It can be hard to narrow down our notable Marseille food memories from the year into a finite list. This dynamic port city makes for a colorful culinary destination, a place where traditional Provençal cuisine coexists alongside – and at times, is infused with – the many international influences brought here by travelers, immigrants, and creative chefs alike. From Colombian bakes to Medjool dates, sit-down dinners to fresh market finds, these are just a few of our favorite bites from 2024 in Marseille. We return again and again to À Moro for the dreamy vitello tonnato, which is a standard on their menu. Vitello tonnato is an unexpected surf and turf recipe from the 18th century, originating in the Piemonte region of Italy.

The award for “Europe's Best Emerging Culinary City Destination," granted to Porto by the World Culinary Awards this year, could not have come at a better time. The city is truly "emerging" as a gastronomic hotspot, with an increasingly diverse array of restaurants and concepts opening their doors in response to growing tourism and a steady influx of new residents. Porto has never felt more dynamic. The latest wave of local projects further underscores this evolution. Chefs, baristas, sommeliers, and other culinary professionals from various nationalities have chosen Portugal's second-largest city to lay down roots, enriching its food scene and adding new dimensions to a city that still has much more to reveal.

It has been another great year of dining in Los Angeles, with new restaurants to explore and old favorites to revisit. The L.A. food scene is going as strong as ever and we’ve had a lot of outstanding meals this year. It’s always a difficult task to narrow down the best bites of the year, but looking back at the past year, these are the dishes that left a strong impression and live rent free in my head. Los Angeles has a dearth of Portuguese restaurants, but that changed with the opening of Barra Santos, a tiny restaurant in the Cypress Park neighborhood. I would happily return to Barra Santos for one thing on the menu: bifana, the classic Portuguese pork sandwich.

It’s that time of year: when we share our Spotify Wrapped, post our favorite memories of the year on Instagram and, of course, reminisce about the incredible things we ate and drank over the past 12 months. Living (and eating) in Mexico City means there’s plenty to be grateful for – from revitalizing seafood cocktails to fluffy pancakes to, of course, fabulous tacos. Join us as we remember our Best Bites of 2024. It’s that time of year: when we share our Spotify Wrapped, post our favorite memories of the year on Instagram and, of course, reminisce about the incredible things we ate and drank over the past 12 months. Living (and eating) in Mexico City means there’s plenty to be grateful for – from revitalizing seafood cocktails to fluffy pancakes to, of course, fabulous tacos. Join us as we remember our Best Bites of 2024.

This past year has been an exciting one in San Sebastián. The emergence of new projects, driven by young talented people – some bringing ideas and flavours from abroad – makes even more thrilling the adventure of dining out in a city celebrated for its deep-rooted traditions and extraordinary gastronomy. While enjoying some of the iconic local dishes remains a must, it’s also a nice time to delve into what it's being offered by this new wave of talent, whether you’re up for some pintxo hopping or are looking to enjoy a nice time with friends or family at some of the city’s finest tables.

Living in Tokyo, there is no end to high-quality eateries, and we certainly endeavor to find the best of the best. Those that rise above the others are collected like gold dust. Whether it’s a quick bite on the go or a fancy sit-down meal, there is always something to entice us to the different suburbs of the city. Amidst the colossal amount of choice – which some might feel is overwhelming – here is a handy list of some of our faves from the past year. Latino is a new find for me, but it is an old haunt of my fiancée’s that she frequented when she worked in an office nearby.

In the grab-and-go section of Katsu Sando’s second L.A. location hangs a T-shirt that reads: “Krispy and thicc sandos bruh.” That’s not a typo. The extra “c” in “thicc” refers not only to the audibly loud crunch you get from the casual Japanese restaurant’s panko-crusted pork and chicken cutlets, but to the generous fillings and fat slices of honey-milk bread that make up its eponymous dish, the katsu sando. Katsu is a fried cutlet, an iconic element of Japanese cooking. But sando is not just a shorter way to say sandwich. It is the translation of a Japanese interpretation of a “Western-inspired sandwich” – a fitting star dish for this L.A. spot. The bread itself (shokupan), made with milk and honey, is meant to be an elevated version of fluffy American sandwich loaves like Wonder Bread.

