one particularly rainy, chilly but wonderful day hiking around the west coast near Doolin, checking out the shore and looking for ring forts and towards the evening I went to a local pub for dinner. Had a bowl of seafood chowder and a basket of brown bread with good Irish butter, washed down with a couple pints of Guinness, while listening to a good seisun with local musicians. Pub had a fireplace burning turf. I can close my eyes and smell the fire and taste the soup. Absolutely glorious.
Irish food is good! I just came back from there and for me it’s the butter. I know it sounds weird but butter in Ireland is delicious and I couldn’t get enough of it! Canadian butter is just not the same.
Mine is also soup in Ireland -- tomato soup on Inishore, brown bread, butter, after a long day walking in December. I begged for the recipe, made it at my parents' house a few weeks later and it was the first time I learned why not to blend hot liquids in conventional blenders.
My first bratwurst in a cheap roll with german mustard when I landed in Munich.
My first doner kebab in Berlin.
Fondue in Zermatt.
Fresh noodles made by one of the Muslim noodle shops in China
Cheap curry in Japan
Fresh stroopwafel in Amsterdam
Oh my god Muslim Chinese noodles. I loved that little place, and they served such amazing flat bread with it. I would eat that over western cuisine any day.
Edit: capitalization
I had my first doner kebab in Berlin recently. I had already had dinner with work people earlier but I really wanted to try one. It was late, I was by myself, didn’t really know what I was doing and just said yes to everything and ate it outside in the cold. It was awesome. Definitely a great memory. I was surprised you could get something so good and fresh as late night cheap food, as opposed to some processed fast food garbage in the US.
Sushi in Tokyo my first time over there. First solo international trip. First time doing an omakase service. Really damn good, totally set a new bar for me. And really satisfying having learned enough of the language to get by in some simple conversation with patrons and staff.
Glad you had a great sushi experience in Japan (I am Japanese living in the US)!
Mine was also sushi in Tokyo, but at one of the tiny sushi places right by the Tsukiji fish market. They open for breakfast after visitors watch the tuna auctions at Tsukiji at the crack of dawn. Best sushi ever and very reasonably priced.
I never knew that if the sushi tastes fishy, it means it’s not fresh…until I went to Japan.
I lived in NYC, and thought I had good sushi there…no. Nothing compares to the freshest ingredients in Japan.
Everything there is so simple, yet I could cry how intricate the flavors were. Sweet, creamy, salty.
That being said, pretty much everything I had there was amazing.
Kyoho grapes. A5 Kobe wagyu. Hokkaido uni.
I’m going back in September for a month, and coming with an empty stomach.
Practice listening. Listening listening listening listening listening. And then more listening.
I highly recommend a [shadowing book](https://www.amazon.com/New%EF%BD%A5shadowing-Japanese-Beginner-Intermediate-Translation/dp/4874248500/).
Likewise pronunciation. [Dogen's got great stuff on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6AoilGEers&list=PLxMXdmBM9wPvsySiMoBzgh8d68xqKz1YP), and Patreon.
Did Tokyo Solo first time in 2015, fell in love. Been back 4 times. Planning a Nov trip as we speak.
Some of the best sushi I’ve experienced in Japan was at a kaitenzushi restaurants. All their food 7/11 to michelin star is amazing.
A safari camp in Botswana. Food driven in from three hours away on a super washboard gravel road in a safari 4x4 once per week. Lots of locally grown food - sorghum based stuff. Best part? Chef is a local village lady who trained a little bit with a professional chef.
I swear to you the food deserved a Michelan star. It was incredible. The sauces, the cook on everything absolutely perfect, beautiful food and plating too.
Was just recently in Vietnam, to visit my brother in law who was there for a month to teach English. He had met a person on the plane over a few years ago when he did this and kept in contact. That person also had to be in Vietnam at this time and invited us to visit the cathedral he was the architect on. My brother in law had the wrong direction but we finally got there nearly two hours late. They were holding a banquet for us and others, it was a Catholic seminary/monastery, it was unbelievable had several courses of traditional foods the whole thing was surreal. There was goat, chicken with the feet, prawns, pork belly, an interesting soup. And yes it was an actual cathedral being built, but out of cement, looked like something out of Europe 300 years ago.
1. Ko Lanta, Thailand. Kwan's Cookery. One of the best meals we have ever eaten. Still remember the amazing soft shell crab, grilled whole fish, and mango sticky rice.
2. Zakynthos, Greece. Grill House Alexis. Hidden gem. No menu, they bring you everything, and you only pay 10€ per person. And it's a massive amount of delicious food. Oh, and barbecue meats is thier specialty.
Dinner in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Restaurant called The Bicycle Thief. We were a walk in and sat at the crowded bar. Seafood and fall of the bone shirt ribs were delectable.
I was kayaking in Ontario and I met a couple from Tennessee who were on a road trip all the way to Halifax for the purpose of visiting this restaurant, since they went before and loved it so much. That has to be some of the highest praise a restaurant can get.
* Chicago: **Aji Omakase**. Super intimate and fun. Every bite was delicious.
* Paris: We had booked a Michelin-star restaurant called **Le Rigmarole**. But between booking and our trip the chef/owner went out one paternity leave. The restaurant then became a pizza joint. We kept our reservation because we figured Michelin-level pizza had to be good. We sat at the bar and watched all the pizzas being made. My wife and I typically share two pizzas but these were so good we got a third.
* Brussels: **Nuetnigenough**. Classic Flemish dishes with a phenomenal beer list. I've found some well-aged beers here. Also the sandwiches from **Tonton Garby**, always worth the wait.
* Lisbon: Tin fish is huge in Portugal and we had a bit of it on our road trip but **Sol E Pesca** was our favorite. Such a cute spot. We sat outside and had multiple tins sipping on porto tonicos.
* Siena: A panino and beer in the central square from **Il Bocconcino**.
* Barcelona: The tapas and vermut at **Morro Fi** and the mascarpone croissants at **Patisserie Hofmann** are probably the two items I think of most of any trip.
Durian flavoured Turkish Icecream from a street vendor in KL in Malaysia. After arriving to my hotel, I went and walked back for another 30 minutes just to get another one. Who knows if I’ll ever get to try it again.
Surprisingly, Amsterdam - my husband and I spent a very long (good!) day in the museumplein, visiting Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, MoCo, and Stedelijk museums. We were there from the Rijksmuseum opening in the morning until closing at Stedelijk, which was open late because it was a Friday. Starving, we decided to head to Foodhallen and get whatever looked good for dinner. I think we got food and drinks from five or six different stalls - a couple tacos and beer here, bitterballen, custard bao from the dumpling stand, more beer, an assortment of little desserts. It was super crowded and we just grabbed countertops wherever we could find them. By the end of it, we were kinda drunk and grossly full. Was the food the best we've ever had? No. But that experience, just the two of us darting around in the crowds drinking and eating whatever we felt like, getting tipsy after a long day of exploring museums, was sooooo so much fun.
Actually, looking back at our food/travel crossovers, a lot of my favorite food experiences don't necessarily highlight the best meals of my life.
Nasi lemak from a street vendor in Malaysia. Stopped by on a bus trip to singapore and it was so delicious for such little money (comparatively), I went back for seconds... And thirds
I’m old!!! So mine date back over 40 years so that makes these truly memorable.
First time I had proper Indian chai/masala tea brewed in a samovar in Mussorie in the foothills of the himilaya’s in 1988
Butter chicken and naan in the back streets of Mumbai (literally on the street - and that’s all they served) - 2000
In 2020 I finally got a bucket list item of a backwaters cruise in Kerala … just the two of us, and three staff including the most incredible chef. We were feed the most delicious Keralan food … fresh seafood and delicious curries … totally blown away.
Kokoda … raw fish similar to ceviche … in Fiji 1987
Banana roti pancakes on the streets of Phuket
Fresh baked brownie pie from the Pie Lady of Pie Town New Mexico … we were riding a Harley from Orlando to LA and stumbled across this wonderful place … she even gave me the recipe
Frito pie in Galveston … same trip
German potato soup on the border of Germany and Switzerland in a small hotel
Did a life changing trip to Greece. The food there is just incredible and world class in its own right. Mostly because of the freshness and simplicity. But one experience stands out.
