I’ve eaten at the world’s best restaurants. One of the best things I’ve ever tasted cost $2 from a tiny takeout store

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It is, admittedly, a dream job. I get to travel and eat delicious food, all in the name of work. I’ve been a food and travel writer for a decade, and a very enthusiastic eater for half a century.

That means I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have eaten in countless restaurants, from the humblest roadside stalls to Michelin-starred temples of gastronomy.

Very good days at the office — well, the table — have bought mouthfuls of transcendental joy. And while I’ve always been thankful for any meal, plenty of them are quickly forgotten.

Some plates have been crafted by the world’s best chefs, taken from menus on which astronomical prices are printed in tiny text (the size of the font doesn’t lessen the pain, unfortunately.) Others reflect incredible value; extraordinarily tasty eats served up by the exhausted proprietor of a backstreet kitchen, roadside stand or a cart on wheels.

Over the years — and through inches on the waistline — I’ve come to learn that a standout dish is a slow-cooked casserole of different ingredients.

If you’re hungry, food invariably tastes better. If you’re in a good mood, you’re often more forgiving about the plate in front of you.

Sometimes it’s ingenious innovation that blows your mind. How did that chef come up with such an incredible idea and then execute it? Equally, it’s discovering how a simple, familiar ingredient can taste as if it was cooked and plated by the gods.

Presentation is also critical — often your eyes, not your tongue, are the judge. A Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain once served me a dish where a brown smear had split into a pool of graying water. Not exactly one to rack up the Instagram likes.

With all this in mind, I’ve selected 20 dishes from over the years and around the world which have stood out for multiple reasons — but mainly for the most important of all: their deliciousness.

Truffle pudding, Valletta, Malta

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Imagine a one-bite treat, about the size of a Jenga brick, which takes your brain and palate to places of unbridled joy. Step forward the sweet-savory truffle pudding by Simon Rogan, one of the most progressive and successful British chefs of the last two decades. He holds multiple Michelin stars at his restaurants in London, Cumbria in northwest England, Hong Kong and recently Malta, at ION Harbour, atop Iniala Harbour House hotel.

It was in Malta’s capital, Valletta, where terrace tables look out over a harbor dating back a mind-bending 5,000 years, that I encountered the pinnacle of Rogan’s culinary expertise. A “Game of Thrones”-like setting for a suitably epic tasting menu.

The undeniable highlight for me was that pudding, where little rectangles of layered croissant pastry are glazed in carob molasses and local stout beer, gently fried and then topped with black garlic puree and shavings of aged Corra Linn cheese. It’s defiantly decadent — I mean, who needs to fry a croissant? But it’s truly one of the finest things I’ve ever eaten.

Beef guokui, Chengdu, China

Hole-in-the-wall takeout joints offer just as much culinary joy — if not more — as fine dining restaurants. Nowhere was that clearer for me than in the city of Chengdu in China’s Sichuan Province. It’s known as one of the country’s most laid-back and friendly cities and is also famous for its occasionally fiery but always multi-layered cuisine. One stellar example came from “Grandma Yan,” a woman who has been selling stuffed guokui flatbreads for years to feed the constant line outside her tiny shopfront.

You take your pick from multiple fillings, but the OG — I was told — was the beef with bean starch noodles that have been doused in spicy, sweet and smoky sauce. Humming with tingling Sichuan pepper, these are then dressed with pickled shards of carrot, scallions and MSG. Yes, MSG — and no, it’s not bad for you.

Standing on the streetside, my mouth gently buzzed with every bite, building up to the crescendo of the final mouthful. Why is that last one the best? Because most of that special sauce has ended up there. Simple and sensational — and all for under $2.

No website, Yan Taipo Guokui is by exit K of Chengdu’s Wenshu Monastery subway station.

Deep-fried zucchini flower with caviar, Rome

The only chef in all of Rome to run a three-Michelin-starred restaurant really does come from Germany. Holding the culinary holy grail of three Michelin stars is a very rare privilege as only 146 restaurants on the planet can boast the ultimate accolade. But one visit to try chef Heinz Beck’s food showed me exactly why La Pergola is one of the chosen ones.

