MANILA, Philippines — When stranded by the floods, there’s only one thing to do to drive the rainy day blues away—eat. For the equivalent of less than 5 U.S. Dollars, these eight guilty pleasures are the perfect match for damp weather wherever you may be in the world.

1. With a Starbucks in practically every corner of the globe these days, a good cup of coffee isn’t too hard to find on the road anymore. Likewise, idiot-proof coffee and espresso makers for the home have only made it easier to brew a cup close to what a trained barista can produce. So if close to perfect coffee is everywhere, where does one find the perfect cup? Italy, the land of espresso? Actually, in Germany, and I found it in a small coffee chain based in Stuttgart called Hochland Kaffee in the city’s historic center.

2. If there’s anything that goes perfectly well with coffee, it has to be croissants. The acidity of the brew provides a wonderful counterpoint to the fatty aftertaste of the rich layers of butter in the bread. France is the obvious place to find the best croissants for the money, but bakers there are known to take advantage of clueless tourists who can’t tell the difference. I found my perfect croissant in a French-run hotel in Amsterdam. The Sofitel Grand Hotel bakes them fresh every morning. The bread is crusty on the outside with soft buttery layers inside.

3. The one other sweet pleasure that’s inseparable from coffee is a doughnut. They pair well only because the bitter brew of coffee can balance the glazy sweetness of doughnuts. Try eating a donut alone and it’s hard to enjoy. That is until I chanced upon Floresta Nature Doughnuts in Kyoto, Japan. It’s an organic variety that sells like, well, hotcakes. Their doughnuts are baked, not fried, and the organic ingredients used to make them explain the delightful lightness in each bite.

4. In between a croissant and a doughnut is what is known as a Danish. And who make the best ones? The Danish, of course. The bakeries of Copenhagen produce freshly made Danish in a dizzying variety of flavors and toppings. The Danes pair theirs with coffee and though we often associate the pastry with breakfast, it’s not uncommon to have one with a warm latte at night. When in Copenhagen, Reihn van Hauen in the center of town is a must-visit for the tastiest Danish pastries.

5. I may be a coffee addict, but I’ve recently grown fond of tea. Mass-market tea brands have kept me from discovering the pleasures of the ancient brew, but all those years of avoiding it came to an end after tasting the grand cru teas of TWG, a company based in Singapore. TWG sources the best tea leaves, many of them single origin, from around the world and blends them in ways that are close to magical.

6. Hot drinks and rainy weather are a match made in heaven, but when the caffeine in coffee and tea are too much to handle, the alternative is a piping hot cup of chocolate. I’ve tried some of my best cups of the thick and deep brown chocolate in the cafes of Zurich, but nothing quite challenges the sublime taste of one I had in one of the coldest cities on earth—Stockholm. Chokladkloppen in the Old Town serves theirs in oversized cups the size of soup bowls.

7. And on the topic of chocolates—the best for me are handmade truffles served just hours after leaving the kitchen. There are legendary chocolatiers in Paris and New York, but Switzerland remains the undisputed capital of chocolate. There’s a taste of heaven in every bite in truffles from Zurich based chocolatier Sprungli.

8. Finally, a local treat I can’t seem to outgrow. The Pinoy “Banana-Que” may not have the global appeal of the rest of the items on this list, but a perfectly deep-fried stick of sweet bananas was all it once took to cheer me up on a rainy school day. A vendor outside the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod uses high quality brown sugar from the nearby mills and serves hers crunchy yet gooey at the same time. Namit.

For more of David’s top picks, visit executive-class.blogspot.com. You can also catch more of his picks on ANC, Saturdays at 10 p.m. and Sundays at 8 p.m.