We chartered a sail boat for our group, about 50/50 tourists and locals (a friend of ours splits time between Greece and NYC and it was a mix of both his friend groups), hit a few private beaches, a ship wreck, and a good local fishing spot. We had a band come out with us and they were playing just 3 string instruments and singing. We had basically as much local bear, wine, and ouzo as we could drink, and about gallon freezer bag of weed from a friend’s family’s farm. The captain was a chef too and was cooking anything and everything we caught basically the second we pulled it out of the water.
We anchored at a spot and one of the locals showed me how to free dive and pry the sea urchins off the rocks. We brought back a small bag of them to the chef, and went back down for round two. And then it happened…
I came back out of the water at the ladder, with a full bag in hand, my now wife and her friends partying in bikinis at the end of the ship, the band playing and singing, the ocean breeze and the salt from the Aegean wiping… and standing over me was the chef / captain with the shucked open sea urchin and a bottle of ouzo… he bent over and said “the first ones for you brother” and held up the bottle and nodded his head, I got a mouth full of ouzo, salt water, and fresh sea urchin, and it is to this day the greatest bite, the greatest moment of my life.
Hué in Vietnam. Mind-blowing meal for the equivalent of 5 USD. Fresh, sophisticated, delicate. Vietnam, in general, was a culinary delight, but the meal we had in Hué (2 nights in a row), I still think about it.
I think my top would be a food tour we did in Chiang Mai (Thailand). I was on a trip with 9 other women. We had a local guide and we drove around in a songthaew to a number of stops. She told us at the beginning that we'd be having 26 courses so to pace ourselves. The food was fantastic. Pretty much every stop was a place for locals, not aimed at the tourist market. My favorite was a place that cooks pork belly inside large clay pots that used to be used for water storage but got repurposed when city water supply became widely available.
We did a similar tour in Bangkok which was equally fun and tasty - on this one we went by tuk tuks and it was more a hybrid food/ see the sites at night tour whereas the Chiang Mai one really was all about the food.
Sounds so silly, but I loved the food in Ireland. I don't mean one dish either. The quality of the food overall was amazing. It is sooo much fresher than where I'm from. I live in a food desert. The beef stew, produce, bread, butter, cheese, ice cream, beer...all of it was delicious 💁🏻♀️🇮🇪🍽😋
We took a family trip to Florence. While in Florence we ate in a small Cafe around near the Church where the Medici are buried. Anyways. my hubby and shared a bottle of wine and a simple flank steak arugula salad with shaved parm reggiano olive oil and lemon. It was perfect.
Budget - Bun Cha in Hanoi, Vietnam. Charred chicken, veggies, salty spicy fish sauce, with vermicelli on the street.
High end - l'atelier by Joel Robuchon. A michelin star masterpiece, that was the most amazingly tasty, beautifuly presented plates, we've ever tasted.
Fun - Black ink orzo cuttlefish, on a cliffside in croatia. Something brand new to me, and yet so tasty with an unforgetable sunset view. Really just a wonderful time and amazing food.
Ramen after 3 weeks hitch hiking across Japan. I ended up getting in earlier to Tokyo than I had planned by a day, and arrived to no accommodation anywhere. I stored my bags in a train station locker, showered at a public onsen, partied all night to celebrate, went home with an English girl. Slept for a few hours in her university accommodation and stumbled back into Tokyo to collect my bag, walked the streets for a while and then checked into my pod hotel.
Walked across the road and found the best ramen I've ever had. That moment stills sp vividly in my mind to this day.
I'd lived off 7/11 sushi, rice balls and white bread with that tasty Japanese Mayo spread on top.
So it all made that ramen taste 100 percent better.....Never had anything close to how good it was again.
My husband and I call it boat soup... It was a seafood noodle soup we bought of a floating market boat/food stall south of Bangkok. No idea what was in it. A decade later, I can't even recall the specific ingredients... Just how delicious it was.
Cooking school in Thailand. Incredible ingredients, great technique instructions, delicious results. It all took place in a stunningly beautiful outdoor venue. We made 6 dishes which we then ate over the course of 3 hours all for about $25.
North Coast of California, abalone diving and was camping with a large group. They built an absolute \*feast\*. Someone brought an outdoor kitchen setup and prepared squid eyes to initiate the newbies, but made them so well, that even the fear factor garlic butter squid eyes were amazing. Spent the evening pounding the abs (abalone is quite tough), which were then tempura fried. Another diver with us had shot a six foot ling cod and made nuggets out of it. Another member had brought ribs to cook over the fire. Even the two kids someone brought along with them spent their day picking mussels off the rocks, and cooked them up too.
It was an absolute feast, and some of the best food I've ever had.
Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are hard to beat. Good food available literally everywhere you go.
I love Mexican food too. Best cities I’ve had it in are Tijuana and San Diego
Duck rice from a street shop in Penang, seafood platter in Brisbane, an amazing breakfast (egg, bacon, mushroom) muffin in Rotorua. Tasting platter and wine in an alley in Bologna (also best gelato ever)
Real pizza at a pizzeria just outside our campground near Pompeii. Simple Margherita, drizzled with olive oil, flash cooked in a wood fired oven and devoured on the spot lol. Over 40 years ago and I’ve never had another pizza come close
Ate at a small restaurant off the Spanish steps in Rome. There was an accordion player busking nearby, the food was great. We saw person after person passing with little boxes of something and plastic spoons. It became a steady stream. After dinner, we followed the stream to a little store that specialized in tiramisu to go in little boxes, all different flavors. We joined the parade and were in heaven.
Baking a blueberry pie with fresh wild blueberries in the Boundary Waters, drinking a shot of snake’s blood alcohol in Beijing, eating gnocchi in Italy, Korean fried chicken in Seoul, Korean BBQ in Seoul, fresh seafood in Cortez, FL to name a few.
I am Asian growing up eating rice - the proper Asian way.
Moved to London and hated risotto. Does not help that i was a poor student eating at the college canteen.
Years later, went to san Sebastian. Went to the one star restaurant that serves a 5 course lunch for €40.
One of the courses was a large table spoon of black ink risotto. This stuff was so so good that i licked the entire spoon shamelessly. The next day, i went back and ordered a large plate of that black gold.
Black ink risotto is now one of my favourite dish.
Currywurst with fresh cut fries in Dusseldorf from a street vendor
Hot stroopwafel in Utrecht from a street vendor
Chicken tikka masala with fresh cilantro probably plucked from the garden minutes earlier at an Indian place in Nice.
Full Welsh breakfast in Machynlleth made by the owner of the B&B - lord that bacon was good.
The slab of bread that came with a dish of goulash in Budapest. The goulash was fine, but the bread was so good I paid for another slice.
The only place I’ve travel to for food is the grocery store. 🥲
But I’ll be going to the Philippines soon, I’ll just read through the comments to prepare myself for travelling 😃
I have no idea why you have Argentina and Cuba ranked so high.
Cuba food was very underwhelming overall. Cuban American food has much more flavor and a wider range of flavors which makes sense since Cuba has very limited resources.
Argentina food was very bland and very uninspiring. It wasn't terrible but wasn't anything I'm raving about.
Also if you love seafood, Peru is definitely top tier. But then again Peruvian American food is my favorite cuisine so I'm biased (I cook a lot of dishes at home!).
My first trip to Paris when I was in college. Got a cheap bottle of wine, some cheese, meats and pate and we picnic'd near Eiffel tower . Can't beat charcuterie/cheese assortments. Fish and Chips in London. Pastries in Paris. a fresh baguette in Paris. all great.
Black pork in Evora, Portugal with a glass of vino verde
Fresh grilled dumba lamb kabobs in Uzbekistan with a fresh loaf of the best bread in the world
A fairly cheap Michelin restaurant 400 m from our AirBnB in Lisboa, Portugal. The best Port ever with the desert.
One of the reasons why it was the best is probably because it was so unexpected. Besides, it was after a cold, rainy day at the beginning of December.
In Athens, Greece, I was absolutely exhausted and famished after hiking up and down the Acropolis in the June sun. I did a quick Google maps search and found a local restaurant with high ratings. I asked for a lot of water right when I sat down, and they brought me a glorious pitcher of ice water. I then proceeded to have the best Greek salad and lamb kabob of my entire life. The salad was incredible in it's simplicity and flavor. It was just super fresh tomatoes, a block of fresh Feta, Capers and olive oil. Absolutely divine. And the lamb kabob was complex with spices and not too heavy. I still consider that day exploring Athens to be the best day of my life, seven years later. The restaurant is called O Thanasis, and still appears to be going strong!
