Bagel @ Scratch Baking Co.
New York and Montreal can keep arguing who among them has the better bagel, but the best bagel ever is to be found in Maine. This tiny bakery in Portland bakes their bagels every morning using a 13-year-old sourdough starter. Locals and tourists alike line up early in the morning. Come late, and they're gone!

Cassava Sauce with Beef and Croaker @ Bravo African Restaurant
There's nothing dainty about Senegalese sauces. Consider "sauce feuille," a general name for hearty leaf-based stews prepared throughout French-speaking West Africa. Typically such dishes are fattened with palm oil and, to a lesser extent, with peanut. At Bravo, these accent but don't overwhelm the chopped, stewed cassava leaves. Especially when spooned over a broad plate of white rice, the leafy sauce is often rich and filling enough to be a meal in itself. Inevitably, however, a sauce feuille is plump with meat, too. This one shrouds numerous chunks of beef and the mild-tasting fish called croaker. (True, it's hard to tell which is which till you take a bite.) At most West African restaurants, a sauce feuille will be served only for lunch, which is just as well. On a full belly, you'll have time for a much-needed afternoon nap.

Pork and Sage Sausage Roll @ Red Door Bakery
Red Door Bakery is a must-visit just to devour one of their flaky and delicious sausage rolls or their famous creme brulee tarts. Worth every tingly sweet hint on the palate, the sausage roll pastry is perfection. Golden, buttery and flaky. And with every bite, it crumbles as the layers are so light and delicate. The piping hot filling of pork meat and sage is incredibly flavorful and juicy, which complements the buttery pastry well. Then, of course, there is that spoonful of sweetness and chilli punch from the chilli jam. That stuff is a winner! You can even purchase jars of chilli jam in store and secretly eat the good stuff by the spoonful in the comfort of your own home. They create other deliciousness in the form of pizzas, sandwiches and croissants, all of which is made by hand using the best quality ingredients available.

Baht Mi  @ KoKyu Na'Mean
The sandwiches have great depth for omnivores and vegetarians as the menu is almost split half and half. Each sandwich comes with a free side, which includes Furikake Potato Chips, Spicy Kimchi Cucumbers, Ginger Roasted Brassicas and Gamja potato salad. The sandwiches are an American take on Korean Banh Mi, a Korean-style sandwich served on a roll that has a crusty outside and soft inside. Na' Mean relies heavily on pork in all its incarnations and adds sauces to each that are delicious and creative. I also got to try the Ko'boy, which is jumbo coconut shrimp, except the coconut shavings are the size of corn flakes and it even has pickled onions. Delish!

Vanilla Bean and Matcha Breakfast Pannacotta @ Fez Cafe
Situated in the heaving popular suburb of Mount Lawley, Fez Cafe is a local favorite that has beautiful food and tasty flavors. Their latest trending dish is the vanilla bean and matcha breakfast pannacotta, which has globs of chia seeds, manuka honey and fresh, seasonal fruits like figs, berries, grapes and apple surrounding. It doesn't just look amazing. Every bite gets better and better, especially when you discover the little treasure trove of granola underneath all the other ingredients.

Nutter Smoothie Bowl @ Pearth Organic Kitchen
Pearth Organic Kitchen is a beautiful Scandinavian look cafe that has opened recently and brought a strong menu with healthy but tasty food. Most notable are their smoothie bowls with flavours like acai, nutter and green. The nutter smoothie was full of peanut butter, dates, banana and coconut milk - icy cold and smooth, with pops of crunch added in from the granola on top.

Twice Roasted Pork Belly @ Galangal Thai Cuisine
Galangal is the kind of restaurant that makes you breathe a little happy sigh and simply exclaim, "It's just beautiful." The modern Thai food is fresh, vibrant and has flavorful ingredients that are respected and utilized to shine as much as possible. From the beef carpaccio larb salad to the crispy duck red curry, there is so much to love here. But best of all is the twice roasted pork belly with caramelized fish sauce and palm sugar, green mango and herb salad that looks, smells and tastes incredible. After all, who doesn't love pork belly - especially one with teeth-shatteringly good crackling!

Salted Egg Yolk Prawn Tempura @ JB Ah Meng Kitchen
It doesn't get more gritty than this in Singapore - dining in a harsh-lit back alley of a red light district. JB Ah Meng is a ramshackle kitchen but the food will make you forget about the seedy crowd and blare of traffic. Chefs make it a point to come here - from Tetsuya Wakuda to Ferran Adria. The latter was so enamored with the signature dish of Salted Egg Yolk Prawn Tempura that he asked the cook for the recipe, and was denied. Seafood is a hit here - locals love the white pepper crabs and garlic chili flower clams. Another unusual dish is the San Lou Beehoon (literally "Third Storey Vermicelli"), thin rice noodles steeped in seafood stock and compressed into a crispy pancake. The snake beans topped with lotus root chips are also popular. It's the perfect place for late night supper.

Three Taco Plate  @ Nanataco
This bright and cheery counter-serve spot is known for its sophisticated takes on Mexican comfort classics. Check out such creative additions such as lamb cheeks, tongue and pork belly. You can get three tacos with rice, beans and tortilla chips for less than $10. They have a large student following and it's a perfect spot for families with young kids. Fruity margaritas and a number of choices for beer round out the meal.

Salciccia e Vongole Pizza @ Whit's End
Of the dozen wood-fired pies on offer at Chef Whitney Aycock’s Rockaway Beach pizza parlor, the one that best reflects the terroir is the Salciccia e Vongole (sausage and clams). “These are sand to sand, not sand to mud,” Aycock shouts over the pulsing world music and barroom bravado as he waxes rhapsodic about the Littleneck clams, which are seeded in Rockaway and finished out East. “There’s a big difference genetically. These clams are amazing, dude,” he says before whipping around to split wood in front of the pizza oven that is the heart and soul of his raucous restaurant. Joining the clams are house-made sausage seasoned with spezzaforte, pepperoncini and shaved garlic. Aycock refers to spezzaforte, the aromatic blend of clove, star, anise, juniper, and allspice, as “Tuscan grandmother spices.” The combination of fiordilatte mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano with the other toppings makes for the best clam pie outside of Zuppardi’s.