[ THE DISPATCH ]
City Guides
Deep dives into neighbourhoods, food and culture. 181 dispatches and counting.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Hanoi's Tay Ho: The Expat Lakeside Food Scene
Tay Ho is where Hanoi's expats and the city's best banh mi quietly coexist around West Lake. Here's where to eat — the bun cha, the lakeside coffee, and the spots locals keep to themselves.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Ho Chi Minh City: District 1 vs. the Real Cholon
District 1 hands you the banh mi and the pho the easy way. But cross into Cholon — Saigon's old Chinatown — and the food gets older, weirder, and a whole lot better. Here's how to eat both.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Hong Kong: Dai Pai Dong, Dim Sum, and Cha Chaan Teng
A where-to-eat Hong Kong food guide built on three institutions: smoky dai pai dong, proper dim sum, and the gloriously cheap cha chaan teng. Real names, prices, and the times to go.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Istanbul's Kadıköy: The Asian-Side Food Capital
Cross the Bosphorus and Istanbul gets cheaper, looser, and a lot more delicious. Here's where to eat in Kadıköy — the fish market, the meyhanes, the craft beer streets, and the breakfast that ruined me for everywhere else.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Kuala Lumpur: Hawker Stalls, Mamak, and Banana Leaf
A where-to-eat Kuala Lumpur food guide across Malay, Chinese, and Indian KL: hawker stalls, mamak joints, and banana-leaf rice. Real names, prices, and when to go.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Lisbon's Mouraria: The City's Most Underrated Food Quarter
Right next to Alfama, mostly ignored by tourists, Mouraria is where fado was born and where Lisbon eats from four continents on one steep street. Here's exactly where to go and what it costs.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in London's Borough and Bermondsey: The Foodie Mile
A stall-by-stall, arch-by-arch route for where to eat in Borough and Bermondsey, London — from the famous market to the railway-arch restaurants south of the river.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Madrid's La Latina: Sunday Vermouth and Tapas Crawl
La Latina on a Sunday is Madrid at its most itself — a slow crawl of vermouth, tapas, and standing-room bars down Cava Baja. Here's the route, bar by bar, and how not to make the rookie mistakes.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Mexico City's Centro Histórico (Not Just Tacos)
Forget the Roma-Condesa brunch circuit. Centro Histórico is where you eat cantina comfort food, market fondas, and mole that has nothing to prove. Here's exactly where to go and what it costs.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Mumbai: Vada Pav, Irani Cafés, and Mohammed Ali Road
From the dawn chai at a hundred-year-old Irani café to the kebab smoke of Mohammed Ali Road after dark, this is how to eat across Mumbai in one glorious, greasy, perfectly planned day.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Osaka: Kuidaore, Kushikatsu, and the Best Okonomiyaki
Osaka is the city that eats itself broke — kuidaore. Here's where to find the real takoyaki, the best okonomiyaki, and double-dip kushikatsu without queuing for two hours in Dotonbori.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Paris's 11th: Bistros, Wine Bars, and Zero Tourist Menus
The 11th is where Paris actually eats — the arrondissement of natural-wine bars, neo-bistros, and zero laminated tourist menus. Here's my restaurant-by-restaurant guide to eating well in the city's best food neighborhood.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Penang's George Town vs. Beyond the UNESCO Core
George Town's UNESCO core has the famous hawker stalls — and the queues. But the best assam laksa and char kway teow often hide in the suburbs. Here's where to eat in Penang, core and beyond.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Porto: Francesinhas, Tripe, and the Bolhão Market
Porto food is heavy, weird, and glorious — a sandwich drowned in beery sauce, a city that proudly calls itself tripe-eaters, and a market worth planning a morning around. Here's how to eat it well.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Rome Outside the Centro: Garbatella and Pigneto
The Roman trattorias guidebooks never reach. Where to eat in Rome outside the centro, in working-class Garbatella and arty Pigneto, with dishes, prices, and honest opinions.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Singapore's Tiong Bahru: Hawker Heritage Meets Hipster
Tiong Bahru is the art-deco estate where Singapore's oldest hawker stalls share a postcode with third-wave coffee and sourdough. Here's how to eat across both — the kopi, the chwee kueh, and the café everyone fights over.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in the East Village: A Block-by-Block NYC Crawl
Dumplings, dive bars, and tasting menus on one walk. Where to eat in the East Village, NYC, mapped block by block, with exact stops, dishes, and prices for a real crawl.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Tokyo's Ueno and Asakusa Without Hitting a Chain
Old-Tokyo eating done right. My block-by-block picks for where to eat in Ueno and Asakusa, from monjayaki to standing sushi counters, with zero chains and real prices.
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City GuidesWhere to Eat in Vienna: Beisl, Naschmarkt, and the Coffeehouse Ritual
Vienna eats in three modes: the old beisl taverns doing schnitzel and goulash, the sprawling Naschmarkt stalls, and the coffeehouses where lingering for hours is the whole point. Here's how to do all three properly.
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City GuidesWhere to Stay in Athens: Pangrati's Local Calm vs. Psyrri's Nightlife
Athens isn't just the Acropolis and a hostel near it. Pangrati is the calm, residential neighbourhood where locals actually live; Psyrri is the loud old workshop quarter packed with bars. Here's which one is your base.
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City GuidesWhere to Stay in Athens: Plaka Tourists vs. Koukaki Locals
Plaka is the postcard: cobbles, bougainvillea, a taverna every six metres charging you for the view. Koukaki is where Athenians actually drink their freddo. Here is which one should get your nights.
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City GuidesWhere to Stay in Bangkok: Thonglor's Hip Sois vs. Riverside Old Town
Thonglor is Bangkok's expat playground of natural-wine bars and 2am noodles. The riverside Old Town is temples, ferries and a slower, older city. Here's the honest call on where to stay in Bangkok.
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City GuidesWhere to Stay in Buenos Aires: Villa Crespo, the Anti-Palermo
Skip the influencer end of Palermo. Villa Crespo is its cheaper, grittier, better-fed next-door neighbour — and after four trips it's the only part of Buenos Aires I book without thinking twice.
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City GuidesWhere to Stay in Dubai: Old Town Deira vs. the Marina Skyscraper Wall
Dubai is really two cities: the old trading creek of Deira and the glass canyon of the Marina. They feel decades and dirhams apart. Here is which side of that divide should hold your suitcase.