Blog Posts by TravelandLeisure.com

Let them eat cake. You've got these wonderfully bizarre desserts to try instead.

This piece is reprinted from Travel + Leisure // By Lola Akinmade Åkerström

Dessert doesn't get more traditional than American pie-unless you've ordered cherpumple, which stacks layers of apple, cherry, and pumpkin pies within a spice cake that's sealed in cream cheese frosting. An L.A. humorist invented it in 2009, and a year later, a Philadelphia bakery introduced the similar 1,880-calorie-per-slice Pumpple Cake.

These after-dinner sweets were no afterthought. Chefs increasingly push the boundaries of what qualifies as dessert, experimenting with savory, spicy ingredients and radical presentations. Other strange desserts draw on centuries-old, culturally specific recipes that can require days of preparation work.

The kitchen staff at Istanbul's five-star Ciragan Palace Hotel-an elaborate compound that the last sultans called home-needs 72-hour notice to prepare the $1,000 Sultan's

To give you a taste of the best chocolates around the world, we culled our favorite flavors from these new sweet shops.

Paul A. Young Fine Chocolates

If you think a box of chocolates is a bland Valentine's cliché, then you're not shopping at the right places. Chocolatiers have elevated the sweets into an art form and are opening appealing shops that cater to both locals and tourists.

The finest new truffles and bonbons often reflect local tastes and unexpected pairings. Consider the white peach and apricot caramel chocolates sold in Mexico City's artsy Condesa neighborhood or the Blanc de Noir ganache covered in gold dust available at a Basel shop also known for its wine tastings. These bite-size treats are an easy, affordable luxury-a satisfying treat in the moment and a souvenir to savor long after your travels.

Whether as souvenirs or exercises in virtual travel, these spots satisfy the urge to indulge, bridging a familiar medium with the essence of a destination-and what

By Taylor Bruce

The all-American dish is much more than Colonel Sanders. Whether in L.A. or Atlanta, it's the essential soul food.

Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken in New York City.

America's sweetheart dish is apple pie, but its savory counterpart is most certainly fried chicken. A piping-hot platter of floured-and-fried chicken is the Bruce Springsteen of foods. Golden breading, flavor-packed skin, and fall-off-the-bone meat-this is the workingman's filet mignon. Brought over by British pilgrims, and seasoned to higher stature by African American cooks in the Deep South, fried chicken has its origin in country kitchens. But to say refined gourmands don't relish a steaming bowl of drumsticks is foolish.

From coast to coast, fried chicken is a craving that has withstood centuries of supperdom, never waning in the country's tastes, while simultaneously allowing room for creative evolution. In Los Angeles, the popular Roscoe's is a pioneer of the blended-meal tradition of chicken and waffles. (One fan is Larry King, who once showed up

By Shane Mitchell

From traditional New York pizza parlors to next-generation California pies, the best slices in America.

Famous Joe's, NYC

According to Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana-the Naples, Italy-based trade group that promotes and certifies Neapolitan pizza-there are only two truly authentic styles: marinara and Margherita. Both have to be hand-kneaded and baked in a wood-fired oven. But since these archetypal napoletanas were introduced to our shores by Italian immigrants in the 19th century, pizza has become as American as, well, another type of pie.

And, like the U.S.A., pizza has adapted, with different regions giving their own spin to this Old World staple. Chicago has deep dish; California skews gourmet. Sicilian pies in Detroit (home to the Domino's and Little Caesars chains) are square. New Haven, CT, has a thin-crust pizza that's a type all its own. And even though no-name pie shops can be rigorous about crispy crust and the right distribution of sauce versus toppings, in the

By Emma Sloley

Cutting-edge cuisine has its place, but sometimes you just want a hearty meal with your favorite comfort foods.

Loveless Cafe's signature biscuits and sausage gravy in Nashville, TN.

There are certain feel-good foods we universally reach for when we need to be comforted. A fragrant bowl of chicken soup. A dose of silky mashed potato. A 10-napkin serving of unctuous barbecue. Restaurant trends may come and go, but comfort foods are forever. Fortunately, America is awash with restaurants where the traditional never went out of style.

While on the hunt for America's best comfort foods, we stuck to tried-and-true dishes that tend to evoke a sense of place. We found a bigger-than-Texas chicken-fried steak in Houston, biscuits and gravy worth lining up for in Nashville, and a chicken soup recipe handed down through generations in Philadelphia, along with a host of other feel-good staples.

The common denominator: all of them are unpretentious, homemade, and in most instances, the kind of dishes that would cause a riot were the restaurants to