travel guides

Culinary Backstreets

When it comes to exploring a city’s authentic dining scene, while the stomach should ideally serve as the best compass, the truth of the matter is that it’s hard to find your way without good local advice. That’s where Culinary Backstreets comes in. Partnering up with some of the most knowledgeable and passionate food writers and bloggers around the globe, Culinary Backstreets plans to serve as a hotline for the hungry traveler, bedside reading for the foodie voyeur, and a heavily bookmarked index for those who want to dive into the culinary backstreets featured on our pages. With dispatches from Athens, Barcelona, Istanbul, Shanghai, Mexico City (coming soon) and, as we grow, from other cities around the world, Culinary Backstreets will help you explore these gastro-capitals and get off these cities’ eaten path. In order to do this, we will also be offering (with selected partners) guided culinary walks in some of the cities we cover, starting with Istanbul and Shanghai.

Our purpose is twofold. Yes, we want to get you to some good places to eat. But we also want to make sure that some of these spots and the artisans making food there – unsung heroes who are sometimes forgotten or taken for granted at home – find a new audience and get the recognition and support they deserve. They are holding back the tide of globalized sameness, which is not easy work – even if it’s done unknowingly. But we believe that every meal counts and, with the help of our readers, they will add up.

As we grow, we hope to create a community of readers and writers who follow their stomachs to the next destination. In an age of globalization, mass migration and ever faster, cheaper and easier modes of transport, cities are now the most significant and accessible repositories of authentic local culture, particularly in culinary terms. Eating locally and authentically has become the easiest and most satisfying way to get a sense of a place’s real culture and traditions. It also happens to be the tastiest way to do this. On this site, we invite you to join us as we explore the culinary backstreets.

Austria

Algeria

Australia

Bouvet Island

Central African Republic

Chad

Cuba

France

French Polynesia

Guadeloupe

Guinea

Holy See

Honduras

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Israel

Japan

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

Sudan

Taiwan

Uganda

Colombia

Denmark

Egypt

Fiji

Gambia

Guernsey

Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Isle of Man

Kenya

New Caledonia

Palestine, State of

Peru

Saint Barthélemy

Senegal

Solomon Islands

Yemen

American Samoa

Aruba

Belize

Armenia

Bangladesh

Belgium

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lesotho

Morocco

Slovenia

Spain

Swaziland

Sweden

Tajikistan

Tonga

Antigua and Barbuda

Congo (Democratic Republic of the)

Costa Rica

Guatemala

Latvia

Namibia

Nepal

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Niue

Sao Tome and Principe

Sierra Leone

Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Togo

Viet Nam

Bahamas

Chile

Malta

Mauritius

Montenegro

Panama

Réunion

Saint Martin (French part)

Tanzania, United Republic of

Thailand

Vanuatu

Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

Åland Islands

Barbados

Czech Republic

Equatorial Guinea

Ethiopia

Kiribati

Mauritania

Norfolk Island

Puerto Rico

Saint Pierre and Miquelon

San Marino

United States Minor Outlying Islands

Burundi

Virgin Islands (U.S.)

Burkina Faso

Eritrea

Greece

Lebanon

Macao

Micronesia (Federated States of)

Mozambique

Nauru

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