If you're anything like me, food is an extremely important part of traveling. Getting the chance to taste different dishes and flavors from around the world is one of my greatest joys in life.
So I asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell me about something they've eaten while traveling that they still crave often. The responses genuinely made me hungry. Here are the foods they still dream about, including a few responses from food-minded travelers on Reddit and a couple of my own.
1. "Portuguese custard tarts, pastéis de nata. My family had these in Lisbon several years ago, and my daughter still considers them the best dessert in the world. You can find them elsewhere. In fact, we have a box in our freezer right now. But they don’t compare to the flaky crust and creamy filling you get in Portugal."
2. "Currywurst. I first had it in Austria, and I've been craving it ever since. I finally figured out where to get the Gewürz ketchup and have made it at home, but nothing beats a fresh currywurst with fries and mayo. I'm salivating just thinking about it."
3. "There’s this frozen, blended espresso I had in Italy that is unrivaled. I still can taste it, and I crave it!"
4. "I know the best pizza should be found in Italy, but the best pizza I’ve ever eaten was in a small town called Altea in Spain. It was a fresh margherita pizza that I enjoyed with a frozen lemonade on a cobblestone patio outside of an old church, overlooking the Mediterranean. When I used to visit my grandmother, we would go here for pizza, and it was perfect every single time. I still think about it often."
5. "Arepas from Venezuela and Colombia. They’re so simple but so delicious and versatile. Whether you like meat or are vegetarian or vegan, there are options for everyone."
6. "Duck tacos in Mexico City. I've been to Mexico City a handful of times, and during each visit, I make sure to eat my body weight in tacos. Every taco is a heavenly experience, but the duck tacos from El Auténtico Pato Manila are the ones I crave all the time when I'm home. This Filipino Mexican fusion place serves what I would describe as a Peking duck carnitas hybrid. It's served on a scallion pancake tortilla with hoisin sauce, scallion, and spicy chili oil. It's truly out of this world, and I'd eat it every day if I could."
7. "On a European cruise, I stopped for a day in Genoa where I took a culinary tour around the city. There were so many good dishes, but the one I'll never forget was the pesto lasagna. Genoa is known as the birthplace of pesto, so it was pretty phenomenal. This was also my first time having traditional lasagna made with béchamel instead of cheese, and the combination of béchamel and pesto was heavenly."
8. "Graham's Gold Top Jersey Milk in England. It's the creamiest, smoothest, and just the best milk I ever had. It made my coffee so luxurious. Every sip was like a hug for my tongue."
9. "Hot dogs in Iceland! They have the best freaking mustard I’ve ever tasted!"
10. "The one dish I still think about sometimes is khao soi from Chiang Mai. I would hop on a flight to Thailand right now to have it again."
11. "I had this incredible red bell pepper sorbet at an ice cream shop in Pornic, a town on the west coast of France. I've never found anything like it ever again."
12. "The Danish smørrebrød I ate in Copenhagen. It's a simple open-faced sandwich, but so fresh and incredible. You can find smørrebrød in so many different varieties. Rye bread is a core component, but the topping may include ingredients like shrimp, fish, egg salad, and more. Every time I see smørrebrød on a menu in America, I get so excited, but we always get them wrong here. It's just not the same."
13. "I lived in China for a while, and I miss so many authentic Chinese food items. The Chinese food you get at restaurants in other countries is nothing like real Chinese food. My absolute favorites were dumplings, baozi (steamed buns with filling), and fried noodles from little street restaurants. I lived in Sichuan for the most part so I was lucky enough to eat my fair share of their spicy and delicious Sichuan cuisine. I travelled to several other provinces, but IMO Sichuan food beats all the rest."
14. "When I roadtripped through the southern US, I tried lots of different regional BBQ, and I crave it all. I drove through Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina, and Mississippi, trying the different types of BBQ in all these different states, and it was all so good. I think I gained 10kg on that trip. I'd plan another roadtrip just to revisit all these food memories."
15. "When I was 17, I went on a school exchange to Germany. Our host family let us spend a day on our own exploring Heidelberg. We had these amazing hot fresh pretzels, studded with salt, and filled with cold, creamy butter. I’ve never met a pretzel I didn’t love, but I’ve never had one that compared to this."
