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Milk Street Culinary Tours

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Istanbul, Türkiye

Trip highlights: Immerse yourself in the food of the Hatay region of Türkiye with native Özlem Warren, a longtime Milk Street Cooking School teacher and magazine contributor. Tour neighborhood spice, vegetable and cheese markets. Eat a big Turkish breakfast on a family farm located improbably in the moats of the City’s Byzantine-era fortified walls. Cruise the Bosporus and eat at Ciya Sofrasi, a restaurant dedicated to preserving regional Turkish dishes in danger of being forgotten. Who you’ll travel with: Gonca Karakoc, Özlem Warren and Milk Street’s Rosemary Gill W hat you’ll eat: Artichoke hearts fried in olive oil; Balkan boreks filled with Turkish goat cheese; spicy Adana kebabs; stuffed grape leaves; Black Sea-style pide. Per person cost: $5,250 (Single room supplement: $1,250)

These tours are currently sold out, but more departure dates are coming soon. To be the first to know about future departures, join the waitlist.

The Islands of Venice, Italy

Trip highlights: Visit seven Venetian islands, all via private boat. Cook with Friend of Milk Street Marika Contaldo Seguso at her villa on the island of Lido. Pick heirloom vegetables on Sant’Erasmo. Taste ultra-local wine on Mazzorbo. Catch fish on Burano. Feast on Pellestrina. Learn a 34th-generation craft on Murano. Bar hop and sample classic small bites in Venice. Who you'll travel with : Marika Contaldo Seguso and Sara Cossiga What you'll eat: Spaghetti with shrimp, tomatoes and white wine; pumpkin, leek and porcini risotto; vegetables fried alla Veneziana; an array of Venetian small bites, like goat cheese with hazelnut and honey and mortadella with pistachio and stracciatella; artisanal cheeses and local wines. Per person cost: $6,000 (Single room supplement: $1,500)

Oaxaca, Mexico

Trip Highlights: Take hands-on cooking classes and market tours with Iliana de la Vega, Mexican cooking authority and Milk Street friend. Travel to Tlacolula to cook with Catalina Lucas in her home in rural Oaxaca. Visit expert ceramicist Isabel Sanchez and learn about her passion for saving heirloom corn seeds. Eat at restaurants experimenting with new approaches to traditional ingredients. Who you’ll travel with: Maria Itaka and Iliana de la Vega What you’ll eat: Oaxacan cheese tamales; enchiladas with red and black mole; barbacoa tacos; mezcal and hibiscus cocktails . Per person cost: $4,000 (Single room supplement: $700)

Naples and Campania, Italy

Trip highlights: Visit kitchens, workshops and studios in Naples that are otherwise closed to visitors. Meet the producers of the world’s best pasta, buffalo mozzarella and rare Piennolo tomatoes. Cook dinners in a private villa in the Campana countryside. Tour a farm nestled within ancient ruins. Learn how volcanic activity has shaped the cuisine and traditions of the area. Who you’ll travel with: Viola Buitoni, Chiara Garofalo and Milk Street’s Rosemary Gill What you'll eat: Pizza in Naples and its raw ingredients in rural Campania, like fresh ricotta cheese, buffalo mozzarella and sun-ripened tomatoes; ricotta-stuffed squash flowers; linguine studded with seafood; authentic eggplant parmigiana; rum-soaked cakes; and many local wines. Per person cost: $5,250 (Single room supplement: $725)

This tour is currently sold out, but more departure dates are coming soon. To be the first to know about future departures, join the waitlist.

Mexico City, Mexico

Trip highlights: Cook with friends of Milk Street Beto Estúa and Jorge Fritz. Make mole from scratch at a family farm in Milpa Alta. Visit quiet neighborhood markets and shop like a local. Follow corn from kernel to tortilla via cooking classes and a nighttime taco crawl. Sip a margarita al pastor at J.M. Hirsch’s favorite Mexico City bar. Who you’ll travel with: Paco de Santiago, Beto Estúa and Jorge Fritz What you’ll eat: Chilaquiles pasilla; quesadillas stuffed with squash blossoms; cochinita pibil; an eye-popping variety of tacos and salsas; huitlacoche—and much more! P er person cost: $4,000 (Single room supplement: $600)

