If I could choose anywhere in the world to go, just to eat (no fees, no jetlag, and no limitations) I wouldn't know where to go first. So, when this question popped into my head, I decided to make a list.
Italy - No explanation needed really, but here it is: The food culture. I tend to eat quite quickly, but I absolutely hate rushed meals. So the idea of spending hours over a meal is heaven to me. I'm always sad that meals with friends tend to only last 2 courses. I wish British culture would slip some antipasti and relaxation into their basic courses. I was in primary school the first time I visited Italy; a naive little girl who didn't know the difference between gelato and ice cream (or even that there was one). But I was immediately won over by the large bowl of tagliatelle at dinner, the margherita I ate at lunch and the gelato eaten beside the Pantheon. My next trip to Rome in my early teens featured a side trip to Sorrento, which included a cheeky first taste of limoncello, apparently the area is famous for it. Delizioso. I'm thinking of making a special lemon cheesecake if I ever get my hands on the lovely liqueur, because it gives me such pleasant feelings that I bet it would be utterly sinful in a dessert.
France - I could live without some of the French restaurants in England, except for one where I had a lovely sea bass. But what France has is this: Damn good pastry. And bread. And cake. I've been learning French for years now, but this summer was the first time I'd heard the word used that would utterly consume me, la viennoiserie. Finally a word that encompasses everything that sets France above the rest for me: pastries. Or rather, Viennese pastries (hmm maybe a trip to Vienna is in order). Anyway, it includes croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche &c. I also appreciate the fact that there are bakeries everywhere, something which fills me with envy when I pass one bakery (Coombs or Coopland) and a Greggs when I stroll down my English high street. When all these pastries and breads are added to a proper cup of chocolat so thick you could eat it with a fork, you know you're in heaven.
Hong Kong - never been. But one of my closest uni friends is from there and I've heard stories. A hub of gourmet treasure troves, I yearn for a HK egg tart, to visit the Cantonese bakeries, and street vendors selling fishballs, and to eat dim sum with friends. More recently, I read about the soulmate equivalent of a bar/restaurant. As in, this bar was made for me. It doesn't serve main meals, but it does serve three courses of desserts, with dessert wines. Did you read that? Three course dessert menu. Need I say more - I have to get to Hong Kong while the chef is still there at Riquiqui Dessert Bar.
Jamaica - a lot of Jamaican food I eat at home, or at least I eat variations, since my Nana's actually Antiguan. But it would be nice to eat my favourites when the ingredients are fresh, in season, and maybe grown just down the road. I want to eat good curried goat, peas and rice, ackee and saltfish, some decent seafood, and maybe if I'm lucky a little oxtail and festival. I'm also having good memories of fruits like guineps, with its green skin, orange flesh, sweet but tart taste, and large stone. And don't get me started about sugar cane. Sigh, hopefully soon.
Brussels, Beligum - for the gaufres (waffles) and the chocolate, and weirdly enough, the Thai food. yum yum yum. Unfortunately those are the only three foods that fill me with excitement in Brussels, but what they do, they do well. The first time I ever ate frogs' legs was in a Thai restaurant in Brussels and they were incredibly well cooked. Also, there's a shop called la Cure Gourmande, which also has shops in France with slightly different regional stock, that sells the loveliest biscuits. My favourite are the navettes, these lovely long biscuits that melt in your mouth and have the most amazing fragrance. Maybe I'll write a review one day.
Those are the main places I love, or would love, to go and eat. Although there are lots of individual places I've heard of through TV shoes or word of mouth I'd like to go to, but I'm not going to another country to eat at one restaurant. Though I might make an exception for IHOP to indulge my childhood memories of stacks of pancakes and maple syrup.
Happy eating, happy travelling, and with any luck I'll be jetting off to have a lovely dinner abroad sometime in the next few holidays I get.
student_gourmande
