Which traditional dish would you

Your best bet to find tasty ceviche in Lima is at Chorillos Beach around noon. First Time to Peru? When you think of guinea pigs, you might think of small little critters that make the perfect household pet. However, in countries like Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, guinea pigs or cuy in Spanish is a typical meat used for consumption. This practice originated in the Andes Mountains, where guinea pigs were used as livestock.

Raising guinea pigs in large numbers requires only low maintenance allowing the Andean inhabitants to have a reliable source of meat. The consumption of guinea pig solves the problem of needing to refrigerate or preserve your meat. Peru is one of the best places to go to if you would like to try cuy, where they are still raised to be consumed. As a stable part of Peruvian cuisine , cuy can be easily found in cities located at high elevations such as Cusco.

Typically you will find them cooked in one of three ways - grilled, fried, or roasted. Many compare the taste of cuy to the taste of rabbit, but like all meat, the seasoning plays a major part in the taste of the dish. It is definitely worth a try when you visit Peru, but just don't have high expectations. Compared to other common meats used such as chicken or beef, cuy has very little meat in comparison. The country is also famous and well-known for juicy steak. Beef has been produced and exported in the country for centuries.

Typically the whole cow is used. Try the famous Argentine steak at a steakhouse, known as a parilla. You will find parrillas in every town and city in the country. The parillas in Buenos Aires are some of the best.

You will receive a huge portion of the cut of meat you choose cooked to perfection. One of the more traditional ways to eat your weight in steak is at an asado.

Asado means grill but also refers to the social gathering that revolves around cooking the meats. You will see first hand how the meat is prepared traditionally over a large fire of wood or charcoal instead of on a gas grill. The process is slow, but worth the wait!

Argentineans take great pride in their beef. Try it for yourself to have both the experience of having steak in Argentina and the taste of quality steak. Heading to Patagonia soon? Check out these iconic Chilean foods to try! It's of indigenous Mayan origin as it features toasted squash seeds, chicken, tomatoes, and chiles, ingredients typically found in the highlands of Guatemala.

Although the country itself lies at a southern latitude — situated between Mexico and El Salvador — the altitude of the volcanic mountain ranges of the highlands means temperatures are often chilly especially in the evenings. This means that stews, soups and other warming meals are especially welcome. It's usually served in a clay or pottery bowl alongside white rice, avocado and hand-made corn tortillas. But if you're unable to score an invitation to dine with a local family then your best bet is to seek out a restaurant serving comida tipica — typical food.

In the historic colonial city of Antigua for example, Sabe Rico restaurant serves a version that is highly regarded while Kakao restaurant is popular among visitors to the capital of Guatemala City. Feijoada Fey-joh-ada or feh-wha-da is the most traditional national dish in Brazil, and whether you are planning a trip to Brazil or are just a food lover, I strongly recommend you try feijoada at least once in your lifetime.

What is so special about feijoada? As a traditional Brazilian girl, just saying this magical word makes me hungry. It is a perfect combination of black beans cooked on low heat with beef and pork for hours and hours, stewed to perfection! Traditionally, feijoada is served with rice, collard greens, salsa, farofa cassava flour and orange, which helps with the digestion of all the heavy food on your plate.

Feijoada is typically eaten during the weekend with family or a large group of friends, over an extended lunch period, and it is considered a comforting and heavy food.

The right way to savor it is to eat it slowly. Besides the flavor, the origin of feijoada is also fascinating. It was created by slaves in Brazil who put together the beans and scraps of leftover meat from their owners to create a hearty stew. Traditional Jamaican food is always local — made from what is fresh and locally available from season to season.

Street food rules in Jamaica, and the magic often happens in the most casual settings where half a gallon drum or a simple metal grate over coals serve as a grill. The addition of scotch bonnet peppers make one thing certain, jerk chicken is served from spicy to really spicy.

This delectable dish originated in the Canary Islands, an area many Cubans are descended from. The region was one of the poorest in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries when inhabitants emigrated to Cuba. One of the popular dishes of the time was a mishmash of whatever was left over, little shreds of meat and tidbits of vegetables in a tomato sauce spiced with cumin, pepper and other spices. As time passed and immigrants prospered, the dish evolved.

