In this fantastic 2013 Esquire article by Anthony Boudain on what he brings and does when he travels, he included a tip for finding the best places to eat in a new city:
[P]rovoke nerd fury online. Go to a number of foodie websites with discussion boards. Let's say you're going to Kuala Lumpur — just post on the Malaysia board that you recently returned and had the best rendang in the universe, and give the name of a place, and all these annoying foodies will bombard you with angry replies about how the place is bullshit, and give you a better place to go.
As Jehan Uri points out in his Atoms vs Bits newsletter, "Note that posting 'where do I get good rendang in KL?' would have got you zero responses."
It's basically an application of Ward Cunningham's Law, which states, "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." Cunningham should know; he is the creator of wiki software.
