Fried foods and ‘revenge travel’: Indulgence is back

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This week in travel: an upside-down train, the meaning of “revenge travel” and the world’s greatest fried foods.

Trending travel

“Revenge travel” sounds menacing, but the trendy phrase actually describes people splurging on big vacations now that many Covid restrictions have been dropped. Longer times away, first-class upgrades and bucket list destinations are all excellent cures for FOMO.

Here’s more about what it is and who’s doing it. And we’ve got some ideas for your next big trip: A cruise to Antarctica or an Australian adventure, for starters.

While more and more countries open to tourism, a few have remained all but closed during the pandemic.

One of those holdouts was Japan, but there’s hope on the horizon. The country announced this week that it will experiment with a few small tour groups in May as a test to see how a full reopening could go later this year. The government floated the number of around 50 tourists for the trial.

This week, four countries moved into the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high” risk category for travel, including a tourism favorite in Africa.

Dollars to doughnuts

Tempura (Japan): Tempura is a dish of vegetables fried in a light batter and served with soy sauce. Click through the gallery for more fried food favorites all over the planet:

Hushpuppies (US South): These savory cornmeal croquettes are often a side to seafood and fish.

Churros (Spain, Portugal and Latin America): Delicious churros sticks are deep fried and dusted with powdered sugar. You can dip them into melted chocolate.

Beignets (Louisiana): Divine pillows of fried yeast dough dusted with powdered sugar, beignets are synonymous with New Orleans.

Mandazi (East Africa): These fluffy, triangular pillows go by many names along the Swahili coast of East Africa and are like mildly sweet doughnuts.

Jalebi (India): A batter is piped through a muslin cloth into the oil, then dipped in sugar syrup for a chewy-crunchy texture. Like many other foods that cross modern borders, it's popular in other parts of Asia, too.

Zucchini flowers (Italy): Fried in a batter, these zucchini flowers are stuffed with ricotta cheese and parsley.

Cronuts (United States): The baby of this list, cronuts -- a cross between a croissant and a doughnut -- were introduced in 2013 in a New York City bakery.

Fry bread (Native Americans in the US): A Navajo woman cooks fry bread. It's delicious, but it is also a byproduct of forced removal that has evolved into a complicated symbol for many tribes.

Fried green tomatoes (United States): When you're ready to eat and the tomatoes aren't ripe yet, you fry 'em. They're associated most often with the South, but their origins are in the Midwest.

French fries (Belgium and France): They're named for the cut of the potato, not the nation. The fries in this particular photo are a traditional street food snack in Bruges, Belgium, and go with pepper sauce.

Pakora (India): Pakora is a catchall term for a variety of Indian vegetable fritters, which can be made with anything from potatoes and eggplant to cabbage and spinach as a base.

Onion bhajis (India): While there are many varieties of pakora, one special version are bhajis, or onion fritters laced with aromatic spices. This batch is served with mango chutney.

Tostones (Caribbean and Latin America): Tostones are twice-fried green plantains with variations found throughout Latin American and Caribbean cuisines. They're sometimes called patacones.

Arancini (Italy): Though these breaded fried rice balls in Sicily are a traditional food during the December feast of Santa Lucia, arancini are eaten year-round.

Chiko rolls (Australia): Filled with beef and vegetables and deep fried in a pastry crust, they're inspired by Chinese egg rolls.

Banh cam (Vietnam): Made with tender glutinous rice flour and filled with mung bean paste, the balls are then rolled in sesame seeds and fried. Banh ran is a similar variation found in northern Vietnam.

Scotch eggs (United Kingdom): Possibly the most protein-packed bar snack in culinary history, a Scotch egg is a hard-boiled egg encased in sausage, then coated in breadcrumbs and fried until crispy.

Katsu (Japan): These panko-breaded chicken cutlets are a staple of many a meal, served over rice or with a curry. Pictured is a deep fried pork cutlet, called tonkatsu, with white cabbage salad.

Calamari (Italy and Greece): Batter-fried or breaded, served with a lemon wedge and either marinara sauce or a creamy mayonnaise-based sauce, this dish has gone from a Greek and Italian coastal specialty to a mainstream appetizer.

Fried chicken (Korean and American): Pictured here is the Korean style, deep-fried chicken wings with garlic sauce served with kimchi and pickled radish.

Fried clams (New England): Roadside clam shacks dot New England. Whole clam bellies are dipped in milk and then dredged in a cornmeal-flour breading before frying.

Kibbeh (Middle East): Minced beef or lamb is mixed with cooked bulgur wheat, onions and spices to make this dish. It's traditionally mixed and ground by hand, then shaped and fried.

Leche frita (Spain): Leche frita, or fried milk, is a favorite northern Spanish street food. A custard is made, cut into cubes and fried.