Better quality beef was used, and the tomato sauce became thicker. Some recipes included peas and red peppers, but the dish always retained its foundation.

The Cuban food in New York City is delicious, and equally good in other parts of the world. Seek it out and give it a try. One of our favorites is Spaghetti alla Carbonara a simple dish originally from Rome. If the addition of egg is not to your liking, try the uniquely Roman dish Cacio e Pepe , a spaghetti dish made with just cheese and lots of black pepper. The richness of Spaghetti Carbonara is quite decadent, and a must-eat when visiting Rome.

Made from a batter of flour, eggs, and milk, these traditional pancakes are baked, then split with a fork or torn into small pieces, and dusted with powdered sugar. They are usually eaten as a dessert, but can also be enjoyed for a hearty lunch. Most travelers visit Slovenia for the incredible scenery and outdoor activities created by such lush surroundings.

But foodies might just be going for the food! Slovenian food is a surprising amalgam of regional influences and is one of the best reasons to visit. Created at the Park Hotel in , this decadent pastry is made with a layer of puff pastry which is filled with custard and sweet vanilla creme. The dessert is so beloved, it has been granted the status of Protected Designation of Origin by the EU, and can only be served by the shops and restaurants at Lake Bled. Take a break and enjoy a slice of heaven with a hot coffee.

A classic French ratatouille recipe is something almost everyone loves. It is traditionally vegan and gluten-free. So unless someone is allergic to nightshade vegetables they will love that it is bursting with flavor.

Ratatouille originates from Nice in the region of Provence, on the Mediterranean coast of France. It uses fresh seasonal vegetables, and is often the prettiest vegetable dish with its layers of sliced vegetables in a tomato sauce that is roasted to perfection.

And while it looks complex, this is a rustic country dish. Once the slicing is done most of the work is done as it is cooked in one pan - making clean-up a breeze.

Some insist that a true ratatouille uses specific vegetables, but zucchini, eggplant and red peppers are most often found in the recipe. And each must be cooked separately to brown properly. Ratatouille is a stunning main dish. But it is also lovely as a side to a larger protein. It is wonderful to place on great french bread, and is delicious on fresh pasta or with a yolky egg on top. This was the arrival point of many Bretons coming to the French capital for better job opportunities and more money.

While Danish pastries are famous around the world, and for delicious reasons, their origin is something few people are familiar with. Danish cuisine has always centered around the bakery. Dense rye breads make up the base of the famous open-faced sandwiches, but the pastries are often the most famous baked goods in Denmark. Their origin, however, actually goes back to Austria. It all started in , when the bakers of Denmark went on a nation-wide strike.

To feed the people, hundreds of Austrian bakers headed to Copenhagen from Vienna and occupied the abandoned kitchens. Along with the new bakers came traditional Austrian recipes and techniques which were immediately popular with the Danish citizens.

As the labor dispute was resolved, many locals encouraged the Danish bakers to hire their Austrian replacements and several did. As the Danes learned from the Austrian bakers, the recipes were altered to adjust to local tastes and ingredients, but the Vienna bread was here to stay as far as the Danes were concerned.

And while the world was happy to credit the Danes, in Denmark the Danish pastries are still credited to their old friends in Austria who took their knowledge to Copenhagen so that Denmark could spread their creations around the world.

At the turn of the 20th century, there were 25, fish and chips shops in the UK. Fish and chips is a fairly standard dish - breaded deep fried fish and thick-cut fries - served with mushy peas. Traditionally, the fish was cod or haddock, deep fried in lard, sprinkled with salt and vinegar and served in newspaper to absorb grease. There are now healthier variations, such as vegetable oil instead of lard.

Moreover, regular old newspaper has been discontinued for food-quality wrapper when it is used. There are also, of course, regional variations such as the Scottish use of brown sauce in lieu of vinegar.

