The brothers Altu and Erol Aslan, who operate the Yeni Melek corner store on Ayhan Işık Sokak in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu neighborhood, have a legitimate complaint against their next-door neighbor, Tarihi Kalkanoğlu Pilavcısı. The shop – morning, noon and night – really does reek of butter. For those unfamiliar with the preferred cooking agent of the eastern Black Sea, where the neighbor in question hails from, this isn’t the sort of bland whitish grease that comes from the Land o’ Lakes; it's a funky yellow mass that is bused in from the villages around Trabzon in unmarked buckets like contraband.

Editor's Note: Sadly, this spot is now closed. Mexico City’s Centro Histórico is never a dull place. Combined with the massive crowds and the constant roar of honking horns, passing buses and shouting vendors, the sheer visual stimulus is enough to make one weak in the knees after an hour or so. It can be a huge relief to step off the street for a breather and a bite to eat – although, in the case of Cafetería El Cuadrilátero, whose name can be translated to “wrestling ring cafeteria,” a “bite” is quite an understatement.

Feio, which means “ugly” in Portuguese, is also the fortunate nickname of the owner of one of the most unique bars in Rio. Mr. Feio (his real name is Sebastião) is a former baker who decided 20 years ago to open a botequim, the typical carioca bar. In order to differentiate his establishment from the other botequins in the neighborhood of Méier, Feio decided to serve grilled quail (codorna) – a bird that is not traditional to Brazilian gastronomy. The idea was an immediate local hit.

In the U.S., chimichangas and burritos are always associated with Mexican food, but in the central part of Mexico those words don’t mean a lot. In Mexico City, specifically, it’s very hard to find burritos that resemble those found north of the border, and the word “chimichanga” doesn’t even exist in our vocabulary.

Whether we’re talking fat-free, gluten-free, organic, MSG-free, Paleo or vegetarian, every regimen takes on new challenges and pitfalls when you are traveling or living abroad – especially in a country like China, where you may face a language barrier.

Galicia, the autonomous region in northwest Spain, is famous for its extraordinary beef and – with its lengthy Atlantic coastline – an abundance of spectacular seafood. Barcelona has a slew of Galician eateries, ranging from the most expensive and famous seafood restaurants with valet attendants to humble establishments occupying the most out-of-the-way corners of the city. In the middle are the interesting neighborhood eateries that offer food cooked with great care, using excellent ingredients and offered at fair prices. Among these, O Meu Lar is one of our favorites.

Istanbul has plenty of kebab joints, but places serving cağ are sadly hard to find. Originating in the eastern Anatolian province of Erzurum, the kebab looks like a horizontal döner, but tastes otherworldly. If South American cowboys somehow found themselves in Erzurum’s grassy Turkish steppe, they would surely be struck down with déjà vu at the sight of this carnivores’ fantasy, turning slowly over a hardwood fire. The way we see it, cağ is the Turkish equivalent of Argentina’s asado or the Brazilian churrasco, a kebab for serious meat lovers.

Very few people know that Copacabana beach, packed to the gills as it is with tourists, restaurants and luxury hotels, is home to an old fishermen’s colony. The fishermen, of course, no longer live there, but they still ply the waters with their tiny boats and use handmade fishnets to bring in the catch every day.

Anyone looking for a bit of entertainment or foodie satisfaction while on a layover in Shanghai will need to look well beyond the confines of the airport. Pudong’s international airport may be a huge, mostly gleaming, modern space, but it has some of the most overpriced, bland food and off-brand shopping with little to do beyond making repeated attempts to connect to the free Wi-Fi.

“We grow everything here – kale, dill, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, arugula, eggplant, lettuce, cauliflower… everything,” the elderly woman says proudly, waving her hand in the direction of her small field as she digs her worn plastic sandals into the dirt. While she grows the vegetables and herbs, her 80-year-old husband tends his pomegranate trees and takes their products from this patch of farmland at the far northern end of Istanbul’s Sarıyer district to sell at local markets around the city.

A few months ago, El Portal, one of our favorite cantinas in the Colonia Roma, shut its doors without any warning or fanfare. As we had been customers there for about 15 years, this was a great disappointment, and we were curious when we found out it had reopened. Happily, its current incarnation – as Riviera del Sur, a restaurant that specializes in food from the Yucatán peninsula – promises to be as much of a mainstay for us as El Portal ever was.

When the seasons change from summer to winter, your body requires different foods to stay healthy – as anyone who has come down with a fall cold can attest. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) says that the changing temperatures result in a dry season, medicinally speaking, meaning that your body lacks fluids, affecting your lungs and throat, as well as your digestive systems. Autumn is also a chance for you to build up your body’s immunity before the harsh winter. Nourish yourself with these foods now, and you’ll be thanking yourself when winter sets in.

When we pick up a hefty, shiny copper pan in his workshop, Emir Ali Enç unhesitatingly claims, “You are now holding the best saucepan in the world.”

Gnarled evergreen mastiha (mastic) trees cling to terraced hillsides throughout the southern part of Chios, a Greek island in the Aegean. These humble trees (Pistacia lentiscus var. chia) have been fought over and cherished for thousands of years because they produce “tears” of delicious and healing sap. The best pharmacists in ancient times used to concoct luxurious healing balms with mastiha sap; Emperor Justinian’s personal physician mixed mastiha and deer brains to make a beauty cream. We haven’t tried that recipe yet.

When it comes to finding new places to eat in Mexico City, we’ve learned not to be too quick to judge a place by its looks. A very good example of this is Mariscos Frescos del Mar, a hole in the wall we had passed without noticing many times before. When a good friend recommended it, we couldn’t even place it on a map, though we know the street it’s on very well.