Prawn toast (Hong Kong): Also called shrimp toast, it is a simple savory snack consisting of shrimp paste smeared on white bread, then deep fried to a golden crisp.

Deep-fried Mars bar (United Kingdom): A frozen Mars bar (a chocolate, nougat and caramel candy bar) is dipped in thick batter and fried just until the chocolate is gooey and slightly melted.

Fried pizza (Italy): These puffy rounds of dough are filling -- and even more so when stuffed with ingredients such as ricotta, crushed tomatoes and pork cracklings.

Chimichangas (Southwest US): Burritos are filled with rice, beans, cheese and meats such as ground beef, carne asada, pork or chicken, then fried until the tortilla becomes a crispy shell.

Chicharrons (Spain, Latin America and the Philippines): Chicharron, or deep-fried pork skin, has been a method for making the most of every part of the pig for centuries.

The top fried foods around the planet

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Chimichangas or calamari? Why not both?

This roundup of the world’s most delicious fried foods will have you rethinking your weekend menu – or possibly impulse buying an air fryer online at 3 a.m. (Not that we’ve ever done anything like this.)

Prefer meat dishes to fried dough?

“Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” recently paid a visit to Umbria, where locals consume the country’s highest per capita amount of pork. Wild boar ragu, anyone?

Tune in Sunday as Tucci sets out to explore how Italian immigration has transformed the food scene in his adopted hometown of London.

People, pedestrians and personalities

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London's new $25bn tube line finally opens

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London’s long-awaited Elizabeth Line train (a.k.a. Crossrail) got a visit from its namesake this week. Ninety-six-year-old Queen Elizabeth II appeared at Paddington Station to inaugurate the new transit line and wore bright yellow for the big day.

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic unveiled the world’s longest suspension footbridge on May 13. The aptly named SkyBridge 721 is 721 meters long (about 2,365 feet). Austrian blogger Victoria Fellner summed up her experience on the bridge with the word “queasy.”

If you’ve ever dreamed about moving to Italy and buying one of those one-euro houses, Francesco Curione may be able to help. The “007 of lost Italian documents” can help unearth proof of a long-unknown ancestor and help those who qualify secure Italian citizenship. Grazie mille!

Riding the rails

Another level: The German city of Wuppertal is home to one of the world's most unusual metro lines -- the Schwebebahn suspension railway.

First of its kind: Active since 1901, the Schwebebahn is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world, and one of only a few of its kind.

Winning design: The railway design was chosen to overcome obstacles like waterways and roads in the sprawling city which stretches along the Wupper river.

Stylish and sleek: Almost 20,000 tons of steel were used to create the elevated track which snakes through the city. Its 20 beautiful art nouveau stations complimented the glass and wood interiors of the line's original carriage.

Blue train: The railway's latest sleek blue "Generation 15" trains entered service in 2016.

'Fairground attraction': "A ride in the Schwebebahn allows the passenger an extraordinary insight into the life of the local residents and really looks like a fairground attraction from days gone by," says architect Christian Busch.

Tuffi's trip: A sculpture in the Wupper river marks the spot where Tuffi the elephant jumped 10 meters from train carriage into the shallow waters below in 1950.

Playing the part: Wuppertal's railway has inspired artworks and made appearances in several movies.

Symbol of the city: "I don't think there's a more iconic symbol representing both Wuppertal and Barmen than the Schwebebahn. It has always been there for me and I'm proud that it is still running," says local resident Rosemarie Weingarten, who was born in Wuppertal's Barmen district in 1933.

Shonan Monorail: Japan's Shonan Monorail is one of the few other examples of a suspended railway. It's considered the sister to Wuppertal's line.

Wuppertal's incredible hanging electric railway (photos)

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Wuppertal, Germany, is home to the Schwebebahn, a suspended train that looks like it’s upside down. Not only are its glass-and-metal cars great for sightseeing, the train once transported a celebrity elephant.

Transit lovers, take note: Jerusalem will be getting a cable car. Israel’s highest court approved the controversial plan this week, with construction to begin imminently. Once the car is complete, visitors will be able to travel from west Jerusalem to the Old City in just four minutes.

In case you missed it

Most people walk down Rome’s Spanish Steps.

But this guy decided to drive a Maserati.

Planning some US domestic travel this summer?

The CDC advises getting a Covid test as close to departure time as possible.

What would happen if a squid and a yacht had a baby?

Its name is “Zion.”

The best travel beauty bags

It’s hard enough to get all your favorite beauty and skincare products in travel sizes without thinking about the right container to store them in. Luckily, our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN, have a list of fashionable and functional makeup-artist-approved cosmetic bags.

Top image: An aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of the Whitsunday Islands, along the central coast of Queensland, Australia. (Sarah Lai/AFP via Getty Images)