Over the past 40 years we have journeyed to many places on this planet searching for food and drinks that are prized by the locals.
Many of the food items and the drinks we have searched for we have found in restaurants or tiny cafes. However others we have found on roadside stalls, Asian markets, special farms or from fishing boats.
This story is a summary of some of the food items and drinks that are worth a journey in our estimation.
White truffles in Torino
White truffles are an expensive treat to be found in the north-western part of Italy called Piedmont as well as other parts of southern Europe, the Balkans and even Thailand. The truffle is known in English as Tuber magnatum, and is a member of the order Pezizales and family Tuberaceae.
Of all the areas it is found it is in Piedmont around the city of Torino (Turin) that it is most readily accessible. We caught a flight from Switzerland to Torino on one occasion to attend the Slow Food convention and another time had a very pleasant train journey from Lyon across to Piedmont.
We had heard that a restaurant called Ristorante del Cambio in the centre of Turin always had white truffles available during the season so that is where we headed. When we arrived and the door opened to us we were assailed with the aroma of truffles wafting down the corridor from the kitchen. It was well-worth a journey. You can read about our meal at this very appealing venue here.
La Finanziera at Restaurant del Cambio
Although we originally journeyed to Torino for the white truffle, when we dined at del Cambio we noticed a dish on the menu that consisted of “inside bits” of chickens accompanied by some beef offal as well. It was called La Finanziera and it was presented as a stew which is a beloved dish of the region.
But the amazing part of the dish was that it was circled by about ten “combs” of the chicken which had been meticulously prepared (with the small feathers and outer skin removed), hence turning a dish that was prepared from “cheap” ingredients into one that had taken much time to prepare. We loved it and would love to return here for another experience. This dish was worth a journey alone!
Khanom Jeen noodles: Bangkok
Khanom Jeen Thanon Suan Phlu is a small restaurant with just a few tables serving some of the best rice flour noodles in the city. These are thin, extruded noodles that are very difficult to make but are some of the tastiest in Asia. They make a great breakfast dish topped with a licking of a deeply tasty sauce and some condiments both fresh and pickled. This meal is certainly worth a journey!
We made a habit of stopping in Bangkok on our way to other destinations and calling into this tiny roadside venue just to refresh our memories of this amazing dish. We hope it is still there for our next visit.
Dragon Well for Green Tea
On a trip to Shanghai we were given the opportunity by a friend to spend a day in the tea region behind the city of Hangzhou where the best green tea is produced in an area called Dragon Well. We were also lucky enough to be introduced to one of the finest producers in the region and also to experience a lunch at his daughter’s restaurant. You can read more about this day of delights here. It was a long day trip but certainly worth a journey!
Xia in Shanghai for Lion’s Head Meatballs
You might think we are a bit crazy seeking out the humble meatball as one of the culinary delights of a city, however meatballs sometimes sit at the apex of refined food and in the case of Lion’s Head Meatballs this is certainly the case in Shanghai alongside Xiao Long Bao which are also considered a delicacy here. Both are worth a journey. The meatballs here were made from fatty pork mince (naturally) which were hand-chopped (for the correct texture) and stuffed with crab meat – delicious!
Blackened Redfish – A Dilemma
We travelled a long way for this interesting dish and thoroughly enjoyed it the first time and were quite disappointed the second opportunity we had to try it.
The first opportunity was one of those unexpected occasions where we were just coincidentally in the right place at the right time. It was in the 1980s when we had just travelled to San Francisco to eat at the emerging hotspot of Chez Panisse (see below). We then moved on to New York and, while there, read about a New Orleans chef who had packed his restaurant into a large jet and flown to New York to set up his restaurant for a month – during the time we were there!
And so it cames to pass that we were able to eat the food of then superstar Paul Prudhomme after standing in line for 2 hours. We enjoyed our meal very much including the dish of blackened redfish (red drum) which he had made famous in New Orleans.
