Plate to Pack- Your GTG’s top 10 dishes personally digested

Welcome globetrotters to this week’s food-fest that is guaranteed to leave you hungry and wanting to try it all for yourselves. With all your newfound time after last week’s advice, this week we look at a few prime examples of food that has enriched, completed and personalised many a travel moment for myself and no doubt other food-minded travellers.

• Rabbit in France

This meal went down in a beautiful southern French village called Saint pons de thomieres. While visitng a friend we ventured across the road to the pub for the local workers specials and seeing Rabbit on the menu I felt there was no better time to give it a bash. Not being particularly familiar with the taste, I have to say the dish I had was incredible, from the sweet juicy meat itself to the creamy white wine sauce it was served in.

• Katsu Karee in Fujisawa/Akihabara

A Japanese cutlets with curry combo is something along the lines of your Schnitzel and gravey pub special, only beter. Switch the hot chips for rice and you even eliminate a small degree of the health guilt. The cutlets are most commonly pork or chicken and may or may not come with delicious chunks of carrot amongst the curry sauce. Yum on a huge plate of winter calorie fest 🙂

• Portugese Pasteis de nata in Belem

While on the subject of healthy eating, the third item on our scrumtious list is the fabled Portugese custard tart or pasteis de nata. Now even non coffee drinkers may agree that the best way to have these is with an equally creamy Portugese coffee in the dreamy Lisbon district of Belem. With a warm gooey custard centre and indulgent pastry that falls apart at the touch, this could be legitimately decribed as heaven in a handfull.

• Pinxos in San Sebastian

Despite the entire country being full of mouth-watering food, for a quality Spanish snack, the Basque city of Donostia or San Sebastian is the undisputed promised land.  Particular joys on this globetrotter’s visit included deep fried quid, prawns served in different ways, any number of delectable cheese, deep-fried chiilis, and an assortment of other seafood.

• Garlic mussels in Ireland (Glassyn)

Irish seafood cuisine combines all the rich qualities of  hearty winter warmth with the delicacy of  ocean freshness. A visit to an Irish midlands pub in Glassyn provided a serving of mussels in a creamy garlic chowder-like sauce that will stay with me indefinitely.

• Papa Johns Pizza in Edinburgh

Everyone has their favourite local pizza place, this was mine. Just the right size to stuff myself silly on two different occasions, topped with four gorgeous cheeses that could stand alone, and a handfull of toppings all served on a sublimely substantial base, left me ever thankfull that this palace of delights was just on the nearest corner.

• Char kway tao in Penang

If you’re looking for a dish that represents fresh off the barbecue plate then char kway tao is your sensible choice. When in Penang, Malaysia’s food capital, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by all the apetizing choices on the menu, your char kway tao can be a wonderful way to keep it simple, fulfilling and unmistakably Malaysian. The dish itself is a delicious mix of stir-fried meat and vegetables served amongst folds of silken noodles, best eaten as with many Malaysin dishes, immediately after serving.

• Assam laksa in Kuala Lumpur

Aside from the essential dose of Satay, Assam Laksa was my first dish on Malaysian ground. It would be fair to say that Laksa is the food that keeps on givng, and the gift of course is flavour. As complex and changing as Malaysia’s diverse ethinc make up, Laksa is a dish that seems to offer somehing different every time you try it. In simplified terms, Assam Laksa could be described as seafood curry stew with noodles, but anyone who has tried it knows it in a completely different way.

• Kao Lam in Thailand

As if further proof of the value in simple things was necessary, kao lam is Thailand’s coconut-sweetened rice barbecued in a large cylinder of bamboo. Co-incidentally, kao lam makes for a satisfying road-side snack when making your way from one beautiful part of the country to another.

• Strudel in Budapest

The final pick of this week’s awesome morsells is another delicious delicacy defined by its simplicity. Strudel is another dish that can be sweet, savoury, sour and everything in between. My bestie/travel companion and I were lead to one of Budapests hidden treasures following a visit to the nearby fisherman’s bastion. Faced with a mountain of choice, (from memory) we opted for a sour cherry strudel as our sweet option, accompanied by a delicious ricotta cheese as its savoury partner. Following a satisying stint of refuelling we were ready to explore the wonders of Budapest castle and the Matthias church.

Well there we leave our cullinary tales for now. Of course many a fine food could be added to this list including churros enjoyed anywhere in the word but this week your GTG has attempted to focus on food that comes with a story. You are now invited to share your own stories of your global foodie adventures. You can share them through the contact form below. On that note, bon appetit till next week.