London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 03, 2025

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.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
Woody Allen: "I Would Be Happy to Direct Trump Again in a Film"
Pickles are the latest craze among Generation Z in the United States.
Deadline Day Delivers Record £125m Isak Move and Donnarumma to City
Nestlé Removes CEO Laurent Freixe Following Undisclosed Relationship with Subordinate
Giuliani Seriously Injured in Accident – Trump to Award Him the Presidential Medal of Freedom
EU is getting aggressive: Four AfD Candidates Die Unexpectedly Ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia Local Elections
Lula and Putin Hold Strategic BRICS Discussions Ahead of Trump–Putin Summit
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that looks a lot like Telegram.
Investigations Reveal Rise in ‘Sex-for-Rent’ Listings Across Canada Exploiting Vulnerable Tenants
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
×