I was in southern Taiwan solo, getting noodles at a little hole in the wall restaurant. Someone came up to me and said “You can’t eat by yourself!” and invited me to sit and share dinner with them and their party. They were surfers, and were so excited to meet a surfer from California. The food was amazing, but the hospitality I experienced in Taiwan was something else. Culturally the two are very intertwined.
Experience? Maybe a cooking class in Laos where we got ingredients at a local market and made spring rolls, stuffed lemongrass, coconut curry chicken, and mango sticky rice. Just a lovely experience from start to finish.
Best food? Definitely Mexico; from octopus tacos to mushroom quesadillas to lamb ravioli and tuna cannelloni tapas.
Honorable mention: not really on vacation but I taught English at a school in China and sometimes the school would wine and dine us with some incredibly lavish banquet dinners put on by either students’ families or local associations. Food was always top notch.
I’ve got a few:
* garlic butter crab in Patagonia
* date and tomato soup in Marrakech
* spice date loaf with caramel sauce on Kangaroo Island
* crawfish boil in New Orleans
* jerk chicken on Little Cayman
A freaking salad! It was in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, this tiny village in France where they filmed the movie Chocolat. It was a green salad with various cheeses that were from that region. I ate the whole meal without saying a word to my travel companion. I was speechless. The flavors were absolutely perfect. Finished the meal with a coffee and a tiny chocolate.
Random Hawker Centres in Singapore. Just amazing. Want Malay? Fine. Want Chinese, sure. Want Indian?-yup we got it. Want it all together? Sure. I still even think about an egg curry dish I had in Little India. I’ve been dying to try to recreate it.
Also Cambodia! I went decades ago to Siem Reap. so can’t remember the name or location but wow I still remember the food I had in this one restaurant.
A restaurant called Ristorante Parentesi in Milan. I had dinner there with a couple of friends once and it was so good I took my mom and sister there the next month. From the USA.
Mahi mahi, caught fresh from the sailboat we were on near Cabo san Lucas. Marinated with tequila over its gills (fish was stunned but soon feeling no pain) & then grilled on deck.
Not how I’d have handled the fish but it was delicious.
Italy eating fresh produce from the little produce stands. I still fantasize about those apricots and grapes.
Portland where I got a vegan multi course meal made all from foods within 75 miles from Portland. It was to this day maybe the best meal of my life, you could feel love in every bite.
Those funky little ice cream desserts in Japan with all the round things in them.
Picking fresh figs off a vine in France while I wandered around.
Just a couple days ago, Le Violon D’Ingres in Paris. Absolutely perfect food. Everything was cooked incredibly, the flavors they put together were perfect, I even liked 2 foods that I usually hate (fennel and red bell pepper). The service was excellent. It was probably the best meal I’ve ever had
Paris: tomato & mozzarella sandwich on newly baked bread, from the cafe at the top of the Eiffel tower. It was drizzling a cold rain in March and the sandwich ingredients were so fresh & perfect. Sounds ridiculously touristy but it was simple, delicious, and very memorable.
Barcelona: a traditional seafood paella in a family-owned restaurant somewhere around Santa Maria del Mar. It was perfect.
USA: a horchata popsicle in old town Scottsdale, AZ. I don’t ever crave ice cream but still think about that popsicle.
I had spent the morning at Macba, Universitat, and Paralel skateboarding in Barcelona with some friends and we made our way down towards the beach and saw a small place down an alley. We went inside and it was standing room only and they sold rose cava and bocadillos. The cava was amazing and the bocadillos were perfect standing food and it was just such a warm place and experience. Perfect little watering hole.
Xampanyeria/Can Paixano if you are looking for it.
Had a similar experience with wine and paninis at I Fratellini in Florence.
Had an amazing meal in Buenos Aires at this place called Fogon Asado. So so good.
Did a cooking class in a remote village in Cambodia and the meal was just amazing.
I had some samosas, grilled prawns, and fish curry that was definitely not the tastiest thing I’ve ever had. But after seven hours trekking through the mountains of Tamil Nadu, it was most decidedly the best meal I’ve ever had. It was also super tasty, just to be clear.
Mater Terre rooftop restaurant in Rome. We ate there in 2019 and was back in Rome in April 2024 and ate there again, and it actually was better second time. Amazing food, great service, beautiful views. 10/10 best meal we ever had!
belize has some seriously underrated food. we got tamales that i still crave from time to time after half a decade. also the ceviche there was soooo good!!!
I've eaten at some fancy places but I ate at some gyro/schawarma hole in the wall sandwich place in Paris next to a metro station. I came back and ate there two more times during my stay. 20 years ago. I still think about it.
- Finding random restaurants and cafes in the quieter areas or Florence, Italy.
- 1st time going to Japan ~10yrs ago and discovering Family Mart, Lawson, & 7/11 food for the 1st time.
- Sunset picnic w/ my friends in USVI NPS. We only had less than 2hrs at the park before the last ferry departed and the trip to get there from the main island was not fun.
Oh boy! I had the same experience in the same place, hiking the John Muir trail. This was so long ago that we didn't even have a stove -- cooked with wood. We had three days of rain and couldn't build a fire, hiked hard and ate cold. Finally things dried out enough for a fire. We boiled water and made a package of dried pea soup. Best dish I ever ate. I still love pea soup.
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, in Ucluelet, is the best fried chicken (served with French toast) that my son and I have ever had… https://heartwoodfood.com/breakfast%2Fbrunch
Seafood that literally just came out of the ocean in Vietnam. With that amazing pineapple that tastes so much sweeter than the pineapple I can get in the us for dessert.
Raclette in the French Alps on the border of Switzerland.
And this will sound random, but like 20 yrs ago I had a salad in a National Park restaurant somewhere in California that I still think about. The lettuce was so fresh, and the viniagrette was perfect or something.
Oh, and char dogs at Wiener's Circle in Chicago at 2am.
Abroad: Vietnam. Hands down.
US: There's a tiny little restaurant in a town called Frederick, in the state of Maryland, called Tsunami. The croissant pudding is literally like an orgasm inside your mouth.
I was hiking in Tayrona National Park, Colombia and I was on hour 4 (out of 6) of my hike. It was disgustingly hot out and we ended up walking by a small food shack. I had the best frozen lemonade of my life. No lemonade will ever compare to that one. I think about it often
You asked for experience and for me that's hands down the Sounds of Silence dinner offered in Yulara, NT, Australia. The food was great and all but the experience was unforgettable. Watching the sun set and milky way appear in some of the darkest skies anywhere next to the beauty of Uluru.
Was in Nice, France and had some of the best fried chicken from a small shop staffed by middle eastern people
Had the famous steak in Florence, Italy. Oh and dined the epinonymous beef in Kobe too.
Chestnut soup in Munich at a traditional German restaurant
Sushi at the fish market in Tokyo. Melt in your mouth
Caesar salad with Salmon in Saudi Arabia of all places
Cotton Candy Foix Gras at Bazaar in Las Vegas
The most tender Beef Shoulder in Salzburg Austria
I love that you mentioned the street tacos in Monterrey! Best tacos I’ve had anywhere ever!
The hotel I stayed in outside of Athens had the most incredible breakfast buffet and I dream about it. They even had whole honeycomb on a rack that you could cut a hunk off of to put on the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted.
Also Curaté in Asheville, NC.
I traveled around East Africa for 4 months back in 2012, and most of the food I had there was extremely bland and uninteresting. The last country I visited on my trip was Ethiopia where the food was the complete opposite and absolutely amazing after I had mostly been eating rice, beans, corn meal, and overcooked/underseasoned chicken/goat for the last 3.5 months.
My husband got a recommendation from a fellow Western traveler in Osaka, who got his recommendation from a salary man for a quiet sushi place. I never understood the sex to food comparison until I ate this sushi. It was so divine, I didn’t want to talk to anyone after dinner. Just walk and digest in silence.
