a little bite of everything

A meal around a glass of wine

 
Here's the concept: choose your wine and the chef will create a meal around it. I ordered a glass of somptuous Chateau Pape Clement - Pessac Leognan 1995 and the chef surprised me with this delicate roast lamb shoulder. Needless to say, the pairing was absolutely sensational. The best world sommelier 2004’s concept works! Il Vino is a great place to go to for a special occasion, like, say, when you want to treat someone (a wine-lover!) who’s made your life really, really easier when you least expected it.

Il Vino by Enrico Bernardo

Paris, France

A pumpkin soup

 
La Regalade is one of the last places in Paris where you can get the good old stuff, the French food of Ratatouille movie, a selection of dishes so unpretentious, so out of fashion –and in an environment untouched by time. Since the appointment of the brilliant, (not-so-) new Chef, it has not lost  its magic, despite its well-deserved popularity among locals and tourists. The pumpkin soup, should you choose it, is exquisite. It speaks volumes that my Florentine gourmet friends, who know a great deal about good food and whose restaurants have nothing to envy Paris for, still mention it everytime we meet!

La Regalade

Paris, France

A Korean barbecue restaurant

 

Has anyone ever been happier to be on a business trip than me? I don't think so. After months and months negotiating a deal in Brussels (for nothing), I was thrilled at the prospect of this new little adventure in Seoul.   Believe me or not, I've got to meet and work with people who were more hyperactive and hyperenthusiastic than me!! Just when I started getting tired (somewhere between 4am and 5am) they made it all fun again. Seoul was a non-stop marathon of negotiation meetings, conference-calls, sleepless nights, and imperial-style barbecued beef dinners. One of the rare moments where I get to realize that “work-life balance” doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t have two lives. I have only one life, where work gets personal and where I want to be nowhere else in the world than here in Seoul, around that table, with my team mates. It was "awesome".

Buzajip (Rich House)

957-4, Daechi-dong

Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea

A Starbucks Coffee store

 
Insadong is famous for its dozens of art galleries and antique shops… and for its Starbucks Coffee store! It’s the only Starbucks Coffee store in the world with a sign not written in English. Why is that so? To keep the traditional Korean feel of Insadong intact, Starbucks was required to spell their company name in Hangul lettering on the store front, instead of in the Latin alphabet. A pretty cool discovery on my brief, yet memorable guided tour in Seoul.

Starbucks Coffee

39 Insadong, Jongro-gu, Seoul

A raspberry tart

What about this lovely raspberry tart? You’re probably thinking those raspberries are encircling some sweet cream and that that dollop hides another layer of raspberry and crème all within a sweet tarte shell. Wrong. It’s actually a raspberry and red pepper tarte with parmesan cheese crème in a sweet sesame seed sablé shell. This is not a cruel joke. This is one of Pierre Herme’s genial creations. The raspberries themselves are pretty tasty. The red pepper was barely discernable. Not that I invite anyone to put red pepper into my desserts, but if you must, then I’d like to have it be slightly more pronounced. The parmesan cheese crème was… surprising. I didn’t find it salty at all, and there was not a strong flavor present either. Despite what you might be thinking, this bizarre association of aromas and textures was actually very, very pleasant.

 

Pierre Herme

72 rue Bonaparte

Paris, France

A burger

Mmmmmmmm, burgers. Roman-sized monsters of high-grade, fresh ground beef, simply grilled, perfectly paired with a nice, soft bun and topped with fresh lettuce, sweet red onions and yummy tomatoes… I love them! The best I’ve had is NOT “the Works” at Burger Joint in NYC but slow-food establishment Ringo’s burger in Florence, where the meat is so fresh and flavorful Ringo doesn't even use salt. In Paris, I’d go buy the freshest ingredients at Thanksgiving, Becquerel and Verger Saint-Paul and I’d cook it at home. In London, I’d “build my own” burger at GBK adding to the succulent 100% Aberdeen Angus beef my choice of bacon and/or cheddar, mozzarella, chorizo, hommus, aubergine, avocado, camembert, mushroom and so forth. Although impressed by their vast burger chart, I’d always end up having the same classic cheeseburger with extra bacon over and over again. Delicious.

