His hands move quickly and expertly dipping into a large dark bowl of soft white rice. A dab of green wasabi is added before he rolls the mixture into a ball in his palm and carefully layers it with a slice of raw pink fish. With a practised flourish he presents it on the bench in front of me. I reach for my chop sticks and am told no. “Use hands. Hands are better. Old way.” I pick up the yellow tail and rice portion, slip it into my salivating mouth and groan audibly.
I’m at Sentori Sushi in Kanazawa, central Japan eating the best sushi of my life. Nine more servings follow the yellow tail down my grateful gullet: flounder, shrimp soft roe, bail shell, abalone. My chef, Kazuhisa Yoshida, is the third-generation owner of the restaurant which welcomed its first customer seven years after the war (1952). He’s been to Australia twice and speaks English slowly and thoughtfully. He tells me about the local fish market and his grandfather and his fondness for the Australian artist, Ken Done. I watch him operate his knives and carefully wrap seaweed around another delicacy. This is real Japanese sushi, similar yet so very different from the kind we know in Australia and the USA. There is no avocado, cream cheese or cooked meat and the meal has been paired with a sweet local sake. I sip, eat slowly and smile contentedly.
At the meal’s conclusion I ask Kazuhisa about the secret to great sushi. He thinks on this a while. “Hospitality,” he decides. “Fresh ingredients and good rice are needed. But hospitality and presentation make for the best sushi.” When I leave a waiter appears with my winter coat and helps me into it. Kazuhisa follows me to the door and we thank each other gratefully and sincerely. It is the Japanese way.
You hear whispers of this secret sushi restaurant online and with friends. Someone says they know someone who knows someone who has been, but you think this is just another urban legend, like when Bill Murray spontaneously walked into a random bar and started bartending.
Well, it turns out that like the Bill Murray story, the restaurant actually exists. On the tenth floor of a very random midtown Manhattan hotel you will find one of the rooms has been converted into a full scale, fine dining, four-seat sushi restaurant. Global personality Chef David Bouhadana is the master itame at the helm of this 17-course, 60-minute omakase (dishes selected by the chef).
If you can get in, expect a treat. Chef David will let you know everything about him and his process, and will do so over a flowing river of sake. The food is perfectly prepared and the city views from the balcony are sublime.
This is an experience not to be forgotten. Ever. Even if your friends don’t believe you went.
Cleanse your palate and prepare to taste the flavours of Persia by learning how to prepare an iconic Iranian feast at a local family home on this sumptuous culinary adventure.
Tachin Morgh, which translates to ‘arranged at the bottom’, is the dish you’ll be making. It’s a traditional delicacy of saffron-infused rice and tender chicken layered in a rich egg yolk and yoghurt sauce, and baked to produce a crisp bottom layer bursting with flavour. The interplay of the crust with steamed saffron rice is both beautiful and irresistible, and just one of many moments you’ll have you tastebuds titillated on this Iran Real Food Adventure with Intrepid Travel.
You’ll begin your foray into the life of an Iranian Masterchef by plunging into the markets and bazaars with your tour leader, a local from the area, who will show you how and where to source the freshest ingredients for your dish. Once you’ve collected your bounty, you’ll venture to a local home to learn about each of the necessary steps for crafting the Tachin – especially how to achieve the perfect crisp bottom layer, known as tahdig.
Once you’ve finished cooking a storm, tuck in to your homemade Tachin alongside other traditional dishes and drinks. If you can drag your thoughts from the myriad flavours exploding in your mouth, you’ll also have the opportunity to learn about the local customs and Iranian culture from your host family.
If you’ve ever lamented not being able to indulge in the odd dinner party while abroad then fret no longer: you can dine with not one, but three different families on Rarotonga’s Progressive Dinner Tour, stopping at different houses for your starter, main and dessert. From cool tiled terraces overlooking the hills to tables lined up on the front lawn of old colonial houses and spreads laid on in back gardens where the ocean laps the shore, the magical mystery tour promises a different house (and experience) each time.
While every family will showcase their own signature dishes, it’s unlikely you’ll hit the hay without sampling ika mata, a raw, white fish dish that’s marinated with coconut cream and ‘cooked’ with lemon juice; violet rounds of dense yet creamy taro; and platters full of tropical fresh fruit, perfect for cutting through Rarotonga’s balmy climes. All while listening to the mellifluous sounds of your designated drivers playing the ukulele. And as one host pointed out, the tour offers access to the heart of a Rarotonga you mightn’t have seen before: “We know you have come here to eat local food, to talk to locals. It’s not always genuine in the hotels, but we – we are genuine.”
