It’s not yet 11 a.m. on a May morning in Oaxaca City – typically the hottest month in this midsized capital of the southwest Mexican state – and the day is already fixing to be a scorcher. At this moment, we’re padding the streets of Oaxaca’s bustling downtown market district, and we can feel the heat radiating off the cement below our feet. Deciding the morning’s errands will have to be put on pause, we duck into one of the main entrances to the famed Benito Juárez market, where we know we’ll find Valentina and a big, brimming jícara – a hollowed-out gourd used as a no-waste drinking vessel – of tejate. We navigate past little stalls where vendors hawk such varied items as big, knotted balls of the milky, melty cow’s cheese known as quesillo; sweet, yeasty pan dulce sprinkled with colored granulated sugar; and big, round tortillas in two styles: soft and pliable (blandas) and crispy and crunchy (tlayudas).

The walk to Sur le Pouce, a popular Tunisian family restaurant, is a straight shot from Marseille’s central boulevard, La Canébiere. We make our way along rue Longues des Capucins, behind Alcazar, the main public library, pass the Chinese wholesale clothing stores – Joy Lady, Wei Wei, and New 35 – and arrive ten minutes and several wonderous lands later to the corner of rue de la Convalescence. At the door of Sur le Pouce, we find ourselves in the heart of downtown Marseille and the populaire, working class, Belsunce neighborhood, largely inhabited by people of Maghrebi heritage, both French nationals and recent arrivals.

Few locals, let alone tourists have reached the isolated mountain village of Ghebi in Georgia’s northern borderlands of Racha. However, many have passed through the doors of its namesake basement restaurant in the bustling left bank district of Marjanishvili in downtown Tbilisi. For more than a decade, the eatery has been steadily serving up comfort food from the region including lobio, the red bean stew with or without the aged Racha salted ham called lori, bean-stuffed pies called lobiani, and skhmeruli, the garlic saturated pan-roasted chicken dish. Located on Aghmashenebeli Avenue, which is more well known for its profusion of Turkish lokantasi diners with ready-made buffet spreads and Arab restaurants that attract many of the city’s foreign residents and visitors from South Asia and the Middle East, Ghebi remains a staunch local haunt frequented by tables of Georgian men toasting their chachas late into the evening over tables loaded with food.

Back in 1972 when Marsicos Romulo’s opened at the Mercado 1 de Diciembre, a neighborhood market in Mexico City´s Colonia Narvarte, it was just a small seafood joint surrounded by fruit and vegetable stands. What started as a tiny bar with only three chairs soon became known for its fresh ingredients and abundance of dishes. Eventually, Romulo’s acquired the adjacent premises and a couple more stands just in front of the original, meaning a bigger kitchen and some tables for his customers. Ten years later, Romulo’s opened a full brick-and-mortar restaurant just one block away at Calle Uxmal 52, with the same name and food on offer. Even then, the original location in the market just kept growing.

Hermós Bar de Peix is the new fish bar by Alexis Peñalver, owner of our longtime Gràcia neighborhood favorites La Pubilla and its tapas-focused little sibling Extra Bar. It might sound a little self-flattering, but the bar’s name (which means “Beautiful” in Catalán) is, in fact, a powerful local symbol. Hermós is the ironic nickname of the homely, humble fisherman of the book El Quadern Gris by the famous Catalan journalist and food writer Josep Pla. Hailing from L’Empordà on the northern Catalan coast, the character’s only relief for the pains of life are the suquets the peix – fish stews. Hermós the bar is a tribute to the magnificence of the Catalan fishing tradition, celebrated here with fire, casseroles and bottles of wine in a little bar inside La Llibertat Market, right next to its fishmonger.

Introduced during Ottoman times, the kafeneion – the old-fashioned kind of coffee house – has long been a fixture in Greece. By 1860, Athens already had more than 100 establishments that were serving what has been called both Greek coffee and Turkish coffee (name debates aside, we can all agree that it’s more or less the same thing, a small cup of strong coffee with a thick sludge at the bottom). They were (and still are) the domain of men, who would congregate there to talk politics and socialize over coffee as well as more substantial fare, usually simple meze and ouzo or tsipouro. Although the traditional Greek kafeneion still exists in many Athenian neighborhoods, it’s slowly dying out.

“It all started with a picture of a millefeuille…but we didn’t make any,” Luigi Lauri begins, as he tells us the story of how his family’s bakery, Antica Pasticceria Lauri, has become a unique fixture in the Neapolitan culinary landscape. In a city like Naples, having the word “Antico” (old) preceding the name of an eatery of any kind conveys a sense of comfort to the customer, a guarantee that the place sticks to the beloved, never-changing recipes of the Neapolitan tradition. This promise certainly doesn’t apply to Antica Pasticceria Lauri. Lard, one of the staple ingredients of Neapolitan patisserie, is banned here. And, although it seems impossible to imagine a babà, the local mushroom-shaped sponge cake, not soaked in the rum that defines its very essence…well, here, that’s exactly how it’s made.

