I had okonomiyaki, Japanese pancake in Japan. It's fantastic. They put all sorts of things in it like pork, veggies, cheese, and noodles.
It's very typical of Hiroshima and the Kansai region and they have different styles of making it. From what I saw, the Hiroshima style is bigger, flatter and has more cabbage, the Kansai style is thicker and smaller. I also think the batter was heavier.

In the places I went to in Tokyo and Osaka you could make it yourself. The table had a big grill and the waiter would bring you all sorts of ingredients. Some ingredients like fish flakes were strange and I couldn't bring myself to try them but what I had was delicious. In Hiroshima they made it for us.

I had it in Tokyo, Osaka, and Hiroshima and it tasted a little different everywhere I had it. It's fantastic and I haven't been able to find it anywhere in the US. Not even in Little Tokyo in LA! My mouth waters just thinking about it.

It's also inexpensive. I don't remember paying more than $10 for it. The food in Japan is great and not very expensive at all.

In the pictures you can see the difference between Kansai style and Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. Kansai style is the top picture and Hiroshima style is below.

When I was living in Ramallah, in the West Bank (back before the last uprising)
I went on a hike into the countryside and met a men selling Toot.
I know it is from the Mulberry family, but it only grows as "toot" in the Middle East. I gave him one american dollar and received a wonderful story about his travels and big bag of Toot!
I will never forget the taste of those berries.
http://360east.com/blogfileupload/realtoot.jpg

http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/2006/06/where-theres-toot.html
http://www.360east.com/?p=460

there is a candy in mexico i cannot remember for the lifeof me what it is called...but it is a chilli flavored candy...amazing
i lived in puerto nuevo mexico for 6 months and it is all i ate. i found a website . http://www.mexicanspecialties.com/

go there and click bite sized chilli candies.

The Japanese McDonalds have these sweet rolls like an eggroll but made of sweet red bean paste wrapped in seaweed, and then deep fried. They are amazing and highly addictive. You can get the sweet red bean desserts at most Japanese places here but the Micky D's bean roll is superior to any bean based treat I have had since.
They also knock their McChicken up a notch with some sort of pepper mixture that is delightful in comparison to ours. They even have a Shrimp Sandwich that tastes like you took a dozen fried cocktail shrimp and smashed them together in a bun.
If you are ever in Tokyo and not in the mood for good food, hit the Arches. Or as they call it Mack-a-Donal-Do's.

I can't find a pic of the bean roll on the McDonalds.jp site which means they don't have them anymore. I'm sorry to everyone who never even had a chance.

Belize has what must be a national dish: Rice and beans. It is chicken with kidney beans and rice but they use a vegatable base called "ricotta" (not the cheese). The dish just doesn't work without it.

Several things:

Poutsin. I don't know the real spelling, but this is a dish native to Montreal, and a guilty pleasure for most. I had it within a few years after it was invented. It's a base of hand-cut French fries, topped with grilled/roast chicken, a clear French chicken "gravy" called "veloute", and made-that-morning cheese curds so fresh they squeak on your teeth. The gravy is poured on last and melts the cheese. Apparently it got its name when a customer walked into a local burger joint and asked for this combo. The owner replied, "Ok, but it will be a mess", for which the local slang is "poutsin".

Now it's so popular it's commonly available a number of ways: besides the original, one with spaghetti sauce, one with hot dogs and coney sauce, and more. Upscale restaurants will do flights of fancy variation, like spiced sweet potato fries topped with duck and exotic cheeses.

I really wish more U.S. restaurants would pick this up. You can get it in some part of the U.S. along the St. Lawrence Seaway now, but that's it. And it's so simple and good! Real comfort food.

Other things I wish were available here:

conch fritters and crack conch (I had them in the Bahamas)--one place near me has them sporadically but it's not the same as eating them on Arawak Kai or buying them off the boat.

fresh leechies (instead of canned)

just the freshness and varieties of vegetables available in markets in France and Italy. Fortunately it's possible to get seeds for many of them.