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New Orleans. Brothers Food Mart, 2012. A convenience store that was serving the best fried chicken. So unassuming. So delicious.

There was also another hole-in-the-wall bar that had the best gumbo that we ate after trying Oysters Rockefeller somewhere else.

We’re from Toronto and that trip was years ago but we still speak fondly of the food and the people of New Orleans to this day.

Approdo pizzeria ristorante https://g.co/kgs/ZoDvjGc the most amazing house special pizza.

I would teleport to 2006 Chiang Mai, Thailand. Roll out of the club at 2am and get delicious noodles by the side of the road. You could probably get better food but not for 20p, UK. Good times.

You know, it isn't even that far from me. I can drive there in a half hour.

But I'd still pick it over some of the fancier places I've been.

Reason being, they have the best Reuben I've ever had. Better than my own, and that's saying a lot. My Reubens are amazing.

But this deli, and finding any deli out here in the south, in the mountains, that's pulling teeth to begin with.

But this place makes their own corned beef, sources their cheese well, makes their own kraut, has the bread made locally, and just throws some kind of magic on it all. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

They do chopped corned beef, that they then lightly cook on the griddle while the bread toasts on the side with the cheese melting. Then the beef goes on the other side, they scoop on the kraut, letting the juices run freely. The the dressing and the sandwich gets closed, then moved across the griddle, picking up hints of the kraut juice and the fats from the beef.

And they don't fuck around. The damn things are dummy thick. Something like a third pound of corned beef, a cup or so of kraut.

Then, they cut this gorgeous fucking monster in half, and put it in a paper lined basket with a giant fucking pickle cut into spears right in front of you.

This is the kind of sandwich you make love to, gently, over an hour or so. This ain't something you shove in your mouth and run back to school or work. You know the itis is going to hit before the first half is finished, and you may need to just pack the second half up and go home, defeated but satisfied. But, if you planned ahead and didn't eat, and you have time to address this beauty slowly, every bite just gets better as you go.

It's the perfect Reuben, which is already one of the "perfect" sandwiches to begin with.

Like, my Reuben is fucking bomb. I've crafted my way of making one over decades, and it is amazing, but I'm limited by ingredients. I don't have the level of experience, or the room, to properly make the corned beef or kraut myself, so I can only use what I can buy. Now, I can source the cheese well, and my cousin is the source for that deli, and my own source. I make my own dressing, and I kill that. I can make bread better than what they get, though that's only been the last seven years or so.

But man, the synergy they have, and the way they cook it on the griddle, I just can't match at all. The technique, the timing, with that corned beef and kraut? I could jizz my pants just thinking about it.

Depends on whether I can teleport back when I'm done

Fabel Friet, Amsterdam

There used to be a small mom and pop shop near Ebisu in Tokyo that made my favorite okonomiyaki, but they closed during covid. I would go back and just appreciate the empty shop for what it was

Koco in Valkenburg, I do not need to teleport...it is a few km from where we live. Next time we treat good friends there. Food is delicious.

What a fun question! A restaurant in Paris! I ate snails there and they were the most delicious things I'd ever eaten. I'm veggie now so I can't have them but the other food was stunning too.

There was this roadside restaurant near to a small town in Latvia, maybe an hour drive from Riga, that had just amazing Khashlama soup, but unfortunately it burned down recently 😭

It's not maybe the best or fanciest place I've ever eaten, but it felt just right, the food was great and I doubt I'll ever get to eat there again

RESTAURACE ČESKÝ RÁJ

But I would also need a time machine because they closed :(