IPA in Accra Almost five years ago, I poured a pint of Scotland’s Black Isle Blonde for a Ghanaian chef who came into the bar I worked at in Edinburgh. We bonded over our love of the beer, and he told me all about his country, which I was, coincidentally, about to visit. This new favorite customer of mine, named ...

It’s 2 a.m. on a Saturday night when Mr. Muhammad Boota’s alarm goes off. As late-night revelers around New York shuffle home after last call at the bar, Boota is just getting started. He puts on a green shalwar kameez, ironed fastidiously by one of his daughters. Gold-lacquered vest? Check. Matching turban? Check. Dhol, the double-headed drum of his native ...

Raspado in Tucson I had no idea what a raspado was before I went to Arizona. It’s a Mexican-style shaved-ice drink, named from the Spanish raspar, which means “to scrape.” It can be topped with fruit, flavoring, syrup, and various condiments. It can be sweet, savory, spicy, or all three. Naturally, I had to try it. For breakfast. You can ...

Tea in the Nineveh Plains The men stir their tea. They speak, stare, and listen. Then, they stir some more. Some strangers—now fellow-travelers and, indeed, friends—and I have been traipsing around the Nineveh Plains all day. We’re on our way to Mosul. The Western journalists among us are covering the final act in the war to liberate the city, but ...

Pork sausage and marshmallow salad in Tavistock, Ontario Defeat makes you hungry. Or maybe it’s the fact that we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6:00 a.m. to make it to the World Crokinole Championship on time. Either way, two intense hours of disk-flicking have failed to get us beyond the preliminary round of the recreational doubles event, and our ...

Encebollado in Esmeraldas It’s noon, and the whole flat is waking up, hungry, with thumping headaches. Trying to piece the together the night before is a daunting task. The best way to do it is over some encebollado, Ecuador’s famous fish soup. We head out, tired and sweating on a hot, cloudy day in Esmeraldas, a city on Ecuador’s northern ...

HAVANA, Cuba— It’s 11 p.m. on a pleasant, breezy Wednesday night in Havana as I walk into one of the city’s public parks with for-pay Wi-Fi. I’m in the Vedado district, the city’s entertainment hub, which is filled with tall modernist buildings, art deco walk-up apartments, and pre-Revolution upper-middle-class homes. The park is bustling with people. There’s a group of ...

Sign up for R&K Insider, our collection of the most compelling happenings in food, politics, and travel from across the web. This week, we published a series of photos following the Green Cross, a group of medical students offering aid to both sides of the conflict in Venezuela. The idea that medical students are risking their lives to help protesters in ...