In a nod to the cultural variety of modern day Britain, you can even get curry sauce as a side dip. Even though the British are mainly Protestant, the tradition of eating fish on Fridays continues. There was a tradition of fish and chips for Friday dinner which some people still practice. My children have always had Fish Finger Friday for school lunch since the beginning. If you want to delve deeper into the importance of this dish in the UK, check out the national fish and chips museum in Hull, England.

There are numerous competitors for best fish and chips purveyor and everyone has their own personal favorite. Traditional Dutch food never conquered the world as Italian or Indian food did. And after learning about this particular traditional Dutch food you will surely understand why. The history of herring in The Netherlands dates back to as far as the middle ages around the 5th century when herring was one of the most important commodities, as it was a relatively easy fish to catch along the Dutch coast.

Many fishermen towns existed solely on the profit from herring my hometown Vlaardingen included. Traditionally, herring is preserved in barrels by smoking and salting the herring and adding vinegar. Throughout the years, the Dutch fishermen added their own combination of herbs, spices, and brine, which makes the Dutch herring taste distinctly different from herring in other countries, usually a bit sweeter.

A traditional Dutch herring is served with raw onion and can be bought at fish stalls found at local markets throughout the country. If you want to fit in like a true Dutchman or woman , you are supposed to eat the herring in the not-so-charming Dutch style, by holding the tail and hanging it vertically above your mouth.

Think about the famous Atlantis and the idea of it that comes from Ancient Greece. It could have come about while Aristotle himself dined on some delicious souvlaki. The historical evidence suggests the dish was popular as early as BC. It is no wonder that Souvlaki is the poster child of Greece and Cyprus and pretty much everyone who has been to Mediterranean has had the souvlaki.

It is typically small cubes of meat grilled and eaten off the skewer. The meat often used in Greece is pork but for the sake of tourists they also have vegetarian varieties along with chicken, lamb, and beef.

In some cases it is also called kebabs when the meat is minced. Most people eat the freshly grilled meat on its own but it is also offered with friend potatoes, rice or pita bread.

In fact the most famous version is meat sandwiched between the layers of pita bread filled with fresh or grilled vegetables and mostly chips and sometimes cheese.

Souvlaki is the best of Greek culture when it comes to fast food and a great way to get to know fast food Greek style. You just cannot miss it if you ever visit Greece or Cyprus, both countries offer great options be it food in Athens or Larnaca. Mousaka is one of the most classic Greek dishes you can eat on your travels in Greece.

The dish is made with either eggplant or potatoes as a base. After the eggplant layer, you usually have minced or ground beef topped with bechamel sauce. In every restaurant, in every area of Greece, the dish will be served with slight local variants.

Some Greek tavernas or restaurants will make only a certain amount of mousaka every day, and when it is gone, there is no more for that day.

I have arrived at a restaurant at 8 pm to eat mousaka, only to be told that it was finished and this is in a place where most people eat late. One of my favorite ways to eat it is when it is served in its own casserole dish. The result is a hard crusty top that keeps the heat in the mousaka. Keep in mind that you might not want anything else as the portions are known to be very large in some places if you order it.

One of the most iconic dishes of Spain is paella , a rice dish originally from the region of Valencia, Spain. It was typically eaten by farmers and laborers who used the local ingredients from the countryside and rice fields.

Since then, the recipe has spread to other regions in Spain. The original and "real" paella is called paella valenciana with ingredients that include chicken, rabbit, white beans, and green beans. It also elevates the unique flavor of saffron to new heights. Outside of Spain, most people may be familiar with the paella de mariscos , or seafood paella, which has prawns, mussels, and shrimp.

Of course, many variations have been invented after that. While many cooks mix meat and seafood, Valencian paella purists say the two cannot mix! Traditionally, the paella is cooked over an open fire in a paella pan, which is a round, wide shallow pan. The result is pure deliciousness from the combination of chewy short-grain rice and slow-simmered ingredients that become layered in flavor. Another standout feature of the paella is the socarrat , which is the scrumptious crispy rice crust at the bottom of the pan.

The city of Cebu is considered one of the most famous places in the country for lechon. Lechon is also very popular across Spain and large parts of Latin America, usually reserved for special occasions.