To start, there are views so romantic that they have inspired countless successful marriage proposals over the years. All of Rome is laid out before you and from the dome of St Peter’s at the Vatican to the Colosseum on the horizon, the Eternal City seduces you at every turn.

But most of all, it’s the food. One of Beck’s signature dishes, deep-fried zucchini flower with caviar on a shellfish and saffron consommé, is almost too pretty to eat. Reflecting stunning technical prowess, along with total mastery of flavor, texture and plating, this is definitely not a dish you’d ever try crafting at home.

But that’s the point of fine dining, where unforgettable dishes reflect a specific time, place — and yes, emotion. You get the slight crunch from the zucchini flower, the heady fragrance of saffron, the gentle sweetness of shellfish and the saline pop of caviar. Together, it makes for a masterpiece fit for a Roman emperor.

Fish finger bao, Sydney

Some sort of protein surrounded by bread of any description rarely fails to please me, but few iterations have stopped me in my tracks quite like a humble fish finger (or fish stick) sandwich at King Clarence. The restaurant from executive chef Khanh Nguyen sits in the heart of Sydney’s central business district and sees him riff deliciously on familiar favorite dishes from China, Korea and Japan.

But nothing can hold a candle to his fish-filled take on what Aussies call a “sanger” — a sandwich.

Local barramundi fish is fried until perfectly crisp, then placed within a soft Chinese bao bun and topped with mustard greens, pickled chili, salmon roe — and a slice of American cheese.

Oh yes indeed. Sticky, crunchy, sweet, sour and spicy, the combination of textures and flavors is so perfectly measured in every bite that you immediately want to order another.

Taco adobada con todo, New York City

Amid tens of thousands of brilliant places to eat in New York, dishes at Per Se or Xi’an Famous Foods, The Halal Bros or Momofuku all could have made this list.

However, a 2013 addition to the city’s dining landscape quickly became my definition of a must-visit — after just one taco. Today Los Tacos No. 1 has multiple branches, but all offer the same menu — and no seating.

My go-to became slow-cooked adobo pork with its notes of cinnamon and gently building smoky chili, the meat caramelized just so, before embracing the sweet tang of pineapple, cilantro for freshness — no, it doesn’t taste soapy — then spicy salsas and soothing guac.

Enveloped in your choice of just-made taco, tostada or quesadilla, it makes for brilliant, invariably messy eating, the number of napkins a reflection of your enthusiasm. As you eat, you can’t help but smile wryly at the envious, almost glaring diners waiting in line outside to take your coveted spot.

Scottish scallop with caviar, London

There’s no doubt that grand, elegant dining rooms can be slightly daunting, as you wonder whether you’ve used the wrong fork or mispronounced your unfamiliar order. The beauty of Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester in London is that the warm service team put you immediately at ease, whether you’re a regular gastronaut — or a slightly nervous first-timer.

The sublime menu by chef patron Jean-Philippe Blondet frequently celebrates British produce, nowhere more so than in a hand-dived Scottish scallop in a beurre blanc sauce — a classic crafted from shallots in a mixture of white wine, vinegar and butter. Lots and lots of butter.

Citrus notes come from finger lime, native to Australia, then the whole ensemble is served in the scallop shell on a bed of seaweed, before being topped with Kristal caviar. The restaurant’s legendary bread trolley offerings definitely come in useful for any remaining sauce — after all, mopping up only underlines how much you appreciate a dish.

Ema Datshi, Bhutan

The magnificent mountainous kingdom of Bhutan offers a travel experience like few others thanks to its remoteness, gentle way of life and ancient culture. Cuisine is always a critical barometer of a destination and in the landlocked Himalayan country ema datshi is one of the dishes that give a true flavor of local life.

