The pleasures of eating turn downright mysterious when you combine them with world travel. Why should a cup of coffee taste like angel tears just because you're drinking it on a hotel balcony looking out over Florence? How can a taco curl up in your soul like a warm cat just because it came from a steam-belching street cart in Oaxaca? Why does a coconut taste sweeter than flame-kissed crème brûlée when a dude machetes it open right on a Hawaiian beach?

Maybe travel makes you hungry. (It does.) Maybe travel opens you up to romance, and the passions alive inside new flavors. (It must.) And maybe travel gives you the feeling of true discovery, as if you, and only you, have communed with this dumpling or sashimi or empanada that you flew 14 hours to track down.

If that feeling of exploration drives your foodlust, you should head to any of these cities that traditional foodie travelers might overlook. (If you don’t want to stamp your passport, the US also has some scandalously underrated food cities you have to visit to believe.) Some of these destinations are close by, while others will require a legit journey. In every one, you’ll find a meal that may change the way you taste everything you eat from here on in. You’ll try to explain it to your friends later, but -- you know, sometimes you really just have to be there.