It's one of the many similarities that the Philippines has with Hispanic culture. The leftovers of the lechon are stewed with vinegar and spices and become a delicious dish called paksiw na lechon. Paksiw literally means: to cook and simmer with vinegar. Sinigang is another popular Filipino stew. It is meat-based and more sour and savoury in flavour than a kare kare — usually using tamarind sampalok as the souring agent. Alternative souring agents include guava, tomatoes or kalamansi.

A traditional sinigang is served as a stew or soup, always served with lots of vegetables like okra, water spinach, kang kong , daikon labanos , onions and aubergine eggplants. Pork sinigang baboy is the most common meat for sinigang, but chicken sinigang na manok , beef sinigang na baka and fish sinigang na bangus can also be used.

We enjoyed this soup so much that our Filipina friend BC Lee was kind enough to give us her recipe for sinigang baboy. You can, of course, buy the tamarind mix in a packet from the supermarket, but it's so much more flavoursome if you make it fresh. Kinilaw is similar to the famous Peruvian dish called ceviche. It is a raw fish salad served in an acidic juice, usually kalamansi Filipino lime and vinegar.

More interestingly, vinegar in the Philippines is produced by alcoholic fermentation of coconut water, which is what gives it a sour-sweet flavour. Other ingredients usually in a kinilaw include garlic, ginger, onion, pepper and chilli. Kare kare is a stew with oxtail, ox tripes, lots of vegetables, which is flavoured with ground roasted peanuts or peanut butter , onions and garlic.

Kare Kare is famous throughout the whole country. It is thought to have originated from the Indian soldiers who settled in the Philippines during the British invasion. We tried it in Manila and found it quite tasty. However, the rich peanut sauce makes it super heavy so that after the 3rd spoonful, you feel full!

For most Filipinos, kare kare is seen as comfort food , which they would have eaten for dinner growing up — freshly and lovingly prepared by their inay the Tagalog word for mummy. Balut is a developing duck embryo boiled and eaten as a snack in the shell, often served with a splash of vinegar. This is definitely one of the most famous foods to try in the Philippines and certainly the strangest we've ever tried!

It is a very popular street food, which originated in the Philippines but is also frequently found in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The ideal age of the duck embryo is 17 days when the chick is not old enough to fully show its beak, feathers, claws and the bones are undeveloped. Sounds disgusting? Well in the Philippines, balut is a popular childhood treat.

Locals swear by it and will tell you what a nourishing and wholesome snack it is. It's just calories for each balut and it contains lots of niacin, riboflavin, thiamine, protein, calcium, iron and phosphorus. They loved it and each child rushed to open up the egg and, er, crunch away at the contents inside!

Watch me trying the infamous balut at Puka Beach on Boracay island suffice to say, we think we'll stick to our traditional hard-boiled eggs in future! Chicken adobo is the most famous and popular of all Filipino foods, known and loved by everyone.

It's also one of the best examples of how the country is such a rich melting pot of different historical influences. Upon arrival, they noticed locals using vinegar and salt to marinate their chicken, pork and fish.

They embellished this by adding ingredients they brought with them like garlic and onions. Overtime the salt was replaced with an ingredient introduced by the Chinese — soya sauce, and other ingredients common in the Philippines added, like bay leaves and peppercorns. This was traditionally used as a way of cooking meat because the acid from the vinegar and high salt content of the soya sauce produced an undesirable environment for bacteria.

Other ingredients are added depending on whose recipe you follow. All of our Filipino friends had their own unique way of making adobo, such as one friend insisted using brown sugar, carrots and lime juice, another added coconut milk, another turmeric to make it yellow. Each one we tried was divine! Also bear in mind, an authentic adobo is cooked in a heavy bottomed clay pot. This is the like the heart and soul of any Filipino's momma's kitchen!

Although when we tried to make an authentic adobo in our Airbnb in Manila, we used a wok instead. The result was tasty, but our friends swear to us that the best way is to use a clay pot for the most authentic flavour! Our recipe for chicken adobo has been simplified to enable us to replicate it at home — so minus the clay pot! The most unique twist of adobo we tried was tea-infused adobo at the excellent restaurant: Station 7Tea8S in Quezon City.

