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The Traveler’s Lunchbox is asking food bloggers around the world to think about the five things they’ve eaten – and would recommend that everyone should eat at least once before they die.
The items can be general or as specific as a restaurant dish and asks for a short history of why it means so much.
It’s a fun project and got me thinking about what my list would be. It’s pretty hard to whittle it down to only five things but this is what I came up with.
- Fresh sugar cane
- Steak tartare
- Raw shellfish (oysters, mussels, scallops) in Nice, France
- Preserved duck egg and pork congee
- Khachapuri
This is my earliest food memory. Standing next to a tour bus in Taiwan, gnawing on a sugar cane my mom just bought from a street vendor. I had no idea what it was, so I was incredibly surprised by the sweet fresh juice.
And for six-year-old, it was pretty fun to keep chewing and then spit out the stringy pulp.
I love steak. And this is beef at its very essence. It has to be made with finely chopped raw beef and traditionally seasoned with fresh ground pepper, Worcestershire sauce, onions and a raw egg.
I’ll never forget the first time I watched a tuxedoed waiter at the now defunct Hy’s Steakhouse in Vancouver preparing it right at our table in a wooden bowl.
When I was 13, I went to Europe with my dad, just the two of us. Never mind that my dad is pretty absent-minded and has no clue about how to raise a teenager. The only thing my mom asked of us was to stay away from the raw seafood in France.
So of course, the first thing my dad did in Nice was order two huge platters of raw shellfish. It was sublime – and enough to bump sushi off my list. It helped that we enjoyed all this sitting beachside with my dad’s rambunctious bus driver friend from Lyon.
This is my comfort food especially when I’m sick. Congee is a traditional Chinese rice porridge mixed with different toppings.
In this congee, lean pork slices are marinated in soy sauce and cornstarch. The preserved duck egg is a distinctly Chinese food.
Basically, the duck egg is preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt and lime and stored in a cool place for several months.
The egg white turns a gelatinous dark brown and doesn’t have much flavour. The creamy dark green yolk has a strong taste. Some have described it as “cheese-like” but it’s hard to say. I just like it in congee. And it always makes me feel better.
Khachapuri is a fried bread filled with cheese. It comes from Georgia, formerly of the USSR and not the land of peaches.
It makes my list because I was with great friends when I first tried it in Moscow, and it was the first significant trip with my significant other.
But really, who doesn’t like deep-fried cheese bread?
You are far braver than I, little Andree.
Although I have to say, mmmmmmfriedcheesebread
too many paragraphs — try pulling them together, perhaps.
1) Cape Breton oysters straight out of the water, shucked and seasoned with a simple single drop of fresh squeezed lemon juice.
2)Fresh-caught Rocky Mountain Cutthroat Trout, grilled whole over coals, seasoned with sel du mer and a tiny pad of butter, pulled apart and placed in your mouth with your fingers.
3) real potato gnocchi, made by an Italian momma just minutes before boiling, served with a gorgonzola sauce.
4)Veal Osso Bucco, prepared by me, in my kitchen. The meat falls off the bone and can be cut with a spoon. It has the feel of butter in your mouth.
5)Morra Cheese Farm Bocconcini (rinsed in salt water, not fresh). My father called them “passion balls,” and we’d ride our bikes 8 kilometres up country roads on summer Saturday mornings to buy some and eat them while sitting on an old picnic table in the parking lot in the sun with Orange Fanta.
Lamb shashlick in Urumuzi South, or really anywhere in XinJiang.
With cold noodles (lung meean).
Curries in Kerala state, subtle, 1000 flavours and not meat heavy.
Croissants from the Boulangerie St. Martin, near Marche St. Martin, Paris
Hot cocoa at 2 am in Dawson.
Dog stew in Pyongyang in December.
Charcuterie PikNik in Tours, but take all the cold cuts to Vouvray and eat in the wine caves, giggling from the pettillant Vouvray wine.
Fish at the Johnson Street Grill, Spokane. Anything they cook.
Going to the Solo market on Fraser street for fresh fruit, some pastries and fortified coffees from the 24-hour Breka Bakery at 49th and Fraser and then a summer wander to the South Hill library for some free papers to be laid out in the sun at Memorial South park near the pond and laze a summer afternoon away laying on the grass watching the world go by and hear the competing yells of the cricket and baseball players in adjoining fields.
