Locavore is a modern European-Indonesian restaurant located in Ubud, Bali. As its name suggests, they’re all about using local products. About 95% of their ingredients are sourced from within the country, from the Balinese Kintamani coffee and hand-crafted sea salt to the pickled seaweed from Lombok to the beef short ribs from Malang, Java.
Nationalistic in his cooking approach, Chef Navarra is known for his playful and inventive takes on classic Filipino dishes like lugaw (rice porridge), relyenong pusit (stuffed squid), and pork bbq. His presentation may be contemporary but the dishes themselves – and ingredients used – are staunchly Filipino.
Singapore may be small, but it isn’t lacking in great food. Inch for inch, it’s one of the most delicious destinations we’ve been to so far. It’s defined by a wide spectrum of food choices ranging from cheap but legendary hawker stall meals to trendy envelope-pushing dining concepts.
An izakaya is a type of informal Japanese pub. They’re typically small and casual spaces where Japanese salarymen would get a drink and unwind after work. Jovial and relaxed in atmosphere, you can think of them as the Japanese equivalent to American taverns or Irish pubs, maybe even Spanish tapas bars.
This tiny island nation no bigger than New York City is one of our favorite destinations for food. From its myriad hawker centers and heritage stalls to its Michelin-starred fine dining restaurants, there is so much good food to be had in Singapore.
When you think of countries with the best food, Thailand is one of the first places that comes to mind. Street food in Bangkok is …
Like many of its neighboring countries, there’s a clear Indian and Chinese influence to Burmese cuisine. There seem to be strong regional identities as well. Wikipedia’s list of Burmese dishes points to several dishes that are Shan-, Kachin-, or Rakhine-influenced, all of which are administrative regions within Myanmar.
I’ve been on many of these tours from A Chef’s Tour and this Kuala Lumpur food tour is one of my favorites so far. Malaysian cuisine is too broad and nuanced to encapsulate into four hours, but Chef Faris does an excellent job of giving you the best possible taste.
Apart from being a gastronomic trip, I expected this to be a spiritual journey as well. Many people, friends of mine included, describe it as a life-changing experience. Life-changing indeed it was, for reasons I never would have expected. And it all started here in Kolkata.
As always, I do a fair amount of research before a trip but there’s only so much Google can tell you. Insider knowledge, especially when it comes to food, is always best, which is why I think it’s so important to experience a new city with a local. Shailesh, a third-generation resident, was about to give me my first real taste of Mumbai.