If eating dinner in the extension of a stranger’s living room sounds unappealing then Tupuna’s might not be the restaurant for you. But if the prospect of devouring home-cooked fare with your feet in the sand lights your fire then read on.
The only independent restaurant on the island to offer fine dining, Tupuna’s is a masterclass in casual culinary decadence. The chilli lime fish – an updated take on local classic ika mata – is a house special. Chunks of lime-doused raw fish fill a coconut shell, adorned with a side of the Cooks’ ubiquitous arrowroot fries – dense, nutty shards with crisp edges and rich, buttery centres.
Fish is always the flavour of the day in this tropical archipelago, and the plump fillets of freshly grilled wahoo and tuna (the catch of the day), served with a medley of charred, caramelised and slightly bitter root vegetables, won’t disappoint.
There’s a cosy country kitchen vibe, with a colour palette of creamy yellows and cool orange, and a warm clutter of bits and pieces: pans dangle from the ceiling; paintings of idyllic seascapes line the walls, illuminated by tea lights; glasses and teapots knock shoulders on shelves next to cookbooks and a blackboard scrawled with specials.
If the portions prove too huge to handle then three-legged Soda, the resident moggy, will likely lend a helping paw.
Deep in the vast Sharqiya Sands, in Oman’s north-eastern corner, lies a community that has lived in much the same way for centuries. The Bedouins of this remote desert region herd, farm and fish their way to survival, bedding down in makeshift tents woven from goat’s hair that rustle in the desert breeze. Most locals reside near Al Huyawah, a natural oasis near the border of the desert, where tribesmen gather during late summer to pluck ripe yellow dates from palms.
Experiencing the famed local hospitality first-hand can be hard without an invite, but on some tours – such as Swagman’s Deluxe Oman – it’s part of the deal. You’ll break unleavened Omani bread with a nomadic family, enjoying a lunch cooked over licking flames that’s as delicious as it is simple. Often nothing more than coarse sea salt coats whole fish or plump chickens, though some dishes can be more intricate: saloonat, for example, is a stew of fragrant spices, lime, chicken and vegetables. Drink bitter coffee from small cups and scoop up hunks of fish and pilaf with your fingers, while admiring the golden emptiness beyond the tent’s tarp.
Bet you didn’t know Ireland has cracking cuisine. With a population of just 4.5 million, it punches well above its weight when it comes to creating delicious things to put in your mouth – and we’re not just talking about whiskey and Guinness. Sink your fangs into artisanal produce on a tasting trail through Dublin, the country’s cool capital city. Throughout the morning you’ll learn about the history of its thriving gastronomic scene and sample a generous assortment of products – think cheese from cows who graze on Ireland’s famous rolling hills, bagels loaded with Burren smoked salmon, silky chocolate and refreshing cold-pressed juices. Wash down plump oysters with a glass of white wine and, in true Irish style, enjoy a nip of something stronger in one of the city’s many excellent pubs.
Forget crowded supermarket aisles and checkout queues. At the Phong Dien floating market grocery shopping is a delight, not a downer. From dawn, the Hau River heaves with small rowboats laden with fresh fruit, vegetables and fish from producers in the Mekong Delta food bowl.
Haggle over a bunch of bananas and grab a meal at one of the floating ‘restaurants’ on this remarkable river of trade. The market is smaller than its touristy big cousin at nearby Can Tho, and offers a more intimate experience with fewer motorised boats.
Spectre, the latest instalment in the James Bond franchise, offered Daniel Craig a license to chill. Sky-high restaurant ice Q has some of the best views ever seen from an architecturally inspired glass box, but for the Sam Mendes-directed movie it transformed from haute cuisine hot spot into the mountaintop lair of Christoph Waltz’s villain Blofeld. Situated more than 3000 metres up on the summit of Gaislachkogl in the Austrian resort town of Sölden, the neighbouring snow-covered peaks and glacial tunnel also played host to one of the film’s main action scenes – no spoilers intended. But now that Hollywood has packed up and gone home, hitting the slopes on skis or a board, followed by drinks overlooking Ötztal Alps, is definitely not to be missed.
If you’re suffering from asthma, consider joining the thousands of pilgrims who gather every year at Hyderabad in India to take part in a mass fish-guzzling ceremony. The Bathini Mrugasira Fish are stuffed with a special secret medicinal paste, apparently given to a local family by a holy man more than 150 years ago. The family continues to administer the herbal cure to patients for free, claiming their asthma will be cured after just three years’ of treatment.
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