Mexico City

Mexico City Tries to Shake Off Its Salt Habit

Mexican dishes are known for their bold flavor combinations, from complex mole sauces that incorporate ingredients as diverse as chilies and dark chocolate to the multiple different food items and seasonings that go into an authentic pozole. But an equally key element in Mexican food culture is that most basic of flavorings: salt. From savory dishes to fruit and candy to alcoholic beverages, Mexicans have a taste for – and a habit of – pairing salt with almost everything.

Barcelona

Barcelona’s Restaurants Go Underground

At Culinary Backstreets, we are all about seeking out backstreets eating at venues serving authentic cuisine and frequented mainly by locals – an approach that usually leads both to delicious food and to prices that won’t break the bank. But how about underground dining, where even locals themselves aren’t always in on the secret?

Istanbul

The Simits Take Manhattan

Being big fans of simit – the sesame-encrusted bread ring that’s one of Turkey’s most popular street foods – we’ve looked on with delight over the last few years as the humble snack has made its way from Istanbul to the other metropolis with a 212 area code: Manhattan. First, longstanding Istanbul baklava maker Güllüoğlu opened a branch in Midtown East and began selling freshly baked simit under the moniker “Turkish bagel.”

Istanbul

On the Anchovy Trail

We are unabashedly fanatical in our love of hamsi, or anchovies, a late fall/wintertime specialty whose arrival we eagerly await each year in Istanbul, where the tiny fish are most commonly served pan-fried, grilled or in pilaf. But as any hamsi aficionado knows, for the best anchovy-eating in Turkey one must go directly to their source: the country’s Black Sea coastline, where the catch is brought in.

Istanbul

CB’s First App in Saveur’s Top 100!

We are proud to announce that Saveur has included the Culinary Backstreets: Istanbul iPhone app in its “Saveur 100: Travel Edition” list, published in the magazine’s January/February 2013 issue. Saveur praised the app’s “smart search functions, integrated maps and vivid photos,” calling it “the ideal portable portal to one of our all-time favorite food cities.” This recognition comes just months after our sister website, IstanbulEats.com, won Saveur’s “Best Culinary Travel Blog” award in 2012.

Athens

The Greek Island Diet You Can Eat Forever

We’ve previously extolled the pleasures of Cretan cuisine at Athens venues like Kriti and noted that Crete has one of the highest life expectancies in Greece, thanks in part to its healthy food. So we were particularly intrigued by “The Island Where People Forget to Die,” a recent New York Times Magazine article on Ikaria, a Greek island in the Aegean that’s home to some of the world’s longest-living people.

Shanghai

China’s Breakfast of Champions vs. The Egg McMuffin

Breakfast in China traditionally consists of something brothy and stomach-filling, such as congee (a rice-based porridge), wonton soup or xiǎolóngbāo (soup dumplings). Also popular are savory fried foods like scallion oil pancakes – in Shanghai, lines of hungry customers waiting to get their morning pancake fix from places like A Da Cong You Bing can literally stretch around the block. It’s thus no surprise that Western-style grab-and-go breakfast options are of little appeal to locals.

Athens

Turning Up the Heat on Halloumi

The rubbery, white Cypriot cheese known as halloumi in Greek and hellim in Turkish is without a doubt the island’s most famous culinary delicacy. Served grilled or fried, it has long been popular at tables in Athens, Istanbul and around the region. As demand from Western Europe and even North America has increased in the last decade, exports have shot up. But a new law regulating what goes into the cheese threatens to throw the industry into turmoil.

Athens

Move Over, Ouzo

During her travels this summer, Culinary Backstreets’ roving photographer seemed quite taken with the luscious-looking grapes she saw in Athens street markets (pictured). While Greek grapes are not just for eating – this is, after all, the land of Dionysus, the ancient god of wine – in modern times the aniseed-flavored spirit ouzo has been the country’s most popular alcoholic drink, with wine lagging far behind. Yet Greek wines, including those made from indigenous grape varietals, have recently begun attracting greater interest.

Athens

A Yogurt Fix for Greek Economic Woes?

Could the current craze for Greek-style yogurt help lift Greece out of its economic recession? In our overview of the current food scene in Athens, we’ve noted the frozen yogurt shops springing up in the Greek capital.