It is the major coffee brand in California. It has largest market share of 21.6 %. It has a huge demand in public. People prefer it a lot. Have a sip of flogger and you will wake up at once. Its flavor is very strong and scrumptious. This coffee smells good too.
02 Starbucks
Starbucks is another famous brand of all times. It is famous for its
strong effective flavor. If you drink a lot strong coffee, then
Starbucks is the one for you. It also has a lot many flavors which are
loved and demanded by many people all round the world. It is
manufactured in USA. It is very famous in USA.
03 Maxwell House
Maxwell house is the second most famous and favorite coffee or majority
people in the world. Maxwell house coffee have all flavors of coffee
which includes, Irish cream, latte and mocha. Maxwell also smells good
and soothing.
04 Boss Coffee
It is also a product of USA. Boss coffee’s flavor is really strong and
high and it could open your eyes at once. It is very famous among
American people. It also has many unique flavors which also include new
mint flavor and strong Choco double mocha flavor. Also, this coffee
brand has coffee for diabetic people.
05 Millstone
It is another private coffee brand. Its flavor is very good and
delicious. Its strong flavor will add a courage and strength to your
life. If you have a tight routine and you have to work late at night,
then drink this in the morning. If you need to work whole night and want
to stay awake then drink a small cup of espresso millstone and you will
be open to the world for the work.
06 Nescafe
Here comes the most popular and delicious coffee brand of all times
which people prefer to drink anytime. They have strong, mild and light
coffee flavors. Nescafe coffee has a large range of variety in flours
and kinds. Nescafe coffee is fluffy, creamy and very frothy. It is one
of the famous oldest brands of all time.
Nescafe has conquered the world of coffee very successfully. Their
quality is also same as it was at day one. The most amazing thing about
Nescafe is that it is cheaper than other brands. Anyone can afford it.
07 Moccona
Last but not the least; this coffee brand is also very famous and
delicious. You will never repent trying this brand. It has an amazingly
different flavor of coffee. Its smell will refresh you and your early
morning…
08 Eight’o’clock
Eight o clocks is also a very popular coffee company in USA and also in
New Zealand and Europe. It has major export benefit. As the name shows,
it will keep you fresh and awake from 8 am to 8 pm. You will enjoy the
intense strong coffee flavor the whole day. You can enjoy the flavor
anytime you want. It is the oldest coffee brand. It was introduced in
1858. It helps you to work with great energy boost.
09 Douwe Egberts Coffee
Douwe Egberts is an international coffee tradition celebrating 250 years of excellent taste. Born in the Netherlands in 1753, Douwe Egberts now can be found in many countries around the world. The brand continues to be recognized for it's wide range of coffees in retail markets, but also in offices, fine hotels, restaurants and cafés
10 Seattle’s Best
Seattle’s best is a coffee house in Seattle in USA. They have a huge demand from people. They have a high market share and they have a very good quality coffee. They have variety of coffee flavors. Also, they have introduced coffee for weight loss and dibasic people. Coffee companies have made everyone’s life easier than ever before. It is no more difficult to get coffee at every spot of the city. This coffee brand is one of the famous largest brands.
Ingredients
I cooked this in a rice cooker but you can use a pressure cooker for this too.
Sping Onion
Yellow onion cut fine
Cups cabbage cut fine
Tbsp oil
Tbsp Chings schezuan sauce
01 Balut
2. Sannakji
4. Fugu
5. Hakarl
6. Stuffed Camel
7. Rocky Mountain Oysters
8. Bugs
10 Fried - brain sandwiches
Balut seems to be on every "strange food" list, usually at the top, and for good reason. Though no longer wriggling on the plate like the live octopus in Korea, the fertilized duck or chicken egg with a nearly-developed embryo that is boiled and eaten in the shell is easily one of the strangest foods in the world. Balut is very common in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam and usually sold by street vendors. It is said balut tastes like egg and duck (or chicken), which is essentially what it is. It is surprising to many that a food that appears so bizarre—often the with the bird's features clearly developed--can taste so banal. In the end, apparently everything does indeed, just taste like chicken.
2. Sannakji
With sashimi and sushi readily available the world over, eating raw
seafood is no longer considered a dining adventure. The Korean delicacy
sannakji however, is something quite different, as the seafood isn't
quite dead. Live baby octopus are sliced up and seasoned with sesame
oil. The tentacles are still squirming when this dish is served and, if
not chewed carefully, the tiny suction cups can stick to the mouth and
throat. This is not a dish for the fainthearted.
3. Casu Marzu
Found in the city of Sardinia in Italy, casu marzu is a cheese that is
home to live insect larvae. These larvae are deliberately added to the
cheese to promote a level of fermentation that is close to
decomposition, at which point the cheese’s fats are broken down. The
tiny, translucent worms can jump up to half a foot if disturbed, which
explains why some people prefer to brush off the insects before enjoying
a spoonful of the pungent cheese.
Fugu is the Japanese word for the poisonous puffer fish, filled with
enough of the poison tetrodotoxin to be lethal. Only specially-trained
chefs, who undergo two to three years of training and have passed an
official test, can prepare the fish. Some chefs will choose to leave a
minute amount of poison in the fish to cause a tingling sensation on the
tongue and lips as fugu can be quite bland. Perhaps the fuss of fugu is
more in surviving the experience than the actual taste of the deadly
fish.