Hello, everyone!
Andree is enticing me more and more into her gastronomic escapades! And I could not refuse submitting my answer when I saw so many allusions to my mother country! (this is Robert-Gilles of shizuokagourmet.wordpress.com)
1- Sushi. Preferably a nice mixture of veg and fish.
2- Sake. If possible the best in Shizuoka (varies every year, so I will have to check before my final demise!)
3- A bottle of Givry Rouge, my hometown in Burgundy.
4- Duck Foie Gras from the Landes sauteed on its own with just a little salt and pepper and a few skinned muscat grapes.
5- A plate of cheese, preferably all from different countries!
Cheers and to your good health!
Robert-Gilles
1. cinnamon buns from turk’s on commercial drive in vancouver
2. shave ice with macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom from jo jo’s in waimea kaua’i, hawai’i
3. soft ice cream dipped in maple dip from BDI (pronounced ‘beady eye’) in Winnipeg. You have to wait in line for a very long time, but the result is worth it.
4. curry soup from the Zupperia in Bergen Norway. Chock-full of fresh seafood from the fish market two blocks away.
5. molten chocolate cake from culina’s in edmonton. dig one forkful in and it collapses into a lava of chocolate. mmmm.
While typing this out, I realize my favourite foods are mushy dessert-type items. Add things like cajun bread pudding (homemade) and rice pudding (from khazana in edmonton) to the list and I’m in paradise.
1 – I second the khachapurri motion. It’s the best food EVER. Preferably from the Genotsvale na Ostojenkye restaurant in Moscow.
2 – More Georgian food: a pile of the eggplant rolls with walnuts that in Russian are called baklajani s orekhami. Does anyone know of a good Georgian restaurant in Canada?
3 – Thai green curry from anyone of The Blue Elephant restaurants (the mother ship is in Paris, but they’re all over the Middle East too). It’s gotta be hot enough to make my nose run.
4 – A felafel sandwich from the Malik al-Batata (“King of the Potato) stand on Rue Hamra in Beirut.
5 – Butter chicken with naan bread to mop up the mess. Best I know of is at Babur’s restaurant on Queen Street West in Toronto.
1. For the meat-eaters: A Montreal Schwartz’s Deli medium fat sandwich with fries, a pickle, slaw, and cherry pop. It takes about 30 seconds from the time you order to the arrival of the food. Sit at the counter and if you’re lucky, the waiter will make folded napkin flowers for you. If you’ve eaten there before, go for the lean…but if it’s your first time, you’ve got to get the medium. The meat is piled on the bread so thick it slides out through your fingers…dip it in the mustard and just keep going.
2. Sorbet from Havre aux Glaces at Montreal’s Jean-Talon market. I know, I know…everyone knows a sorbet place that they love. But this place is a cut above. The pink grapefruit is a cut above and my usual standby, but it’s also lovely to try their seasonal fruit choices…Blood orange, tangerine and honey, Clementine, cranberry…even pumpkin and maple. They’re never too sweet or cloying…always refreshing.
3. My mum’s turkey dinner. My mum feeds about 50 people every Thanksgiving and Christmas, and makes it look effortless. She even makes lasagna for my brother who refuses to eat poultry. Every year it’s the same salads and vegetables and so on…tradition, good food, good company, and I love it.
4. Hot chocolate and a croissant at Les Deux Garcons in Aix-en-Provence. It’s the real French experience – a 17th century cafe…lovely, sunny little French town…real thick dark chocolate in your cup and a perfect croissant…mmmmm.
5. The feta omelet breakfast at Le Petit Bistro Byblos in Montreal. Relaxed ambience with Middle-Eastern touches…the tea is piping hot and served with a variety of sugar cubes, the omelet is perfect – rich and feta-y, and it all comes with a lovely tray of Middle Eastern breads, along with several choices of home-made jams and jellies. Delicious experience.
if you like steak tartar, you should check out Raw Bar in the Hotel Arts. I got stuck with this dish on their dry run on opening and was mildly surprised.
but you should really try the lobster bisque and the lemon meringue dessert to die for. Wow i really need that dessert, it’s been awhile. I ordered three last time