Sandwiches in Palestine In an office in the heart of downtown Gaza City, it’s Thursday morning, the weekend is nearly here, and there is a plate of DIY breakfast sandwiches. I am in a co-working space and tech startup incubator that my husband oversees and where I occasionally vo … | Continue reading
Beer in Viareggio The place to be on Good Friday night in Viareggio, a small city on the Tuscan coast, is Birrificio degli Archi. Blocks back from the beach, it is the town’s only craft brewery. Blues band The Magic Bones is rocking the taproom, and a young and weird crowd spills … | Continue reading
Enchiladas in Mexico City Until an embarrassingly advanced age, I could not have told you what an enchilada was exactly. Thanks to the wildly popular local Tex-Mex take-out place down the street from my childhood home, I knew it as a shifty pile of meat and various ingredients, p … | Continue reading
TOUCHE, Taiwan— It’s late October but still balmy enough to have the car windows cracked open a good few inches, and the high-pitched song of the cicadas whirring madly in the dense brush comes drifting in on the breeze. There isn’t enough room in the car, so one of my cousins zi … | Continue reading
Pastis in Marseille On Wednesday evening, as I watched the debate between the two candidates for the French presidency, I felt a sense of déjà vu. I remembered feeling the same apprehension seven months ago in New York, pint in hand, when I sat down to watch Donald Trump and Hill … | Continue reading
Cava in Barcelona Many agree that Spain’s eating times take some getting used to. Breakfast at the break of dawn, lunch at 2:30 p.m. (or later), dinner at 10 p.m. (if you’re lucky). With some exceptions of course, these eating habits can baffle even the most seasoned travelers. T … | Continue reading
Coquitas in Capilla de Guadalupe We are driving around the quaint, cobblestoned streets of Capilla de Guadalupe, a tiny town in western Mexico. Around us, blue agave fields stretch out as far as I can see, and the sun is starting to dip behind the mountains. We both smile broadly … | Continue reading
Fish ball noodles in Johor Bahru “So Chris, you eat spicy?” my cousin Yu Ling asks my husband at 7 a.m., the minute he emerges from the guest room with his eyes still half-closed. “You eat fish balls?” Chris stands a while before nodding slowly. Now he’s finally awake. But he isn … | Continue reading
Negroni in Barcelona Of course I’d learned how to order a drink in both Catalan and Spanish, just in case. “Make me your best drink!” I shouted to the bartender over Beyoncé. I recognized the quizzical expression and tried again, this time louder, slower, and in Spanish. “I make … | Continue reading
Cemita Poblana in Puebla, Mexico We’d traveled to Puebla to partake of the mole poblano, and to gorge on freshly pressed corn tortillas filled with wondrous local goodies (huitlacoche, anyone?). We’d traveled to Puebla to try the chiles en nogada: stuffed poblano peppers bathed i … | Continue reading
Under the Counter in Grenada “Let’s take shots!” one of my hosts, Oddisa, said. We were at Patrick’s Local Homestyle, a well-known temple to Grenadian home cooking on the edge of the capital of St. George’s. Under multicolored neon lights, we were moaning and full after a 16-cour … | Continue reading
Jianbing in Flushing My eyes take in the food stalls as I walk though the dingy underground shopping mall. Dumplings, pork, and chives hugged in freshly kneaded dough bubble in a foamy pot. Tempting, but not what I’m looking for. Spicy wood ear mushrooms sprinkled with chili pepp … | Continue reading
Tsipouro in Sifnos Nothing says Sifnos better than a bottle of tsipouro a Greek anise -flavored liqueur similar to raki. I downed countless number of shots during a ten-day trip to this Cyclades island, and most of them make for great memories. My girlfriend Johanna and I had our … | Continue reading
Dal-pakwan in Mumbai It was a Sunday morning and I had to wake up at 7, but it was already 8:30 a.m. when I finally rubbed my eyes open. Like most weekend mornings, the many gin and tonics the night before were to blame. But I wasn’t planning to be up early on a Sunday […]The pos … | Continue reading
Bourbon in Belgrade Earlier this month, Serbian citizens went to the polls to elect their new president. Reigning prime minister Aleksandar Vucic was more than just a clear frontrunner: he was already the president-elect in all but name. The election itself was a mere formality, … | Continue reading
Paçe in Tirana Albania has a message for the world: after decades of war, dictatorship, and Ponzi schemes, we now have our shit together. This is especially the case when it comes to eating. Restaurants are open and full. Tirana has a lively, packed, and affordable selection of r … | Continue reading
Raspberry soda in Bombay “VS Naipaul once said that Bombay is a crowd…” I began to say, but G wasn’t listening to me. She was looking out of the taxi window to the sea and, farther away, to the Bombay skyline. It was the end of February and it was an unusually hot afternoon, and … | Continue reading
Sign up for R&K Insider, our collection of the most compelling happenings in food, politics, and travel from across the web. Happy Thursday, dear readers! Well, the James Beard Foundation announced their media awards on Tuesday. We were thrilled to learn that Roads & Kingdoms won … | Continue reading
Mexican-American food is a tradition that encompasses the dreams of Aztlán covered in delicious, yellow cheese. | Continue reading
Beer in Seoul The long, grassy square in front of Gwanghwamun gate was filled with people raising candles and waving signs. Some were sitting on the grass enjoying beer or soju and snacks. At the very front was a stage where rock and pop artists performed. “Alright, it’s a glorio … | Continue reading
Last night, The James Beard Foundation selected Roads & Kingdoms as their publication of the year. We simply could not be more honored and thrilled to be recognized by such a venerable organization. And now that we’ve got that adulting out of the way, holy shit, we won! We really … | Continue reading
