Despite the fact that there are millions of foodies trotting the globe, some culinary gems still manage to fly under the radar.

[Sidebar – how much must you like food to qualify as a foodie? I ate quite a few meals yesterday, am I a foodie now? Do you only qualify if you post obnoxious pictures on social media with the correct hashtags? At what point can we judge people calling themselves foodies to their faces?]

Anyway, CNN have travelled the globe and compiled a list of 20 spots that aren’t getting the love they deserve – that image up top comes from Burgundy, a restaurant in Beirut, in case you were wondering.

That list also comes with some local flavour so let’s start there:

Bread & Wines Vineyard Restaurant, South Africa

Food writer Tamsin Snyman says: “Eighteen years of masterful cuisine has been carved here into the fabric of Franschhoek’s culinary scene, courtesy of Neil Jewell, who cut his teeth in the kitchens of Stephen Bull, Richard Corrigan and Ray Neve before he began his journey at Bread & Wine.

“His wife Tina, a master-baker, runs the front-of-house, while Jewell, also known as the charcuterie king of the country, toils in the kitchen.

Locals return time and again for his bespoke charcuterie platters, his champion dish of butter-roasted kingklip with chicken-wing confit and pickled mushrooms [above].

“The seasonally updated menu also includes treats such as warm salad of bone marrow, oxtail and sweetbreads.”

Some more images via their website (HERE):

Delightful.

Let’s head to Sweden next – Råkultur, Sweden (Stockholm):

Publisher Lars Peder Hedberg says: “You might have heard about Esperanto, chef Sayan Isaksson’s highly praised fine dining restaurant that bridges the best of Nordic and Japanese inspirations.

“But its more casual sibling Råkultur, meaning ‘raw culture,’ is where Isaksson is perhaps at his most radically innovative, redefining what sushi and sashimi can be all about.

“The magnificent Nordic sashimi plate, with seafood you’ve never heard of, much less likely tasted, is perhaps the most traditional — at least when compared to his pike-perch nigiri topped with lardo and confit pork, his maki with burnt salmon skin with roasted garlic or right-out renegade creations like short-rib gunkan with smoked soy or his teriyaki of grilled duck hearts in pepper.”

And off to Lima, Peru, where you’ll find Al Toke Pez:

Lima-based food critic Diego Salazar says: “Tomás ‘Toshi’ Matsufuji, son of late Nikkei chef Dario Matsufuji, has a PhD in supramolecular chemistry but now cooks in his hole-in-the-wall eatery Al Toke Pez, where one can have a meal for about $10, excluding drinks.

“Set in the lower-middle class neighborhood of Surquillo, this eight-seat cevicheria serves a menu of six types of offbeat fish and seafood, plus a secret stash of items available only to friends and regulars.

“Matsufuji’s most famous dish is cachete frito, prepared with the fin of robalo (snook) or mero (grouper), deep-fried and served in a seafood sauce.”

Go on foodies, book those flights now.

Or, you know, you could pop past Cafe du Cap on Loop Street – described by Inside Guide as ‘like walking into a Hemingway novel’.

You might even see the elusive Seth Rotherham and his celeb friends sitting in the corner plotting their next moves…

[source:cnn]