Breakfast (kahvaltı) on a Sunday, three hours
Cheese, olives, eggs, jams, simit, çay, repeat.
Find a place that does kahvaltı seriously. Order for the table. Eat for three hours. The afternoon will write itself.
Must Eat
What you must eat, in every city we cover.
Specific dishes in specific rooms. Sometimes the room is a market stall. Sometimes it's a counter for ten. Always: the version you cannot get cleaner anywhere else.
All cities · Must Do · Must See · Must Try · Must Drink ·
Istanbul
Two continents, one city, one long breakfast.
A working ocakbaşı in Kadıköy
Counter, charcoal, kebabs, a little raki.
Sit at the counter, watch the grill, order one of each kebab the chef recommends. Eat slow, drink raki with water and ice.
Balık ekmek by the Galata Bridge
Grilled mackerel sandwich, lemon, raw onion, that's it.
Eat standing, by the water, two boats away from the bridge. One sandwich, one shalgam (turnip juice). The sandwich is fast. The juice is the test.
Lisbon
Hills, light, salt, and the slowest drum in Europe.
Bifana at a counter in Baixa
Pork, mustard, a soft roll, two euros.
Stand at the counter, no fork, mustard yellow not red. Two bites if you are a tourist, three if you are a local. Either way, fast.
Grilled sardines on the riverfront, June only
Charcoal, salt, lemon, a paper plate.
If you can be in Lisbon during the Santo António festivals, eat sardines from a working grill on a side street. The smoke is part of the seasoning.
Pastéis de Belém in their original room
Hot, dusted, a quick coffee, no Instagram.
Sit inside, not at the takeaway counter. Two pastéis, one bica, eat fast while still warm. Cinnamon over powdered sugar. Don't skip the cinnamon.
Editor's note: It is touristy. It is also still right.
Mexico City
High-altitude, low-stakes, deeply alive.
Tacos al pastor at a trompo with a real flame
Look for the fire, not the line.
Order four. Pineapple. Salsa verde, not red. Eat standing. The trompo with no flame is a museum piece, not a taco.
Quesadilla de huitlacoche from a market comal
Fresh masa, blue corn, mushroom-of-the-corn.
Find the stall where one woman is pressing and one is cooking. Order one quesadilla, one tlacoyo. Eat at the counter. The huitlacoche is the lesson.
Mole at a Sunday lunch in Coyoacán
Twenty-plus ingredients, two hours, one plate.
Family-style, late lunch, one mole rojo or negro, a glass of light beer or agua de jamaica. Skip the appetizer round. The mole is the only round.
New York
The city of small rooms and long opinions.
A real corner slice, eaten standing on the street
Fold, walk, finish before you reach the next block.
The slice is the city. Pick the room with the rotating staff and the working oven. One slice, no toppings the first time. Eat fast. Walk faster.
A bowl of Sichuan at a working counter in Flushing
Mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, beer, no tour group.
Take the 7 train to the end. Eat at a counter that has Chinese-only daily specials. Order from those. The room is a different country and the cab back is forty minutes of city.
An afternoon bagel at an actual bagel shop
Boiled, baked, eaten within the hour, never sliced for tourists.
Plain, sesame, or everything. Cream cheese, lox, capers, red onion. Brown paper bag, foil if asked. Eat in the park nearest the shop.
Paris
Built for walkers, gatekeepers, and the long lunch.
Oeuf mayonnaise at a real bistrot
Three euros, two minutes, total disclosure.
If the oeuf mayo is right, the kitchen is right. Order it as the entrée at a small bistrot in the eleventh or the second, then trust the rest of the menu.
A jambon-beurre at a bakery counter
Fresh baguette, salted butter, ham. That is the list.
Eat it on a bench within ten minutes of buying it. Anything else is a different sandwich.
Editor's note: If the bakery is not also selling baguettes that day, it is the wrong bakery.
Steak frites at a corner brasserie at 9pm
Thin steak, hot fries, a small carafe of red.
Pick a brasserie that has been open since at least the 1970s. Sit on the terrace if it is warm. Order saignant. Tip with a coin, not a percentage.
Tokyo
A city that rewards patience and quiet attention.
Standing tonkatsu at a counter in Yotsuya
Five seats, one hot pan, lunch only.
The kind of room that disappears every year. Order the rosu set, eat fast, do not linger. The cabbage refill is the tell of the house.
Editor's note: If there is a queue, the queue is correct. Stand.
A Tsukiji breakfast bowl from a working stall
Outer market, before nine, one bowl, no dessert.
The wholesale market moved. The outer market did not. Eat one chirashi or a tamagoyaki sandwich, drink black coffee at the next stall over, walk to Tsukiji Hongan-ji and let it settle.
Late-night ramen in a Nakano alley
The shop with no sign and the ticket machine in Japanese only.
Find the shop with the line of salarymen at 11pm. Press the photo, do not over-order, finish the broth or do not, but be quiet. The tip is the bow.