Anthony Bourdain had one rule: go where the locals go. Not the restaurant with the English menu in the window. Not the place the hotel recommended. The one down the alley with no sign, where you point at what the person next to you is eating and hope for the best. He did that in every city on this list. Every single one changed him. Your job now is to find out how.
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The table is still there. Bún chả Hương Liên, a plastic stool, six dollar noodles, a US president sitting across from him. Bourdain said Vietnamese food was some of the greatest on Earth. Hanoi is where you go to understand that he was not exaggerating.
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South America
The steak will ruin every other steak. The people will make every other city feel slightly less alive. The arguments about football and politics and which cut of beef is superior will go until 2am. You will not want to leave. Go.
Southeast Asia
The heat hits you at the airport. By the time you reach the street the smell of something extraordinary cooking somewhere just out of sight will be pulling you in a direction you cannot name. Follow it. That is the entire plan.
Middle East
Bourdain called Beirut his favorite city in the world. He said it repeatedly and meant it every time. When war broke out while he was filming there in 2006 he did not leave. He stayed and watched a city he loved come apart. Then he went back again. Go and try to understand why a person keeps returning to a place like that. You will.
East Asia
Ignore the tourist version of Tokyo. The city worth eating in is underground — beneath the train tracks, down staircases with no English signs, in eight-seat ramen shops where the chef has been perfecting one dish for thirty years. Sit down. Point at what the person next to you ordered. That is the move.
North America
The mole sauce has been cooking since yesterday. The mezcal in your glass was made by a man in his seventies who learned from his father who learned from his. The market has been in this exact location since before most countries on Earth existed. Oaxaca does not care about your schedule. Good.
West Africa
Bourdain said Accra made him rethink everything he thought he knew about food. That is not a sentence he threw around. He meant it as the highest possible compliment. Go find out what he tasted.
"Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund."
— Anthony Bourdain
Every trip on this list starts with a feeling. Find yours.