Editor's Note: Sadly, this spot is now closed. It sounds like material ripe for a bromance film: four college students – all childhood buddies – take an epic road trip together in the 1990s during Carnival to a Rio beach town and rent a separate truck just to transport their 800 bottles of beer. Fast-forward a few years: each eventually settles down and goes his separate way – a phone company executive, a tax lawyer, a law grad, a gourmet chef. But each lives a life outside of his ho-hum routine one – a second life that involves copious amounts of beer.

On our list of favorite Mexican comfort foods, the tamal would likely come in near the top. Simple, yet extremely versatile, tamales share pre-Hispanic roots with the tortilla. A corn masa very similar to the kind created during the nixtamalization process to make tortillas is used as the base for delicious tamales. Recently, we found a first-rate version of this ancient food from a new street vendor located just blocks from the Monumento a la Revolución.

Dear Culinary Backstreets,I love to cook as much as I love to eat, and on my upcoming trip to Shanghai, I’d love to take a cooking class to learn more about Chinese cooking and ingredients. Where can I take English-language cooking classes in the city? With the typical Chinese menu offering 100-plus items, there is a world of Chinese cooking to be discovered, whether you’re in Shanghai for a brief trip or an extended expat adventure. Learning the cooking methods behind some of your favorite dishes will give you the tools to recreate (and adapt to your tastes) your favorite dishes at home using ingredients commonly found in neighborhood markets. One of the biggest expenses expats face in the city is relying on imported food to make Western dishes, which can provide even more incentive to learn to cook local delicacies.

Update: Sultanzade Sofrası is sadly no longer open. Think of Ramadan, which began in late June in many parts of the world, as a kind of monthlong biathlon that consists of an all-day race to beat back the hunger and thirst of fasting, followed by an all-night marathon of eating and drinking in order to fortify the body for the next day’s fast. In recent years in Turkey, iftar, the traditional break fast meal that used to mostly consist of some dates and a freshly baked round of Ramadan pide, has started to become an increasingly trendy affair, with ministers, businessmen and regular people trying to make an impression by hosting ever more lavish meals.

In just a few hours, Germany will play Brazil in a World Cup semi-final match, but the outcome doesn’t matter. Win or lose, Germany has already conquered this nation – gastronomically speaking, at least. This isn’t fancy gastronomy, of course (leave that to the French!), but the simple, hearty, delicious food that the best Brazilian German bars serve all over the country, especially in Rio. German bars have been beloved institutions in Rio for a very long time. The most famous ones have been around since before World War II, when Rio was the capital of the country and the federal government was flirting with German's National Socialist Party. By 1939, Rio had a dozen German bars.

Editor’s note: We’re sad to report that Aigaion has closed. Loukoumades! In the long, slow afternoons that would follow the enormous Sunday lunches with the full complement of our parents’ friends, all one had to say was that word, and the calm would be broken. Women (and sometimes men) would instantly bustle into the kitchen, haul out large plastic basins and begin the preparation. After what always seemed an interminable wait, plates loaded with golden, deep-fried balls of dough, crispy and drenched in honey, would appear from the kitchen, followed by a yelping array of children.

Editor’s note: In the latest installment of our recurring feature First Stop, we asked chef and food writer Anissa Helou where she heads first for food when she arrives in Istanbul. Helou is the author of many cookbooks, includingLebanese Cuisine, Mediterranean Street Food, Savory Baking from the MediterraneanandThe Fifth Quarterand has also written for publications such as the Observer Food Monthly, FT Weekend, the Times Magazine and Food & Wine. She has been featured on numerous radio and TV programs in the U.S. and U.K.

If it’s because of showing visitors around or simply a desire to get away from the city for the day, we can usually count on at least one visit a summer to Büyükada, the largest of the Princes’ Islands. But as much as we like looking at the car-free island’s Victorian mansions and visiting its quiet, forested backside, when it comes time to eat on Büyükada, we feel like we’re stuck inside an airport, forced to eat mediocre food at outrageous prices. (Although we very much like the food at Kıyı, a seaside restaurant on the island that we’ve previously recommended, even a casual dinner there ends up costing more than what one would like.)

As a side benefit of his former life as a financial advisor, Xavier Maymo got to spend 20 years dining at some of Europe’s finest restaurants. When he would return home after his business trips, he would relax by recreating the dishes he had enjoyed at these restaurants in his own kitchen. His mother had taught him the basics of cooking when he was a kid, and his natural gifts and intuition allowed him to recall flavors and then to riff on them and invent new ideas. Over the years, Maymo also sought out many chefs in order to learn from them, and in the process he became friends with them.

In Mexico, magic is all around us. It’s in the architecture, history, way of life – and, of course, the food. The country’s Ministry of Tourism is no stranger to this magic, and in fact, fully grasping its economic possibilities, it created the Pueblos Mágicos program in 2001 to recognize villages that are unique and historically significant. There are now 80 such pueblos mágicos across the country, and one of our favorites is just a short drive away from Mexico City.

Editor's Note: Sadly, this spot is now closed. Rio’s legendary soccer stadium, Maracanã, has been called “the temple of futebol” for more than 60 years, and these days, it’s a magnet for ever more worshippers of the Beautiful Game. Even those without a ticket are drawn to the stadium, just to be close to the party and, at the very least, to feel the undeniably intense and infectious excitement that’s in the air here.

Like many cultures with a strong national food culture, Athens has been slow to welcome foreign cuisines. First, there were the heady 1990s, when the first luxurious restaurants serving such food opened. That was followed by a decade of discovery, with the first mid-priced sushi and Indian restaurants appearing left, right and center. An enormous influx of immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and North Africa from the mid-2000s onwards brought pockets of Middle Eastern grocery stores and eateries to downtown Athens, Kypseli and Patisia. Just a few years ago, Athens’ Middle Eastern food scene was divided in two, with various mid-priced to expensive restaurants catering to Greeks and the Kurdish, Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan immigrants making delicious street food for their own communities (and a few adventurous Athenians).

At noon, the line stretches out the door and there’s a noisy rumble of loud voices inside the Ruijin Erlu and Nanchang Lu branch of Fengyu (丰裕), a neighborhood staple that has fed locals for decades deep in the heart of the former French Concession. According to Dianping, China’s most-visited food website, there are 35 branches of this eatery, whose name aptly means “plentiful abundance,” and some are franchised with slightly varied menus. This branch is state-owned, and it opens early, like most of Shanghai. (Latecomers will find most of the dishes sold out.)

Trabzon doesn’t face the sea so much as fall into it like it’s hugging an old friend. The weight of dozens of mountains and just as many rivers pushes the city into the Black Sea, and the blue-collar port and ribbons of highways get the region’s bounties out of the city seemingly while the bread is still warm. Due to the massive out-migration that the region has undergone since the 1980s, countless pide shops and lokantas promising Karadeniz (“Black Sea”) recipes can be found in Istanbul, and some of them are quite good. But with food as simple and unique as what’s found in the Turkish Black Sea coast, it’s not the recipes that pack a punch so much as the ingredients. The freshest and weirdest are found in Trabzon and its environs and are as good an excuse to up and live in Trabzon as the mountains and the music.

Editor's Note: Sadly, Guilhermina Bar and Oztel Hostel are now closed. Rio is full of tourists right now. The reason, of course, is the World Cup. They’ve been coming in waves – our Latin American brothers, especially. One week, it was the Argentineans. They invaded the city in their motor homes and with their raucous, passionate songs. The next week, it was time for the Chileans to do the same. It’s a rollicking good time for everyone! And for us cariocas, we finally feel like we’re at the center of the world.