Top 5 International Dishes 2018-2019
This year was the toughest yet to stop at just five dishes, and I’ve cheated just a little as you’ll see. So here are the five best dishes I’ve eaten overseas in the past 12 months – I would travel many miles to eat any of these again! Honourable mentions follow.
Everything at Ynyshir Wales
www.ynyshir.co.uk
If I have to choose just one dish from the amazing degustation at Wales’ best restaurant, it’s Cornish brown crab with ketchup and oil made from the shells, served with puffed rice, coriander and a good chilli hit. Perfect with a Slovenian skin-contact friulano. Scroll right here for the full Ynyshir experience.
Razor Clams Apicius (France)
www.restaurant-apicius.com
I had a wonderful lunch in this luxurious 18th century mansion surrounded by a beautiful private garden in Paris. The raw razor clams marinated in elderflower and lime were a standout (but there was also the most delicious chocolate souffle). See these and more of Apicius here.
Apfelküchli Hotel Stadthaus (Switzerland)
www.stadthaus.ch
In the boutique hotel that what was once Burgdorf’s townhall (and my husband, Franz’s, childhood home), chef Christian Bolliger prepared the best version I’ve ever had of my favourite Swiss desert: slices of crumbed, deep-fried apple, dusted with sugar and served with vanilla sauce.
Coffee Custard & Chocolate Granita Le Comptoir (France)
www.hotel-paris-relais-saint-germain.com
I love the art deco dining room in my favourite Parisian Hotel and the great-value degustation they serve mid-week. This year was the first time I had the weekend a la carte menu and I adored this simple dessert of silken custard topped with crunchy granita.
Everything at Mews Ireland
PERMANENTLY CLOSED
Cheating? OK, let’s say local pink fir apple potato & foraged wild garlic finished tableside with a gravy-like malted barley and crème fraîche sauce, garnished with wild garlic flowers and preserved scapes. I could eat a large plate of this! Pictured above, scroll here for more Mews dishes.
Honourable mentions: wild garlic & mushroom gnocchi with belper knolle (a local hard cheese) at Auberge de la Croix-Blanche and an excellent tarte flambée at Murten’s groovy bar/hotel Adler, both in Switzerland; in Brittany, excellent buckwheat galettes at the bustling Le Bateau Ivre in Quiberon and Jeff Quintin’s super fresh oysters overlooking his leases at La Perle de Quehan; simple poached eggs in an Époisses emulsion at La Muse Bouche in the Jura; and the superb bread and butter all over Ireland! See these dishes on the Top International Dishes post on my Instagram feed.