Athens and the Peloponnese, Greece

Trip highlights: Spend three days foraging and cooking in the wildly beautiful Mani landscape with chef Stavriani Zervakakou. Visit a small family-run olive grove and learn about world-class olive oil. Harvest sea salt straight from the pans. Taste the wines produced in a hyper-local, protected wine region. Who you’ll travel with: Carolina Doriti, Stavriani Zervakakou and Milk Street’s Rosemary Gill W hat you’ll eat: Spanakopita and loukomades; cuttlefish over local orzo pasta; a sampler of Athenian spritzes; goat milk custard pies; grilled prawns with fava beans and arugula. Per person cost: $5,250 (Single room supplement: $775)

About Our Partners at Culinary Backstreets

Culinary Backstreets got their start in 2009, reporting from a borderless urban zone they call the “Culinary Backstreets,” a place where you can find simple family-run restaurants, masters passing their craft on to an apprentice, or the rhythm of a life committed to meatballs and nothing else. They go slow and collect these stories one-by-one, giving equal measure to the culinary side as the human element of the story. Culinary Backstreets tells these stories through weekly restaurant reviews published on CB, culinary walking tours, multiday trips, books, web design and smartphone applications. At present, you’ll find their regular dispatches from Athens, Barcelona, Istanbul, Lisbon, Los Angeles, Marseille, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Naples, Palermo, Porto, New Orleans, Queens (NY), Shanghai, Tbilisi and Tokyo. These cities all have a culinary tradition of untold richness as well as a certain tension, be it the tug between East and West, the clash between modern and ancient identities, migration, rapid gentrification or a post-colonial hangover. The people they cover run restaurants, workshops, farms and more that are holding back the tide of globalized sameness, which is not easy work—even if it’s done unknowingly.

Culinary Backstreets’ work is guided by a belief in:

• Honest Tourism : The places where they eat and craftspeople that they feature on their culinary tours are all selected with this purpose in mind. They never accept a free lunch or consider a discount for our tour groups, and their guides don’t receive any commissions from shopkeepers.
• Honest Journalism: The same principal is applied to the publishing of stories. There are no sponsored posts or even advertising on CB. The writers and photographers are paid fairly for their work on stories that we all believe in.
• Serving Multiple Stakeholders : Culinary Backstreets seeks to provide its guests and audience with enriching culinary travel experiences while also serving the needs of the communities where they work. Sensitivity to the impact their work has on small neighborhood businesses and community spaces is key to their sustainability.

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Culinary Backstreets and why I still enjoy food tours in my own country

Posted by Brian Cicioni | Dec 26, 2019 | NYC , Tour reviews | 17 |

Culinary Backstreets

Culinary Backstreets has been running urban food tours since 2009. They currently offer tours in Mexico City, and Queens, New York as well as in 12 other cities throughout Asia and Europe. While guests will get to know their local guide throughout the tour, the larger focus is on the small, family-run cafes, food trucks, and restaurants that they visit and what those places mean to the neighborhood. 

Culinary Backstreets tours are not just about food

Like the most memorable food tours I’ve joined, from  Sydney  to  Tokyo , Culinary Backstreets tours are not just about food. While there is food at every key stop, there’s also a seemingly endless history lesson between every bite. While I always want to know what I’m eating, I also prefer to know the history behind it. What makes Culinary Backstreets different from many of the other food tours I’ve joined is their focus on the local business owners and their role in the community. For example, while on the Corona’s Culinary Essentials tour, I had the chance to hear many inspiring stories of how Mexican, Colombian, and Ecuadorian chefs ending up leaving it all behind to try their luck in America’s most diverse borough. 

No matter where you are, food tours give you the opportunity to sample a lot of different items in a short period of time

When you join a Culinary Backstreets food tour, you can be confident that they won’t fill you up on one item. You’ll get to sample a handful of different local staples from sweet to savory. Their guides speak nearly perfect English and will explain everything before any member of the group touches a concha or takes a single bite of their mini taco. When you make your online reservation, you can mention any dietary restrictions you have.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Cicioni (@brianmayroam) on Dec 29, 2018 at 2:47pm PST

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Cicioni (@brianmayroam) on Dec 29, 2018 at 3:21pm PST

Your Culinary Backstreets guide will speak the local language

This may sound like an odd one since I’m a native English speaker writing about a tour I joined with an English-speaking guide in an English-speaking country, BUT, we are talking about Queens. It’s not only New York’s most diverse borough, but according to many estimates, if Queens were a separate city, it would be the most diverse in the world. To put this into perspective, 800 different languages are spoken here. The Corona’s Culinary Essentials tour ends in Jackson Heights, where 167 different languages are spoken. Many of the business owners and service staff you’ll meet will speak basic English, but not may not be able to explain every dish you are sampling, or why they chose to open on Junction Blvd as opposed to 103rd Street. But your local guide will be able to facilitate any conversation you want to have about where that amazing champurrado recipe came from or where the first alajores were sold. As a personal note, when I took the Corona’s Culinary Essentials tour, I’d been visiting Corona and Jackson Heights for more than ten years and was only familiar with one of the stops we made.

