I tend to navigate by restaurant. If someone asks me where something is, I will say, it is next door or across from such-and-such restaurant.  Some of my favourite eateries, ones that I will go to the first thing I step off a train and make regular pilgrimage to, include:
In Amsterdam:
- Go to the amazing organic market at the Noordemarkt on Staurday mornings and have a slice of the best apple pie on the planet. If you come up Prinsengraacht into Noordemarkt, it is the first cafe on the left. Of course, the cafe is open every day, but market day is always special. They do a great hot chocolate too.
- Cafe-restaurant Het Karbeel (try the stilton cheese fondue with marinated mushrooms) Warmoesstraat 16, 1012 JD  Amsterdam, Tel: 0031(20)6274995 Open: 9.30-23, info@hetkarbeel.nl Also check out the Condomerie across the street (every kind of funky condom on the planet, including ones with a Ronald Reagan head
- This is my first stop in Amsterdam coming off the train – contrary to popular belief because of my long hair...walk out of the Central Station and you will find a couple french-fry wagons. Try the Patat Friet mit sate – french fries with hot peanut sauce. It sounds gross, but it is divine!

Strasbourg, France:
La Cloche a Fromage (Gutenberg place, opposite piano bar). Pick out something from the menu, then go over to the huge glass domed cheese wheel and tell them what kind of cheese(s) you want your dish made with! 27, rue des Tonneliers 67000 Strasbourg, France Tel:+33(0)388231319, tourrette@cheese-gourmet.com,

Linden, Belgium (near Leuven):
Het Bed Van Napoleon. In summer, try their cold cucumber soup! Kortijkstraat 101, 3210 Linden, Belgium. Closed Monday and Tuesday. This was the inspiration for me making some last week. It is a completely different recipe than the one at this restaurant, but nonetheless it is extremely refreshing in the summer:

Krakow, Poland:
Jewish Restaurant "Ariel" If you need a good pick-me-up after seeing Auschwitz, stop in for some of the best chocolate cake ever, kosher slivovitz that will make your bottom lip go numb, and live Klezmer music. It worked for me. 31-053 Cracow, Poland, Szeroka St. 18, tel. 0048 12 421 79 20, biuro@ariel-krakow.pl

Pristina, Kosova
There are plenty of good restaurants in Pristina, so good in fact that I usually gain at least 1-3kg a week there. To top it off, the service is always superb.
·    Tiffany’s on Fehmi Agani Road (near the House of Freedom - ex LDK) tel; 044 350 550;
·    Pjata, on rruga Dubrovniku  tel landline 220 739
·    Ex Restaurant (Tel: 044 157 039 /044 557 700) Fehmi Agani Street 3/8. Up from Samurai and across from Panevino
·    Ballantines (try their spinach crepes!) Rexhep Luci 21, tel. 044 15 79 27. Open 8-23, Sunday: 12-21

·    Te Komiteti - aka Et Itetimok (038 249 663) Across from Remember Me flower shop.
·    A&A Restaurant (044 161 713) Directions:  Rexhep Mala Steet #39.  Sunny Hill, pass the UN Ombudsperson Building, first street on the left.  Approximately 100 meters from intersection.
·    Mexicana Restaurant Rr. Abdyl Frasheri 22, tel. 38 22 91 39 or 377 (0) 44 111 071
·    Thai - 044 140 791 Rr. Luan Haradinaj, in the courtyard behind the Chinese Restaurant and Phoenix Bar. Open 11-23

·    XIX Restaurant, Luan Haradinaj 2 (Center, Police Avenue), 038 248 002, Open 7-24. Located in the center of Prishtina between Unmik and OSCE
A recent standout is Restaurant Liburna. If go through the main street it is near Procredit Bank HQ in the center (opposite of Parliament and European Agency for Reconstruction). I went in the evening and was a bit uncertain walking down this dark street through darkenned blocks of flats, until we turned through a building into a courtyard and found one of the few surviving old Albanian houses there all lit up, renovated, and looking like a fairy castle. tel: 530 560 or 044 891 000