Editor’s Note: Pizzeria Babylon is moving to a new location, but will be open again soon for business! Check out their Instagram and Facebook for updates from Ishok. Nestled in Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin is the historic region of Tur Abdin, meaning “The Mountain of God's Servants” in the language of the Syriac people (also known as Assyrians). These Orthodox Christians have called the area home for millennia and still speak a Semitic mother tongue that is the most similar living language to the Aramaic spoken by Jesus Christ.

Marseille does not resemble the picture-postcard version of France. The locals here have a saying, "D'abord, on est Marseillais, ensuite on est Français." (First, we’re Marseillais, and then we’re French.) It is a city connected by a rich immigrant population and small neighborhoods, each with their own personality and identity. One of the most vibrant pockets of the city is Cours Julien, or Cours Ju, as it is called here. If the Vieux Port is the heart of the city and Noailles is the stomach, what does Cours Julien represent? On a recent visit to the neighborhood, that question was answered. The tiny streets are crowded with small boutiques, tattoo shops, bars and restaurants, all camouflaged by the work of graffiti artists.

The Borgo Vecchio neighborhood in Palermo is sandwiched between the affluent Politeama-Via Libertà district and the historic fishing community of Castellammare, also known as la Loggia. On one side you have the Via Libertà, an arterial road peppered with theaters and gardens that the legendary composer Richard Wagner once described as the Champs-Élysées of Sicily. On the other, you have the scent of the foamy sea. In 1556, the neighborhood stretched from the San Giorgio gate to the Santa Lucia church. As a result, it adopted the name of this physical boundary and became known as Borgo di Santa Lucia. Lured by the promise of development of a nearby port, the street quickly attracted artisans and merchants from other regions and the district grew in stature.

Beyond the bustle of touristy central Venice is a series of small islands dotting the Venetian lagoon. This is where Venice’s wine is made, vegetables are grown, fish is caught and bread is baked. These islands – Vignole, Sant’Erasmo, Lido, Pellestrina, Mazzorbo and more – make up the Venice that most people never experience, but you can. On this exclusive-to-Milk Street and seasonally changing 8-day trip, you’ll visit seven different islands, meet the artisans who safeguard Venice’s local culinary traditions, and cook with local vegetables, fish, seafood, fruits and wines.

Our journey begins with a walking tour of historic Oaxaca structured around corn, a key pillar of Oaxacan cooking and eating. You’ll track corn’s journey from kernel through processing all the way to a warm tortilla coming off the comal. We’ll spend two days exploring markets, cooking, drinking and eating alongside chef Rodolfo, who will welcome you into his restaurant’s kitchen as well as his country home. We’ll get out of town to visit traditional producers in the village of Etla, famous for its Oaxacan cheese, and get a glimpse – and taste – of a huge collection of rare mezcals. You’ll visit the Tlacolula market, a once-a-week event where you’ll sample everything from hyperlocal chocolate to crunchy chapulines, but not until you’ve had the best barbacoa in the region. And you’ll meet multiple Cocineras Tradicionales, the women keeping Oaxaca’s culinary traditions alive, and appreciate modern interpretations of Oaxacan cooking at spots like Sabina Sabe and Zandunga. 

Follow in Christopher Kimball’s footsteps during a weeklong immersion into the culinary traditions of Mexico City. This trip brings together the best of Milk Street’s and Culinary Backstreet’s networks and offers guests a one-of-a-kind introduction to a vibrant metropolis where pre- and post-colonial foods and culture collide and combine. Our guides will be Paco de Santiago, the head of Culinary Backstreets Mexico team, and Beto Estúa and Jorge Fritz, cooking teachers Milk Street has relied on repeatedly for their depth of knowledge about Mexican cooking and excellent recipes. 

Bridging Europe and Asia and connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the city of Istanbul has always been a place of intersecting cultures. Over 8 days and 7 nights, you’ll get a local’s access to the blend of history and modernity that defines this metropolis. Your guide is local expert Gonca Karakoç; no one knows Istanbul’s ustas (masters of traditional crafts) like her and you’ll be welcomed into places no other tourist can go. Your resident chef is author and teacher Özlem Warren, a regular guest at the Milk Street Cooking School and on Milk Street radio. 

Greece off-the-beaten-path is the theme of our trip to the Peloponnese. An experience available exclusively to Milk Street guests, this week will focus on the hyperlocal cuisine of the Mani Peninsula in the far south of the country. Your teachers and guides are Greek food expert and chef Carolina Doriti and Maniot chef Stavriani Zervakakou.  We’ll start with a short stop in Athens where we will position the cuisine of Mani within the diversity of Greek cooking. We’ll sample it all—traditional items like spanakopita and real-deal Greek coffee, Maniot cured meats and custard pies, honeys from all regions of Greece, a flight of Greek wines from small producers, and a shot or two of raki. Then, we head south.