Going on tours at home gives me the opportunity to promote my own tours

Going on group tours gives you the opportunity to meet other travelers with similar interests. You’ll often spend more time between stops than at the actual stops. This gives you the opportunity to get to know your guide and the other guests. And when you go on tours in your own city, you can always mention the excursions you offer. Many guides are happy to pass along brochures, business cards, etc. of other tour guides/companies. Personally, I discovered Hush Tours through Bronx Historical Tours and have had amazing experiences throughout the Bronx with both companies. 

If you’re a fan of The Ramones , I offer a Ramones Walking Tour in Manhattan.

I also offer a Goodfellas Tour of Brooklyn and Queens .

Want to keep the conversation going? Let’s connect via my social links below.

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This post was sponsored by Culinary Backstreets. You can check out their different NYC tours here . They also offer tours in Meixco City as well as twelve other cities in Asia and Europe. Read what people are saying on TripAdvisor .

All pictures were shot with a Panasonic Lumix ZS100 4K Point and Shoot Camera , with the exception of any Instagram pics . 

Have you been to Queens? If so, what did you eat? Where?

About The Author

Brian Cicioni

Brian enjoys exploring different cities along public transit lines and writing about it on his blog, IMayRoam.com. He also writes about food tours, layovers, and exploring movie and musical landmarks. You can find some of his work on Fodor’s, Insider, InsideHook, Travel + Leisure, and USA Today. Brian has traveled to more than 50 countries as well as every state. On weekends, he leads music and film-focused tours of New York City. His five-star rated Goodfellas Tour of NYC has been featured in Airbnb Magazine. Always happy to offer tips to aspiring travel writers and tour guides, Brian has spoken at events, including the Travel & Adventure Show, TBEX, and the New York Times Travel Show.

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17 Comments

Culinary tours are the in thing right now. This trend is picking up in India as well. Some of my friends conduct such culinary tours. Your post is highly beneficial for them and they can add value to their offering through the ideas presented in this blog post.

I ate many Indian dishes that were new to me in Himachal.

Mmm, and now you’ve made me very hungry! Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us!

Hi Krysten. Glad you enjoyed!

This is such an excellent idea. I’ve never done a food tour in my own country. There’s a lot to discover yet! I’m definitely trying this soon.

I try to do at least one in every new city.

That is amazing! That picture of the meat (pork?) and cilantro on the tortilla looks amazing. I also love any history I can get my hands on, so this would be such an awesome tour. And the fact that you were only familiar with one place on that tour does not surprise me. You could probably go on lots of tours and never run out of options in any borough of NYC.

Hi Marie. The meat on the taco is goat meat. Thanks for reading!

Oh wow, I would have never guessed goat!

I think that food tours must be very exciting! The USA is a place full of different cultures, so I bet one can never get bored of such an entertirement! 🙂

And New York is a great place to start. You may never want to leave! Many don’t….

These sound like great food tours! We want to try them all. Any interest in coming to Chicago?

Yes, I spent a long weekend in Chicago last August and would like to go back and explore at a more leisurely pace.

I’ve never actually taken a food tour anywhere, not even my own country. But there are so many great places to eat and foods to experience that I really should give it a go. Thank you for giving me this idea!

Culinary Backstreets runs tours in multiple countries.

And I`m hungry now. Thank you very much haha All looks so delicious I must say.

Hi Milica. Queens is STILL my favorite borough for food.

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Food Tours Atlanta

The food tour adventure that has it all, the extra "zings", locally owned, local tour guides, locally owned restaurants., come have fun eating with us our guests love our tours.

5 Star / 348 Reviews

Choose Your Food Tour

• Locally Owned Restaurants: 5-6
• One cocktail tasting is included
• Duration: 2.5 hrs
• Walk: 1 mile
• Departure Point: Krog Street Market
• Allergy Friendly: With notice can accommodate GF, DF, Veg, Vegan, Nut-free

• One Craft Beer Tasting Included
• Duration: 2 hrs
• Walk: 0.5 mile
• Departure Point: Ponce City Market
• Allergy Friendly: With notice can accommodate GF, DF, Veg, Vegan, Nut Free

• Locally Owned Cocktail Stops: 3
• Three Full Craft Cocktails & Small Bites Included
• Departure Point: Bazati
• Price: $120
• Mocktail Option, No food substitutions

CHECK OUT THE SIGHTS & FLAVORS OF ATLANTA

Food Tours Atlanta is all about the neighborhood and its flavors and Inman Park is THE neighborhood to eat in Atlanta! Home to one of Bon Appetit’s top 50 dining destinations; Krog Street Market, and the Atlanta Beltline Eastside Trail.