Jibro fry, slices of tender and subtly seasoned goat tongue, was the dish that took our first meal at Newa Chhe to the top. Will we have the opportunity to taste it again? We began fortifying ourselves with the hearty food at this Nepalese restaurant (pronounced Knee-wah Chay) not long after it opened, in December 2023, in Sunnyside. The restaurant is a partnership between Radip (rah-Deep) Shrestha and three of his longtime friends: Bijay Khayargoli, Kunchok Sherpa and Pashupati Shrestha (no relation to Radip).

Biting into a freshly-made globe of mozzarella, porcelain smoothness yields to a creamy interior and milk trickles down the cheeks. For any Neapolitan, this is true pleasure. And everyone knows the best spot for such an afternoon delight is at a cheese factory in the countryside – namely in the Caserta and Salerno provinces. There, some of the best Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP is shaped daily from fresh buffalo milk. For those of us stuck in the city center and craving that addictive bite of fresh mozzarella, one of Sogni di Latte’s two locations is our first stop.

Casamento’s does not accept reservations, credit cards, or checks. Simply walk under the restaurant’s green neon sign and through the white door and you instantly know you’ve entered a special place, somewhere between Italy and Louisiana; the interior a cross between a shotgun house and the bottom of a public pool. The narrow series of rooms, lined from floor to ceiling in imported tiles, leads in a straight line from the front door to the bathroom in the back of the kitchen. The seafood joint makes for a physical, communal experience, an offer of what was and what remains in New Orleans. Don’t worry, you are in good hands.

Long before Neapolitans fell in love with dried pasta – a luxury food mainly reserved for the nobles until the late 1800s and only later a popular, filling meal – and earning their reputation as mangiamaccheroni (pasta eaters), they were called mangiafoglie – literally, “leaf eaters.” The moniker referred to the habit of consuming significant quantities of the vegetables that grow in the thriving farms at the foot of Vesuvius or in the countryside areas encircling the city center. Common folk cleverly found simple yet effective ways to amplify the vegetables’ flavor, often frying them or accompanying them with tomatoes, herbs, and other ingredients, while precious products such as raisins and pine nuts were – again – the prerogative of the noble class.

Prior to the popularity of French bouillon restaurants in Paris in the mid 1800s, (restaurants that served a simple piece of meat in a soup stock for a good price) there was the French traiteur. A precursor to the restaurant as we know it, a traiteur (the word can roughly be translated as “caterer”) offers prepared meals to go. During the 18th century, many city dwellers did not have kitchens in their homes, so the traiteur was paramount to everyday life in French culture. Today, there are over 10,000 traiteurs serving the French population. The traiteur, then, is French takeout, but immeasurably better. Typically, there is no seating on the premises of a traiteur, but occasionally there may be a few tables. The window displays showcasing the various dishes are a source of pride for the owner or chef and serve to lure passersby at lunch time.

Since we’re a company built around the idea that, when traveling, the stomach serves as the best compass, it’s no surprise that we believe that culinary experiences are the best kind of gift. And while we would be very happy to see you and your loved ones on one of our culinary walks or trips (you can purchase gift certificates here) we also want to use our annual gift guide to showcase some of our favorite products and treasures across our cities. From serious kitchen tools to adorably frivolous snacks and knick knacks, our correspondents, guides and editors have recommended a range of items that they eat, use or just love – often made by people they know.

In Sanayi Mahallesi – an Istanbul neighborhood where the streets are lined with hundreds of mechanic workshops and auto supply stores – most people are looking for spare car parts or a place to get their Fiat fixed. We, on the other hand, came here in search of döner. More specifically, we ventured to this area to eat at Ata Lokantası, a fantastic esnaf lokantası (tradesman's restaurant) that has been open since the late 1980s, and serves a rotating menu of comforting, homestyle dishes popular with workers in the area and white-collar office employees from the looming skyscrapers nearby. The menu features döner only on Fridays, and we heard it was excellent.

One of the staples of Mexican cuisine (and of bar menus everywhere), the quesadilla can be found on almost every street corner and in every neighborhood market in Mexico City. Those served at Mercado San Cosme in Colonia San Rafael, however, redefine the quesadilla. Indeed, while this neighborhood market is far from being the city’s largest or most famous, it’s worth visiting just for a chance to eat at Quekas, an eatery housed in the market that makes some of the best quesadillas we’ve had in the city.