sazy rock's top 10 best street food dishes (to date) around the world

For me, there is nothing more satisfying than traveling to a new place and falling in love with the food. Let's face it, the way to this gal's heart is through her tummy (and sometimes, liver). When I look back on my travels, I often drool when I remember all the food I ate.

Last week, I listed my top 10 restaurant dishes.  This week, I'm sharing my top 10 favorite street food dishes I've encountered while traveling.  I'm not sharing those found in the United States because that's where I live (although, I particularly like this taco truck in Los Angeles called, Mariscos Jaliscos, that serves the most delicious shrimp taco I have ever tasted).

So far, these are my top street food dishes I've encountered while traveling listed in no particular order.

1.  Taiwanese sausage in Taipei, Taiwan.

I found all sorts of tasty food in the Taipei night markets. But, the simple Taiwanese sausage caught my eye, nose, and taste buds. My first bite snapped the casing and immediately released slightly sweet juices of the cooked ground pork. While I liked eating the sausage by itself, dipping it in garlic sauce added another layer of flavor.

Taiwanese sausage.

sazy rock's top 10 best restaurant dishes (to date) around the world

If you haven't figured it out yet, I really like to eat - and not necessarily healthy foods - when I travel. Eating while traveling makes me happy. In this first of my top 10 series, I will be sharing my top 10 restaurant dishes so far. I've excluded the US because I live there. I also reserve to change my mind about what should be on the top 10 tomorrow -- only because there's so much tasty food out there. So, without further ado, here they are:

1.  Various dishes at Azurmendi near Bilbao, Spain
This restaurant just outside of Bilbao served delicious, local, seasonal and beautiful food. The lobster on lobster dish was absolutely simple yet so tasty. The truffled egg was not simple but, biting into the yolk just showed how a great chef can elevate a simple egg into something ridiculously good. Oh, and the foie gras ash was so rich and creamy I thought I died and went to heaven. Okay, I loved a lot of dishes at Azurmendi, which I reviewed here. In fact, I'll just say that, in the past five years (and probably more), Azurmendi served the best dishes I have ever eaten anywhere (including in the United States).

Five of around 19 dishes served at Azurmendi. Clockwise from top left: lobster with lobster cornet,
foie gras ash with a block of foie gras underneath, squid, mullet, and egg yolk infused with black truffles.

Gran Reserva Jamon from Joselito's.

2.  Jamon Iberico de Bellota at Joselito's in Madrid, Spain
Technically, Joselito's is not a restaurant but a store where you can get Jamon Iberico to take home or eat in the store. When I visited, they offered different kinds of Jamon Iberico de Bellota, which came from black footed Iberian pig fed on acorns while freely roaming the dehesa of the Extremadura region of Spain. The best kind I tasted was the Grand Reserva, which was aged for up to five years before being carved. The resulting ham was nice and fatty (I'd like to think that the fat was good for me because you know, it's acorn fed). When I ate it, the thinly hand sliced piece practically melted in my mouth.

freebies around the world

Traveling could be expensive. In a series of posts, we will let you know about places that allow you entry into famous, fascinating and/or worthwhile sights or activities for free. Yes, gratis. 

For sights, we are not including public spaces (such as Central Park in New York or the medinas of Morocco) but we may include public (i.e, government run) buildings (such as the museums in London).

So, let’s start with a few freebies, shall we?

United States of America

Los Angeles, CA

1. The Getty – Enjoy a lot of paintings, photographs and a garden that changes with the season for free, but you have to pay for parking.

You can get up close and
personal with the steel curves of
the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

2.  The Getty Villa – You can see Greek, Roman and Etruscan art for free, but you will need to sign up for a (free) ticket. Also, parking isn’t free.

3. Walt Disney Concert Hall – Renowned architect Frank Gehry designed this wonderful jumble of shiny steel. You can roam the grounds – don’t miss the “Rose Garden” in the back of the Concert Hall – and enter the building for free but you have to pay to watch a show. Enjoy being up close and personal with the curved steel.

4. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) – Only the permanent collection and non-ticketed exhibitions are free on the Second Tuesday each month. 

5. Los Angeles Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels – Renowned Spanish architect Rafael Moneo designed this gem.

6. Bradbury building – You may have seen this building in movies like Blade Runner and (500) Days of Summer, among other things. This beautiful, light and airy building is free to visit up to the first floor landing. Beyond that, the tenants don't want random folks roaming around their space.

how i traveled the world in three and a half months on my own dime

Quitting one’s job and traveling around the world has been one of those fantasies most often dreamt about by office workers I know. Unfortunately, for most of them, their financial status and responsibilities, familial obligations, and/or aversion to risks or the unknown dissuade them from taking the leap. Of course, these concerns are all valid. Traveling could be expensive, it could be hard when one has family, and it could be scary. Nonetheless, many have already written about traveling cheaply, traveling with families, and how traveling has been one of the best decisions of their lives. There are many ways that one can travel around the world. My perspective comes from my own three and a half month circumnavigation of the globe on my own dime. 

A street performer along the lakefront in Queenstown, New Zealand.  

A few brief things about me. I am a lawyer and have been for 14 years. I was fortunate enough to enjoy short holidays around the country and abroad on my modest income (I drove a junky car, lived in a tiny apartment, loathed shopping but loved dining out). As I headed towards the then-dreaded age of 40, my wanderlust became even more magnified. As much as I enjoyed my job (I worked for the good guys), I also longed to travel beyond the long weekend trips or the annual two to three week vacations.