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For those of us used to seeing chicken cut into parts, wrapped in plastic, and cooling in supermarket refrigerators, a trip to a local Peruvian market is fascinating and a bit daunting. At the biggest market, San Pedro, just up the street from the Plaza de Armas, you’ll find fruits, vegetables, alpaca charqui (the Quechua source of our word jerky), pig’s heads, herbs, fruit juices, weavings, and much, much more. You’ll see a fair number of foreigners wandering here as well, so for an experience that feels more authentic, try San Blas Market or Rosaspata, both off the tourist track.

The Sugar Palm restaurant is the first Cambodian restaurant that many visitors to Siem Reap try, and it often becomes a favorite. The food is some of the most delicious, traditional, home-style Cambodian food in the country. It also happens to be served in a very traditional, Khmer teak-wood house, with high ceilings and wide verandahs—oozing atmosphere.


Everything on offer is scrumptious, from the amok trei or fish amok, to the hearty Cambodian chicken curry. If you’re not a fan of pungent and sour flavors but want to try one of Cambodia’s quintessential ingredients, prahok (fermented fish), then this is the restaurant to do it. The prahok k’tis (a minced pork dip made with prahok) is a fairly tame albeit still very tasty iteration of the dish. The owner-chef, Cambodian-New Zealander Kethana Dunnett, is often around if you have questions about the cuisine. Kethana is the go-to person for celebrity chefs -- from Gordon Ramsay to Luke Nguyen -- when they are in the country filming food programs, and she certainly knows her stuff.

When a place has not only the longest wooden bar in Texas (100+ feet) and is the oldest watering hole on the Riverwalk, you just know it’s worth a visit. But rather than rest on the above laurels, Esquire Tavern churns out some terrific and thoughtful scratch-made eats and drinks. From starters like pink peppercorn-flecked deviled eggs and mashed potato-filled tacos con papas to heartier fare like burgers, chicken mole and shepherd’s pie, the food takes comfort foods to the next level with fresh, well-sourced ingredients and modern executions. And as the icing on the culinary cake, the craft cocktail program here is award-winning and endlessly interesting. Plan for some enjoyable late nights at the Esquire on your next stop in SA.

This popular Mexican-food mainstay in the heart of San Francisco‘s Mission District is one of two places in the city that claim to have invented the Mission-style burrito (the other is El Faro): a hefty, elephant-leg-size wrap distinguished from other burritos by its size and the inclusion of rice and other ingredients. The restaurant was first opened as a meat market in 1967 by Mexican immigrants Raul and Michaela Duran, who are said to have served their first burrito in 1969 after noticing that local workers needed a substantial yet portable meal. The Mission Burrito was born, containing most of the food groups: protein, vegetables, dairy, and grains. The Durans converted their meat market into a full-time restaurant in 1972. Taqueria la Cumbre offers a full menu of Mexican food, all made fresh. The burritos are made assembly-line style. (Fun fact: When the Durans first came to San Francisco, they hired a high school kid to make flour tortillas before school. The kid, Jorge Santana, would go on to be a popular musician, like his brother Carlos.)

The Salt Cellar is perched at the top of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury with sweeping views across the Blackmore Vale. This very picturesque hill is really steep and has been used in films. This is a very popular cafe with locals and sits underneath the town clock in Shaftesbury.When visitors come to look at Gold Hill they often walk by without noticing the cafe. If only they turned around. There are benches outdoors and highly sought after window seats indoors with views to enjoy. And then the food. Delicious locally produced salads, sandwiches, daily specials and coffee and cakes. Worried about the calorific value of any of this food? Just walk up and down that hill a few times.

• Neighborhood: Sentosa Island
• Why we love it: A secluded off-mainland retreat with mahjong and feng shui lessons
• From $1,180

Refreshed in 2021 by Hong Kong designer André Fu, the 112-room Capella Singapore plays up its idyllic beachfront setting. The stylish, ultra-comfortable rooms have a palette of soothing sand, sage, and mineral gray and come with deep soaking tubs and window lounges that frame green jungle foliage.

Beyond the striking design, standout amenities include a three-tier infinity pool and an award-winning art collection (there are more than 900 pieces on-site). Also notable is the Capella’s Culturalist activity calendar, which offers lively mahjong lessons, farm-to-table cooking classes, and a sidecar tour with a feng shui master who explains how the ancient Chinese philosophy influenced the placement of Singapore’s iconic Marina Bay Sands and the mystical Merlion statue.

Just off the Ringstrasse, the Stadtpark gives visitors to Vienna a chance to marvel at the genius of Otto Wagner: The architect’s art nouveau U-Bahn metro station is a landmark there. With the little Wienfluss (Vienna River) running through it, the 28-acre, English-style, manicured Stadtpark was laid out in the middle 19th century and is perhaps the finest city park in this greenest of cities. For maintaining the historic fountains, ornamental plants, and decorative trees along its winding paths, the botanical specialists and gardening team deserve a tip of the hat. Fine statues of composers Franz Schubert and Anton Bruckner, as well as a gilded-bronze likeness of a violin-playing Johann Strauss II—who performed here—are famous. The café in the Italianate Kursalon Hübner concert hall is a good place for a break from sightseeing.

