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Old May 30, 2017, 2:42 am
  #8  
stut
Moderator: UK and Ireland & Europe
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Biggleswade
Programs: SK*G, Lots of Blue Elsewhere
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Some of the meals that really stand out for me are the simplest ones. Off the top of my head:

A Royal Congee for breakfast at a small guesthouse in Bangkok. You'd be hard pressed to pack more flavour into a mouthful.

A Mysore-style masala dosa (for breakfast, again) on the roof of a small guesthouse in Hampi (India). I love dosa at the best of times, but this was just outstanding - and the view hard to beat.

Unagi onigiri (once again, for breakfast - I'm seeing a theme here...) on a balcony in a ryokan in Narita town. Smoked eel is one of my favourite foods, and this really didn't disappoint.

Black fish curry with pol roti and a solid coconut milk rice pudding in Sri Lanka. OK, I'm a breakfast person. And I could eat Sri Lankan curry and rice or rotis all year round.

A chicken handi at a café in Lahore (Pakistan). Just the perfect balance of spice, and you just can't get that cardamom tea right anywhere outside Pakistan.

A roadside tagine (fairly classic chicken, olives and preserved lemons) on the road down towards Merzouga in Morocco, just before the highway becomes desert (one of the more intense driving experience of my life). My expectations for the roadside shack weren't high, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

A fish platter at a dockside bar/restaurant near Lisbon. Stumbled in off the train (bonus points for the outstanding Pasteis de Belem earlier in the day). Didn't look much - a few men drinking beer and watching the football on the telly - but the fish (perfectly marinated in that spicy Portuguese way) was fresh off the boat and incredibly tasty.

And so many more. A turbot and hazelnut "small plate" in the meatpacking district of Copenhagen, salyanka from a café by the springs in Kislovodsk, cevapcici and Turkish (sorry, Bosnian) coffee from a market stall in Bascarsija (Sarajevo), samosa chaat from a stall in "our" business park in Hyderabad. oyster okonomiyaki on Miyajima, an unidentifiable chicken broth in Yunnan (spent most of my time there ordering randomly, as there was no way to translate) all lemongrass and sichuan pepper, the most incredible seafood broth at the Bookstore in Wellfleet, Cape Cod...

Travel and food are inextricably linked for me.

And we haven't even touched on France (where my love of food began, having moved there as as 10-year-old). I had an entire holiday a couple of years ago in the South-West chasing duck- and peach-based dishes around. Confit de canard will be the death of me...

Oh yes, sweets. Millefeuille is a favourite of mine (and I despair at some of the versions of it that are done in this country). When I lived in Picardy, our local bakery (less cute than it may sound - this was on shopping parade in a not-entirely-pretty part of town, mostly low-rise blocks) was outstanding, and its millefeuilles, religieuses (another absolute favourite of mine) and all-butter croissants (practically dripping) were universally outstanding.

One of the hotels in town did profiteroles that were amazing, too - filled with ice cream (as is the norm in France) and served with a jug of hot, dark chocolate sauce (they gave you some bread to mop up that sauce too). I still love profiteroles, but they're always filled with whipped cream (or creme pat at a push) here, and covered with chocolate icing. Never quite the same.

They also did a mighty fine ile flottante in that place.

Last edited by iluv2fly; May 30, 2017 at 2:34 pm Reason: merge
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