Ponce City Market, in Atlanta’s hip Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, is an insiders dining, history and street are experience. Eat a cheeseburger by a James Beard Award winning Chef, hear about the history of the hidden springs and see some of the city’s most prolific street art along the Atlanta Beltline Trail.

Book a ticket today , eat like a local and see why Inman is one of Atlanta’s hottest foodie neighborhoods!

Historic Inman Park is 2 miles from Downtown Atlanta and Midtown Atlanta. Tour starts near the Inman Park Marta Station.

Ponce City Market is 1.5 miles away from Downtown Atlanta and 1 mile away from Midtown Atlanta.

Feel The "Zing" On Your Next Food Tour

Company outings, private tours & company outings.

Inspire your team, celebrate successes, reserve group outings, or host your clients on a once-in-a-lifetime walking food tour they won’t forget .

Let us to make all the arrangements with some of Atlanta’s most sought-after restaurants, and guide you on an informative immersion into the city’s favorite locales .

Loosen those ties, put on some walking shoes, and come hungry. We’ll take care of all the details.

What Our Guests Are Saying ...

Hungry thirsty ready.

Every restaurant is ADA compliant and there are ramps on the sidewalks we’ll use BUT because of  uneven sidewalks we do not feel it’s sufficiently accessible for a guest in a wheelchair.

If you can walk at a leisurely pace for 30 minutes, without needing to stop, then you can take our tour. Food Tours Atlanta is a walking tour and is not recommended for people with severe mobility issues.

We offer full ticket price refunds up to 48-hours before the tour. We also additionally offer trip insurance at $5 per ticket which enables you to get a full ticket price refund up until the start of the tour. 

Read more >>

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Use the code happyholidays to get, of all gift cards act now. discount expires soon, this website uses cookies..

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Culinary Backstreets Lisbon Food Tour: Song of the Seas Review

Do you love food and exploring local culture? Today we want to tell you about a top notch Culinary Backstreets food tour in Lisbon, Portugal.

About Culinary Backstreets

Culinary Backstreets is an organization passionate about telling the stories behind a city’s foodways.

They promote and protect traditional culinary culture, highlighting masters of their craft and family-run establishments through walking tours, downloadable Eatineraries, and written articles.

You’ll find them in Istanbul, Athens, Barcelona, Lisbon, Naples, Tbilisi, Queens, Mexico City, Rio, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Izmir.

“We use food as a lens through which we explore urban issues, highlighting lesser-told stories and people, revealing a deeper side of the city. I think you’ll really enjoy what we have created.”

– Ansel Mullins, Co-Founder of Culinary Backstreets

>> Use discount code INTLTRVL for 5% off any Culinary Backstreets tour! <<

What travel restrictions and rules are in place in Lisbon? Find post-pandemic travel updates for Lisbon here: What you need to know about Lisbon travel right now

Culinary Backstreets Lisbon Tours

At the time of this writing, there are three walking tours in Lisbon: two full-day culinary tours and one half-day walk.

We got to do a complimentary Song of the Sea tour during our first week in Lisbon, in exchange for an honest review here on the blog and some photo content. (As always, the opinions expressed in our reviews are entirely our own.)

Our guide, Celia, was a freelance journalist and co-author of Eat Portugal.

She personally researched the history of the neighborhoods we visited and had interviewed a number of the people we passed in the streets.

We met Celia at 10 a.m. and were joined by another family for an enjoyable day walking and eating in Lisbon’s historic port district.

Song of the Sea Tour Details:

Distance:  We walked about 8k or 5 miles. Of course, this was broken up into short bits throughout the day. Our guide’s Fitbit registered 6 stories climbed.

Time: 5+ hours

Food: All-inclusive price covers seafood, fish, pastries, alcohol, coffee, etc. Gluten-free and vegetarian alternatives can be arranged with advance notice.

Who it’s for: We really loved that this tour stayed entirely outside of Lisbon’s busy center. We saw almost no tourists and very few crowds. The tour was truly about diving deep into a lesser-known area, uncovering every-day culture and historic traditions, and sampling local favorites. Participants should be prepared to walk a good bit and enjoy all kinds of seafood.