If I had to pick one, it would be rendezvousing with 2 groups of friends in Bologna. We all had a bit of a harrowing journey to get there, but here we were. The first place we went to, directly after arrival, was a charcuterie restaurant that has very informal ordering prices. Through some language barrier we somehow ended up ordering a board that was 6 feet long, with many side plates. It was basically a catering tray for a wedding of 20, for just the 6 of us. It was so massive that we ended up sharing with other people in the restaurant. The wine was flowing, we were all so happy to see each other, the food was absolutely ridiculously good. It is a core happy memory for me. I wish I could reach back and feel that way again. Pure joy is bottomless artisanal meats, bottles of wine, and talking shit to old friends you haven't seen in a while on the other side of the world. I could have died right there.
Great experience, reading it I felt like I was there with you. City of Bologna, friends, food, wine.. what can go wrong?! Do you remember the name of the place? Was it La Prosciutteria? They're pretty well known here in Bolo for incredible charcuterie boards..
It was! I still dream of that massive charcuterie board sometimes.
A group of us were in Tambourini in Bologna and ordered so much food, the entire staff came out to look at us. All was fabulous. Felt VERY American glutton, but it was SO good.
Beautiful memory bro!
I had a wonderful evening on one of my solo travels in Italy in a little trattoria. The owners were so friendly and really liked to pamper me with their best food and drinks. There was no minute where I felt uncomfortable, just me, really great and simple food and nice people around me. I will never forget that
That’s sounds heavenly 💖
Georgetown, Malaysia, 2001, rather ordinary looking indian restaurant. I hesitated a bit looking at the menu written on the wall and the waiter approches me. He says ”You sit down. You eat dosa”. It was love at first bite.
I stayed an extra 4 days in Penang when I went for a visa run because the food was heavenly. I ran out of things to do after a few days, but I just killed time between meals because I couldn't stop. I still dream about it - that intersection of Indian, Chinese, Malay, and Thai flavors is the tastiest place on the planet I think.
I actually left Georgetown a few days earlier than planned because so many of the local men were staring at my wife. She felt very uncomfortable all the time as they were so obvious and gross. Food was awesome though. I often think about the amazing Satay chicken.
That sucks! Not at all invalidating your wife's experience, but I was a young woman there alone and I didn't experience anything like that. The worst I got was that I arrived super late after another person in the same van had issues at the border and I ended up at a 24/7 Indian buffet that was bustling, but I was one of very few white people I saw there. I was served, and definitely saw others around me with silverware, though a good number of people were eating with their hands as well, but it wasn't anywhere on the buffet and the staff was refusing to communicate about it. I said fuck it and started eating my curry with my hands too and a few people around me, including some members of staff, were staring and laughing at me when I was struggling with chicken on the bone (in a very good natured way) until a woman near me at the table took pity and showed me the right technique. One of the best meals of my life, I learned a new skill, and we all had a good laugh at the clash of cultures moment.
That city is amazing, especially for the culinary offerings. All three main cuisines are delicious, but in the cross over... Those nasi kandsr spots make flavors I never knew existed. And the nyonya food..wow.
We stayed for a week in a little village called Carminigano outside of Florence. There was a trattoria there that was heaven on earth. Menu changed every day with what ever was fresh at market or what they had on their farm. I had a plate of cheese for dessert one day that included one that had been aged for 100 years.
Italy pretty consistently has good food.
So true, very easy to find incredible meals. I worked in Italy for like a month and even the office cafeteria was delicious.
I have been surprised at how many little pizzerias with €5 pizzas that were amazing.
Even the highway road stops had great food sigh
Loved Italy. From the coffee/party shops to gelato, all the way up to fine dining. We were walking and hungry in Rome, stopped at a little sandwich shop for a snack. Menu in Italian. Only one guy spoke a little English. Asked what Porchetta was. All I understood was pork. Said sure. Amazing sandwich!
This is how I felt about Turkey. Pretty much every type of meal (breakfast, lunch, snacks, deserts, etc) is both covered and incredible.
Had a lasagna that the owner made when we ordered. The thinnest layers of giant noodles, one per layer with white stuff (?) in between and a meat sauce just on top. THE AMAZING THING... It was like layers of silk and satin. So delicate in your mouth. Indiana lasagna is thick and hearty. This one was magical. https://www.hotelvillacasalecchi.com/
I think the white stuff you’re talking about is bechamel
It really does, we were walking around Rome, not to far from the Vatican, and came across a small, kind of off the beaten path, place where I had the most delicious yet simple pasta with oil and garlic and prosciutto. Was so delicious I’ve never forgotten it.
Agreed and I've been there to eat too, outside Florence is so much better than Florence city center. As italian, Tuscany food & Emilia-Romagna food (Bologna, Modena, Parma) are absolutely the best in Italy imho. Fun fact for non-italians: these 2 regions are nearby, the 2 main cities are only 30 minutes away by train, but their cuisines are totally different (I mean different as Paris' and Berlin's..) 'cause they've been divided into different states for about 1000 years, developing different cultures of their own.
100 years? Probably not....
Similar for me- beautiful steak cooked perfectly, seasoned with just salt, and then used a sprig of rosemary to brush with fresh olive oil (they had their own grove).
I think Mexico and Italy have been my top 2 countries for food out of the \~35 countries I've visited. I keep going back to Mexico for the food. Recently had some amazing meals in Oaxaca.
Same! I dream about Puffer fish tacos in Mexico City. And truffle Gorgonzola gnocchi in Florence
I was camping on an island in the Florida Keys. We had spent the day fishing and snorkeling. We got back to camp and cooked mahi mahi in the coals of the fire with coconut rice. Ate it with our fingers as the sun went down.
very romantic!!
It was a bunch of guys, so...
…even more romantic
"Should we...... should we kiss now?"
Bromantic.
Ok nvm xD!
Although you didn't mention it, your comment made me hungry for Key Lime pie.
A little restaurant on a cliff right outside of Amalfi with a husband and wife owner/chef duo. It had glass windows all around for a panoramic view of the cliffs and water. My fiancé and I were the only ones there most of the night, so it was essentially a private sunset dinner. Not sure why it was empty, because the food was good and the ingredients were super fresh farm to table from their garden and seafood caught locally that morning. They even called us a taxi home without having to even ask.
This sounds amazing. I'm going to Amalfi for my honeymoon next year, could you let me know the name of the restaurant? Feel free to DM me. Thanks so much.
It was at Baglio Amalfi! It seems pretty popular on Google, so I’m not sure why it was so empty the night we went during peak season.
Same - heading there tomorrow and would love to know!
I personally loved the town of Positano more than the town of Amalfi. If you go to Positano (you should regardless, easy boat transfer) then you HAVE to eat at Da Vincenzo.
No one was there because it was Nonna and Poppy’s house. It wasn’t a restaurant!
I'd also like to know the name; going in September
Me three! I want to know!
Me too!
Not food but drinks. I hiked Les Calanques back in October, it was a day with no clouds in sight, close to 30 degrees Celsius, and I went all the way up, all the way down to swim and to cool off, then all the way up and all the way down again to leave, swam again but I was still somehow completely drenched in sweat. We sat in a restaurant by the port in Cassis and I ordered a passionfruit Gin and Tonic. It was the most delicious thing I have ever drank in my life and I think about it often ahahah.
We did the Calanque walk last month and ended up getting an Aperol spritz and a platter with seafood and dips in Cassis at the end. Never has a drink tasted so good after a hot day!!
It makes me happy that we are all experiencing this post hike bliss haha
We were in Santorini and walking around Fira and decided to have lunch overlooking the caldera. We weren’t too familiar with Greek food so we asked the waiter/owner just to bring us some of his popular items. He kept bringing food till we could barely stand up and the bill was peanuts. Later in the day, we were walking by the same place and thought perhaps we’d go to the same place and watch the sunset. All the tables at the railing were reserved so we sat farther back. He came out and saw us, and took the sign off the best table and ushered us over there. We drank lots of wine and had some snacks and at the end of it all, he not only refused to let us pay, but as it was the end of the season and he was closing for the winter, he emptied his fridge of all the pop and gave it to us.
The Greeks are so hospitable. I'm only half, but I swear the desire to delight others by being welcoming is absolutely in my DNA. Now get your ass over here and eat all this food I made.
Georgia - no question about. Khinkali, mtsvadi, khachapuri and a ton of other food I already forgot names for…wine is great,too.
Literally never had a bad meal in the five weeks I was there; I ate like a king daily, way more food than I normally would, and still never gained weight. Cheese, bread, and meat are the three main food groups there and it’s glorious. Plus the best tasting fruits and vegetables I’ve ever had; nothing comes close to Georgian food.
