One of the tasty ways to travel while at home is to find out what to eat around the world. And then cook yummy travel food experiences right from the kitchen! We selected several of our preferred travel dishes when we went to dine with locals. Shop for a few spices, grab a few fresh vegetables, roll up your sleeves, and start cooking!
This post contains affiliate links, which means we receive a percentage if you make a purchase using these links – at no cost to you. Our opinions are our own and are not impacted by these partnerships.
Travel Food Experiences Right in Your Kitchen
We like to explore the food diversity in all our travels, usually preferring small hole-in-the-wall places over big fancy restaurants. Some countries are better known for their cuisine than others; some have limited options given the harsh environments. Some have genuinely unique meals that you can’t find anywhere else. Some have dishes that followed the ancient migration or commercial route like the Silk Road.
Nowadays, it’s easier to sample food from foreign countries, either from the corner Indian restaurant, or the Chinese take-out. But you can also bring these cultural diversities right in your kitchen, and travel the world with your taste buds.
Chinese Sichuan Dish
Plan Weeks of World Dishes
So if you are wondering what to eat for dinner and need inspirations before you cook your dinner at home, we list some travel dishes that will get your mouth water! These travel recipes should be reasonably easy to do, and ingredients to find or order.
We list one specific dish per country, one that we loved and think it could be relatively easy to replicate at home. But if you feel adventurous or need more inspiration, we added the top dishes each country is known for. So if you are up for a challenge, plan for a recipe a day!
World Travel Recipes: Kindle Unlimited
Are you a paper cookbook or do you prefer an electronic version like on your Kindle? I recently discover Amazon Kindle Unlimited and, to be honest, I have been hooked!
What is Kindle Unlimited? The Amazon membership allows you to read as many books as you want – unlimited – for readers in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, India, China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Australia, on their local Amazon sites. So you can pack on cookbooks, world recipes, and add on any other types of books you might fancy!
Unsure? Sign up and Try Your First Month FREE, download your recipe and start cooking!
Pakistani Cuisine
Given its proximity to India, China, and Afghanistan, Pakistani food is bound to reflect some similarities with these three countries. Traveling in Pakistan for two months, we shared dining moments almost everywhere we went. We were invited to dinner with strangers as we traveled by bus and enjoyed the traditional communal dining.
Top Pakistani Dishes
If you ever travel to Pakistan, make sure to add this Pakistani food as part of your exploration! Check these Pakistani recipes for more details.
- Mutton Korma
- Tikka Kebab
- Chapshurro
- Nihari
- Kabuli Pulao
Our Recommendation for Home Cooking: Spicy Karahi
Karahi is one of our preferred Pakistani food. Probably one of the more spiced meals in the country, it is usually served with chicken but can also be prepared with goat or lamb. The meal cooks for about 40 minutes, served with rice, roti, or naan. We enjoyed different dishes throughout our 2-month stay in Pakistan, but we found the one in Lahore that was indeed finger-licking!
Sri Lankan Cuisine
Fish is a regular staple in Sri Lankan cuisine, thanks to the coastal access to the Indian Ocean. And Sri Lankan curry are simply yummy! The proximity to India explain the influence of the local flavors, including some extremely spicy Pol Sambol – one of the things to know before going to Sri Lanka. For more details on Sri Lankan recipes, check the book suggestion below.
Top Sri Lankan Food
- Kottu Roti
- Hoppers
- Polos (green jackfruit curry)
- Pol Sambol (coconut relish)
- Fish ambul thiyal (sour fish curry)
Our Recommendation for Home Cooking: Dhal Vade
We fell hard for the country’s snack food called Dhal Vade. Made of chickpea flour and crushed split peas, the small balls are deep-fried and are best enjoyed fresh. A tasty snack, perfect for the road, or to enjoy as a side.
Sri Lanka Curry Shrimps
Chinese Cuisine
When it comes to Asian cuisine, Chinese food is definitely what might come to mind first. As a French native, we are a bit of a snob when it comes to food diversity, but Chinese food is probably the only one that has as much variety of dishes as the French cuisine, if not more. And both countries are known for eating a lot of weird stuff. Well, Chinese even more, including wild animals that maybe should be best avoided. French cuisine has its share with frog legs and snails and wild rabbits…
Top Dishes from China:
Like in France, the culinary experiences vary from province to province. China is a country where you can easily travel to travel for food
- Hot Pot
- Ma Po Tofu
- Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet
- Yangzhou Fried Rice
- Kung Pao Chicken
- Szechwan Chilli Chicken
- Dim Sums Dumplings
Our Recommendation for Home Cooking: Dali Sour and Spicy Fish
Back to our preferred Chinese food, the list would be rather long. Bring on Sichuan Pepper Pork, Hotpot, Dumplings, and more. But as we spent four months in Dali in Yunnan province, we were lucky to stay close to a small restaurant whose sole purpose was to prepare the Dali Sour and Spicy Fish, with carps straight from the Erhai lake. Cooked to perfection, spiced to wake any taste bud, the fish was a real treat!