Use discount code INTLTRVL for 5% off any Culinary Backstreets tour! Next we’ll share a bit about some of the stops we made and the great food we got to sample…

Our first stop was a small, family-run coffee roaster . It’s the only wood-fired coffee roaster in Portugal, producing a couple tons of chemical-free coffee beans each week for export around Europe and for use in local coffeeshops. Today, the business is run by a son about our age – he’s third generation in this family enterprise.

We sampled their espresso with some cookies, and we really loved the mild flavor.

Since there was no sign on the street, we made sure to mark the location on our phone, and we went back a couple weeks later to purchase beans to take home.

The price was extremely reasonable, sold by the kilo – ground or whole bean. Rather than grab a pre-made bag of the shelf, they take the time to hand-package freshly roasted beans!

Around the corner, we discovered the neighborhood’s  limpeza urbana, or washing tanks.

We’d only ever seen something like this in historic movies. They’re essentially public pools for laundry. These were built on the grounds of a former missionary convent in the 19th century and have long been a community meeting point.

Nowadays, most people have their own washing machines at home, but they might come to the tanks to do larger loads of bedding, for example. Schools and other institutions pay for bulk washings of uniforms and linens. And community events are still hosted there.

While hanging out at the washing tanks, our guide shared with us one of the city’s most famous delicacies: pasteis da nata , which she had brought along with her.

This custard-filled pastry comes from the early convents and monasteries, when they needed to start income-generating projects to support themselves.

The flaky crust and sweet, creamy center are a delightful combination which can be topped with cinnamon or powdered sugar, or just eaten plain.

We meandered through the cobbled streets, passing from the working-class fishermen neighborhood, the Madragoa (“mothers/nuns of Goa”) neighborhood and on to the wealthier Lapa neighborhood.

Our next stop was a small restaurant serving specialties from Goa, one of Portugal’s colonies in India. The owner, originally from Goa, arrived by way of Mozamique and had been living in Lisbon for 39 years.

He originally started producing and selling thousands of spicy samosas a week to support himself.

We got to sit down in his restaurant and sample some of his samosas as well as a labor-intensive 9-layer cake that’s typically reserved for special occasions.

With multiple snacks already under our belt, we were by no means hungry. But we sat down for an outdoor lunch at a seafood restaurant located on Lisbon’s port. It’s a popular lunch spot for the area’s office workers, and they specialize in grilled fish.

Next to us, a woman was single-handedly grilling all the fish to perfection amidst billows of smoke and steam.

The fresh sardines were incredible, grilled and seasoned with nothing but sea salt. We also feasted on some hard cheese, olives, greens, cuddlefish, a rice and fish dish, and Portugal’s “green wine.”

Progressing further into the Alcantara neighborhood, seafood and beer joints are numerous and locals like to enjoy them while watching a football match.

So we sat down for a few more seafood samples from various parts of the country. This time, we tried gooseneck barnacles, prawns, and clams . Most of us weren’t too interested in more of the barnacles, but the garlic sauces on the other dishes made seconds hard to turn down.

Next, we stopped by a small shop selling wines, cheese, and an assortment of other goods.

It became apparent that the four other visitors who were in the store when we arrived, were actually just hanging out and not going anywhere soon.

The shop has been there for 50 years but it’s a traditional kind of place that’s at risk of being lost to time, which is why Culinary Backstreets makes an effort to support it.

In a tiny back room, we sampled sheepsmilk cheese , sourced from a small village in Central Portugal where the owner is originally from. We also tried tawny port from 1980 and a delicious local pear .

With full bellies, we found ourselves entering another interesting shop with window displays full of nuts, candies, digestive teas, and other natural remedies.

We sipped on coffee (which came from the roaster at our first stop on the tour) or verbina tea and munched on walnut and honey cookies while Celia, our guide, wrote out restaurant suggestions for the rest of our trip.

While our tour was officially done, Celia invited us to one more stop down the street, where she was getting bread to take home. It was a traditional bakery with a stone mill grinder that makes sourdough and rye, and the family that came with us also bought some loaves to take home.

Final Thoughts

We were very impressed by Culinary Backstreets from start to finish.

Their communications were very helpful and thorough, their local guides are experts in their subject matter, and their mission aligns perfectly with intentional travel. Their pricing may be higher than others, but we think you will be hard-pressed to find a higher quality, curated cultural experience.

We came away from the tour with deeper insight into a side of Lisbon we never would have experienced otherwise.

The food itself was all excellent and the tour included a number of new things we got to try for the first time. We felt bad that we were leaving some things uneaten by the end, but we left so full that we didn’t bother eating anything for dinner later!

