Summer Seafood

In the summer months, as the mercury goes up-up-up, we all think about the joys of jumping into the water. But there are those of us who think about what's jumping around in the water, too—fish and clams and all sorts of succulent shellfish. Lucky for us, summer also happens to be when the lobster shacks of New England throw open their weathered doors, when Chesapeake crabbers mix up their secret spice blends, when salmon smokers are lighted all over the Pacific Northwest. Let's face it: Nothing says summer like a sweet fried clam with a spritz of lemon, or a fish taco doused with guacamole and salsa, or a pile of freshly shucked lobster meat on a soft split bun. Get out your crackers—and your flippers—for our tour of the summer's best seafood spots.

World's Best Street Food

Street cooks are magicians: With little more than a cart and a griddle, mortar, or deep-fryer, they conjure up not just a delicious snack or meal but the very essence of a place. Bite into a banh mi—the classic Vietnamese sandwich of grilled pork and pickled vegetables encased in a French baguette—and you taste Saigon: traditional Asia tinged with European colonialism. What better proves the culinary genius of Tuscany than the elevation of a humble ingredient like tripe into a swoon-worthy snack? To sample merguez sausage in Marrakesh's central square is to join a daily ritual that has persisted for centuries.

America's Best Barbecue

Is there any food that better conveys summer than barbecue? After all, no cuisine is more easygoing, begging to be eaten with a wipe-your-hands-on-your-shorts brio—and nothing tastes as good when the heat of July sweeps in. And while we're all for cooking in the backyard, a quest for America's best barbecue makes a heck of a good excuse to get out and explore our country's little towns and back-road byways. Compare those succulent spareribs from Leon's in Chicago with the whole-hog barbecue in North Carolina's Skylight Inn (pictured), while planning a trip to Memphis for barbecue spaghetti (you read that right). Here are our picks for some of the best, representing smoke-pit passions from coast to coast. It'll make you glad to be American.

Peppes Pizza

Best pizzas around!

Peppes Pizza is a chain restaurant in Norway. The one in Larvik is siruated right on the waterfront and has seating inside (tables and booths) and outside (tables), so the location is great. The inside of the restaurant has a warm feeling to it, and a fun one as well. When I was there there were couples and families alike (with little kids being treated with balloons from staff).