Chinese Yunnan Dali Spicy Carp
Cuisine of Indonesia
With 18,000 islands, the diversity of the food in Indonesia is almost endless. A couple of dishes make the list of national cuisine. Here are some of the main dishes Indonesia is known for. Download a Kindle ebook on Indonesian food for recipes now.
Top Indonesia Food
- Nasi Goreng
- BBQ Chicken Satay
- Gado Gado salad
- Tempeh
- Martabak
- Mie Goreng fried noddles
- Balinese Cuisine: Babi Guling
Recommend Home-Cooking Dish: Nasi Goreng
Probably the most iconic meal in Indonesia, Nasi Goreng is the dish to try out! We took a cooking class, learning the ropes and tricks of Bali cuisine from awarded chefs! Cooking food by yourself is a sure way to appreciate the meal even more so!
Indonesia Bali Cooking Class – Spices!
Persian Cuisine
Iran food is the perfect combination of so many cuisine influences: Turkish, Greek, Central Asia, India, Caucasian, and more! Like in China and France, each region is known for a specific dish, though you can indeed find them across the country. We have to say we did not know anything about Iran cuisine, but we were lucky to share the meal each of our hosts cooked for us. As we could eat at home with some of them, which made the food experience so much enjoyable! During our 2-month stay in Iran, we had plenty of opportunities to sample many Iranian dishes.
Top Persian Food
- Ash Reshte
- Dizi Abgoosht
- Zereshk Polo Morgh
- Fesenjan
- Kashke Bademjan
- Khoresh-e Fesenjān
- Saffron Ice-Cream
Our Recommended Home-Cooking Dishes: Kashke Bademjan
Kashke Bademjan is a straightforward yet highly tasty Persian eggplant dip. Grab a piece of bread and go eggplant-dipping! Probably one of the Persian recipes we would do regularly!
Iran Kashke Bademjan
Turkish Cuisine
Kebabs are probably what Türkiye (formerly known as Turkey) is known for, but the country offers so many different dishes, it’s hard to choose. Here are some of the top Turkish food to check when you are in the country, and if you can eat with locals, that’s even better!
Turkish breakfast is one of my preferred ones, mostly salty with a large spread of different cheese, olives. Add omelet, bread, some jam, and either strong Turkish coffee or Turkish tea, and you are set for the day!
Top Turkey Dishes
- Corba Soup
- Pide Patty
- Döner Sub
- Menemen breakfast omelet
- Köfte balls
- Lahmacun pizza-like bread
- Turkish breakfast
- Künefe dessert
- Turkish delights
Our recommendation for Home-Cooking: Meze
A selection of small dishes of savory spread, feta-like cheese, olives, served with fresh bread. Perfect for a light dinner meal and an excellent culinary experience in itself!
Turkey Kunefe Dessert
French Cuisine
Beef bourguignon, croissants, crepes, Coq au vin, foie gras, Cassoulet, Oignon Soup – there are so many French dishes that could probably be enough to do one meal a day for an entire year. So we narrow the list to the top 10 recipes of our preferred French food!
French Cheese
Top French Dishes
Each region in France is home to several specific dishes, each more famous than the others. We are listing some of the most traditional French food, but there is so much more in each province in France!
- Bourgogne Beef Bourguignon
- Languedoc Roussillon Cassoulet
- Burgundy snails
- Normandy Pôt-au-Feu
- Brittany Buckwheat Crèpes
- Pays de la Loire duck dishes
- North of France Moules marinières
- Alsace Cuisine: Choucroute
- Provence Ratatouille
- Cheese experience, of course!
Our Preferred French Cooking Recipe: Ratatouille and Grilled Steak with Herbs of Provence
This particular meal is a dish you can do almost anywhere in the world, so chances you can find the ingredients to it should be easy. We were able to cook some variations of Ratatouille in Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, and Iran, as the ingredients should be available in most countries. One of the key components is the Herbs of Provence! I grew up close to Provence, so that dish is close to my heart!
Stay tuned for more adventures
from our travel around the world!
Follow us now on
Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
This post contains affiliate links, which means we receive a percentage if you make a purchase using these links – at no cost to you. Our opinions are our own and are not impacted by these partnerships.
ZeWanderingFrogs.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
Patricia - Ze Wandering Frogs
Loading tweets...
Leave a Reply