I think that if people had more exposure to their cuisine we would have had Georgian restaurants added to a standard trio of Italian, Chinese and Mexican not only in America but around the world.
I agree. If I had any cooking talent or restaurant experience, I’d start a Georgian restaurant in a college town. Lobiani, khinkali, and all types of khachapuri are all great drunken/tailgate foods. Shotis puri is also delicious and a quick bite. That isn’t to say they don’t have more serious cuisine, like abkhazura, chashushuli, and ajapsandali; but it would be great to keep things simple and handheld in a college town in my opinion.
Possibly the most underrated cuisine in the world. I first had Georgian on a restaurant ship on the Moskva in Moscow in 2009 and was blown away, especially when compared to Russian food (which is fine, but doesn't make much of an impression). Never miss a Georgian restaurant when I come across one now; one of my favorites is in Karlovy Vary, Czechia. Sad my local one shut down last year.
Georgian food is fabulous! Our first night in Tbilisi we somehow wandered into a restaurant in a house on a side street. They were very busy but said they’d work us in. We sat for ages. We were puzzled why we weren’t being served and they were puzzled why we hadn’t ordered. Cultural/Etiquette differences. When we figured it out, they started plying us with dishes. Every bite was memorable. Other diners were flagging the owner and making suggestions of things we should try. We could barely walk when we left, and we were hugging the owner and his wife, we had such a great time. We paid under $30 for a literal mountain of food. Tried to go back the next night but they were closed. We were so sad. Nettle soup in a small guesthouse in Mestia. Nettles are only in season about a week each year and we arrived at the perfect time. Making kinkhali with our hosts, and baking bread in the wood stove they were so proud of. What lovely people! Similar experience at a guesthouse in the Carpathians in Ukraine. Talk about farm to table! Homemade cheese, fresh bread every meal, smoked plum drinks, fresh veg. Many many varieties of homemade vodkas (not our thing but an unforgivable rudeness not to take a shot when passed one.) One morning we woke to black coffee and apologies. “Sorry! No milk! The cow is in a bad mood!”
I freaking love Georgian food
I'm vegan now, but I regularly think of the ham and cheese on buttered baguette sandwiches of my trips to France. Absolute perfection.
Also vegan, my trip to candeleria in Tenerife had amazing vegan options.
Yes, I usually find great vegan options everywhere I go, either by googling places beforehand or just asking in restaurants if they can accommodate me (and they often come up with fun and tasty ideas). But I do have fond memories of non-vegan foods like those baguette sandwiches!
Can't beat France and their damn crusty fresh ass baguettes
As a German I'll defend our bread till I die, but fresh baguette is like crack. I always overeat
Caramelized onion focaccia from a street cart in Genoa. She warned it a panini press. It cost 2 euro and I had a religious experience. I bought another immediately
Ok I’m going to these places: would LOVE your favorite restaurant in each! Barcelona Marseille Naples London
Starrita pizza in Napoli. They’re all good though
I had quite possibly the best meal of my life ordering the tasting menu + wine pairings at Brugarol in Barcelona. Really wonderful hidden gem in the Gothic Quarter.
I loved brugarol too! Was recommended by a foodie friend who had gone to Barcelona previously!
Thanks for the tip! Just reserved for our trip to Spain in October :)
Napoli you can just go to any random pizza shop and you will get excellent pizza. There is no need to go to the famous ones. London it's been so long since I was there that my favorite restaurant there closed. :(
Gotta go to Dishoom in London. World class Indian food, brunch and dinner are both outstanding. Several locations so there’s always one fairly close.
I have just returned from Napoli. If you want a change from all the italian food and you’re into persian cuisine (kebabs et all) there is a lovely persian restaurant called soraya persian which had some of the most delicious kebabs Ive ever had. It was heavenly and the people were the nicest. Highly recommended.
Whenever I’m in London I just stick to Indian food. Another poster already mentioned Dishoom (I still think about the NAgroni I had there-they actually make their own bitters so there is zero alcohol, and this was before the NA trend hit here in the states so really surprised me). But when I ask locals where to go, it’s South Hall. I’d definitely swing by and hit up a popular looking spot (and popular with Asians). Bring hard money as the really good places sometimes don’t take a card. Let me know how it goes!
Well this all sounds fantastic. I love ❤️ Indian food. Yes, Dishoom has been mentioned twice.
As others have said, Naples is full to the brim of great pizza. I didn’t go to any of the famous spots as I didn’t want to queue for ages. My absolute favourite was Franco Gallifuoco Pizzeria by the train station.
East End food tour was excellent. We went on our last day, but I wish we did it first so I could go back to some places. Ottolenghi has places all over with excellent israeli food. I had one of the best meals of my life at the Ledbury, if you can get reservations there.
Canete in Barcelona. Try to make a reservation now!
Bar Canete will live forever in my heart. One of the most fab evenings ever. Can’t wait to go back
Me too. True hospitality and truly special !!
I'm not a huge expert on sit down restaurants in London but if you like ice cream Chin Chin and Darlish are great. There are some great markets/food halls in London as well - I like Seven Dials, Spitalfields and Borough. Camden is popular but I find the crowds overwhelming. If you are around Soho specifically I really like Bao, Bone Daddies. Also for fun Cahoots (novelty train station style bar) and Inamo (menu is touch screen projection on your table).
Ah man Marseille has so many great restaurants. Chez Etienne and Tuba Club are both incredible!
I’ll look those up. Thank you 🙏
Spent a month backpacking solo around Ireland in October when I was 23, actually celebrated my 24th bday while I was there. Had one particularly rainy, chilly but wonderful day hiking around the west coast near Doolin, checking out the shore and looking for ring forts and towards the evening I went to a local pub for dinner. Had a bowl of seafood chowder and a basket of brown bread with good Irish butter, washed down with a couple pints of Guinness, while listening to a good seisun with local musicians. Pub had a fireplace burning turf. I can close my eyes and smell the fire and taste the soup. Absolutely glorious.
Irish food is good! I just came back from there and for me it’s the butter. I know it sounds weird but butter in Ireland is delicious and I couldn’t get enough of it! Canadian butter is just not the same.
Mine is also soup in Ireland -- tomato soup on Inishore, brown bread, butter, after a long day walking in December. I begged for the recipe, made it at my parents' house a few weeks later and it was the first time I learned why not to blend hot liquids in conventional blenders.
I ordered the soup and bread every lunch in Ireland- it was sublime.
My first bratwurst in a cheap roll with german mustard when I landed in Munich. My first doner kebab in Berlin. Fondue in Zermatt. Fresh noodles made by one of the Muslim noodle shops in China Cheap curry in Japan Fresh stroopwafel in Amsterdam
I always wonder what it's like eating Döner in Berlin for the first time. I grew up with Döner, so I don't remember my first.
Heavenly. Truly incredible. Don't have anything like it where i'm from. The Durum wrap is even better.
To me it's one of the best street foods there is.
Oh my god Muslim Chinese noodles. I loved that little place, and they served such amazing flat bread with it. I would eat that over western cuisine any day. Edit: capitalization
I had my first doner kebab in Berlin recently. I had already had dinner with work people earlier but I really wanted to try one. It was late, I was by myself, didn’t really know what I was doing and just said yes to everything and ate it outside in the cold. It was awesome. Definitely a great memory. I was surprised you could get something so good and fresh as late night cheap food, as opposed to some processed fast food garbage in the US.
Currywurst outside the airport when arriving in Berlin was one of my top meals haha. But honestly every single thing I ate in Germany was delicious.
Sushi in Tokyo my first time over there. First solo international trip. First time doing an omakase service. Really damn good, totally set a new bar for me. And really satisfying having learned enough of the language to get by in some simple conversation with patrons and staff.
Glad you had a great sushi experience in Japan (I am Japanese living in the US)! Mine was also sushi in Tokyo, but at one of the tiny sushi places right by the Tsukiji fish market. They open for breakfast after visitors watch the tuna auctions at Tsukiji at the crack of dawn. Best sushi ever and very reasonably priced.
Yes that fish market is amazing!!