Kvass in Riga Step this way, into the Fish Pavilion at the Riga Central Market in Latvia, where the stench of fish oil and smoked flesh fills the room to its vaulted ceilings and immediately manifests as a metallic tang in the back of my throat. Vendors in rubber aprons smack aro … | Continue reading
Fish broth in Barranquilla It’s Carnival in Barranquilla. There are marimondas, negritas Puloy, ITALgarabatos, monocucos, and many other traditional figures joyfully wandering in every street. There is dancing in all the ways the locals know: cumbia, mapalé, chandé, fandango, por … | Continue reading
Udupi cuisine’s democratizing journey from holy kitchens to Mumbai canteens. | Continue reading
Wine in Amman It is 5 p.m. in Amman, and I’m frantically dialing my bank in Pakistan to complain why a transfer hasn’t gone through. My Urdu seems accented and strange, as if I haven’t spent most of my life speaking the language. I rush out of the house. It’s a Thursday night, th … | Continue reading
Breakfast in Cyprus As the rosy-red flesh of tomatoes basked in the light streaming through the stone-and-timber window frame, I could sense Karen’s reluctance as she mentally prepared herself for that first bite. Less than 48 hours earlier we were in the U.K., slack jaws mechani … | Continue reading
TEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo— As the truncated rat cooks in the fire, its body slowly roasting over the smoldering logs, 30-odd diggers stand around in the sweltering midday sun. Some break boulders at the bottom of a 50-foot pit in a dry riverbed, trying to access the gra … | Continue reading
South Africa’s largely peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy in 1994 was feted as a “miracle,” yet 23 years later, we are not Nelson Mandela’s “rainbow children”: race and class tensions bubble on the surface, often popping angrily into the nation’s eye like blobs of fa … | Continue reading
Carnitas in Mexico City The Mercado de Medellín feels like an open-air market stuffed inside an aircraft hangar. Whole baby sharks sit on ice, arranged artfully among freshly caught shrimp and starfish. Stall shelves are covered with neatly arranged apples, watermelon, plantains, … | Continue reading
Ruda in Ljubljana On our final night in Slovenia, our hosts asked us if we would like to try some of their ruda. It came in a clear, unlabelled glass bottle, with sprigs of grass and slices of lime inside. It was the color of mint-flavored Listerine. They said they’d made it them … | Continue reading
Sign up for R&K Insider, our collection of the most compelling happenings in food, politics, and travel from across the web. Hello, dear readers! Perhaps you saw that there was some news out of Turkey this week. Our woman in Istanbul took a tour through four neighborhoods in Ista … | Continue reading
Through the cavernous lounge, where ladies with taut faces and tight Chanel jackets gossip over dainty sandwiches; past stiff-backed waiters, skirting around sherry-stupefied old men; and beyond the purplish Doric columns that flank the baroque lobby, Borja Martin Guridi stands b … | Continue reading
Biscuits and gravy in Portland Biscuits and gravy may be a bastion of Southern cuisine, but they have also been embraced in Portland, Oregon, the land of brunch lines and culinary trend-spotting. Everywhere from greasy dive bars like The Trap to Instagrammy critical-darling Tusk … | Continue reading
Beers in Berlin Berliners are moths to the light, unanimously drawn outside by the first rays of sun. Joining the congregation, I grab a beer from the Spätkauf, the term for the iconic convenience stores run by cheerful Turkish men that speckle Berlin’s street corners. In summer, … | Continue reading
Cake and cookies in Rome As kids in the 80s, my brother and I were bombarded, every Saturday morning during cartoons, by a plethora of advertisements for sugary cereals. An enormous-chested tiger told us we could ski Mont Blanc if we ate Frosted Flakes, a glue-huffing leprechaun … | Continue reading
Hierbas in Ibiza The DJs spinning Balearic beats along the coastline of Ibiza time their sets to play the sun down into the sea. Rhythm and blues vocals croon over the meditative bass drone of some remix or another, and the air perks up with the smell of licorice. I trace the waf … | Continue reading
Get ready to bake. It’s hot or humid in Lagos all year round. Not warm. Hot. Only from mid-December to January does the city cool off, when the Harmattan winds bring a plague of dust instead. When you arrive at the airport, have your sunglasses and hat ready. And skip the airport … | Continue reading
Crowdie in Edinburgh Crowdie: a rustic, Scottish, soft, cow’s milk cheese. How had I never heard of this before? Up until this point I had felt smug about my well-travelled palate. I’ve tried many weird and wonderful foods over my years of globetrotting: roast guinea pig (a bit l … | Continue reading
KBAL ROMEAS, Cambodia— Dam Samnang’s home will soon be submerged. But he isn’t budging. Samnang knows that his village, Kbal Romeas, which sits on the banks of the Srepok River, a tributary of the Mekong River in northwest Cambodia, is going to be inundated by water from a downst … | Continue reading
Chhang in Patan It was mid-afternoon, and we were gathered in one of the many nooks and crannies in the science laboratory where my boyfriend works, discussing what to do for Trevor’s goodbye. He’d been interning at the lab here in Kathmandu for several months now, and his flight … | Continue reading
Pancho Prieto makes his living collecting escamol—ant larvae—on the high plains of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. For the past twenty years, the 57-year-old has anxiously awaited the harvest season, when he can venture into the desert and pilfer eggs from ants’ nests. Sitt … | Continue reading