Best French bakeries are now in Tokyo.

which is so funny, because the ramyun on sawtelle is not good at all! the best is hanaichemonme in little tokyo.

so many fond memories of sawtelle kitchen though...

Been following this thread as I consider myself as a foodie similar to the OP:

LA food itself is very good, but the experience of it, is lacking tremendously.

Per my previous post, I suggested Hong Kong, Taipei, Osaka and Florence.

When you can, could you explain what you mean? Would be interested in knowing.

Tough to articulate, but I'll try...

No question excellent food is available in LA. But nothing about the food experience is uniquely or identifiable as LA (except the traffic to get to the restaurant :)). There's no cultural experience eating in LA.

In most foreign cities, one can experience its culture simply by eating...it's in the preparation of the food, delivery of the food, significance of the food/ingredients, when/how the locals eat, specific foods during certain events/holidays, etc. A good example is a night market in an any Asian metropolitan city.

But maybe since I frequent LA, I don't see or feel the LA culture.

Hope that makes sense...

Milan. And San Sebastián. While you're there you should check out Bilbao too and its wonderful pintxos scene. Edinburgh was utterly awful, beyond diabolical, when I was a student there was in the 80s. It may have changed, but when I was there a couple of years ago I was seriously underwhelmed.

Having been to many of the cities mentioned so far in recent years, my list of best food cities includes (in no particular order):

San Francisco
Los Angeles
New York
Hong Kong
Singapore
Tokyo
Cape Town
London
Lima
Buenos Aires
Mexico City

San Sebastian is an amazing foodie city, of course, but it specializes in the same style.

I agree Paris is overrated. Just like Michelin.

There is no such thing as "the best" for everyone, only "the best" for you, perhaps.

OK, good explanation. A good deal of that is simple demographics. In 1880 Singapore had a population of 300,000, and even San Francisco was near 200,000. LA was at 11,000. There was simply no critical mass, and when LA did began to grow, it did so by spreading out, not concentrating in a tight, narrow urban space.

And even the romance of the night market and food stalls are not always what they seem. For example, pick a single food, satay. Did you know that a single vendor prepares almost all of the satay sticks in Singapore? The individual stalls do cook and sauce according to their recipies and traditions, but it is not as if there is an old grandmother in the back slaughtering fresh chickens :)

Agreed - I was shocked when I first moved to rural Missouri 40 miles east of Kansas City. Many locals ate dinner at about 5.00pm. I had never seen dinner eaten so early in my entire life. In London I would eat about 7.30 - 8.30 pm.

In general, food in London is pretty poor compared to other big world cities, except at the really high end, and Indian food (but as a non-Indian I can't comment on whether anything is truly authentic as opposed to catering to the tastes of the majority of patrons)

East Asian food is particularly poor in the UK as compared to the US, Canada and Australia.

I'm in bed by 2030, so I eat at 1800 or earlier :D

For food, just avoid the US completely, as well as the UK, Germany, and nearby countries (Austria, Switzerland, etc.). These are the only countries in the world with terrible food. Anywhere else in the world you'll be fine.

Sure, perhaps for satay and other items. But what about a bowl of noodle soup, where the noodles are handmade and pulled/shaved? Street food is not as sophisticated as a Michelin restaurant, but I would argue that it can be just as wonderful.

Ignoring the food itself, a night market is undoubtably an authentic cultural experience, whereas driving the 405 to a stripmall is simply grabbing a bite to eat.

I have to agree with much of this. Some of the meat in the USA is very good, but the day-to-day processed foods are pretty awful.

UK too. London may top the world for double- and triple-Michelin-starred restaurants (which IMO are over-rated anyway), but the vast majority of British food is just pig-swill.

I do have to disagree in the case of Germany and Austria, though. Yes, we can dish up some crap here, but there is some great stuff too if you know where to look - and it's usually not expensive.

So far, the discussion has centred around restaurants and dining, rather than the quality, freshness and variety of ingredients. On this score, I would argue that Australia (pie-floaters aside) is hard to beat.

Top 50 restaurants in the world:

http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/...ia-Francescana

#5 in Copenhagen was won several years best restaurant in the world and was also featured on Anthony Bourdain's show.

Lima has two restaurants in the top 15.

Oh come on - hyperbole :(