In today’s world, we only need to travel a few miles from home to taste cuisines from thousands of miles away. But TCKs and avid travelers have been blessed with the ability to experience these exotic dishes the way it was meant to be: cooked for and by locals using native ingredients. It simply tastes better that way. This is “my five.”

1. “Filipinofood.” This Filipino dish is called Lechon – basically a pig slowly roasted over a fire. The skin is crispy while the meat just melts in your mouth. It is dipped into a liver sauce that perfectly matches in flavor. It’s usually only eaten on special occasions. This photo was taken by a fellow TCK, my brother.

2. “Americanfood”. American food is way more than just burgers and fries. Nothing else says “American” to me than a grilling on a three-day weekend. These baby-back ribs were first boiled with an onion mix for hour, then slathered with a home-made mix of bbq sauce and honey and spices, then grilled over hot coals and finally topped with another generous coating of sauce. It was definitely the main course in a delicious Memorial Day Weekend barbecue gathering in Los Angeles, California.

3. “Hondurasfood.” My friends and I chowed down on some nicely grilled flank steak, filling fried beans, along with salsa, sour cream and crunchy fried plantains during a trip to Copan, Honduras. Hours of traveling on Central American public transportation, and climbing up and down Mayan pyramids, gave us quite an appetite.

4. “Japanfood.” This is the freshest and most delicious salmon and tuna sushi I have ever had. This was taken at a sushi bar/restaurant a few steps from the famous Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan. One of the other sushi dishes I had came straight out of the fish tank in the background. I have a video of the remains of the fish, put on my plate as decoration, still twitching.

5. “Singaporefood.” This is one of my favorite meals of all time from the S-11 hawker center in Woodlands, Singapore, near my old high school. Tender roasted chicken, tasty chicken rice (rice cooked in chicken broth, ginger and other flavorings), refreshing cucumber, with spicy and dark sauces for dipping, all washed down with a cold mug of Tiger Beer.

What are your “five?” Email your submission into steph@denizenmag.com.