My Top Food Experiences of 2017
Food is the real reason for travel - right?!!!! Well, this year has been exceptionally delicious :) I tried a lot of new food and liked it all (almost)!
Here are my top 20 food experiences of 2017 š
Kobe Beef
That tiny piece of beef costs $100+, but what choice do you have when youāre actually in Kobe?!! So was it worth it?!!! The answer is I still canāt stop imagining tasting this piece of heaven again someday!
Kobe beef is very different from any beef you have ever tasted - it tastes very fatty. But itās super healthy. Kobe cows are cared for using the highest standards (and even given beer to drink!)! Definitely something to try at least once in your lifetime!
Location: ć¹ćć¼ććć¦ć¹ 廣岔ę®å «éć®äøē°å± - they even play live piano!
Croissant Milano
My foodie friend alinova80 recommended PAVĆ MILANO to me when I was visiting Milan, and I always listen to my Italian foodie friends :) She didnāt steer me wrong as alwaysā¦
This was actually the best croissant Iāve ever had - the cheese was absolutely divine and it went perfectly with the fresh arugula. Wow!
Stuffed Paratha w/ Yogurt & Pickle
For my second trip to India, my friend @vaish recommended trying a stuffed (with potato or cauliflower) paratha with yogurt and pickle. This dish is incredibly simple, and simply delicious!
I think of it as my Indian comfort food!
Billās Pancakes
If you donāt like pancakes, youāve probably never had Japanese pancakesā¦ or in this case Billās! Billās is actually an Australian chain that is now around the world - my friend who lived in Australia for some time, @catehstn, mentioned it to me as a good breakfast place.
I went to Billās Omotesando in Harajuku (Japan). There was a huge line, but I know good food is worth waiting for, so I hopped right in!
All I have to say is ricotta banana pancakes with honeycomb butter - seriously the best pancakes Iāve ever had!
CĘ”m tįŗ„m YUM!
According to my Vietnamese friend @lienista, cĘ”m tįŗ„m is young immature rice that is still green. Itās rice before it becomes rice! Here is a close-up:
Itās sold around Vietnam - in this case, a lady at the market wrapped it for us in a leaf. My friend later found out that this lady is actually famous in Hanoi for this type of rice! This one restaurant ordered 20kg from her. We were lucky to randomly run into her!
You eat it raw without any seasonings. It has a lot of fiber and no carbs. Itās hard to describe the taste, since itās not like anything Iāve had before. The closest I can come up with is sunflower seeds. It is sooooooooo good and filling!!! I wish I could get this outside of Vietnam!
Masala Fish
One of the things I LOVE about India is how easy it is to be a vegetarian there. I usually donāt bother with meat, but when a local friend so highly recommended the Masala Red Snapper from Moonrakers in Mahabalipuram, I decided to have a biteā¦
We ordered the Masala Red Snapper for the three of us - I was planning to have just a bite, but then this happenedā¦
Adding the Masala spices to a fish is seriously mind-blowing! This is the best cooked fish Iāve ever had - all cooked fish should be seasoned like this! But, alas, this is only something you can get in India of course. Devoured!
Fried Herring Roe on Kelp?
Iām not really sure what this isā¦ Someone ordered at a group dinner at Tenchishunsenyakichi in Tokyo - we all loved it and kept ordering more.
According to my friend @jpmartha_jp, these are called åęęåøć®äø²ęć in Japanese. From his translation and googling, it seems to be fried herring roe on kelp (a seaweed)ā¦ All I know is itās delicious and I want MOAR!
Longan
Iām not big on lychee, but when I tried Longan- which seems similar to lychee, but in a brown covering - I couldnāt stop eating it! Iām not sure what the difference is - maybe itās more juicy, maybe the texture is less thick. I still donāt like lychee, but when Iām in a market in Thailand and see anything that resembles longan (sometimes itās not in season), I buy it and hope itās longan!
Bresaola Sandwich
Bresaola is sort of like prosciutto, but beef. I got introduced to it by my sister and her Italian husband. Bresaola is an art in Italy - different regions have their own secret recipes. Spoiler alert: theyāre all delicious! The beef is cut super super thinā¦
Itās incredible on itās own - I got it several times in an Italian store while living in Lierna, but Caffe Varenna takes it to a whole new level with their bresaola sandwich.
The finest bread, the finest parmesan cheese, the finest sun-dried tomatoes (theyāre not dry like the ones you get in a store in the U.S!) - all these fresh ingredients add on to the most incredible bresaolaā¦
Ok, Iām salivating just writing thisā¦
Beef Phį»
Iām not a big Phį» person, but when in Vietnamā¦ I looked up the best Phį» place in Hanoi - turns out itās PhĘ”Ģ Gia TruyĆŖĢn HaĢ NĆ“Ģ£i. When we got there, the place was PACKED:
I waited in line while the guy in front of me ordered at least 10 bowls for all his friends and family while my friend tried to find us a seat. Luckily, she wasnāt able to find us a whole table. Instead, we had to shareā¦
I say luckily because the guy sitting next to me was a massive foodie. And he spoke English! He told me which combination of spices and sauces to add - orange chili and vinegar - to get my Phį» to absolute perfection. Wow - Iāve never had Phį» like this before!
Raw Egg on Rice
One of the coolest experiences Iāve had this year was visiting the remote Poppo No Oka Railway Park - a Japanese vintage train museum in the middle of rice pattiesā¦
The museum has a restaurantā¦ you get to eat inside an old train!
The specialty - a raw egg on rice! Thatās right - you heard it right - they donāt bother to cook the egg. Apparently, the owner of the museum owns some healthy chickens and feeds their eggs to visitors. It might sound gross to Westerners, but these eggs are AMAZING! Easily one of the best meals Iāve had all year!