All in all, it was a great tour. If you’re looking for an off-the-beaten-path cultural experience, we would recommend checking out Culinary Backstreets . Don’t forget to use discount code INTLTRVL for 5% off any Culinary Backstreets tour!

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Culinary Backstreets: The Street Food Tour You HAVE TO DO in Mexico City

Although Mexican food is often known simply for tacos & tortillas, the cuisine is far more complicated – and delicious – than an initial glance over might presume. Mexico is probably the country in the Western hemisphere with the deepest and most profound culinary traditions. With such a rich culinary history, it would be a shame to travel to Mexico and not take some sort of food tour. There is SO MUCH MORE to Mexican cuisine than the average American traveler know.

I highly recommend doing a full-day food tour with Culinary Backstreets . Their tours focus on what they call the traditional side of “urban culinary life”, exploring family run restaurants, street vendors and the unsung (but talented!) home chefs. I have done both their downtown market tour and their Xochimilco food tour in Mexico city (see the video below for an insiders view!) and I can easily say this is the best street food walking tour in the city. Their tours are the most fun and informative food tours I have ever been on! Their tours are not cheap, but they are worth the steep price because they will take you behind the scenes and behind the fame of all the best local spots in the city.

Keep reading to find out why Culinary Backstreets offers the best walking food tour in Mexico City!

Mexico City, locally known as DF, has a bustling food scene, which to a foreigner, is incredibly overwhelming. I am so grateful that I did the Centro Historico Culinary Backstreets tour , because I would have had no idea where to start otherwise. We met our tour guide directly in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes , DF’s opulent arts center located right in the center of the city. He gave us a brief run-down of Mexico’s culinary history as we wandered our way through the busy streets, headed towards on the city’s main food markets.

On the way, we stopped at one of DF’s oldest coffee shops, still owned by the original family that started it at the turn of the 20 th century. They roast the beans fresh every day right in the window, so the aroma of the coffee is absolutely divine.

Our first food stop was at a seemingly basic seafood restaurant, which from the outside looked like nothing special. One of the owners greets us with a platter of ceviche & tostadas alongside a fish broth soup . The crispy fried tostadas were topped with an octopus crudo that was so acidic and fresh, I gobbled it up. The whitefish ceviche was slightly sweet with a spicy habanero burn that was just the right amount of hot. Finishing off with the salty, briny warmth of a fish broth cleansed our palettes as we headed to our next stop.

It’s quite common to see a variety of sauces on a Mexican table, and along the walk, our tour guide explained that Mexican food is hardly ever served as a complete dish. Eaters are welcome to add whatever hot sauce, onion/lime toppings or salsas they like. It’s quite focused on the tastes of the individual diner, and would not be seen as rude to salt or pepper your dish in the same way it might be seen at a fine dining restaurants US.

Tortas were our next dish, served straight out of a storefront window. The gregarious chef was thrilled to see 6 young women come up to order his sandwiches, and cheerfully teased us as he pressed our tortas right in front of us. They served a few different types of tortas, but the one we ordered was stuffed with a meat that I don’t usually associate with Mexican cuisine – turkey! Whole roasted with Mexican spices and herbs, the turkey meat was so tender and juicy, and after tossing on some house made hot sauce, my torta was hitting the spot!

We continued to wander around the shops near the market on our culinary walking tour, when walked into the most delicious smelling tortilleria . Every day, this tiny little shop pumps out 2,000+ handmade tortillas for DF residents. A staple ingredient of Mexican cuisine, local people pick up fresh ones nearly every day! We tried one just with salt and lime, and wow, I can’t believe how much flavor we miss out on with our tortillas in the US. They were nothing compared to these ones.

The highlight of the tour for me was visiting the food & meat market . This is a fully functional local market, visited by DF residents rather than tourists, which means, you’re seeing Mexican ingredients in their rawest forms. The were stalls literally skinning and butchering fresh meat (something I had never witnessed before) next to stalls selling fresh vegetables. It was strange seeing carts of dead goats rolled down an aisle filled with fruits people were just eating right there.

Nonetheless, the market was full of new food to try. We experimented with flavors from Oaxaca, one of the most culinary states in Mexico, including toasted crickets ! We sampled from freshly roasted Mexican espresso, and ate handmade mole from a woman who’s been cooking it for over 50 years. We got a history lesson on chiles and how different flavors can be brought from the same chile through the drying and aging process.

