While he doesn't write essays that necessarily create or explain fundamental ideas in the academic sense, I'd definitely pitch for David Foster Wallace as an essayist. I picked up a short collection of his essays, "Both Flesh and Not", and the manner in which his writing flows through and around the topics of his choice is extremely satisfying to read.
His opinions, insights and deconstruction of other writers and literary works are also pretty eye opening, even though I come from a hard sciences background, if only to understand what someone so ridiculously well read has to say about those things. His general musings on life, modernity and culture are also pretty great.
The best place to start (in my opinion) is with This is Water, his commencement address to the incoming class at Kenyon College back in 2005:
He wrote a long-essay for Harper's on the experience of traveling on a cruise ship. You can find a free pdf of it doing a google search for "On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise".
I highly recommend that essay.
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The link to the free pdf is the first search result in the query above.
I agree with you that he is amazing writer. But I am worried I may not get his works like: Infinite Jest and other essay because of not having the American (USA) cultural context.
In my opinion, this won't stop you from from enjoying Infinite Jest. There are a few arcs that might require some insight into American culture (Professional Football, the US drug rehabilitation system). But the big picture themes are either very universal or so particular you aren't really expected to be keyed into them (you don't need to be a competitive tennis player or a Quebecois separatist to enjoy it).
Pale King might be a bit of a different beast. The focus on the IRS is somewhat particular, and you may miss big beats because of ignorance about the IRS. But at the same time, some of the accounting minutiae are such that I don't think you're expected to understand them.
Anyway! I wouldn't let this steer you away. To me, the joy of DFWs writing is the individual sentences. The mannerisms and humanity of the characters. If you miss some details because they're US focused, I don't think it'll be anything important.
For what it's worth, I'm British and even though I didn't get all the cultural references in his essays, it was usually easy enough and read between the lines to infer what he was hoping to illustrate from his examples.
This happens a lot in one of my favourite DFW essays, E Pluribus Unum, which although a little dated, still does a great job of illustrating the impacts of "self-aware" media consumption, and how it affects the richness (or lack thereof) of culture.
His opinions, insights and deconstruction of other writers and literary works are also pretty eye opening, even though I come from a hard sciences background, if only to understand what someone so ridiculously well read has to say about those things. His general musings on life, modernity and culture are also pretty great.
The best place to start (in my opinion) is with This is Water, his commencement address to the incoming class at Kenyon College back in 2005:
https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/
It's a great read, but it's even more enjoyable listening to him deliver it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI