Soup might be the oldest dish on the planet — archaeologists trace the first pots back some 20,000 years to what is now China — and it's still one of the best reasons to plan a trip. A recent round-up of standout soup spots spans four continents, and it doubles as a genuinely useful food-lovers' itinerary.
The most famous stop is Wattana Panich in Bangkok, where the same pot of neua tune beef stew has been simmering for half a century. Owner Nattapong Kaweenuntawong, who learned the trade from his father, uses the Hunter's Stew method: yesterday's broth becomes tomorrow's base. It takes around 11 hours of cooking and roughly 150 pounds of beef a day to keep the pot fed. Bangkok appears twice on the list — Rung Rueang, split into two shops by a decades-long family feud (the original left side is said to be better), has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand since 2018 for its customisable tom yum with pork, lemongrass, chile and lime. Add Mrs Mai Thi Lien's crab noodle soup at Bún Riêu Gánh, ladled from a wooden yoke near Ho Chi Minh City's Ben Thanh Market for four decades, and Southeast Asia alone justifies the airfare.
Elsewhere, the stories are as rich as the broths. Tokyo's Chankonabe Shinzan serves the sumo-wrestler staple chanko nabe — including a popular curry version — run by a retired wrestler. Paris's Au Pied de Cochon pours its French onion soup on a chicken-stock base (a nod to its Les Halles roots) and stays open nearly round the clock, from 8 a.m. to 5 a.m. In New Orleans, Dooky Chase's creole gumbo — crab, shrimp, veal and two sausages — carries a civil rights legacy under chef Leah Chase, while her green gumbo made with nine cooked greens appears each Easter. New York's Matryoshka hides inside a Financial District bathhouse, where you can eat Georgian harcho or solyanka in a robe and slippers, and San Francisco's Fio D'Italia, open since 1886, still does a proper minestrone and pasta e fagioli.
The more offbeat entries are arguably the most compelling. At Caldo de Piedra outside Oaxaca, fish and shrimp soup is flash-cooked with fire-heated stones in a Chinantec tradition now recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Oaxaca. In Tlalixtac de Cabrera, owner César Gachupín needed permission from town elders just to open. Ireland's northernmost pub, Farren's Bar in Malin Head, County Donegal — six generations in the same family, and graced by Mark Hamill during The Last Jedi filming — pairs seafood chowder and soda bread with cliff walks. There are also Arizona's Polish soup kitchen with twice-yearly cooking classes and Long Beach's doctor-founded Indian-Mexican cafe built entirely around healthy broths.
Who's this for? Anyone who plans holidays around eating. The list works as a single mega food pilgrimage or as a way to anchor a city break — Bangkok, Tokyo, Paris, New York and New Orleans all have more than one worthy bowl.