Myrtle Allen is Ireland’s answer to Alice Waters: The centenarian chef has lobbied the Irish parliament for better food policies, earned some Michelin stars, and, 50 years ago, opened a restaurant called the Yeats Room in the town of Shanagarry, an hour east of Cork City. She eventually added bedrooms upstairs and called it Ballymaloe House, and her sous-chef-turned-daughter-in-law, Darina Allen—who has written canonical Irish cookbooks and helped lead Ireland’s Slow Food movement—tacked on the Ballymaloe Cookery School and farm two miles from the main house.

This is thus the seat of Ireland’s food royalty, and it shows. The restaurant spins flavorful dinners out of whatever comes in from the farm or East Cork’s fishing boats, and the cookery school has become known the world over for teaching expert and novice chefs to make pizzas, ferment pickles, cook baby food, and grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Even without all that, the ivy-fronted house—and cabins and cottages on the farm’s grounds—make for a simple, pleasant country retreat.

“Dude” is a word that’s used a lot around Rancho Pescadero, a small hotel in the surfing town of Todos Santos, located in the Mexican state of Baja California. The rooms here, however, don’t reflect the dude aesthetic, which is to say they are clean and classy. Spacious suites offer comfortable spots to relax, with most having retractable glass doors that eliminate barriers between indoors and outdoors and open up onto terraces that have hammocks or lounge beds. Terra-cotta tile floors, rattan and wood furniture, and locally made accents—such as hand-embroidered throw pillows—are some of the decor elements found in rooms. Surfers won’t feel totally out of their element, though; world-famous breaks are less than 10 minutes away and staff can give pointers on the best spots to hang ten. Apart from surfing, the hotel encourages guests to spend a lot of time relaxing and immersing themselves in the laid-back Baja lifestyle.

This restaurant has a simple goal: capture the essence of hygge (Danish coziness) while serving up excellent smørrebrød variations to guests. Enjoy the artful presentation, simple ambiance, and rich flavors that have made this place one of Copenhagen‘s top smørrebrød restaurants. Photo: Restaurant Kronborg (Facebook)

Hugo Ball read the Dada Manifesto at this Altstadt cabaret in 1916, and an art movement was born. After extensive repairs, Dada’s birthplace reopened in 2004 with a bar along with exhibitions, readings, and a small lending library that pays homage to its historic past.

Donosti Librería is the bookstore that movies are made of. In the family for 40 years, the shop’s beautiful art nouveau façade hides a calming interior. Walls are stacked with books, handpicked by the owners, and the overall atmosphere is the perfect blend of peaceful and provocative.

In 2013, Jason Boso, the founder of the popular Twisted Root burger joints, felt the city was lacking a bar where he could feel equally comfortable taking his dad for a beer, hanging out with his buddies at night, and treating his wife to brunch—so he created one. Granted, this is no ordinary bar: Truck Yard draws inspiration from traditional beer gardens, old-school honky-tonks, and a treehouse Boso had as a child, all ringed by colorfully painted and graffiti-adorned trailers. Enjoy cocktails in the treehouse bar and craft beers in the outdoor seating areas as you wait for eats from the rotating collection of food trucks; depending on the schedule, you might find BBQ, Greek favorites, gourmet sliders, authentic tacos, and more, as well as the house signature Philly cheesesteak. The casual vibe and national praise mean there’s always a lively crowd.

Lime Cay, an uninhabited island about two miles off of Port Royal, is a favorite destination of Kingstonians for white-sand beaches, sunbathing, and swim time. This is an ideal deserted escape on weekdays, and weekends are usually only a bit busier and bring a few vendors. Don’t count on the vendors, though: Bring your own food, water, sunscreen, and snorkeling gear. Wear water shoes, as there can be urchins. To arrange a trip over, ask at your hotel, or inquire at the bar on Morgan’s Harbour called the Y-Knot—they’ll help you find a boat ride or fisherman willing to take you to the island for no more than US$20.

Much more than just a restaurant or smoothie stop, Choice Health Bar is a culinary fusion of food, lifestyle, and positivity. This small restaurant in the Lahaina industrial park serves fresh kale salads and heaping acai bowls. The place is a favorite hangout for island locals from surfers and paddlers to vegans. Just because it’s healthy, don’t think the food will taste like cardboard. Creative concoctions pepper a menu that is constantly being reinvented, and you’d never expect that a quinoa quiche could possibly taste so good. Locals also love Choice for the laid-back atmosphere and powerful, positive vibes. A sign on the door informs all patrons that this is officially a “bummer free zone,” and instead of simply “super-sizing” your meal, you can “make it epic” with ‘superfoods’ like kale and cacao. Consistently voted as the island’s top pick for healthy, vegan cuisine, Choice is the absolute best spot on the West Side for infusing your body with nutrients.