Many years later we were working in New Orleans and visited his restaurant there. It was a tired venue with tired staff, but, after trying it here we found out that the success of the dish had caused the local redfish to be almost hunted to extinction. Needless to say we didn’t try it again.
Seared sea scallops with carrot and cardamom cream – New Orleans
During work sessions in New Orleans over a period of a year we ate some memorable dishes and lots of unsatisfactory ones. However a small cottage restaurant called Bayona run by Susan Spicer – a chef who has had international experience including in France – was one of our favourites.
There was one dish that we looked forward to every time we went there (we think 6 times in that year). The dish worth a journey was seared sea scallops that sat on carrot and cardamom cream and were accompanied by a very crisp onion and carrot bajji (bhaji) and a sesame chutney. It was a perfect example of textures, flavours and visual appearance that combined to form the perfect dish.
Camel milk ice cream – Fes
We have been very lucky in our food endeavours in meeting some wonderful people who have become very close friends. One such person is Analiese Gregory who has cooked at numerous top restaurants around the globe such as Quay in Sydney, Michel Bras in France, Mugaritz in Spain and The Ledbury in London.
At one stage in her career she took a job setting up a restaurant in Fes, Morocco. After the restaurant opened we happened to be in France visiting our natural wine producers. Given that we were not very far from Marseille, we booked on a flight to Fes from there and then booked at her restaurant for that evening. In a meal that was uniformly delicious, the concluding dish was outstanding – it was vivid white ice cream made using camel milk! This dish alone made the trip completely worthwhile – we also enjoyed catching up with Analiese we should add!!
Besara – Superb Soup in Fes
The next morning we caught the plane back to Marseille, however before we left Analiese took us to a tiny stall in the centre of town that served one dish only – Bessara!
This is a dish that is beloved of the locals and is a soup made from dried fava beans (called broad beans in Australia) and served with freshly baked bread which you can see behind the owner of the stall in the accompanying photo.
The soup is in the large pot and is being served by the owner into small bowls. Each guest is also given one of the flatbreads shown.
There were a few seats inside the small stall where we sat and enjoyed both the bread and the soup. They were both stunning and we still remember the experience clearly, even though it was many years ago.
It was amazing and gave us a second reason to say that the food in Fes was worth a journey!
Bouillabaisse in Marseille and Antibes – Definitely worth a journey
We have sometimes been disappointed with dishes of bouillabaisse even when we have tried it is places with a very good reputation. However twice we have struck it lucky. The first time was at a restaurant just outside Nice, quite close to the coastal village of Antibes. It was called Restaurant de Bacon where the family went out fishing each morning to catch the fish that are desirable for a satisfying bouillabaisse including the famous rascasse. Our bowl of intense flavours was perfect and certainly worth a journey.
On another occasion we decided on a special treat and booked into the dining room at Le Petit Nice which sits overlooking the ocean in the suburbs of Marseille. Even our hire car had a front seat view of the ocean in the car park.
This venue is run by chef Gérald Passedat, who is always experimenting with new ideas. We ordered the bouillabaisse which was served in a number of tranches culminating in a beautiful white bowl of dense brown broth with fillets of different fish floating on top as can be seen in the accompanying photo.
Once again we have here a dish that started life as a “peasant dish” that was made by fisherfolk using the leftover catch but which has now become an expensive dish served only in upmarket venues.
Shirako – a Japanese specialty
Shirako is one of the most intriguing taste sensations (if you like bold flavours) alongside tempoyak and hasma from Malaysia, uni (sea urchin roe) and natto (fermented soy beans) from Japan and the amazing flavour of the migratory mutton birds from the islands off northern Tasmania.
Shirako is only available in the depths of winter in Japan, but it is certainly worth a journey. The name translates humorously as ‘white children’.
The first time we were served this dish we debated whether it was a form of sweetbreads or brains due to its creamy texture. It wasn’t! It turned out to be the sperm sac (and its contents) of the sea bass, but we later learned that it could come from any large fish of the sea. And the reason for the winter is that is the time they breed so that their sacs are full of sperm.