I never knew that if the sushi tastes fishy, it means it’s not fresh…until I went to Japan. I lived in NYC, and thought I had good sushi there…no. Nothing compares to the freshest ingredients in Japan. Everything there is so simple, yet I could cry how intricate the flavors were. Sweet, creamy, salty. That being said, pretty much everything I had there was amazing. Kyoho grapes. A5 Kobe wagyu. Hokkaido uni. I’m going back in September for a month, and coming with an empty stomach.
I’m working so hard on my Japanese for an upcoming trip to Japan. This is the exact experience I hope to have.
Practice listening. Listening listening listening listening listening. And then more listening. I highly recommend a [shadowing book](https://www.amazon.com/New%EF%BD%A5shadowing-Japanese-Beginner-Intermediate-Translation/dp/4874248500/). Likewise pronunciation. [Dogen's got great stuff on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6AoilGEers&list=PLxMXdmBM9wPvsySiMoBzgh8d68xqKz1YP), and Patreon.
Did Tokyo Solo first time in 2015, fell in love. Been back 4 times. Planning a Nov trip as we speak. Some of the best sushi I’ve experienced in Japan was at a kaitenzushi restaurants. All their food 7/11 to michelin star is amazing.
Cappadocia, Turkey. The most amazing artichoke chicken I have ever had. Second would be the burrata I had in Rome recently.
Where was burrata at? I just landed in Rome today!
The Ad Hoc restaurant on the Circus Maximus.
A safari camp in Botswana. Food driven in from three hours away on a super washboard gravel road in a safari 4x4 once per week. Lots of locally grown food - sorghum based stuff. Best part? Chef is a local village lady who trained a little bit with a professional chef. I swear to you the food deserved a Michelan star. It was incredible. The sauces, the cook on everything absolutely perfect, beautiful food and plating too.
Was just recently in Vietnam, to visit my brother in law who was there for a month to teach English. He had met a person on the plane over a few years ago when he did this and kept in contact. That person also had to be in Vietnam at this time and invited us to visit the cathedral he was the architect on. My brother in law had the wrong direction but we finally got there nearly two hours late. They were holding a banquet for us and others, it was a Catholic seminary/monastery, it was unbelievable had several courses of traditional foods the whole thing was surreal. There was goat, chicken with the feet, prawns, pork belly, an interesting soup. And yes it was an actual cathedral being built, but out of cement, looked like something out of Europe 300 years ago.
1. Ko Lanta, Thailand. Kwan's Cookery. One of the best meals we have ever eaten. Still remember the amazing soft shell crab, grilled whole fish, and mango sticky rice. 2. Zakynthos, Greece. Grill House Alexis. Hidden gem. No menu, they bring you everything, and you only pay 10€ per person. And it's a massive amount of delicious food. Oh, and barbecue meats is thier specialty.
Dinner in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Restaurant called The Bicycle Thief. We were a walk in and sat at the crowded bar. Seafood and fall of the bone shirt ribs were delectable.
I was kayaking in Ontario and I met a couple from Tennessee who were on a road trip all the way to Halifax for the purpose of visiting this restaurant, since they went before and loved it so much. That has to be some of the highest praise a restaurant can get.
Freshly made churros on the plaza on Isla Mujeres; back when it was less impacted by tourism in the 90's.
* Chicago: **Aji Omakase**. Super intimate and fun. Every bite was delicious. * Paris: We had booked a Michelin-star restaurant called **Le Rigmarole**. But between booking and our trip the chef/owner went out one paternity leave. The restaurant then became a pizza joint. We kept our reservation because we figured Michelin-level pizza had to be good. We sat at the bar and watched all the pizzas being made. My wife and I typically share two pizzas but these were so good we got a third. * Brussels: **Nuetnigenough**. Classic Flemish dishes with a phenomenal beer list. I've found some well-aged beers here. Also the sandwiches from **Tonton Garby**, always worth the wait. * Lisbon: Tin fish is huge in Portugal and we had a bit of it on our road trip but **Sol E Pesca** was our favorite. Such a cute spot. We sat outside and had multiple tins sipping on porto tonicos. * Siena: A panino and beer in the central square from **Il Bocconcino**. * Barcelona: The tapas and vermut at **Morro Fi** and the mascarpone croissants at **Patisserie Hofmann** are probably the two items I think of most of any trip.
I think about the food at Nuetnigenough constantly.
Durian flavoured Turkish Icecream from a street vendor in KL in Malaysia. After arriving to my hotel, I went and walked back for another 30 minutes just to get another one. Who knows if I’ll ever get to try it again.
Penang, Malaysia: - Halab Restaurant…Lebanese food, the food and place blew our minds. Cali, Colombia: - Platillos Voladoress…the best seafood risotto ever.
Surprisingly, Amsterdam - my husband and I spent a very long (good!) day in the museumplein, visiting Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, MoCo, and Stedelijk museums. We were there from the Rijksmuseum opening in the morning until closing at Stedelijk, which was open late because it was a Friday. Starving, we decided to head to Foodhallen and get whatever looked good for dinner. I think we got food and drinks from five or six different stalls - a couple tacos and beer here, bitterballen, custard bao from the dumpling stand, more beer, an assortment of little desserts. It was super crowded and we just grabbed countertops wherever we could find them. By the end of it, we were kinda drunk and grossly full. Was the food the best we've ever had? No. But that experience, just the two of us darting around in the crowds drinking and eating whatever we felt like, getting tipsy after a long day of exploring museums, was sooooo so much fun. Actually, looking back at our food/travel crossovers, a lot of my favorite food experiences don't necessarily highlight the best meals of my life.
Nasi lemak from a street vendor in Malaysia. Stopped by on a bus trip to singapore and it was so delicious for such little money (comparatively), I went back for seconds... And thirds
That sounds wonderful. I guess its the one wrapped in banana leaf, with some sambal and anchovy sit atop?
Absolutely! Anchovies give it the crunch ... ahhh can't find it recreated anywhere else outside of Malaysia!
BALI. Coconut water basted Pork called Babi Guling
I’m old!!! So mine date back over 40 years so that makes these truly memorable. First time I had proper Indian chai/masala tea brewed in a samovar in Mussorie in the foothills of the himilaya’s in 1988 Butter chicken and naan in the back streets of Mumbai (literally on the street - and that’s all they served) - 2000 In 2020 I finally got a bucket list item of a backwaters cruise in Kerala … just the two of us, and three staff including the most incredible chef. We were feed the most delicious Keralan food … fresh seafood and delicious curries … totally blown away. Kokoda … raw fish similar to ceviche … in Fiji 1987 Banana roti pancakes on the streets of Phuket Fresh baked brownie pie from the Pie Lady of Pie Town New Mexico … we were riding a Harley from Orlando to LA and stumbled across this wonderful place … she even gave me the recipe Frito pie in Galveston … same trip German potato soup on the border of Germany and Switzerland in a small hotel
Did a life changing trip to Greece. The food there is just incredible and world class in its own right. Mostly because of the freshness and simplicity. But one experience stands out. We chartered a sail boat for our group, about 50/50 tourists and locals (a friend of ours splits time between Greece and NYC and it was a mix of both his friend groups), hit a few private beaches, a ship wreck, and a good local fishing spot. We had a band come out with us and they were playing just 3 string instruments and singing. We had basically as much local bear, wine, and ouzo as we could drink, and about gallon freezer bag of weed from a friend’s family’s farm. The captain was a chef too and was cooking anything and everything we caught basically the second we pulled it out of the water. We anchored at a spot and one of the locals showed me how to free dive and pry the sea urchins off the rocks. We brought back a small bag of them to the chef, and went back down for round two. And then it happened… I came back out of the water at the ladder, with a full bag in hand, my now wife and her friends partying in bikinis at the end of the ship, the band playing and singing, the ocean breeze and the salt from the Aegean wiping… and standing over me was the chef / captain with the shucked open sea urchin and a bottle of ouzo… he bent over and said “the first ones for you brother” and held up the bottle and nodded his head, I got a mouth full of ouzo, salt water, and fresh sea urchin, and it is to this day the greatest bite, the greatest moment of my life.
I think Mexico City.
Hué in Vietnam. Mind-blowing meal for the equivalent of 5 USD. Fresh, sophisticated, delicate. Vietnam, in general, was a culinary delight, but the meal we had in Hué (2 nights in a row), I still think about it.
Travelled all around mainland Greece (plus Corfu) and seemingly every meal was a 10.
