Top 10 Cities to Visit for the Best Food
No city tour would be complete without visiting their local eateries, sampling the cuisines, gauging on delicious street food or tasting some of the finest beverages.
Cities to Visit for the Best Food
There are many cities across the world serving the finest culinary with perfection. Here I have rounded up the top 10 places serving your palette and satisfying your rumbling gut with the best food in the world!
1. Florence
Florence
Florence is one of the best food destinations located in Italy. It is widely visited for its landmarks like Michelangelo Hill, Palazzo Vecchio, Duomo, and the Cathedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. This historical city, which is also known as “cradle of the Renaissance” is a landmark for its producing the best olive oil in the world, and also the tastiest and most authentic Florentine-style dishes, including Piselli Alla Fiorentina (boiled green peas with bacon, garlic, and olive oil), Crespelle Alla Fiorentina, Fagiuolo (beans in tomato sauce with fragrant sage), Zuccotto, Gelato (ice-cream), Pana Cotta (desert) and street food – Trippa & Lampredotto (meat-based street food). Italians are known for their love for drinks in the world.
2. Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is one of the biggest tourist cities across the world. It’s the central point for travelers visiting its neighboring countries; Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Here you will find cheap street food and of exceptional quality that you’d forget to step inside an actual restaurant! The most popular dishes you will find here are stir-fries with rice or noodles, hot soups such as Tom Yum Goong, Thai curries like Pad Thai, specialty grilled meats, green papaya salads and also slightly more ‘exotic’ dishes like deep-fried locust and crickets, bird nest soup, silkworms, and giant water bugs.
3. Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is a pioneer in Paella. Notorious for their exquisite Catalonia cuisines and succulent Tapas; laced with the most amazing flavors and spices, it can turn the most boring of dishes into something so delicious in a Michelin-style restaurant. You can try here several Mediterranean delights. Some of them include Patatas Bravas (deep-fried potato cubes in spicy red pepper and tomato sauce), Bunyols De Bacalla (parsley and garlic cod fritters), Escalivada (roasted Mediterranean vegetables topped with anchovies) Pa Amb tomaquet (bread with tomato).
3. Tokyo
Tokyo
Japanese food culture has taken its roots into Western culture in the last few decades. You will find in every popular city an Asian infusion hiding on a street corner. If you happen to visit here, do not miss out on trying sushi rolls and miso soup! The Japanese cuisine has ingredients like Chankonabe (chicken and vegetable hot pot), Monjayaki (a type of runny pancake), Unagi (deep-fried eel), and Tsukudani (small pieces of food preserved in soy sauce and saki). Finally do not forget to wash down a glass of Saki (rice-based alcohol). If you’re here on a budget, you may also have actual food vending machine restaurants where you can get complete meals at the push of a button.
4. Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital of France known for the Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge, Le Louvre, Arc de Triomphe and Notre-Dame. Also, you’ll be served up with the dishes like Duck Confit (crispy pan-fried duck served with garlic potatoes), jambon-beurre (traditional Parisian sandwich), Rhum Baba (vanilla and rum cake) baguettes, cheeses, macarons croissants, and pain au chocolat. You will find snails and frog legs, and they are true connoisseurs of sweet and dry aromatic wines which can perfectly go well with any meal. But all these are very expensive – so you may also use the street vendors for a sweet or savory crepe, or some famous Parisian ham and eggs.
5. Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital city of Denmark with beautiful architecture and a huge range of museums. It has 15 of the finest Michelin star restaurants and also many high-end restaurants serving up conventional gourmet and Nordic street food. The most common dishes you will find are smørrebrød (traditional open sandwich), Pølsevogne (hotdog with bread and mashed roots), Fiskefrikadeller (Danish fishcakes), Koldskål (sweet, lemon-flavored dairy, sometimes served with biscuits). Here you will find myriads of perfectly cooked meats and at Christmas time you will find seasonal Danish treats and drinks such as grød (porridge), honninghjerte (Christmas honey heart), as well as Danish chocolate, jelly, cookies and dark lagers.
6. Singapore
Singapore
This is one of the most obsessed cities with cooking, and it has been considered as one of the best locations to visit in Asia when it comes down to, quality, variety, and price, in both restaurants and on the streets. You will find Laksa (curried noodles with meat or vegetables) which is one of their main delicacies, along with Hup Hong (silky chicken rice), Wanton Mee (Cantonese dumplings), Char Kway Teow (rice noodles with Chinese sausage, egg, and blood cockles), Orh Luak (oyster omelet), and Yong Tau Foo (stuffed bean curd). You will find crispy roasted meats like pork, duck, and chicken available in all restaurants. In deserts, you get a variety of sweet and savory desserts, like Durian Pengat (fruit cooked in coconut milk and sugar with syrup and croutons), Tang Yuan (black, sesame-stuffed rice balls with peanut), Pulut Hitam (coconut milk, pandan leaves and palm sugar with black rice), and Pandan Chiffon Cake (green, Chinese cake made with coconut milk.)
7. Mumbai
Mumbai
When it comes to Indian cuisine, Mumbai is the king, which is also the most populated city in India with approximately 12.4 million residents. This place is famous for its gourmet-style dishes like Vegetable Pulao, Batayache Kaap, Moong Dal Kichadi, Kamagra Kakri, to freshly-caught seafood including fish thali, tisrya masala, and bangda tikhale. You may also try out the cheap local fast food like Chaats which is outstandingly tasty. You can try out crispy snack items packed with meats and vegetables filled with yogurt, spices, onions, fruit, potatoes and much more. To curb a sweet tooth craving, kulfi, gulab jamuns, laddoo, and chirota are all perfect ways to end any Maharashtrian meal or eating experience!
8. Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is the neighbor of Canada and one of the ultimate places to have food of every flavor and taste that you can imagine. Starting from an old maple syrup with pancakes, you will find many Chinese and Japanese dishes including, Ramen, Dim Sum, and Sushi Rolls their famous Canadian-Japanese hotdogs. Although it was started in Quebec, Canadians are crazy about it. You will also get to have Poutine that consists of French fries topped with cheese curds, brown gravy, and any other toppings of your choice. Smoked salmon is also a great fad in Canada and can be found almost anywhere. You also get the taste of Bannock (griddled biscuit-type bread), and Nanaimo Bars (three-layer desserts with crumble-wafer bottoms, custard-flavor butter icing middle and a chocolate topping.
9. Cape Town
Cape Town
For many Cape Town can be a dream when it comes to a food destination. Especially a carnivore’s dream. You will find a variety of meats in the South African legislative capital. Some of these include Gatsby (deli-style sandwich stuffed with French fried, a variety of meats, cheese, and egg), Boerewors (thick, braised sausage), Biltong (salt-dried meat; beef, kudu. ostrich or rhino), Chakalaka (South-African curry made with chilies, cauliflower, green peppers, garlic, ginger, and onion with different meats. Pudding is also a popular dish of the Capetonians. Malva Pudding is a traditional dish which is sweet and spongy apricot pudding with jam and cream sauce.
Synopsis
It is no secret that you’ll be able to find the same types of different cuisines in any major city you plan to visit across the world. Many of these dishes you might be aware of and might have known it cooked and prepared completely differently in the places they originate from. The fact is, the above listed are some of the most popular and amazing food destinations all over the world if you are an avid foodie and want to travel across the world to satiate your palates.