Now we should digress slightly here to ponder a similar taste sensation, namely caviar. Caviar is a food extracted from the ovaries of female fish. It is a highly sought after and expensive delicacy in most Western countries. But when we relate our experiences eating shirako which is extracted from the sac of a male fish we get a completely different reaction from people. Life is strange!
Our first experience of shirako was at the tiny ‘standing restaurant’ in Tokyo called Shimada. This restaurant is in a back street in the Ginza behind an unmarked door and is always packed with locals as well as the inevitable sprinkling of Westerners such as ourselves.
We hadn’t ventured here for shirako. We had, instead, heard about an iconic dish served by the restaurant which was simply cold soba noodles smothered by grated house-made bottarga. Now we certainly enjoyed this dish as an end to the meal, however it was the shirako that stole the show for us. The combination of texture, mouth feel, flavour and intrigue really appealed to us. It was lie a cross between lambs’ brains and custard.
Later that night we researched the dish on the Internet and found out exactly what we had eaten. We were very pleased that the chef had decided that we were up to the task!
So often in restaurants in Asia we are told that a dish we have ordered is not available because they think we won’t like it. This is probably because so many Western diners have sent the dish back largely uneaten.
As it turned out, the next day we had booked into the refined Sushi-Ya run by a very young chef, Takao Ishiyama, who has been an apprentice at two or three very good Tokyo restaurants including Sushi Saito. The meal we had here was extraordinary and we loved every dish presented to us. We were also lucky because the chef had sourced some shirako that morning and we once again were served a similar dish half way through the meal. It was equally extraordinary.
As with brains, the cooking technique can be either steaming, grilling, shallow frying or even deep frying. In both cases ours had been lightly grilled for a very short amount of time. We think we will try to visit Japan again in the depths of winter so that we can again have a great shirako experience. It is certainly worth a journey!
Tripe sandwiches at Nerbone – Firenze (Florence)
We only go to Nerbone in Firenze (Florence) for one reason. It serves the best tripe sandwich you are likely to find anywhere. When we say this is tripe, it is very specific tripe with a specific name. It is made from the fourth stomach of the cow and the Italians call it lampredotto.
The lampredotto is long cooked and unctuous, and the bread is dipped into the cooking juices to add to the experience. You can eat this gastronomic treasure at one of the few tables opposite the stall.
No tripe lover should miss the experience. It is located at No 292, Mercato Centrale and is definitely worth a journey!
Zhu Qin Tea Garden – Stunning food and beautiful green tea
One of the best food adventures you can have is exploring the delights of the tea plantations in the lush mountains that lie behind the beautiful city of Hang Zhou which, in turn, lies inland from Shanghai.
Here some of the best tea in the world is produced, particularly the characteristic blade-shape green tea with the amazingly fresh, nutty flavour that is sought after by tea lovers everywhere. This was the tea offered to Richard Nixon on his ground-breaking trip to China.
But it is not just the tea that is special here. There are also numerous ‘farmers restaurants’ serving fresh, wholesome food sourced from the farm to both locals and intrepid tourists.
The Zhu Qin Tea Garden is a very special example of one of these restaurants sitting amid the lush tea gardens of Mei Jia Wu. The food we had here was some of the freshest and most flavourful that we have eaten at any restaurant anywhere in the world.
Soon after entering the house we were served an amazing array of dishes along with excellent local beer. We had stewed chicken served in an earthenware bowl that had flavour like we had not experienced before. It had probably been killed that morning and never seen the inside of a fridge, thus ensuring freshness and flavour. We also enjoyed a wonderful fish from the nearby lake that has been roasted and served with a powerful and intriguing sauce. Accompanying these two centrepieces were boiled peanuts, wok-fried greens, fresh cucumber, green beans and stir-fried eggplant.
Everything had flavour like we had rarely experienced and everything had been cooked with care and precision. What a wonderful food experience!