At the fruit stand , I tried so many different types of fruits that I had never even seen before, let alone heard of. We also got a sample of Mexican cheese, which as a ched-head, I very much appreciated. I was surprised to learn how many different types of cheese they produce, considering the only Mexican cheeses I had ever had before were soft cheeses. Nope, they’ve also got hard cheeses and aged cheeses too, and they are indeed delicious!

The market also has lots of “restaurants” which are basically 5 seat counter bars run by 1 or 2 people serving up “plates of the day”. I could tell this was a popular spot for Mexicans to grab lunch because it was pumping with people at 1:00pm when we were wandering around. Lots of the spots were selling similar fares but clearly, people had their favorite shops. We sampled some cooked food here as well, including pozole soup and empanadas .

For our final stop on our food walking tour in Mexico City, we headed to a pulqueria . In case you’re not familiar, which I certainly wasn’t, pulque is an indigenous Mexican alcohol that is made from fermented agave. For many years, it was a blue collar, working man’s drink and was basically shunned out of existence, until recently, when the Mexican hipster movement started to think it was cool again. It has a creamy milk color and the consistency of snot — viscous, gooey and sticks to your throat. Appetizing right? It smells HORRENDOUS, like rotting vegetables, but actually tastes kind of decent. Think of a hybrid between kefir yogurt and kombucha to give you an idea of what it’s like.

We visited Pulqueria Duelistas , one of the original pulque joints, and it was absolutely packed. We were definitely the only foreigners there! The pulque comes in different flavors, mostly tropical fruits, and gives you a slight buzz but less like and alcohol buzz and more like a sugar buzz. After our tour guide described it, I was a little hesitant to try it, but was surprised when I actually kind of enjoyed it! It was surprisingly refreshing on a hot day, and the weird texture kind of grows on you. To be honest, at the end of the tour, I wasn’t ready to be done yet!

I could have easily eaten more delicious Mexican street food (even though I was totally full) and learned more about Mexican cuisine. Culinary Backstreets did an amazing job educating us while also giving us a memorable and delicious experience. This street food walking tour was one of the highlights of my trip to Mexico, and in fact, I loved it so much, I have already booked a Culinary Backroads tour in Lisbon during my honeymoon ! Here’s to more food adventure abroad!

Have you ever done a food tour? What did you love about the experience? Comment below!

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Hip Eats & Backstreets Food Tour

Private request only!

Eat your way through Paris’ coolest neighbourhoods…

A focus on fresh ingredients, a nod to tradition, a bold attitude towards new trends, and a diverse international influence – the cuisine in Paris will knock your béret clean off. But to avoid the tourist traps (and there’s plenty of them!), you’ll need to find a local who can take you to the foodie spots that Parisians themselves are shouting about. That’s where we come in!

On this 4-hour walking food tour, our local guide takes you through the Parisian neighbourhoods setting the foodie trends – including Saint-Martin. Once an indistinct manufacturing hub, this trendy neighbourhood is now home to some of the city’s most skilled artisans and a breeding ground for shabby-chic bars, independent boutiques, contemporary art galleries and chic eateries.

You’ll enjoy stylish treats like lemon and meringue tart, sip on Bordeaux red wine and meet the entrepreneurs who have created culinary businesses with their bare hands.

From a small industrial cafe serving the tastiest toasted cheese sandwiches in town, to a gourmet gift shop so charming you won’t be able to resist coming back – you’ll stop at stylish and unexpected places that you won’t find in the guidebooks. Plus you’ll learn about the history and culture of the neighbourhoods as you walk.

We recommend you arrive hungry and curious. And don’t forget to make some space in your phone for all the charming photos you’ll want to take!

Destinations Rome Florence Naples Amsterdam Prague London Paris Berlin Lisbon Porto Athens Palermo Venice Milan I am interested in Private or Group Booking Making a booking Becoming an approved Travel Advisor Info on PR/Media Inquiries Other

Get three additional drinks during your tour with our Premium Drink Package for only €19 per person!

• A Parisian craft beer paired with a Parisian favorite food
• A glass of Moroccan red wine
• A glass of red wine paired perfectly with a local cheese

You can add the Premium Drink Package to your booking during checkout.

Note: this option is only available for ages 18+; Eating Europe reserves the right to substitute a non-alcoholic drink should the guest become inebriated. 