The hugely popular stew is made with onion, the admittedly acquired taste of fermented yak cheese, then garlic and red or green chilis. They’re not, however, used as a flavoring — they’re the key ingredient. Oh yes. If it sounds incandescently spicy, it’s not quite that fierce, as the chilis are slightly moderated by being slow cooked in the cheesy sauce.

It is, however, incredibly addictive, in the best possible way, as dopamine and endorphins are released by your brain once the burning sensation of capsaicin — the active component of chili peppers — kicks in.

It’s available pretty much everywhere, but for me, the COMO Uma Paro resort offers a memorable version — with a side order of stunning mountain views.

Fish and Chips, County Donegal, Ireland

Fish and chips represent a key food memory for millions of Brits like me — a peerless takeaway in which deep-fried fish and chips (thick, British-style French fries) are doused in salt and vinegar, then wrapped in paper.

For me, and for many, they recall a special treat on childhood days out, eaten while steaming hot, ideally by the sea in weather that can generously be described as “bracing.” Depending on where you live in the UK, curry sauce or gravy are two of the much-debated optional toppings.

One of my most unforgettable fish suppers came in neighboring Ireland, in Rathmullan on the coast of wild and beautiful County Donegal. The evening before the wedding of dear friends was spent in the lively and live music-filled local pub, which was handily just steps away from the Salt N’ Batter fish and chip shop.

From a dizzying array of menu options, haddock and chips were the perfect choice, eaten outside on a bench, buffeted by salty sea winds. Rarely had hot carbs been so welcome.

Khachapuri, Tbilisi

The food in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi wowed me like few other places I’ve been, thanks to incredible spreads of small meze-like plates known as “supra” which reflect the country’s multiple cultural influences from over the centuries.

By far the most memorable dish was the nation’s beloved khachapuri, a generously sized boat-shaped soft bread, hot from the oven, absolutely brimming and oozing with molten local cheeses.

There are, understandably, many comparisons to deep-dish cheese pizza, but khachapuri has a glorious simplicity to it, unsullied by the likes of pepperoni or, God forbid, pineapple.

At the time, I may have attacked it with such gusto that I was politely reminded by a waiter that it was just a side dish to the entrees, which were yet to arrive. The best version I tried came at Barbarestan, a Tbilisi restaurant which uses recipes taken from a cookbook published in 1874.

Oysters, West Mersea, England

I was born fewer than 10 miles from the Company Shed, a small seaside shack serving platters of the finest local seafood at absolute bargain prices. The menu offers half or whole crabs, smoked fish, mussels, crayfish, lobster and much more, depending on the catch — and the season.

My go-to from September to April are stunning local wild oysters which have been eaten there since Roman times. They were once so ubiquitous, a food for the poor, that local archaeological digs would regularly find them, having been discarded by hungry eaters centuries or even millennia before.

Some of them can be huge, living up to 20 years and weighing up to three and a half pounds each when they’re dredged up from the water. Regular-sized ones at the Company Shed — get them to go and sit outside, overlooking the estuary — only need a squeeze of lemon, a glass of something crisp and white, and more of that salty sea air. Bliss.

Donburi seafood rice bowl, Sapporo, Japan

One of the greatest bowls of food I’ve ever eaten came on a freezing winter’s day in 2006 in the capital city of Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido.

Inside the city’s Nijo Fish Market, a handful of stalls sell the freshest seafood imaginable, plucked just hours previously from the frigid ocean. The laminated menu may have featured out-of-focus and faded photos of dishes, but what arrived was an absolute maritime masterpiece.

A donburi rice bowl had been topped with the sweetest king crab, silky sea urchin and orange pearls of salmon roe. Sea urchin — which are classified as a shellfish — can be divisive, especially when you learn that the only part you eat are actually… their gonads.

Whether pale yellow or golden orange in color, they’re beloved by diners for their distinctly rich, creamy and briny texture, which ends with a thwack of umami — the famed “fifth taste” — with its wave of savory. The cost of this epic bowl of deliciousness, topped with the finest quality ingredients? About $20.

