In Athens, apart from traditional or nouvelle Greek, you can find almost any kind of cuisine you crave, but usually not under one roof. Thanks to the influx of immigrants and diaspora Greeks in the past 20 years, the city’s roster of foreign restaurants is no longer confined to Italian, French and a sprinkling of swanky Asian and Indian places with white tablecloths.

Salt cod has been a staple on the Iberian Peninsula for centuries, but in the last few decades overfishing and changes in eating habits have resulted in a significant drop in bacallà consumption. Only recently has the fish begun returning in greater numbers to our tables, and it has also become the focal point for an annual gastronomic celebration: La Ruta del Bacallà. There’s a popular saying on the Iberian Peninsula that there is one cod recipe for every day of the year, but in truth, the number is upwards of 500. In Spain, there are hundreds of cod recipes dating from the Middle Ages, with a multitude of regional variations. The most notable and sophisticated ones come from Basque country and Catalonia.

It’s hard to find a “backstreet” in Ipanema, Rio’s pricey, posh epicenter of tourism, where real estate is prime and snack bars charge twice the price of grubbier places elsewhere. But leave it to three Frenchmen to open a wine bar that sincerely strives to be – and succeeds in being – a Brazilian boteco in the city’s most iconic beachside neighborhood. The bubbly trio Vava, Laulau and Gerard saw in an old construction supply store near the Ipanema metro stop an opportunity to create an upscale bar with the charm (and, believe it or not, the prices) of a Rio neighborhood eatery.

We are very happy to announce that in May we’ll be offering a springtime edition of “Culinary Secrets of Gaziantep,” our three-day eating and hands-on cooking adventure in Turkey’s gastronomic mecca. An ancient city not far from Turkey’s southern border, a meeting point between the Arab Middle East and Turkish Anatolia, Gaziantep over the centuries has developed a culinary culture that is deeply rooted in the rhythm of the agricultural lands surrounding it and that is maintained with great pride and honor by the city’s cooks and food makers. Gaziantep is also the source for many of Turkish cuisine’s iconic dishes – the city’s famous baklava is without compare and its kebabs are truly works of art, the standard by which all others are measured.

Here we are in the Bishop’s Belly, La Panxa del Bisbe, which is not the midsection of a Catalan priest, but both a restaurant and a mountain. The latter is one of the peaks of the sacred Catalan mountain of Montserrat, so-called because its shape evokes a small head over a rotund, pronounced belly. It’s frequented by numerous mountain lovers, like Xavi Codina, chef and owner of a restaurant that he named in honor of the peak. The restaurant La Panxa del Bisbe sits not in Montserrat, but in upper Gràcia, in Barcelona, very close to Codina’s home.

New to the city, migrants turn to making and selling low-overhead-cost street foods. The daily street fare is as diverse as the individuals serving it and varies from season to season.

Set up along Bucareli, just south of Reforma – two of the city center’s core arteries – only after dark, there is a steady huddle that gathers under a yellow tarp around steam and light bulbs.

here’s a lot of talk about revolution in Greece these days. We have a new left-wing government that promises to shake up the establishment both here and abroad, cutting costs by drastically reducing ministerial perks like private guards and official automobiles, reinstating lost jobs and shorn pensions, upping the minimum wage … and seeking alternative ways of handling Greek debt. Our young PM and some of his closest associates are even flouting officialdom’s time-honored dress code by speaking in parliament, Brussels and Bonn without ties and with flapping shirttails.

On one of Shanghai’s busiest shopping streets, amidst the glittering Tiffany & Co, Piaget and Apple stores, Guang Ming Cun is housed in a nondescript four-story building. Glass displays in front offer a glimpse of the braised and dried meats for sale, and around the side you can peek in to watch flaky meat pastries being flipped in a flat wok. But it’s the long lines of middle-aged shoppers patiently waiting outside the building that make Guang Ming Cun unmistakable. During Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, these lines can reach up to five hours long.

There’s a funny feeling you get in Mexico City when you come back to a neighborhood you both remember and forget. Food here gets that way, too. “You know that one quesadilla joint, that one time, with the good salsa.”

Turkey has a rich dairying tradition, beginning thousands of years ago with nomadic tribes herding goats through the Anatolian steppes. Although Turkey is full of good cheeses that are breakfast staples, these cheeses do not have the range of flavors and textures that, say, the French have with their cheese cornucopia. Three young sheep farmers and cheese makers near the Aegean coastal town of Edremit are changing that.

Every Tuesday and Friday, Maybachufer Strasse, a pretty, tree-lined street running alongside the Landwehrkanal (Landwehr Canal) in Berlin’s Neukölln neighborhood, comes alive with the hustle and bustle of the city’s biggest Turkish market, the Türkenmarkt.

For Carnival in Rio, new blocos, or free street parties, are born every year when creative friends put their heads together to dream up a theme and a combination of musicians that will tempt partygoers for a magical few hours. New blocos publicize and build momentum via open “rehearsals” in the weeks leading up to Carnival that are parties in and of themselves. If these rehearsals bombar (explode with excellence), word spreads fast, and the bloco comes roaring to life during Carnival and for years to come.

As the moon starts to wane each January, people throughout China frantically snatch up train and bus tickets, eager to start the return journey to their hometown to celebrate the Lunar New Year (春节, chūnjié) with their family. This year, revelers will make an estimated 3.64 billion passenger trips during the festive season, up 200 million from the previous year. One of the major draws for migrant workers heading home is the chance to eat traditional, home-cooked meals.

Editor’s note: We regret to report that Can Manel has closed. We don’t mind winter in Catalonia because it means the return of calçots, our beloved spring onions, and calçotadas, the wonderful celebrations that bring people together to eat them. While tradition usually calls for calçot eating to take place in the countryside, there are plenty of places to enjoy them in Barcelona as well. Since 2012, when Can Manel was reopened by the new owners Joel Balagué and Ana Roig, this homey eatery near the Sants train station has become a point of reference for the urban calçotada.