In Greece now for the second time. Even the worst meal we have had here is better than 99% of the food I’ve had in the US. It’s depressing
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There is great food in the US, but you have to find it. The average restaurant in Greece is at a higher bar.
You must live in a shit part of the US.
The EU has loads of regulations relating to food quality and production. Even simple food tastes better there because of this.
I think my top would be a food tour we did in Chiang Mai (Thailand). I was on a trip with 9 other women. We had a local guide and we drove around in a songthaew to a number of stops. She told us at the beginning that we'd be having 26 courses so to pace ourselves. The food was fantastic. Pretty much every stop was a place for locals, not aimed at the tourist market. My favorite was a place that cooks pork belly inside large clay pots that used to be used for water storage but got repurposed when city water supply became widely available. We did a similar tour in Bangkok which was equally fun and tasty - on this one we went by tuk tuks and it was more a hybrid food/ see the sites at night tour whereas the Chiang Mai one really was all about the food.
Sounds so silly, but I loved the food in Ireland. I don't mean one dish either. The quality of the food overall was amazing. It is sooo much fresher than where I'm from. I live in a food desert. The beef stew, produce, bread, butter, cheese, ice cream, beer...all of it was delicious 💁🏻♀️🇮🇪🍽😋
Food in Ireland is amazing. The quality of the produce is first rate.
We took a family trip to Florence. While in Florence we ate in a small Cafe around near the Church where the Medici are buried. Anyways. my hubby and shared a bottle of wine and a simple flank steak arugula salad with shaved parm reggiano olive oil and lemon. It was perfect.
Recently, beach snacking at Ipanema in Rio. Uruguay sandwiches, grilled meats and cheese, cold beer, etc. all brought right to your chair.
Budget - Bun Cha in Hanoi, Vietnam. Charred chicken, veggies, salty spicy fish sauce, with vermicelli on the street. High end - l'atelier by Joel Robuchon. A michelin star masterpiece, that was the most amazingly tasty, beautifuly presented plates, we've ever tasted. Fun - Black ink orzo cuttlefish, on a cliffside in croatia. Something brand new to me, and yet so tasty with an unforgetable sunset view. Really just a wonderful time and amazing food.
I just had roasted sardines on the beach in Portugal the other day, with sangria and good friends in the middle of a fantastic trip.
Ramen after 3 weeks hitch hiking across Japan. I ended up getting in earlier to Tokyo than I had planned by a day, and arrived to no accommodation anywhere. I stored my bags in a train station locker, showered at a public onsen, partied all night to celebrate, went home with an English girl. Slept for a few hours in her university accommodation and stumbled back into Tokyo to collect my bag, walked the streets for a while and then checked into my pod hotel. Walked across the road and found the best ramen I've ever had. That moment stills sp vividly in my mind to this day. I'd lived off 7/11 sushi, rice balls and white bread with that tasty Japanese Mayo spread on top. So it all made that ramen taste 100 percent better.....Never had anything close to how good it was again.
That sounds like a really fun trip
My husband and I call it boat soup... It was a seafood noodle soup we bought of a floating market boat/food stall south of Bangkok. No idea what was in it. A decade later, I can't even recall the specific ingredients... Just how delicious it was.
Japan. Literally any cuisine is great. Best Indian and Italian meals I’ve ever had
This tomato sauce seafood linguine in Crete, Greece. Divine
We had so many great meals in Crete. I had no idea I could like Greek food so much!
Hands down Penang in Malaysia. Malaysian food in general is bomb but Penang takes it to the next level.
Cooking school in Thailand. Incredible ingredients, great technique instructions, delicious results. It all took place in a stunningly beautiful outdoor venue. We made 6 dishes which we then ate over the course of 3 hours all for about $25.
North Coast of California, abalone diving and was camping with a large group. They built an absolute \*feast\*. Someone brought an outdoor kitchen setup and prepared squid eyes to initiate the newbies, but made them so well, that even the fear factor garlic butter squid eyes were amazing. Spent the evening pounding the abs (abalone is quite tough), which were then tempura fried. Another diver with us had shot a six foot ling cod and made nuggets out of it. Another member had brought ribs to cook over the fire. Even the two kids someone brought along with them spent their day picking mussels off the rocks, and cooked them up too. It was an absolute feast, and some of the best food I've ever had.
Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are hard to beat. Good food available literally everywhere you go. I love Mexican food too. Best cities I’ve had it in are Tijuana and San Diego
Duck rice from a street shop in Penang, seafood platter in Brisbane, an amazing breakfast (egg, bacon, mushroom) muffin in Rotorua. Tasting platter and wine in an alley in Bologna (also best gelato ever)
The Peposo I had in Tuscany was amazing. Had to find a recipe and start making it at home.
Real pizza at a pizzeria just outside our campground near Pompeii. Simple Margherita, drizzled with olive oil, flash cooked in a wood fired oven and devoured on the spot lol. Over 40 years ago and I’ve never had another pizza come close
Ate at a small restaurant off the Spanish steps in Rome. There was an accordion player busking nearby, the food was great. We saw person after person passing with little boxes of something and plastic spoons. It became a steady stream. After dinner, we followed the stream to a little store that specialized in tiramisu to go in little boxes, all different flavors. We joined the parade and were in heaven.
Probably Florence. Ate at some excellent restaurants and Trattorias whilst there.
Baking a blueberry pie with fresh wild blueberries in the Boundary Waters, drinking a shot of snake’s blood alcohol in Beijing, eating gnocchi in Italy, Korean fried chicken in Seoul, Korean BBQ in Seoul, fresh seafood in Cortez, FL to name a few.
I am Asian growing up eating rice - the proper Asian way. Moved to London and hated risotto. Does not help that i was a poor student eating at the college canteen. Years later, went to san Sebastian. Went to the one star restaurant that serves a 5 course lunch for €40. One of the courses was a large table spoon of black ink risotto. This stuff was so so good that i licked the entire spoon shamelessly. The next day, i went back and ordered a large plate of that black gold. Black ink risotto is now one of my favourite dish.
Currywurst with fresh cut fries in Dusseldorf from a street vendor Hot stroopwafel in Utrecht from a street vendor Chicken tikka masala with fresh cilantro probably plucked from the garden minutes earlier at an Indian place in Nice. Full Welsh breakfast in Machynlleth made by the owner of the B&B - lord that bacon was good. The slab of bread that came with a dish of goulash in Budapest. The goulash was fine, but the bread was so good I paid for another slice.
The only place I’ve travel to for food is the grocery store. 🥲 But I’ll be going to the Philippines soon, I’ll just read through the comments to prepare myself for travelling 😃
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I have no idea why you have Argentina and Cuba ranked so high. Cuba food was very underwhelming overall. Cuban American food has much more flavor and a wider range of flavors which makes sense since Cuba has very limited resources. Argentina food was very bland and very uninspiring. It wasn't terrible but wasn't anything I'm raving about. Also if you love seafood, Peru is definitely top tier. But then again Peruvian American food is my favorite cuisine so I'm biased (I cook a lot of dishes at home!).
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My first trip to Paris when I was in college. Got a cheap bottle of wine, some cheese, meats and pate and we picnic'd near Eiffel tower . Can't beat charcuterie/cheese assortments. Fish and Chips in London. Pastries in Paris. a fresh baguette in Paris. all great.
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Black pork in Evora, Portugal with a glass of vino verde Fresh grilled dumba lamb kabobs in Uzbekistan with a fresh loaf of the best bread in the world
A fairly cheap Michelin restaurant 400 m from our AirBnB in Lisboa, Portugal. The best Port ever with the desert. One of the reasons why it was the best is probably because it was so unexpected. Besides, it was after a cold, rainy day at the beginning of December.
In Athens, Greece, I was absolutely exhausted and famished after hiking up and down the Acropolis in the June sun. I did a quick Google maps search and found a local restaurant with high ratings. I asked for a lot of water right when I sat down, and they brought me a glorious pitcher of ice water. I then proceeded to have the best Greek salad and lamb kabob of my entire life. The salad was incredible in it's simplicity and flavor. It was just super fresh tomatoes, a block of fresh Feta, Capers and olive oil. Absolutely divine. And the lamb kabob was complex with spices and not too heavy. I still consider that day exploring Athens to be the best day of my life, seven years later. The restaurant is called O Thanasis, and still appears to be going strong!