Credit card with no exchange fees: our favourite credit card for travelling to the Philippines is Alaska Airlines Credit Card. We also love the fact that there is no expiration on points, so we can redeem them whenever we want with no pressure. The Alaska Airlines credit card has no foreign transaction fees which means we get the best exchange rate when travelling and it comes with many perks when we travel on Alaska Airlines or partner airlines.

What else could you ask for? No need to think twice! Transportation: Public transportation is really cheap in The Philippines, but why use buses when you can get a taxi for a fraction of what it would cost at home. Uber is wildly used in the Philippines, however excellent alternatives include Cabify and Easytaxi. Travel insurance: You wouldn't buy a car without a car insurance. The same way you wouldn't get a mortgage without getting a life insurance. When it comes to travelling, the logic is the same!

Whether you go diving, hiking or just lay on the beach all day long, you need travel insurance. We use World Nomads because they offer considerable coverage especially for adventurous travellers.

Flights: International flights to The Philippines can be pricey. We recommend Skyscanner to research your flights. We actually found some really good business class flights deals using Skyscanner. Their website is very easy to use and they always offer the best prices. You can even search for the cheapest flights for any given month. Google Flights is another tool we loved using, as it allows you to search for the best business class fares for any given month and destination.

Very often, we have found business class flights with fully flat bed for the same price as an economy ticket, thanks to Google Flights. Hotels : The Philippines has a huge diversity of accommodation options. When we plan a holiday, we use Tripadvisor to research the best places to stay and activities to do.

We also use Booking. The information we present in this guide is from our experience and perspective travelling as a gay couple in the Philippines, a destination we found to be one of the most gay friendly countries in Asia.

However, homophobia is still prevalent in more rural and remote areas, so LGBTQ travellers should take care. Also, we advise all travellers to avoid the south, especially Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago and the Zamboanga Peninsula as violent crime is prevalent there. For more, read out our article about why we think the Philippines is such a gay friendly country. This is our video of our travels around the Philippines as a gay couple, focusing on the awesome gay scene of Manila , party island Boracay pre-cleanup!

We recommend you always take out travel insurance before your next vacation. What happens if you suffer from illness, injury, theft or a cancellation? With travel insurance, you can have peace of mind and not worry.

We love World Nomads travel insurance and have been using it for years. Their comprehensive coverage is second to none and their online claims process is very user friendly. Sebastien is the co-founder, editor and author of nomadicboys. Although created in the s, these fried chicken wings doused in a cayenne-vinegar hot sauce buffalo sauce are ubiquitous bar snacks. Buffalo chicken wings was first served in the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York , and are now one of the the most popular bar foods.

Yes, we love French Fries too but, for an American variation on the traditional spud, you have to try tater tots.

These grated potato mini-balls which are cylindrical in shape and fried with a crispy exterior are found in breakfast spots, fast food joints and diners.

Nothing complements a summer cookout or a baseball game better than an all-American hot dog. There are regional variations of it — for example, New York-style with ketchup and relish and Chicago-style served on a poppy seed bun with absolutely no ketchup. Probably the most iconic of American foods, apple pie was first introduced in the States by British and Dutch immigrants.

The classic corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut sandwich is synonymous with American delis. The biscuits are traditionally made with butter or lard and buttermilk; the country gravy with meat drippings and usually chunks of fresh pork sausage and black pepper. Nowadays, biscuits can be found with all sorts of ingredients — bacon and chive combination is a popular one. Comfort food at its best, most American households will have a family recipe for their version. Typically, it involves ground meat and seasonings, made into a loaf shape either using a loaf pan or hand-shaped, roasted and then topped with sauce or just ketchup!

The first time you try grits, you probably wonder what the heck it is. A dish made from coarsely ground corn kernels, grits can be extremely versatile. Typically found in savory versions, they can also be made sweet.

A classic dish is shrimp and grits, but grits are also a popular breakfast item, in place of oatmeal.