After talking to my mom, I learned that eating eggs raw is not such horrible thing. In fact, it is very healthy (especially the egg whites) in healing your digestion. That is, if the eggs come right from a healthy country chickenā¦
The quality of eggs in Japan is at a completely different level than in the U.S. They really care about their chickens and eggs! I have since come into the habit of ordering fresh farm eggs when I live in Japan, and eating them raw a lot of the time. Sooooo good!
Mango + Sticky Rice
The blue color for the sticky rice comes from boiling a butterfly pea flower in the coconut milk for 15 minutes - no artificial dyes! The blue coconut milk is then mixed with palm sugar, a pinch of salt and sticky rice - add a mango next to it, and youāve go the most amazing Thai dessert!
I actually made the one in this picture at a Thai farm, but you can get variations of it all around Thailand! Itās the most famous dessert there!
Okinawa Sea Grapes
These are Sea Grapes, umibudou in Japanese - a type of seaweed that has caviar-like bubbles eaten in Okinawa. You can get them in almost any Japanese restaurant on the island. They are pop-in-your-mouth good!
Bonus: You can get also get sea grape ice cream!!! I know seaweed ice cream probably doesnāt sound like the best combination, but I had to try it. I was so surprised by how much I LOVED it. Itās salty with pieces of bubbly sea grape. Amazing!
A Kerala Banana
Youāve never had a real banana until youāve had one straight from the tree. Itās warm, small, and incredibly sweet. Wow! I actually like bananas! Just not the ones that are still green in the U.S. supermarketsā¦
Lierna Pizza
Luckily, I ignored the only pizza restaurant in Lierna for most of my stay there because it didnāt look that greatā¦ I say luckily because near the end of my stay, my sister and I were super hungry and got a mushroom pizza to eat by the lake at sunset. We DEVOURED it!! Wow!!!! Incredible. Never under-estimate a pizza in Italyā¦
Indian Wedding Dinner
The plate was the banana leaf, the fork was our right hand! We washed the banana leaf, and then several people came to serve us each dish unto the leaf, including refills later on if we wanted them. My Indian friends taught us how to eat with hands! Some stuff fell out at first, but we got the hang of it!
Everything was DELICIOUS!!! My favorite was a roti stuffed with coconut and jaggery (unprocessed sugar)!
Austrian Pancakes
I put my unexpected layover in Vienna to good use by getting Schnitzel with potato salad at FiglmĆ¼ller Wollzeile. On the menu were these Austrian pancakes aka Kaiserschmarrn with stewed plums - I got them for dessert and couldnāt be happier that I did! Mouth watering!!!
Freshwater Eel
Itās never too late in the year to try good food! Only yesterday, I went to ććŖć åę - one of the top Unagi (freshwater eel) restaurant in the world!
According to one review on TripAdvisor:
āThe eel that Tomoei used is always prepared on the day when you order it. They use spring water from 100m underground to cook their food. The spring water that they used is of the same quality with the one that sake breweries use called Miyamizu. Miyamizu is high in calcium and low in iron. The Yaizuās freshwater eels are always kept in a 15.8 degree Celcius water.ā
I waited a total of 2 hours to get my food - luckily they tell you when to come back, so you can do other things, and it was well worth it! The Unagi was soft and fluffy and just absolutely perfect!! It simply melted in my mouth!!!
Iāll try to go again on a less busy day!
Fish Risotto
I was able to convince my reluctant sister to order the fish risotto with me - the chef at Borgovino will only make it if two people order itā¦
Ever since then, I learned that the fish risotto was a common dish in the Lake Como area. I kept trying it again and again and again, thinking of that one risotto at Borgovino, but even though the others were delicious, they werenāt as good!
Iāll need to make it back to that perfect Italian alley again some dayā¦ this time, I will order the two risotto portions all to myself š¤
Home-cooking in Chiba
We had the BEST AirBNB in Chiba (Japan)!! It was basically a giant tent with a huge kitchen outside that overlooked the cliffs along the Pacific! Iād love to go back there, but the owners were planning to sell their house last we talked to themā¦
My friend took advantage of the amazing giant kitchen, and cooked us home-made meals every day. As much as I love going out to restaurant, itās hard to beat a genuine home-cooked meal :)
BONUS: Drinks!!
Not those type of drinksā¦ just fun local and made up ones that I really enjoyed this year :)
Indian Filter Coffee
I really enjoyed pouring the coffee between the two cups - one tall, one wide and short - to cool it down!
Sugar Cane Juice
Iāve only know the white sugar that comes from the storeā¦ But in India, I got to see the source! The sugar cane plant! I was able to get fresh-squeezed sugar juice from the plant itself - before it got processed into the bad white stuff!
Avocado š Coconut
This is a drink my friend and I invented in Vietnam - they listed avocado and coconut as ingredients in a smoothie. Turns out they meant that you can get either an avocado or coconut smoothie, but I knew the two of these mixed would be absolutely perfect!
Avocado is the most perfect smoothie ingredient - it is creamy and smooth and doesnāt taste like much. Add anything to it, and you got the perfect smoothie! So why not avocado?!! Coconuts in Vietnam come from Thailand I believe, so they are super sweet. No extra sugar needed!
My friend negotiated the ingredients in Vietnamese - avocado, coconut with flesh included, no sugar, no ice - and we kept getting this divine concoction in every cafe we could!
Conclusion
Funny enough, I was actually vegan for most of 2017. But Iām only vegan for health reason. Iām willing to try the best meat in the world, especially anything recommended by locals or that is a specialty of the region Iām in!
To a delicious 2018 š„