East Coast chowder, Prince Edward Island, Canada

It’s clear that eating al fresco is a recurring theme of many of my most memorable meals. Another to add to that list came in Canada’s picture-perfect Prince Edward Island Province, home to a brilliant immersive culinary experience: the Fireworks Feast at Inn at Bay Fortune.

Running May though October, it starts with a culinary farm tour where you learn about the vast array of produce they grow. Next, there’s an hour of unlimited raw oysters before a multi-course dinner which is prepped on a vast live-fire hearth. So yes, skipping lunch should be considered.

The standout course was the East Coast chowder, where hyper-local mussels, halibut, scallop, salt cod, lobster, potato and house-made bacon all vied for attention. The fact that my visit was on a stunning early fall evening of sunlit blue skies — not always the case in Prince Edward Island — undoubtedly helped the experience, as did the homely, unpretentious and communal nature of the feast.

Cowboy toast, Copenhagen

Copenhagen is one of the world’s great restaurant cities, with 16 of them each holding at least one Michelin star. One spot surely on the radar of Michelin’s inspectors is Connection by Alan Bates, where the eponymous British chef celebrates largely Nordic ingredients to dazzling effect.

His humorous take on a popular Danish snack called “cowboy toast” — a sort of smash burger, served in toasted white bread, usually enjoyed after a long night out on the tiles — was stratospherically tasty.

That’s because he fries brioche bread, fills it with whipped chicken liver, 25-year-old balsamic vinegar, a gel made from the famous Hungarian dessert wine Tokaji — and then makes it rain with generous shavings of black truffle on top. It’s a two-bite wonder to warm the soul, lift the spirit — and make you wish you lived in Copenhagen.

Garden smoothie, Okinawa, Japan

Vegetables and I have not always seen eye-to-eye, but a fascinating lunch in the Okinawa home of chef Kiyoko Yamashiro showed just how versatile they can be — and underlined why the local average life expectancy on the southern Japanese island is 84.

For once, it was the experience and the learning as much as the food which lived long in the memory.

That was thanks, in part, to a smoothie made from leaves and stalks that Yamashiro harvested as she led me around her garden. Some restaurants call it “foraging” or “farm-to-table dining” — she just called it making lunch.

Ingredients included leaves from a small evergreen tree called noni, parsley-like sakuna which is also known as “longevity grass,” turmeric, guava and Japanese mugwort. The slightly bitter taste was forgiven as they combined for what is undoubtedly the greenest — and healthiest — appetizer anywhere.

Paccheri alla Vittorio, Portofino, Italy

Few places do outdoor dining as elegantly as Italy and views from the terrace restaurant of the Belmond Splendido Mare hotel in Portofino are like something out of an Italian dream sequence. Pastel-hued houses line a harbor filled with sleek superyachts and an elegant crowd strolls the cobblestones. You half expect the talented Mr. Ripley to walk by.

On the menu, the freshest seafood abounds, but a modest signature pasta called me: Paccheri alla Vittorio. A decadent, velvet-smooth sauce is crafted from three types of tomatoes, garlic, butter and seasoning, then mixed in with large tubular pasta in a pan at your table, topped with Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh basil leaves. Because who doesn’t like a touch of tableside culinary theater?

You’re even given a special white linen bib to wear, with “Oggi, sono golosso” embroidered in gold lettering — in other words, “Today, I’m greedy.” That’s an all too familiar mantra.

The wave of umami is remarkable — tomatoes and Parmesan are both stacked with it — and you finish it with a “scarpetta” – a beautiful Italian word for mopping up all that remaining sauce with bread.

Garden Vegetables, Manila

Culinary trickery from accomplished chefs rarely fails to please, surprising the diner with striking presentation and plating, making you second-guess what you’re eating. A case in point came at Toyo Eatery in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, where I was served what looked like a tiny sapling — a plant pot with a green leaf sprouting from the soil.

