The World

Do you have a to-do list? I do. Mine gets longer by the day. It’s written neatly (shout out to Mrs. Mitchell for perfecting my penmanship) but its contents stir untold anxiety as they become more numerous by the day. For no fewer than 2 years, “Create Greece, Bangkok, and other city guide pages” has been at the top of this litany and in spite of the best intentions, I haven’t gotten around to crafting detailed and SEO-rich pages dedicated to these cities. I hope some day I will, but in the meantime, I will use this page to collect my favorite places to eat and drink across the globe. Be sure to visit my City Guides main page for advice on where to dine and drink in Rome, Istanbul, Tokyo, NYC, and more. And of course, take a spin on my clips page for recent articles and guides published in English language publications in the US, UK, and Australia.
Sardegna
You can find a bunch of my Sardegna tips in my Eater guide but to get the full scoop, pre-order a copy of my cookbook Food of the Italian Islands and you'll find a whole entire island travel guide in there once it drops March 7!
Campania
Obviously most visitors to this incredible region are going to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. I guess you could do that (though I prefer nearby Procida, Naples, and Ischia when I head to that part of the south). If you want to experience what the Amalfi Coast felt like 100 years ago before it was developed for Anglophone tourists, keep going south to Cilento. Stay in Pisciotta, eat at Angiolina every day, buy anchovies at Donatella Marino's Alici di Menaica, then head into the adjacent national park and eat and sleep at Osteria La Piazzetta in Valle dell'Angelo. En route to Cilento, pop over to Paestum to visit the spectacular archeological site and interesting museum, of course with a detour to Tenuta Vannulo for mozzarella di buffalo.
Inland, I am obsessed with Iripinia. Antica Trattoria Di Pietro in Melito is one of my favorite places to eat. You should totally stay at Regio Tratturo in Ariano and use it as a base to explore the region. Hire The Authentic Irpinia for wine tours and eat at La Pignata in Ariano when you're not having the best meal of your life at Di Pietro.
Matera
Matera in Basilicata is awesome. The restaurant food, not so much. Silver lining: Stano is one of the best trattorias in the region, Il Forno di Gennaro does amazing focaccia, I Vizi degli Angeli‘s gelato rules, and La Bottega del Vicinato‘s selection of cheese is magic. You can find these and other tip in my Matera guide for Australian Gourmet Traveller here.
Bangkok
First off, big thanks to my pal The Skinny Bib for awesome advice in Bangkok. You can find my posts on Instagram at #parlabkk and my brief round up for favorite places to eat and drink here:
Go to Jareon Saeng for braised pork knuckle and be sure to get there before 9 or 10. Klong Teoy Market was fun to see but messy so wear shoes you don’t mind trashing. For the best experience, visit in the early morning. Such a rad market. Check out one of the spots in chinatown like Tang Jai Yoo or T&K. I enjoyed the drinks at Q&A and Teens of Thailand. Boonsap is super central and a great choice for mango sticky rice.
Berlin
I recently stayed in Kreuzberg (aka x-berg) while working on a book project and loved having the neighborhood as a base. The Bread Station was cool for traditional breads made with freshly milled flour–peep the mill through the window that faces onto the canal. Konditorei Damaskus a 15-minute walk away sells Syrian pastries.
Tadim Ocakbasi in x-berg is a really solid grill house specializing in charcoal-roasted meats. They serve alcohol. Doyum, which does not, is good for a quick lahmacun and Adana Kebab.
There are tons of fun natural wine spots in town including Jaja and Wild Things in x-berg. Jaja’s wine shop Naked in Mitte is ace. All the places except Naked serve snacks.
If there is another city with more third wave coffee shops I would be shocked. Lots of coffee places also roast their own. I enjoyed Five Elephant in Mitte (there’s another in x-berg), and Ben Rahim (also in Mitte) but there are 1 zillion others. Here’s a nice round-up of top spots from the Barista Institute.
Markethalle Neun (you guessed it, in x-berg) is a fun market hall with a cool butcher, a nice regional cheese shop, produce, and a wine and oyster bar, among other treats.
Getting around town was super easy with the NextBike bikeshare app and Soul Cycle-inspired BeCycle was a decent place for burning off all the sausage and bread and offers a good 2 for 1 class pass for first timers.
North America
One of the many perks of pulling off 70-city book tours includes never being hungry. As I criss-crossed the United States and Canada in support of my cookbooks over the years, I got to explore all sorts of incredible regional North American cuisine, cocktails, and craft brewing. Aside from a few sad airport breakfasts, I loved the food on the road. Check out this page for some highlights.