 

GBK

163 -165 Earls Court Road

London, UK

A bowl of Taiwanese beef noodles

The specialty of this place apparently is Taiwanese beef noodles. I've never been to Taiwan, so I have no idea how it stacks against the original beef noodles there, but I found myself liking the one served here. The beef noodles in this place are served with various options. You get to choose between Taiwanese noodles, kuey teow and potato noodles (I have no clue what potato noodles are neither). There's also the option of having beef tendons along with meat and the size of the bowl of noodles are available in small, medium and large. Then, there is the dry and the soup variety to pick from.  You also get to add eggs. Now that's a lot of options to pick from for just one dish! That's typical of South East Asia where your dish is usually served with a set of condiments, so you can refine it and adjust it to your taste. Like I said, "la gastronomie, c'est la liberte". On my first visit, I grabbed the option of a medium bowl of soup with Taiwanese noodles and beef and tendon mix (7.90 SGD). Noodles are actually a thick noodle with a slight chewy consistency like Japanese udons, beef is very soft and tender and herbal soup base which while wasn't very thick in flavor, was spicy and clean. Next time I'll try the same dish but with potato noodles, dry version, only tendons, with eggs.

 

Lai Lai Casual Dining

Jurong Point, Singapore

A beef satay

The least conventional a meal is, the most I enjoy the food. I like to say 'La gastronomie, c'est la liberte'. I love foodcourts for that very reason. On a foodcourt I can have as many courses as I want, in the order I want or all at the same time, I can mix Indian and Malaysian specialties, I can share everything I've ordered and I can choose how long my meal will take. For its wide variety of local food, its informal, chaotic atmosphere, its remarkable Victorian filigree cast-iron structure and its central location, Lau Pa Sat Food Center is one of my favorite eating places in Singapore. Freedom is not easy to deal with: deciding where and what to eat can be an intimidating, yet at the same time, exciting experience! If you're particularly uninspired on your visit there, chicken, mutton and beef satay (bite-sized pieces of meat grilled on skewers served with a spicy peanut sauce, the Muslim version) will be a safe bet.  In Lau Pa Sat, an entire street is  dedicated to satay stalls, so you can't basically go wrong. In business terms, fierce competition, combined with a demanding, volatile customer base, results in optimal offer -meaning, fresh and great quality food.

 

Best Satay Stall #8

Lau Pa Sat

18 Raffles Place, Singapore

A fried wonton

The place is very clean and quiet... The interior looks familiar but displays a discrete exotic touch here and there… It’s full of tourists, and not a single local is to be seen… It’s featured in the Lonely Planet… The menu is printed in multiple languages… A priori, not my kind of place at all. But prejudices are made to be challenged, aren't they? When Miss Ly told me that the most delicate 'fish in banana leaf' would not be served because said fish was not available at the market on that day, I snobbishly thought “At least I can expect the ingredients to be fresh.”. I decided to go for Hoi An specialties: white roses (shrimp dumplings), fried wontons and cau lao (thick noodle soup) -delicacies that I had already tasted from street stalls. I wanted to compare the "authentic street-food" with one served in a "touristic restaurant". How pretentious and wrong-headed I was! I had to admit that the food at Miss Ly was of extremely high standard -the best I had in Vietnam. Homemade, fresh, healthy, flavorsome, perfectly cooked and beautiful. On top of that, prices are reasonable, staff is friendly and location is great. No wonder tourists (myself included) love them!

 

Miss Ly

22 Nguyen Hue St

Hoi An, Vietnam

A durian ice cream

 

When in Rome, EAT as the Romans do. This is my #1 rule when I travel abroad (although I’m a bit confused about what “abroad” means). And so, in Hanoi, I’ve tried one of the local favourite ice creams: durian ice cream. Durian is widely known in Southeast Asia as the “king of fruits” and is distinctive for its strong, repellent smell and its thick thorn-covered husk. The pale green ice cream (1 euro) actually looks tempting, and fortunately tastes better than it smells (just like camembert, in a way.). Fanny staff don’t lie when they invite you to “enjoy the extraordinary taste of real ingredients”: indeed the ice cream tasted like frozen durian with no added sugar. Marvellous. I got carried away and had it together with the young rice ice cream, which was a mistake. The taste and smell of durian are so overpowering that I couldn’t properly appreciate the subtle young rice flavor. Just take a deep breath and try -it's definitely worth it.

Fanny

48 Pho Le Thai To

Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi, Vietnam