For years I spent a week every month or month and a half in Paris. Dined at dozens of different establishments, ranging from street vendors to starred restaur

For years I spent a week every month or month and a half in Paris. Dined at dozens of different establishments, ranging from street vendors to starred restaurants. The best food and experience were in a not-ranked-by-anyone-anywhere Lebanese place in the Levantine quarter, and a hole-in-the-wall that served SW France provincial fare. Neither was particularly expensive. Similarly, the best Chinese food by far that I've ever had was when I convinced a colleague in Shanghai (who was a native of Szechuan) to take me to the Szechuanese place he'd choose, out of all he knew about Shanghai. Of course that cost a pittance, in US dollars, as back in those days everything in Shanghai did. The food was unbelievable. Ten times better than the starred menus I'd had in Paris and the Cote d'Azur in France. Best sushi meal I've had, far and away, was in a place in near the old Tsukiji market in Tokyo. Seating for maybe 12 in the whole place, but plate after plate of single or double bites. But that one wasn't cheap - the author's 150 British pound wouldn't have covered the bill even a decade and a half ago when I ate there.