The 12 Best Food Deliveries for Anyone Missing Travel These Days

These days you can get pretty much anything that you want to consume delivered to your door (groceries, kitchen appliances, booze — heck, even deep-dish pizza straight from Chicago!). Travel is not recommended right now (to put it mildly), but at least it’s still possible to enjoy iconic dishes from all over the country while staying at home. How? Enter: Goldbelly.

Goldbelly’s online marketplace features a variety of regional food favorites that can be shipped nationally. Shipping can be pricey, but sometimes that Magnolia Bakery banana pudding is worth it, you know? Here are a dozen of the best Goldbelly offerings from near and far that are worth the splurge. Treat yourself … or, you know, someone on your holiday shopping list.

This favorite dish at Chef Samuelsson’s now-closed Harlem restaurant is a Goldbelly exclusive. The chicken gets marinated in buttermilk and hot sauce, and is then dredged in cornmeal, garlic, onion, and paprika, and THEN fried until golden-brown. The pieces are served atop a cornbread waffle, and the kit also comes with hot honey, house-made pickles, and seasonal succotash. Is your mouth watering yet?

Buy: Marcus’ Hot Honey Chicken & Cornbread Waffles Kit, $99 for four servings

I grew up in Long Island, and New York bagels will always have my heart, but one bite of a hot, fresh bagel at the always-open St-Viateur Bagel on a trip to Montreal last year had me seriously questioning my loyalties. They’re slightly sweet and more compact than their New York counterparts, with just the right amount of crunch. They’re honestly good enough to eat without anything schmeared on top. Mix and match flavors like Sesame Seed, Poppy Seed, All Dressed (Everything), Plain, Whole Wheat, Cinnamon & Raisin, and Rosemary & Sea Salt. It comes with 4 dozen, so be sure to freeze the ones you won’t eat while fresh.

Buy: St-Viateur Bagels, $69 for four dozen

If you don’t know what a muffuletta is, or haven’t tried one, there’s no better place to start than where it all began. The OG muffuletta, dreamt up by Central Grocery’s first owner, Salvatore Lupo, is a sliced 10-inch round Sicilian sesame loaf with ham, salami, mortadella, Swiss, provolone, and a marinated olive salad sandwiched in between. It’s a taste of New Orleans … in a box.

Buy: Central Grocery Muffuletta Sandwiches, $109 for enough for six to eight people

For a taste of the Windy City, a deep-dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s is a solid choice. Their pizzas are handmade from scratch with mozzarella cheese and vine-ripened plum tomatoes, which sit atop a flaky, buttery, very thick crust. Each 9-inch pizza serves two, and options available for shipping include cheese, sausage, pepperoni, veggie, and spinach.

Buy: Lou Malnati’s Deep-Dish Pizzas, $96.99 for four pizzas

More pizza! This time from Phoenix. Yes, Arizona. This 4-pack of artisanal pizzas showcases James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Bianco’s creativity and mastery of the classics. The package includes Margherita (Neapolitan pizza), Wise Guy (fennel sausage, smoked mozzarella, roasted onions), Rosa (Arizona pistachios, Parmigiano-Reggiano, red onion, rosemary), and Sonny Boy (Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes, homemade mozzarella, soppressata, Gaeta olives).

Buy: Pizzeria Bianco Wood-Fired Pizza, $129 for four pizzas

Enjoy this epic breakfast sandwich in the comfort of your own home — and without having to fly to Portland, Oregon, and wait in line. The Reggie is a biscuit sandwich featuring fried chicken, bacon, gravy (house-made sausage or shiitake mushroom), and Tillamook cheddar. Make it a “Deluxe” by adding a fried egg (not included).

Buy: Pine State Biscuits Reggie Sandwich Kit, $89 for four sandwiches

Eventide Oyster Co.’s take on a New England classic is made with succulent lobster meat doused in nutty brown butter, served in a pillow-soft steamed bun. This kit includes enough picked lobster meat, brown butter vinaigrette, bao buns, and chives (for garnish) to serve four — but you can also save it all for yourself.

Buy: Eventide Oyster Co. Brown Butter Lobster Roll Kit, $99 for four servings

For a fancy night in, this three-course meal from a New Orleans mainstay (since 1893) won’t disappoint. It includes garlic bread, your choice of turtle soup (a menu staple that’s been offered since day one) or seafood gumbo, wild shrimp and cognac with Creole cream cheese grits, and a whole pecan pie.

Buy: Commander’s Palace Three-Course Shrimp & Grits Dinner, $169 for two servings

From Food Network star Duff Goldman (best known for Ace of Cakes), these tasty cakes are sure to be the star of any at-home celebration. Choose from a birthday cake, a red velvet heart cake, a blue polka dot layer cake, a pumpkin spice cake, and a chocolate peppermint cake.

Buy: Duff Goldman Cakes, from $69 per six-inch cake

Even though it was their cupcakes that made them a household name (thanks, SJP), Magnolia Bakery’s banana pudding will always be my first choice. Eating spoonfuls of this banana-heavy, creamy goodness sweetened up many a late commute back to Long Island when I worked in New York City. It’s recommended that you consume this pudding within 48 hours of delivery, so you may want to go in on the purchase with some fellow dessert-lovers (and eat your portion at a distance).

Buy: Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding, $65 for six cups

No trip to Boston is complete without a visit to this iconic Italian bakeshop in the North End. Thanks to Goldbelly, you can enjoy Mike’s Pastries wherever you’re located (and without having to wait in line). The kit comes with 10 of their homemade cannoli shells, your choice of plain or chocolate ricotta filling, and confectioners’ sugar, pistachios, and chocolate chips for topping.

Buy: Mike’s Pastry Cannoli Kit, $50 for 10 cannoli

Lexington’s local dining scene does an incredible job of highlighting the area’s local bounty, and what better representation of that home-grown ethos than a Lexington artisanal ice cream maker using locally-sourced ingredients to flavor their ice creams? The Flavors of Kentucky ice cream collection by Crank & Boom includes flavors like Bourbon & Honey, Blackberry & Buttermilk, Fresh Strawberry, Blueberry Lime Cheesecake, Coffee Stout, and Bourbon Ball.

Buy: Crank & Boom Flavors of Kentucky Ice Cream Collection, $99 for six pints

Which of these would do you want the most!?