The best food in the world - and where to eat it
21.07.2023 - 08:34
/ roughguides.com
Prepare for some serious stomach growls as we reveal 20 of our favourite foodie experiences around the world. These picks, taken from the pages of Make The Most Of Your Time On Earth , are some of the finest ways to truly eat authentic dishes in the countries that do them best. If you're looking for the best food in the world, look no further.
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Something like fish salad, ceviche is “cooked” in an acidic bath of lemon and lime juice and diced onion, tomato, coriander and ají pepper, leaving the fish soft, moist and cool. Peruvians are proud of their national dish, and its preparation is a familiar ritual. Though other countries have tried to claim it, peruanos know it’s as unique to their heritage as Machu Picchu and the Nazca lines. They’ve even mythologized it: leche de tigre, the bracingly sour “tiger’s milk” that remains after the fish has been devoured, is a potent aphrodisiac. When sampling ceviche, don’t forget the choclo (boiled, large-kernel corn cobs) and sweet yams, ceviche’s traditional accompaniments.
If you think barbecue is a sloppy pulled-pork sandwich or a platter of ribs drowned in a sticky, sweet sauce, a Texan will happily correct you. In the rolling hills around Austin – where pecan trees provide shade, pick-up trucks rule the road and the radio is devoted to Waylon, Willie and Merle – you’ll find barbecue as it should be: nothing but pure, succulent, unadulterated meat, smoked for hours over a low wood fire.
Thankfully, this austerity applies only to the substance – not the quantity – of the meat. Gut-busting excess is what makes barbecue truly American, after all, especially at places like the legendary Salt Lick, southwest of Austin near the town of Driftwood. The all-you-can-eat spread here includes heaps of beef brisket, pork ribs and sausage, all bearing the signature smoke-stained pink outer layer that signifies authentic barbecue. On the side, you get the traditional fixin’s: German-style coleslaw and potato salad, soupy pinto beans, sour pickles, plain old white bread and thick slices of onion.
Lebanese food is one of the great pleasures of travel in the Middle East, and the mainstay of this cuisine is meze.
The concept extends far back into history: the ancient Greeks and Persians both served small dishes of nuts and dried fruits with wine as an appetizer, a tradition which continued (with a non-alcoholic beverage) throughout the medieval Arab period.
Today, good restaurants might have thirty or forty choices of meze on the menu, ranging from simple dishes of herbs, olives and pickled vegetables, labneh (tart yoghurt), and dips such as hummus and baba ghanouj (aubergine), up to grander creations like kibbeh (the national dish of Lebanon, a mixture