Seven amazing food destinations to visit around the world

Lisbon, Portugal

Comedian Catherine Bohart loves that you get “two cities for the price of one” with Lisbon, referring to the city's picturesque, hilly, tram-filled centre and the historic old town district of Belem with its old port. It was in Belem that Catherine was told she would find the best custard tarts – Portugal's famous pastel de nata – in Lisbon, and she wasn't disappointed!

“Oh my God, the smell! Phenomenal!” exclaims Catherine of her trip to bakery Pastéis de Belém, where people queue around the block to experience its flaky delights. “The fresh custard is just thick enough to be slightly set, and they're sweet and salty,” she continues. “And they're warm. I didn't expect them to be warm. They're just exquisite.”

Catherine also really liked the nearby Lx Factory art co-operative and creative hub where she enjoyed “amazing views and wine” at some of the bars and restaurants there. Other highlights included “beautiful Asian food” in the restaurant Boa-Bao” and “one of the nicest vegan meals I've ever had” at Ao 26, just south of Boa-Bao in the Chiado neighbourhood.

Discover more gems from Portugal's capital by listening to the episode in full.

Iszi Lawrence and Shaun Keaveny with Steph McGovern.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

While Catherine enjoyed vegetarian and vegan fare in Lisbon, presenter and money supremo Steph McGovern was tucking into a very “meat heavy” diet in Rio de Janeiro. Taking advantage of ‘Rodizio service’ where waiters “just wander around with all of these different meats, and you give them the eye if they're coming with meat you quite fancy,” Steph enjoyed various cuts made straight to her plate and having steak cooked in front of her.

The service operates using a double sided green/red token system where “green means you're still going to eat, but you turn it to red when you're done.” In terms of helping a big meal to digest, Steph had already researched drinking options including caipirinha cocktails – made with local sugar cane and rum – costing a mere 80p!

Find out more about Steph's visit to Rio by listening here.

Mumbai, India

Woman's Hour and Countryfile presenter Anita Rani describes Mumbai as the LA of India, and she certainly knows some star spots to hang out and to eat and drink at.

One of her favourites is a “dive bar” called Toto's Garage where you can drink Kingfisher on tap while looking at half a VW Beetle coming out of a wall!

Continuing on the car theme, Anita recommends the Bademiya food stall, behind the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. “You can go and park your car there in front of it,” she says. “And you can order kebabs and these things called roomali rotis, which is a really thin chapati, and then eat it while sitting on the boot of your car!”

If you are a night owl you can find what Anita calls Chindian food served in nightclubs and on the beach. “It's Chinese food that you will never find in China,” Anita explains. “It's made for Indian palates, so things like spicy noodles and chilli paneer with soy sauce.”

Here more about why Mumbai is so special to Anita by listening to the episode in full here.

Iszi Lawrence and Shaun Keaveny with Kiell Smith-Bynoe.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Ghosts and Great British Sewing Bee star Kiell Smith-Bynoe loved the luxurious cuisine of Dubai. He was partial to PF Chang's chilli mayo dynamite shrimp served in a cocktail glass, while Shaun's co-host Iszi Lawrence told us about enjoying a liquid nitrogen ice cream at the Scoopi Café called Black Diamond, which is vanilla with Iranian saffron, Italian black truffle and edible 23 karat gold!

If you think that sounds snazzy, when Kiell was in Dubai with fellow Ghosts star Martha Howe-Douglas, they saw someone having a steak that was covered in 24-carat gold and served by a waiter and, um, four snipers, “with what I assume were plastic guns,” observes Kiell. “The waiter has a chest with dry ice inside. It's so ridiculous!”

To hear more about Kiell's decadent adventures in Dubai, listen to the episode in full here.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Coconut juice poured fresh from the broken shell or a cold beer were among the beverages that Ainsley Harriott could choose to wash down the eclectic array of food he found in Cambodia.

A street food vender in one of the markets of Cambodia.

As well as big bowls of crabs, noodles and glutinous sticky rice served with fresh herbs and spices on the side, Ainsley was overloaded with “sweet, bitter, sour and salty” taste sensations in the markets of Angkor Wat.

Unexpected “delights” that Ainsley was offered, and were crammed in as he walked around, included locusts and fried tarantula. “It was wonderfully crunchy, a bit peanuty and nutmeggy, with a bit of chilli,” says Ainsley of the spider-y treat.

Tarantula is not the most challenging thing Ainsley has ever digested, however. When he was in Iceland he tried fermented fish, which is buried, left to rot and covered in urine. Sounds nice, doesn't it? No? “It absolutely stunk,” Ainsley confirms.

Explore more of the adventurous delights of Angkor Wat by listening to the episode in full here.

Antigua, Caribbean

Chef, presenter, former singer and One Dish host Andi Oliver paints an extremely evocative picture of Antigua, where you’re greeted by “incredible warm air that velvetly strokes your face as you come out of the airport.” That air could well be scented by mangoes as, when in season, they are everywhere, in the trees, on the ground and often inside dogs and birds who feed on them until almost inebriated!

If this fruity landscape hasn’t pepped up a weary traveller already, they would be advised to go straight to the beach to enjoy a thick brothy goat and clove spice soup called goat water. “It makes you feel really happy, and like you've landed,” says Andi, “like you're safe; it’s proper visceral.”

With goat water heartier than it sounds, leave some room for fungee and pepperpot, the national dish of Antigua. Fungee is like polenta and made from a cornmeal porridge. Meanwhile, pepperpot is a “one pot stew traditionally made in a thing called a yabba pot, a beautiful way to slow cook food.” Its many ingredients include salt beef, fresh pork, salt pork, oxtail, pigeon peas, kale, spinach, aubergine and – if that wasn’t enough – okra.

Join Andi for more of the treats Antigua has to offer by listening to the episode in full.

Montisi, Tuscany, Italy

Actor Miriam Margolyes thinks that Italian food is the best in the world (and way better than French, which she thinks is “embarrassing”). She is certainly spoilt for culinary delights within easy reach of her Tuscan home in Montisi, near Siena, which even has its own olive oil!

Miriam's favourite Tuscan dish, spaghetti aglio e olio peperoncino.

Her favourite dish is aglio olio e peperoncino, aka spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and chili pepper, and she also loves lasagna. “I don't like cooking, I like eating,” says Miriam. However, when she cooks, Miriam likes to use an Italian vegetable called bietola (chard) which she describes as “urgent spinach” that is good in soups.

Miriam gets a lot of her food from the market in the nearby village of San Giovanni d'Asso, where there is also a new restaurant in an old petrol station, called Caracas, where Miriam has breakfast.

In her own village of Montisi, there is a great restaurant called Il Barrino, whose characterful owner won the coveted Host of the Year award and, says Miriam, “cycles round the village dressed as a cardinal to advertise what's going on at the restaurant that weekend.”

Discover more of the eccentric delights of Miriam Margolyes' Tuscan home-from-home by listening here.

And you can discover even more tantalising destinations – including recommendations from Prof Brian Cox, Dr Chis van Tulleken and Sheila Hancock – by listening to the whole series of Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny here.