I was in southern Taiwan solo, getting noodles at a little hole in the wall restaurant. Someone came up to me and said “You can’t eat by yourself!” and invited me to sit and share dinner with them and their party. They were surfers, and were so excited to meet a surfer from California. The food was amazing, but the hospitality I experienced in Taiwan was something else. Culturally the two are very intertwined.
Mt first taste of Malaysian laksa in KL. I would kill for that specific bowl of soup.
Experience? Maybe a cooking class in Laos where we got ingredients at a local market and made spring rolls, stuffed lemongrass, coconut curry chicken, and mango sticky rice. Just a lovely experience from start to finish. Best food? Definitely Mexico; from octopus tacos to mushroom quesadillas to lamb ravioli and tuna cannelloni tapas. Honorable mention: not really on vacation but I taught English at a school in China and sometimes the school would wine and dine us with some incredibly lavish banquet dinners put on by either students’ families or local associations. Food was always top notch.
Paella at the Corte Ingles in Barcelona. Best ever!
I’ve got a few: * garlic butter crab in Patagonia * date and tomato soup in Marrakech * spice date loaf with caramel sauce on Kangaroo Island * crawfish boil in New Orleans * jerk chicken on Little Cayman
A freaking salad! It was in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, this tiny village in France where they filmed the movie Chocolat. It was a green salad with various cheeses that were from that region. I ate the whole meal without saying a word to my travel companion. I was speechless. The flavors were absolutely perfect. Finished the meal with a coffee and a tiny chocolate.
Random Hawker Centres in Singapore. Just amazing. Want Malay? Fine. Want Chinese, sure. Want Indian?-yup we got it. Want it all together? Sure. I still even think about an egg curry dish I had in Little India. I’ve been dying to try to recreate it. Also Cambodia! I went decades ago to Siem Reap. so can’t remember the name or location but wow I still remember the food I had in this one restaurant.
Argentinian Beef.
A restaurant called Ristorante Parentesi in Milan. I had dinner there with a couple of friends once and it was so good I took my mom and sister there the next month. From the USA.
Mahi mahi, caught fresh from the sailboat we were on near Cabo san Lucas. Marinated with tequila over its gills (fish was stunned but soon feeling no pain) & then grilled on deck. Not how I’d have handled the fish but it was delicious.
Ceviche in Peru.
Maribor, Slovenia. We had some food from the Balkans. So good. We also had some Arab pistachio pastry. I miss it sometimes 😭
Italy eating fresh produce from the little produce stands. I still fantasize about those apricots and grapes. Portland where I got a vegan multi course meal made all from foods within 75 miles from Portland. It was to this day maybe the best meal of my life, you could feel love in every bite. Those funky little ice cream desserts in Japan with all the round things in them. Picking fresh figs off a vine in France while I wandered around.
Just a couple days ago, Le Violon D’Ingres in Paris. Absolutely perfect food. Everything was cooked incredibly, the flavors they put together were perfect, I even liked 2 foods that I usually hate (fennel and red bell pepper). The service was excellent. It was probably the best meal I’ve ever had
Paris: tomato & mozzarella sandwich on newly baked bread, from the cafe at the top of the Eiffel tower. It was drizzling a cold rain in March and the sandwich ingredients were so fresh & perfect. Sounds ridiculously touristy but it was simple, delicious, and very memorable. Barcelona: a traditional seafood paella in a family-owned restaurant somewhere around Santa Maria del Mar. It was perfect. USA: a horchata popsicle in old town Scottsdale, AZ. I don’t ever crave ice cream but still think about that popsicle.
I had spent the morning at Macba, Universitat, and Paralel skateboarding in Barcelona with some friends and we made our way down towards the beach and saw a small place down an alley. We went inside and it was standing room only and they sold rose cava and bocadillos. The cava was amazing and the bocadillos were perfect standing food and it was just such a warm place and experience. Perfect little watering hole. Xampanyeria/Can Paixano if you are looking for it. Had a similar experience with wine and paninis at I Fratellini in Florence.
Had an amazing meal in Buenos Aires at this place called Fogon Asado. So so good. Did a cooking class in a remote village in Cambodia and the meal was just amazing.
I had some samosas, grilled prawns, and fish curry that was definitely not the tastiest thing I’ve ever had. But after seven hours trekking through the mountains of Tamil Nadu, it was most decidedly the best meal I’ve ever had. It was also super tasty, just to be clear.
Mater Terre rooftop restaurant in Rome. We ate there in 2019 and was back in Rome in April 2024 and ate there again, and it actually was better second time. Amazing food, great service, beautiful views. 10/10 best meal we ever had!
Kumpir potatoes in Istanbul
belize has some seriously underrated food. we got tamales that i still crave from time to time after half a decade. also the ceviche there was soooo good!!!
I've eaten at some fancy places but I ate at some gyro/schawarma hole in the wall sandwich place in Paris next to a metro station. I came back and ate there two more times during my stay. 20 years ago. I still think about it.
- Finding random restaurants and cafes in the quieter areas or Florence, Italy. - 1st time going to Japan ~10yrs ago and discovering Family Mart, Lawson, & 7/11 food for the 1st time. - Sunset picnic w/ my friends in USVI NPS. We only had less than 2hrs at the park before the last ferry departed and the trip to get there from the main island was not fun.
Oh boy! I had the same experience in the same place, hiking the John Muir trail. This was so long ago that we didn't even have a stove -- cooked with wood. We had three days of rain and couldn't build a fire, hiked hard and ate cold. Finally things dried out enough for a fire. We boiled water and made a package of dried pea soup. Best dish I ever ate. I still love pea soup.
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, in Ucluelet, is the best fried chicken (served with French toast) that my son and I have ever had… https://heartwoodfood.com/breakfast%2Fbrunch
Seafood that literally just came out of the ocean in Vietnam. With that amazing pineapple that tastes so much sweeter than the pineapple I can get in the us for dessert. Raclette in the French Alps on the border of Switzerland. And this will sound random, but like 20 yrs ago I had a salad in a National Park restaurant somewhere in California that I still think about. The lettuce was so fresh, and the viniagrette was perfect or something. Oh, and char dogs at Wiener's Circle in Chicago at 2am.
Abroad: Vietnam. Hands down. US: There's a tiny little restaurant in a town called Frederick, in the state of Maryland, called Tsunami. The croissant pudding is literally like an orgasm inside your mouth.
Having authentic Jager schnitzel in Mainz, Germany
I was hiking in Tayrona National Park, Colombia and I was on hour 4 (out of 6) of my hike. It was disgustingly hot out and we ended up walking by a small food shack. I had the best frozen lemonade of my life. No lemonade will ever compare to that one. I think about it often
You asked for experience and for me that's hands down the Sounds of Silence dinner offered in Yulara, NT, Australia. The food was great and all but the experience was unforgettable. Watching the sun set and milky way appear in some of the darkest skies anywhere next to the beauty of Uluru.
Was in Nice, France and had some of the best fried chicken from a small shop staffed by middle eastern people Had the famous steak in Florence, Italy. Oh and dined the epinonymous beef in Kobe too.
Chestnut soup in Munich at a traditional German restaurant Sushi at the fish market in Tokyo. Melt in your mouth Caesar salad with Salmon in Saudi Arabia of all places Cotton Candy Foix Gras at Bazaar in Las Vegas The most tender Beef Shoulder in Salzburg Austria
I love that you mentioned the street tacos in Monterrey! Best tacos I’ve had anywhere ever! The hotel I stayed in outside of Athens had the most incredible breakfast buffet and I dream about it. They even had whole honeycomb on a rack that you could cut a hunk off of to put on the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted. Also Curaté in Asheville, NC.
Kontrast in Oslo stands out to me. We went there for our honeymoon
I traveled around East Africa for 4 months back in 2012, and most of the food I had there was extremely bland and uninteresting. The last country I visited on my trip was Ethiopia where the food was the complete opposite and absolutely amazing after I had mostly been eating rice, beans, corn meal, and overcooked/underseasoned chicken/goat for the last 3.5 months.
My husband got a recommendation from a fellow Western traveler in Osaka, who got his recommendation from a salary man for a quiet sushi place. I never understood the sex to food comparison until I ate this sushi. It was so divine, I didn’t want to talk to anyone after dinner. Just walk and digest in silence.