The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2026

Blessed are the women who watch over America’s children.

Inside the Ojibwe’s fight to preserve a plant and the extraordinary traditions around it in northern Wisconsin.

That night, the river ran high.

From California to the Mediterranean, abandoned groves are being restored to life in order to save shrinking towns and prevent environmental damage.

A personal story about dignity, survival, and the systems that decide who gets to eat, plus the latest on Doppy’s comeback and Chicago’s Whistlemania movement.

Halal restaurants like Yearby's and SabarBBQ are showcasing serious craft in the world of smoked meats.

My dad was a soldier, a traitor, and a refugee. What would we find when we returned to the country he fled?

Stéphane Saint Louis is serving pristine French food and amazing sauces at his more casual Petaluma restaurant, Bijou, a follow-up to Table Culture Provisions.

It started with a cheese pull.

The once-humble staple has turned into the ultimate symbol of human consumption.

Garlic ranks high on our list of beloved ingredients, meet the die-hard enthusiasts who are obsessed with improving it.

The dairy industry in Vermont relies heavily on immigrant hires, workers who are now being detained and deported. And sometimes freed.

Incarcerated men are uncredited creators of Governor’s honey

The wildly popular Nutella competitor El Mordjene has been banned by the European Union, a move some see as politically motivated, Lauren Collins writes.

What if there were a perfect way to kill a fish? To make it suffer less, taste better, and extend its shelf life so significantly that more people might enjoy more kinds of fish all over the world? Andrew Tsui knows just such a way.

For a few short months, dozens of part-time importers in New Jersey relentlessly compete to get the fruit into the hands of an eager diaspora.

Helen Rosner writes about Confidant, in Industry City, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The first time I met Alex Paul he wore a stylish patterned shirt and a wide smile. Paul, an immigrant from Haiti, came to the U.S. in the summer of 2023 and got a job at Amick Farms…

Ukrainian chef Yevhen Klopotenko spent years researching his homeland’s foodways in the wake of Soviet erasure. Now he wants to share them with the world.

An essay by Jordan Kisner