Okay, so I'm posting this from Luxor during Eid el Adha; but this post has nothing to do with Luxor, or the Eid; other than the fact that I've finally had a break long enough and relaxing enough to read an entire book.
I’ve just completed Grant Achatz’s
Life, On the Line. Among other things (life and death, a desire for adventurous food, a need to schedule a trip to Napa), the book got me thinking about great meals I’ve had in my travels. Early in the book, Achatz describes his disappointing experience with highly-rated restaurants in Europe. Every food-lover who has ever traveled out of the way for a great meal, only to find over-cooked, mass-produced food or snooty, unappreciative service has felt this pain: disappointment in the first bite.
The first unique and amazing meal I ever appreciated was in the early 2000’s. For my birthday, my mom bought my best friend and I each a ticket to a beer-tasting dinner at Brewer’s Art in Baltimore. At the time I spent a great number of happy hours in their basement bar drinking their Resurrection Ale and eating my weight in garlic fries (that they came with mayonnaise instead of ketchup was, to the 21 year old me, so cosmopolitan). This time, however, we’d be eating a chef’s tasting menu in the dining room with a range of foodies, critics, and beer enthusiasts.
Pairing food with beer, particularly heavy ales with notes of chocolate and coffee, is no mean feat. E and I sat with the chef’s wife and mother-in-law. The chef was new to the restaurant and this was his introduction to the diners, so he brought his A-game. For a gal who worked at a family-style seafood restaurant at the beach, and counted special events at the local Spanish restaurant (which had not changed, in menu or decor, since the late 60’s) as one of her few fine dining experiences; the beer-tasting dinner was a revelation. A salmon SKIN cracker? Food presented in martini glasses? and SQUAB? What the hell was squab? I didn’t know, but also did not want to appear gauche by turning it down when someone said it was 'pigeon'. The rich flavors of the squab perfectly complimented the beer and I was hooked – in an instant I was a foodie.
Since then, I have traveled and eaten in some fine establishments that disappointed. But, like Achatz, I have also had food revelations - in a few unlikely places. Over the past three years, I have documented my travels, my life in Cairo, and my journey discovering food on this blog. So here’s a list – a top five restaurants from the last four years of travel. There are plenty of great meals not mentioned from during these three years and before – an extravagant meal at One-Fifty Blue in Chicago on my first business trip and the feeling of great reward for being included in the outing; the night at Perilla when I sat alone at the bar savoring the duck and pomegranate seeds after having just accepted my job in Cairo; the meal at WD-50 with a few courses that blew my mind and the most excellent service I’ve yet found equal to (a good bartender who can make a single girl at the bar feel like a VIP without flirting or being intrusive is worth his weight in gold); Immervoll in Vienna with their super-fresh ingredients and outdoor tables; my thirtieth birthday dinner at Charleston in Baltimore, with Mom and George, that started with a soup as the amuse...these were great meals, too.
But most of the top 5 beat those meals because of that little something special that I’ve not found anywhere else. It's never just about the food - it's about the memory, the trip, the service, the friends sharing the meal. So here we go; my top 5 restaurants from my travels over the last three years. These aren’t in any particular order because I wouldn’t begin to know how to rank such different, amazing experiences. The links are to my blog posts about those meals; but I've re-posted the pics here.
1. Alain Parodi’s Eat-at-Milton’s; Athens, Greece. I am known as a bit of a soup-nut. Here, it was the split-pea velote with creme fraiche topped with chorizo and spring onions that won me over and brought me back for a second taste. I may have tried to lick the bowl.
2. La Lanterna Due; Sorrento, Italy. I’m putting this after Parodi’s because of the Cream of Asparagus soup that blew my mind, and again, brought me back for a second time. Soup = comfort = happy me. I don't have a picture - it was just a greenish bowl of soup; but on a chilly April night in an alleyway off the main drag (after a glass of wine and a gorgeous sunset by the harbor spent chatting to some old men in pidgin-English/Italian) it was AMAZING.
3. Restaurants on the Plaza in Vernazza, Italy. Ok, I actually can’t remember the name of either of the two restaurants in the plaza in Vernazza (according to the plate in one of the pics,the restaurant with the great mussels was Gambero Rosso), but they were both amazing and deserve equal billing. One for its clams and “Octopus In Hell;” and Gambero Rosso, as I mentioned, for its stuffed mussels (which now reminds me of the excellent deep fried mussels in Turkey...but then we're up to 7 restaurants on what is supposed to be a list of 5...) and trofie pasta in pesto. Both had great service, beautiful views at sunset, and fantastic food.
4. To Frourio; Limassol, Cyprus. This small, family owned and operated restaurant was the highlight of my first two visits to Cyprus. One Easter they had no meat (the meat market was closed and they would only buy fresh meat and produce) so the owner offered vegetarian moussaka instead of the usual pork - it was the most amazing vegetarian moussaka I've ever had. On my third trip to Cyprus, the restaurant was very sadly gone. However, the memory of their bubbling pork (and vegetarian) moussaka, fresh crusty bread, and bottomless carafes of house-wine still makes my tummy gurgle in anticipation.
5. Casa Mono; New York, NY. When staying in NYC last summer, an old friend recommended that my travel-buddy and I visit some foodie-haven near Union Square for lunch. Wandering about, famished after a morning of sight-seeing, we couldn’t find the restaurant, but there was an inviting bistro-type place on the corner just opening up. Despite my Top Chef obsession (Elan from season 2 had worked there), I didn’t recognize the name of the place; I also didn’t understand why the waitress was asking if we had a reservation – sure the place was small (it would fill up) but surely it was just another New York restaurant [it wasn’t] and it would just be a casual lunch [not at all]. Again, a meal so good, my friend and I popped in again the next day on our way to the train station. Same table, same waitress (who remembered what wine we ordered, our entire food order, and helped us through the menu to choose more adventurous flavors - though we stuck with the pumpkin goat-cheese balls both times), same awesomeness.
A definitive list? Not by a long shot. Just the meals that I remembered most fondly as I read Life, On the Line.