5. Hakarl
Anthony Bourdain, known for eating some of the strangest foods in the
world, claims that hakarl is the most disgusting thing he has ever
eaten. Made by gutting a Greenland or Basking shark and then fermenting
it for two to four months, hakarl is an Icelandic food that reeks with
the smell of ammonia. It is available all year round in Icelandic stores
and often served in cubes on toothpicks.
The recipe for a whole stuffed camel kind of reads like a bad joke, with
ingredients that include one whole camel, one whole lamb and 20 whole
chickens. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the recipe as the
largest item on any menu in the world, conveniently leaving out any
concrete examples of this dish actually being eaten. Legend has it that
that a whole stuffed camel is a traditional Bedouin dish seemingly
prepared like a Russian Stacking Doll, where a camel is stuffed with a
whole lamb, the lamb stuffed with the chickens and the chickens stuffed
with eggs and rice. The entire concoction is then barbecued until cooked
and served. Fact or fiction, the shear amount of food created by this
dish makes it deserving of a place on the list.
7. Rocky Mountain Oysters
What is so strange about oysters? Probably the fact that they're not the
kind you find at the bottom of the ocean, but rather a fancy name given
to deep-fried testicles of a buffalo, bull or boar. Rocky Mountain
oysters (also called Prairie Oysters) are well-known and regularly
enjoyed, in certain parts of the United States and Canada, generally
where cattle ranching is prevalent. The testicles are peeled, boiled,
rolled in a flour mixture, and fried, then generally served with a nice
cocktail sauce.
8. Bugs
The practice of eating insects for food is called entomophagy and is
fairly common in many parts of the world, with the exceptions of Europe
and North America (though bugs are apparently a favorite with the
television show "Fear Factor"). It is not uncommon to find vendors
selling fried grasshoppers, crickets, scorpions, spiders and worms on
the streets of Bangkok, Thailand. Insects are high in protein and
apparently consist of important fatty acids and vitamins. In fact flour
from drying and grinding up mealworm can be and is often used to make
chocolate chip cookies. So next time you think there is a fly in your
soup, it may actually just be part of the presentation.
9. Haggis
A traditional Scottish dish, haggis is made with the minced heart, liver
and lung of a sheep mixed with onion, spices, oatmeal, salt and stock,
and boiled in the sheep's stomach for a few hours. Larousse
Gastronomique, a popular encyclopedia of gastronomic delights, claims
that haggis has "an excellent nutty texture and delicious savory
flavor." Haggis is available year-round in Scottish supermarkets and
made with an artificial casing rather than a sheep’s stomach. In fact
some are sold in cans to be heated in a microwave before eating. Similar
dishes can be found in other European countries with goat, pork or beef
used instead of sheep.
10 Fried - brain sandwiches
Long before the era of Mad-Cow Disease, a sandwich made from fried
calves' brain, thinly sliced on white bread was a common item on the
menus in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The sandwich is still available in
the Ohio River Valley, where the brains are now heavily battered and
served on hamburger buns. In El Salvador and Mexico beef brains,
lovingly called sesos in Spanish, are used in tacos and burritos. The
brains have a mushy texture and very little flavor on their own so the
addition of copious amounts of hot sauce definitely helps.
We love to write about food. We love to celebrate the good stuff and lambaste the bad.
But there's a debate we've avoided, if only to save computer screens the world over from the liters of spittle that will fly from the mouths of irate readers as they vent incredulously about our "ignorant, biased, un-researched and unreasoned" choices.
Which is why, having taken the plunge, we want to turn this particular piece over to you, and ask: which country has the best food?
It's time to find out once and for all, which cuisine is king.
America knows how to dish up a spot-hitter.No one ever says "let's go out and get some American food tonight." And yet we eat it all the time.
This may be because most of the popular American foods 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 dishes either.
There's the traditional stuff like 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.
Mmmmexico.If you were only allowed to eat one type of food for the rest of your life, it would be smart to make it Mexican.
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.
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, Thailand and reported to be responsible for bile duct cancer.
Greek olives: great things in small packages.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 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.
Anything from a surly, sweaty Indian man will probably taste great.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.
The fish dish is two millimeters too far to the right.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 multi-course 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.
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
Jamón ibérico -- 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.
Unicorn feed.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.
All my troubles seem so far away.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.
Cheesy in pasta but not in personality.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.
But there's a debate we've avoided, if only to save computer screens the world over from the liters of spittle that will fly from the mouths of irate readers as they vent incredulously about our "ignorant, biased, un-researched and unreasoned" choices.
Which is why, having taken the plunge, we want to turn this particular piece over to you, and ask: which country has the best food?
It's time to find out once and for all, which cuisine is king.
10. United States
America knows how to dish up a spot-hitter.No one ever says "let's go out and get some American food tonight." And yet we eat it all the time.
This may be because most of the popular American foods 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 dishes either.
There's the traditional stuff like 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
Mmmmexico.If you were only allowed to eat one type of food for the rest of your life, it would be smart to make it Mexican.
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, Thailand and reported to be responsible for bile duct cancer.
7. Greece
Greek olives: great things in small packages.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 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
Anything from a surly, sweaty Indian man will probably taste great.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
The fish dish is two millimeters too far to the right.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 multi-course 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
Jamón ibérico -- 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
Unicorn feed.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
All my troubles seem so far away.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
Cheesy in pasta but not in personality.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.