Queens

Pastry Party: The Best Bakeries in Queens

New York City’s most international borough certainly delivers when it comes to baked goods. Queens is home to some of the city’s best bakeries with influences and recipes from around the world, making it a prime destination for anyone with a serious sweet tooth. From baklava to Black Forest Cake, Filipino tortas to freshly baked bread, you’ll be spoiled for choice. Here, our local experts have handpicked the best pastries, breads, and goodies in Queens to bookmark for your next trip.

Tokyo

Latino: Curry Cantina

Tokyo is a fast-paced city with many opportunities for work but also a plethora of places to destress and find comfort. In the heart of Kayabacho, a business district in central Tokyo, sits Latino, a prime destination for some of the best comfort food the city has to offer. On the surface, the name can be a bit misleading: the restaurant does have great Mexican food, a rarity in the city, but it also has a myriad of fantastic fusion curries. To get there, we walk past the office buildings and up a quieter street to a strip of restaurants serving everything from Thai to Korean. We hunt for the restaurant’s unassuming green awning and go in.

Istanbul

First Stop: Özlem Warren’s Istanbul

Özlem Warren is a native of Antakya, Türkiye and author of the award-winning cookbook, Özlem’s Turkish Table, Recipes from My Homeland. She is passionate about her homeland’s delicious and vibrant cuisine and has been teaching Turkish cookery at Milk Street, the Istanbul Culinary Institute and other institutions. She champions the cuisine of Türkiye in publishing and at food festivals worldwide, and you can find her recipes on her personal blog, Özlem’s Turkish Table.

Mexico City

La Tonina: Still Fighting

From the outside, La Tonina – a humble taquería in the San Rafael neighborhood that’s been in business for some 80 years – gives nothing away. It’s not until you step inside and the scent of fresh flour tortillas hits that you suddenly find yourself transported out of Mexico City and up to northern Mexico. La Tonina was founded in 1946 by Héctor Garza, a professional wrestler known by his lucha libre ring name Tonina Jackson (more on that later). Héctor was from the northeastern city of Monterrey – where wheat and flour tortillas are essential to the local cuisine – which is the reason why in his restaurant, corn never stood a chance.

Lisbon

The Essentials: Where We Eat in Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon’s steep hills and cobbled streets are home to a rich pantheon of delicious dishes – visitors would be remiss to fill up exclusively on the famous pastel de nata before exploring all the flavors the Portuguese capital has to offer. Anchored by excellent seafood, comforting stews, and cod prepared every which way, traditional cuisine is still possible to track down all around town. But what makes Lisbon unique is that its food doesn’t stop there – culinary influences have filtered in from different corners of Portugal and the former colonies, making this a perfect place to try acarajé from Bahia, Angolan peito alto, or modern takes on regional dishes from the many young chefs stepping up in the city’s food scene.

Istanbul

Hope through Hospitality: Eating in Post-Earthquake Antakya

Ali Kılıç works in a hypnotizing rhythm, mixing hummus or garnishing plates with pickles and olive oil to serve to customers. The phone rings occasionally, and Ali answers while working at the counter next to the window, looking at one of the semi-destroyed alleys of Antakya's Long Bazaar. “Alo, come again?” Ali answered one of the calls. “Two hummus. I'm sending it right away, brother,” he told the person on the other end.

Athens

The Essentials: Where We Eat in Athens, Greece

Athens’s rich culinary world might feel intimidating to tackle – especially for those who find themselves with just a day or two in Greece’s capital city as a jumping-off point for their island holiday. We’re firm believers in Athens as a destination in its own right, one that merits a long stay, not a stopover – especially when we consider the vast variety of food it has to offer. Whether you have six days or six hours to spend in the city, we’ve narrowed down what we believe to be some of the best restaurants in Athens, a beyond the ordinary collection of our favorite tavernas, drink spots, and dessert joints across town. Our local team has been writing about Athens food for almost a decade, and considers the following some of the city’s essential bites.