Leo was fantastic! He showed us some lesser known areas in Paris, along with a lot of back information about the city and it’s culinary heritage. I left the tour feeling very satisfied - Nancy Y (TripAdvisor Review)

Terrific tour, hosted by the charismatic and charming Marie, who led us through the history, food and sights of Paris. Thoroughly recommend this to anyone who wants to scratch beneath the surface and see (and ermmm… taste!) Paris through the eyes of a local. - Fulton James (TripAdvisor Review)

My boyfriend and I had a great tour – it was way more interesting than I’d expected it to be. Not just your usual typical foods and the guide (Dakota) was great at incorporating the history of the city and its neighbourhoods into the tour. - Hkalisher (TripAdvisor Review)

The delicious food and our lovely tour guide, Marie, made me forget it was freezing and pouring down rain. Marie masterfully used the food at each stop to tell the story of France, Paris, and the trendy areas near the Canal Saint-Martin, Place de la Républic, and the Marais. - Femme Zazou (TripAdvisor Review)

Private tours

If you are coming to Paris with your entourage and you’d like to take a private tour just for you and your group – we can make that happen! Just visit our private tours page and fill out the form – we’ll help you plan the perfect Paris tour for your needs.

Meet Your Local Paris Tour Guides

Experience the city with a Paris food tour guide and feel like a local.

EATING EUROPE INC. CANCELLATION POLICY

Small Group Tours

A tour can be cancelled with a full refund up to 24 hours before tour departure.

Private Tours

A private tour can be cancelled and fully refunded up to 7 days before tour departure

Gift Cards, Travel Vouchers & Flexi-Pass™

Gift cards, travel vouchers and Flexi-Pass™ are non-refundable.

LATE ARRIVALS AND NO SHOWS

Due to extremely strict time slots for entry into attractions and for food preparation, both in-person & virtual/online, we recommend you show up 15 minutes before the scheduled starting time of the tour or experience. Our group tours begin & depart precisely at the scheduled tour or experience start time. If you show up late or cannot find the meeting point, for any reason, refund requests are not honored per policy. If you are having a hard time arriving on time we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible so we can do everything in our power to assist you with arriving at the meeting point at the scheduled time or reschedule to the next available tour.

CANCELLATION DUE TO PLANES, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES OR ILLNESS

Inside of 24 hours, your spot on the tour has been reserved exclusively for you. Since we are unable to fill your spot if you’re unable to attend for any reason (including transportation or illness), we do not offer refunds after that time. Please plan ahead so that you are able to join us and don’t miss out!

DISCOUNT CODES

Discount codes are valid for new bookings only. They are not eligible for pre-existing bookings and can not be applied retrospectively.

AMENDMENT POLICY

We would be happy to assist you with rescheduling your tour, free of charge, with any requests made more than 24 hours of 8am CET on the date of the tour. We reserve the right to charge an amendment fee should you request to reschedule within 24 hours of 8am CET on the date of your tour . Once again, this is subject to availability and price changes. In general, we only charge you for any additional costs that we incur such as tickets. We have no intention of profiting from disruptions to your vacation and will work with providers and suppliers to get this cost reduced to a minimum.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

From time to time, the terms of this policy may change at the Company’s discretion.

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, you can contact us using the information below:

E-mail: [email protected]

Hip Eats & Backstreets Food Tour

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Explore our Food Tours →

Athens culinary walks

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Culinary Backstreets covers the world’s best eating destinations, with city guides, food tours, multi-day trips and daily dispatches.

Exarchia: Taste of Utopia

Quick Bite: On this afternoon food tour of Exarchia, we’ll explore this vibrant neighborhood’s roots in political activism but also investigate why it is also home to some of the city’s best eats. This 6-hour tour includes more than a dozen essential bites, sips and stops that illustrate the history and culture of this iconic and complex district.

US $140/adult

Culinary Secrets of Downtown Athens

Quick bite:  On this 5½-hour food tour, we will explore the culinary backstreets and secrets of downtown Athens, in search of the soul of this historic yet always vibrant city. 

Backstreet Plaka: Exploring the Culinary Heart of Athens

Quick bite: On this food tour in Plaka, we will explore the district’s culinary diamonds in the touristy rough while at the same time getting a sense of how this ancient district shaped the growth of modern Athens. 

Keramikos Calling: Market Day in Athens

Quick bite: On our Keramikos food tour, we will walk through the weekly street market and get a taste of the creativity and tradition that reside here, visiting neighborhood institutions, both old and new. From Cretan homecooking to classic Northern-style pastry, market fresh produce to souvlaki al fresco, it’s a miracle that Keramikos remains a neighborhood under the radar.

US $135/adult

The Moveable Sunday Feast

Quick bite: “On this tour– our own take on a classic Athens Sunday – we will start off at a leisurely pace, enjoying the quiet streets around downtown’s normally bustling historic Monastiraki Square.”