🍜 Food & Drink Activities

Jalan Alor night market, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. RM25–30 (~$6) gets a full meal with satay, char kway teow, and fresh coconut. Go after 7pm when all stalls are operating. The grilled stingray at the first row of stalls is unmissable.

Tsukiji Outer Market, Tokyo, Japan. The inner wholesale market moved to Toyosu but the outer market (free to enter) still has the best seafood breakfast in the world — fresh tuna sashimi for ¥1,000 (~$7) at 7am. Go Tuesday to Sunday, closed Monday.

Caffè Florian, Venice, Italy. Open since 1720, which makes it the oldest coffee house in Italy and one of the oldest in continuous operation anywhere. Sit outside on St Mark's Square and the live orchestra will add a cover charge (~€6) on top of an €8 espresso — worth it once, skip it if you're just passing through.

Pho at Pho Gia Truyen, Hanoi, Vietnam. There's no sign — you find it by the queue snaking down Bat Dan Street from 6am. One bowl, one broth (beef, simmered for hours), no menu to agonise over. Around $3 for what a lot of pho obsessives consider the platonic ideal of the dish, in the city that invented it.

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, France. Free, always, and this is arguably the picnic image people have in their heads before they've ever been to Paris — green metal chairs, a fountain, and enough space to spread out without anyone minding. Grab bread, cheese, and fruit from a market on the way rather than a supermarket; it costs about the same and tastes nothing alike.