For a lot of people on holiday, every day is cheat day. I adopted this mantra for my own trip. However, rather than a short two or three week vacation, mine lasted eight months. It’s a small miracle that my heart didn’t explode. Here are a few of the tastiest things I ate that also raised my cholesterol level to new heights.

Wagyu Beef – Japan

There’s a reason why top notch Kobe beef could cost up to $900/kg. These cows live a pretty luxurious lifestyle before ending up on a plate. Legend has it that they are fed a top notch diet but also get to enjoy beer, sake and even the occasional massage. They even wear a jacket when it’s cold outside! As a result, the beef is incredibly rich in fat marked by the intense marbling. It literally melts in your mouth. It’s more comparable to eating beef flavoured butter rather than a typical North American steak. On the plus side, the fat is unsaturated and high in Omega fatty acids, so it’s practically healthy for you.

Francesinha – Portugal

If a sandwich stuffed with sausage, steak and other roast meats wasn’t already enough to have you chugging Pepto Bismol during the meal, picture it covered with melted cheese and slathered with gravy. This baby hailing from Porto was originally seen more as a snack than a meal, but I’m pretty certain you won’t be eating much else throughout the day after finishing one of these.

Langos – Hungary

Another dish considered a “light” snack is this Hungarian specialty that can be found at street stalls all over the country. Traditional langos involves deep frying dough and rubbing it with fresh garlic cloves before topping it off with shredded cheese and sour cream. Not the ideal meal for those that are lactose intolerant (ie. Me) but the heavenly smell of deep fried garlicy goodness overpowered my lack of self-control.

Porchetta – Italy

I don’t think there’s a more savoury sandwich than La Porchetta. To make this famous Italian masterpiece, a pig is first skinned, deboned and then rearranged by layering stuffing, herbs, meat and fat. All this is bound together by the skin. Lastly, it’s moved onto a spit where it roasts for about eight hours. To further add to the risk of a heart attack, after they place the fillings on the bun, they typically pour a generous amount of its juices back onto the sandwich. The end result is extremely flavourful and moist meat combined with crispy and perfectly salted skin.

Mitraillette – Belgium

This behemoth of a sandwich pretty much compiles everything from a friterie menu and places it between a baguette. First, it’s loaded with all sorts of fried meats such as sausage, burger and steak. Then it’s jammed with frites before being slathered in mayonnaise and other sauces. As you can imagine, a food coma is inevitable.

Roast Goose – Hong Kong

Although it has one of the highest saturated fat content in the meat department, I never make a visit to Hong Kong without having some roast goose. Just one bite of the crispy skin layered on top a flavourful portion of fat and succulent flesh will have you drooling for more.

Fried Chicken – South Korea

I won’t lie to you, one of the main reasons I wanted to go to South Korea was for their fried chicken. It’s the reason I don’t have a six pack (among other fairly obvious reasons too…). I nearly got a job working at KFC as a teenager before realizing that it would’ve probably cut my life short by a number of years.

What differentiates this version from the ones in North America is that the skin is typically crispier and the meat is juicier. The technique behind this is embedded in the fact that the chicken is lightly battered and fried twice; once to render out the fat from the skin. The end result is a crunchy exterior and extremely moist flesh rather than the dry meat you often come across in North America. On top of that, you have the option to get served plain or dusted in this scrumptious sweet and spicy sauce.

Anyways, it certainly didn’t disappoint when I arrived into Seoul. In fact, before my flight out of South Korea, I finished a whole fried chicken that was meant for four people. The restaurant owner didn’t believe I could do it, but I proved him wrong that I am actually a fat tub of goo. Unfortunately, the feat didn’t earn me a picture on the wall. Instead it gave me an even less attractive beach body as I arrived in Bali a few hours later.

Read my previous list about Seven of the World’s Best Sunsets!