Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Which country has the best food?

Italy and spaghetti? Hong Kong's dim sum? Or French escargots? When it comes to world cuisine, what are the 10 best food cultures?

We love to write about food and drink. We love to celebrate the good stuff and lambaste the bad.

This is our take on some of the best food cultures and destinations, but of course it's subjective.

It's time to find out once and for all, which cuisine is king as you plan where you'll travel next:


10. United States
This may be because most of the popular foods in the USA originate in some other country. The pizza slice is Italian. Fries are Belgium or Dutch. Hamburgers and frankfurters? Likely German. But in the kitchens of the United States, they have been improved and added to, to become global icons for food lovers everywhere.

Don't neglect the homegrown American dishes either.

There's the traditional stuff such as clam chowder, key lime pie and Cobb salad, and most importantly the locavore movement of modern American food started by Alice Waters. This promotion of eco-awareness in food culture is carried on today by Michelle Obama.

Yum

Cheeseburger - a perfect example of making good things greater.

Chocolate chip cookie - the world would be a little less habitable without this Americana classic.

Dumb


All overly processed foods such as Twinkies, Hostess cakes and KFC.


9. Mexico
If you were only allowed to eat the food of one country the rest of your life, it would be smart to make it Mexico. The cuisine of the Mesoamerican country has a little bit of everything - you'll never get bored.

Amongst the enchiladas and the tacos and the helados and the quesadillas you'll find the zestiness of Greek salads and the richness of an Indian curry; the heat of Thai food and the use-your-hands snackiness of tapas. It is also central station for nutritional superfoods. All that avocado, tomato, lime and garlic with beans and chocolates and chilies to boot, is rich with antioxidants and good healthful things. It doesn't taste healthy though. It tastes like a fiesta in your mouth.

Yum

Mole - ancient sauce made of chili peppers, spices, chocolate and magic incantations.

Tacos al pastor - the spit-roast pork taco, a blend of the pre- and post-Colombian.

Tamales - an ancient Mayan food of masa cooked in a leaf wrapping.

Dumb

Tostadas - basically the same as a taco or burrito but served in a crispy fried tortilla which breaks into pieces as soon as you bite into it. Impossible to eat.


8. Thailand
Street eats are a Thai attraction. Flip through a Thai cook book and you'll be hard pressed to find an ingredient list that doesn't run a page long. The combination of so many herbs and spices in each dish produces complex flavors that somehow come together like orchestral music. Thais fit spicy, sour, salty, sweet, chewy, crunchy and slippery into one dish.

With influences from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and a royal culinary tradition, Thai cuisine is the best of many worlds. The best part about eating Thai food in Thailand though is the hospitality. Sun, beach, service with a smile and a plastic bag full of som tam - that's the good life.

Yum

Tom yam kung - a rave party for the mouth. The floral notes of lemongrass, the earthy galangal, freshness of kaffir lime leaves and the heat of the chilies.

Massaman curry - a Thai curry with Islamic roots. Topped our list of the world's 50 most delicious foods.

Som tam - the popular green papaya salad is sour, extra spicy, sweet and salty. It's the best of Thai tastes.

Dumb

Pla som - a fermented fish eaten uncooked is popular in Lawa and reported to be responsible for bile duct cancer.


7. Greece
Traveling and eating in Greece feels like a glossy magazine spread come to life, but without the Photoshopping. Like the blue seas and white buildings, the kalamata olives, feta cheese, the colorful salads and roast meats are all postcard perfect by default.

The secret? Lashings of glistening olive oil. Gift of the gods, olive oil is arguably Greece's greatest export, influencing the way people around the world think about food and nutritional health. Eating in Greece is also a way of consuming history. A bite of dolma or a slurp of lentil soup gives a small taste of life in ancient Greece, when they were invented.

Yum

Olive oil - drizzled on other food, or soaked up by bread, is almost as varied as wine in its flavors.

Spanakopita - makes spinach palatable with its feta cheese mixture and flaky pastry cover.

Gyros - late-night drunk eating wouldn't be the same without the pita bread sandwich of roast meat and tzatziki.

Dumb

Lachanorizo - basically cabbage and onion cooked to death then mixed with rice. Filling, but one-dimensional.


6. India
When a cuisine uses spices in such abundance that the meat and vegetables seem like an afterthought, you know you're dealing with cooks dedicated to flavor. There are no rules for spice usage as long as it results in something delicious. The same spice can add zest to savory and sweet dishes, or can sometimes be eaten on its own -- fennel seed is enjoyed as a breath-freshening digestive aid at the end of meals.

And any country that manages to make vegetarian food taste consistently great certainly deserves some kind of Nobel prize. The regional varieties are vast. There's Goa's seafood, there's the wazwan of Kashmir and there's the coconutty richness of Kerala.

Yum

Dal - India has managed to make boiled lentils exciting.

Dosa - a pancake filled with anything from cheese to spicy vegetables, perfect for lunch or dinner.

Chai - not everyone likes coffee and not everyone likes plain tea, but it's hard to resist chai.

Dumb

Balti chicken - an invention for the British palate, should probably have died out with colonialism.