It was, in fact, no fewer than 18 vegetables including dehydrated eggplant, peanuts, ginger, tomatoes and green beans, all cleverly combined in a dish called “Bahay Kubo,” named after a folk song once learnt by every Filipino child that features a list of vegetables.

Delicious and unexpected, it also reinforced Navarra’s reputation as one of Asia’s most exciting young chefs, celebrating one of Asia’s most under-appreciated cuisines and his country’s remarkable wealth of home-grown ingredients.

Brisket, ribs and Cheddar brats, Houston, Texas

Epically good eating in the Lone Star State often involves barbecue and, while the debate regarding where to hit up will never end, my personal epiphany happened at Pinkerton’s Barbecue in Houston. There’s always a line — which is always a good sign — and it gives you time to eye up the trays from other diners. Did someone say food FOMO?

Under a portrait of John Wayne, my tray was quickly loaded up by the young service team. Their dizzying, no-look knife skills, slicing brisket and ribs with terrifying confidence and brilliant panache made me fear for their digits, but this clearly wasn’t their first rodeo.

My order? Mahogany-colored sticky ribs, outrageously tasty prime brisket, house-made jalapeño Cheddar brats, Texas beans, mac ‘n’ cheese and sliced white bread. An unforgettable carnivore-fest ensued where, once again, the number of used paper napkins spoke volumes.

Char siu, Hong Kong

More deliciously sticky meat, kissed by flame. “Char siu” translates from Cantonese as “roasted on a fork” but has come to denote caramelized barbecued roast pork. Ask most locals in Hong Kong and chances are they’ll name it as their favorite dish.

Shoulder cuts are marinated in a mix of honey, soy sauce, rice wine, cinnamon, star anise and Sichuan peppercorn, then roasted vertically on metal forks. The result, a charred and sweet crust around perfectly tender pork where sweetness is lifted by the searing heat of the flames.

Thousands of places sell it in Hong Kong but Sun Kwai Heung BBQ Food in Chai Wan, at the end of the Island Line metro route, wins the vote from many — including me. Served atop rice on an orange plastic plate, all for just US$6. Just don’t expect a wine list, reservations or napkins — and definitely no candlelight.

Piranha Fish Cakes, Central, Lima

Formerly named the world’s best restaurant, Central in Peru’s capital of Lima has blazed a trail for the country’s produce and dining scene, which ranks amongst one of the world’s most thrilling. In 2019, its menu reflected different produce from different altitudes across Peru’s ecosystems and terroirs – including these undeniably fearsome Amazonian lake piranha. That’s not a lake you’d want to go swimming in.

Thankfully they weren’t served or eaten whole, but in a crispy fishy cake which lived long in the memory — and photo bank.

More memorable for texture than flavor, it was made from the fish mixed with yucca root and cocona, a type of citrus fruit known as the “tomato of the Amazon.” It joins unusual ingredients I’ve eaten including sea cucumber, cod sperm, ants, crickets, jellyfish — and guinea pig. That one almost prompted my (lifelong vegetarian) wife to file for divorce.

Banh mi, Hoi An, Vietnam

Reinforcing the mantra that the simplest food is often the best is my final most memorable eat, from the picturesque and lantern-filled Vietnamese coastal town of Hoi An. The nation’s beloved banh mi sandwiches have gone global, but at the source they don’t come much better than at the not very modestly named Madam Khanh — Banh Mi Queen.

Although Madam Khanh, real name Nguyễn Thị Lộc, no longer works there, her sandwiches live up to her regal claim. Warm mini baguettes are carefully layered with ingredients including barbecue roast pork, pate, homemade pickles, papaya, shredded carrot, cilantro — and plenty of her special sauce which has always remained a secret.

The late, great Anthony Bourdain perfectly summed it up — as he pretty much always did — by calling the banh mi “a symphony of a sandwich.” The only problem with banh mi? You’ll never look at a sub with the same enthusiasm.

Follow Chris Dwyer on Instagram at @chrismdwyer

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