16. "Georgian cheese bread called khachapuri. You can get it in the US, but the ingredients are not as fresh or authentic. There are two traditional cheeses used in this dish called sulguni and imereti, and those are definitely tough, if not impossible, to find in the States. Luckily for me, my mother-in-law makes khachapuri every morning when I go to Georgia."
17. "I was in the Caribbean 12 years ago and experienced a high tea ceremony where we had tea sandwiches with this filling that was absolutely AMAZING. I have been searching for it ever since, and I have yet to find it anywhere else. It tasted like some mixture of artichoke, mayo, and some seasoning. If you live in the Caribbean and happen to know what this filling is, PLEASE help me! It was so damn good, and I have just been trying to find the same recipe ever since."
18. "In Barcelona's largest covered market, a magical place called La Boqueria, there are juice stands that sell a ton of flavors of freshly squeezed fruit juices. During my few months living in Barcelona, I found myself obsessed with the coconut juice. I've tried replicating it at home, and I've searched the world for it, but to my dismay, I've never found anything else like it."
19. "I fell instantly in love with the sardines in Portugal. My favorite kind of meal was having them grilled at a seaside cafe. They were juicy, extremely flavorful, smoky, and I couldn't get enough. They were also bigger than any fresh sardine I've seen in the US. Somehow, the €9 plate there was so much better than what we were served at the fancy restaurant the night before."
20. "My husband is from New Orleans, and whenever we go, I have a food list a mile long, including beignets from Café du Monde and a muffuletta from Central Grocery, to name a few. But the one thing I MUST get before coming home is the char-grilled oysters from Drago's. They are covered in a parmesan garlic butter sauce and are HEAVEN. I'm salivating just thinking about them."
21. "About 15 years ago, my husband and I went to Barcelona. To this day, I still eat pan tomate for breakfast."
22. "Bajan fish cakes from Barbados. You can’t get them anywhere in the UK. I even got a recipe from a local to try to make them myself, but they don’t taste anywhere as good as the fish cakes I had there."
23. "In Portugal, there is a dish I had called bacalhau com natas, which translates to cod fish in cream sauce. It's the greatest thing ever: cheesy potatoes, flaky fish, and béchamel sauce. Heaven with every bite."
24. "Violet-flavored gelato in Nice, France. There was a gelato cart by the beach there where I tried this flavor, and I ended up going back every day for it. I still dream about it."
25. "I found the best Korean food I’ve ever eaten in a small Hawaiian marketplace in Waikoloa. I had the absolute best kimchi fried rice with bulgogi and mandu I have ever eaten. 🤤"
26. "When I was just 14 years old on a holiday in Palma, Mallorca, we went to a small, family-run restaurant for dinner. I had the best tomato soup of my entire life, complete with ham and super fresh tomatoes. Twenty-six years have passed, and I'm still searching for a tomato soup to match it."
27. "My husband and I went to Maine for our anniversary one year, and we had in mind to go to the Holy Donut after hearing Andrew Zimmern rave about them. These donuts contain riced potatoes in the dough, and holy shit, they were hands down the greatest donuts we'd ever had. The place was packed, and people were ordering donuts, sitting and eating, and then getting back in line for more. I still think about them often. We will be trying many more flavors next time we are in Maine, and could not recommend this place more."
28. "Pão de queijo in Brazil. It's SO good. They are little cheesy balls of goodness."
29. "Driving through Annapolis, Maryland with my family about a decade ago, we stopped at a random pub-style restaurant where I had the most divine crab cakes. They quite literally melted in my mouth. I still think fondly about those perfect bites of heaven."
30. "Trdelník in Prague. It's a Czech pastry, and the best way I can describe it is a cone-shaped churro that is filled with ice cream and other toppings like chocolate and whipped cream. It changed my life."
Do you have a food or drink to add to this list? Tell me about something you've eaten while traveling that you have never stopped thinking about, or drop it into this Google form if you'd prefer to stay anonymous.
Note: Some entries have been edited for length and/or clarity.