5. Japan
Japanese apply the same precision to their food as they do to their engineering. This is the place that spawned tyrannical sushi masters and ramen bullies who make their staff and customers tremble with a glare.

You can get a lavish multicourse kaiseki meal that presents the seasons in a spread of visual and culinary poetry. Or grab a seat at a revolving sushi conveyor for a solo feast. Or pick up something random and previously unknown in your gastronomic lexicon from the refrigerated shelves of a convenience store. It's impossible to eat badly in Japan.

Yum

Miso soup - showcases some of the fundamental flavors of Japanese food, simple and wholesome.

Sushi and sashimi - who knew that raw fish on rice could become so popular?

Tempura - the perfection of deep-frying. Never greasy, the batter is thin and light like a crisp tissue.

Dumb

Fugu - is anything really that delicious that it's worth risking your life to eat? The poisonous blowfish recently killed diners in Egypt, but is becoming more available in Japan.


4. Spain
Let's eat and drink, then sleep, then work for two hours, then eat and drink. Viva Espana, that country whose hedonistic food culture we all secretly wish was our own. All that bar-hopping and tapas-eating, the minimal working, the 9 p.m. dinners, the endless porron challenges - this is a culture based on, around and sometimes even inside food.

The Spaniards gourmandize the way they flamenco dance, with unbridled passion. They munch on snacks throughout the day with intervals of big meals. From the fruits of the Mediterranean Sea to the spoils of the Pyrenees, from the saffron and cumin notes of the Moors to the insane molecular experiments of Ferran Adria, Spanish food is timeless yet avant garde.

Yum

Jamon Iberico - a whole cured ham hock usually carved by clamping it down in a wooden stand like some medieval ritual.

Churros - the world's best version of sweet fried dough.

Dumb

Gazpacho - it's refreshing and all, but it's basically liquid salad.


3. France
If you're one of those people who doesn't like to eat because "there's more to life than food" - visit Paris. It's a city notorious for its curmudgeonly denizens, but they all believe in the importance of good food. Two-hour lunch breaks for three-course meals are de rigeur.

Entire two-week vacations are centered on exploring combinations of wines and cheeses around the country. Down-to-earth cooking will surprise those who thought of the French as the world's food snobs (it is the birthplace of the Michelin Guide after all). Cassoulet, pot au feu, steak frites are revelatory when had in the right bistro.

Yum

Escargot - credit the French for turning slimey, garden-dwelling pests into a delicacy. Massive respect for making them taste amazing too.

Macarons - like unicorn food. In fact anything from a patisserie in France seems to have been conjured out of sugar, fairy dust and the dinner wishes of little girls.

Baguette - the first and last thing that you'll want to eat in France. The first bite is transformational; the last will be full of longing.

Dumb

Foie gras - it tastes like 10,000 ducks roasted in butter then reduced to a velvet pudding, but some animal advocates decry the cruelty of force-feeding fowl to fatten their livers.


2. China
The people who greet each other with "Have you eaten yet?" are arguably the most food-obsessed in the world. Food has been a form of escapism for the Chinese throughout its tumultuous history.

The Chinese entrepreneurial spirit and appreciation for the finer points of frugality - the folks are cheap, crafty and food-crazed - results in one of the bravest tribes of eaters in the world. But the Chinese don't just cook and sell anything, they also make it taste great.

China is the place to go to get food shock a dozen times a day. "You can eat that?" will become the intrepid food traveler's daily refrain. China's regional cuisines are so varied it's hard to believe they're from the same nation. It's not a food culture you can easily summarize, except to say you'll invariably want seconds.


Yum

Sweet and sour pork - a guilty pleasure that has taken on different forms.

Dim sum - a grand tradition from Hong Kong to New York.

Roast suckling pig and Peking duck - wonders of different styles of ovens adopted by Chinese chefs.

Xiaolongbao - incredible soup-filled surprises. How do they get that dumpling skin to hold all that hot broth?

Dumb

Shark's fin soup - rallying for Chinese restaurants to ban the dish has been a pet issue of green campaigners in recent years.


1. Italy
Italian food has enslaved tastebuds around the globe for centuries, with its zesty tomato sauces, those clever things they do with wheat flour and desserts that are basically vehicles for cream. It's all so simple. Get some noodles, get some olive oil, get some garlic, maybe a tomato or a slice of bacon. Bam, you have a party on a plate. And it is all so easy to cook and eat.

From the cheesy risottos to the crisp fried meats, Italian cuisine is a compendium of crowd-pleasing comfort food. Many people have welcomed it into their homes, especially novice cooks. Therein lies the real genius -- Italian food has become everyman's food.

Yum

Ragu alla bolognese (spaghetti bolognaise) - the world's go-to "can't decide what to have" food.

Pizza - mind-bogglingly simple yet satisfying dish. Staple diet of bachelors and college students.

Italian-style salami - second only to cigarettes as a source of addiction.

Coffee - cappuccino is for breakfast? Forget it. We want it all day and all night.

Dumb

Buffalo mozzarella - those balls of spongy, off-white, subtly flavored cheeses of water buffalo milk. The flavor's so subtle you have to imagine it.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
×