The fashionable Carmen restaurant in Cartagena’s Anandá boutique hotel served the best meal of my Colombia trip. My main course of “Pork Two Ways” ranks among the tastiest dishes I’ve ordered in recent memory. The lacquered pork loin was accompanied by a savory 12-hour chicharrón (seasoned pork rinds), buttery green beans and creamy sweet-potato purée.
Bratislava’s “Blue Star” serves traditional Slovak dishes in candlelit brick vaults. I relished the fresh trout stuffed with bacon and mushrooms, accompanied by roasted potatoes. Although served whole, with head, fins and skin intact, the trout had somehow been entirely deboned (an intricate preparation described in Miklós Bánffy’s 1934 novel, “They Were Counted”).
When in Vienna, I adore tucking into Wiener Schnitzel and tafelspitz, but I didn’t miss meat for a second at vegetarian Tian. With a stylishly decorated landmark interior, this newly Michelin-starred restaurant concocts seasonal, memorably flavorful dishes such as white and wild asparagus spears in savory chanterelle cream with fresh peas.
I ordered the tasting menu at this superb restaurant in Guanajuato, Mexico, and was not thrilled when a chalupa (tostada platter) topped with ant eggs arrived. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that the eggs tasted like creamy, deliciously nutty risotto!
During our weeklong spa cure in the “Diététique” wing of the Sofitel Quiberon Thalassa Sea & Spa hotel in Brittany, we followed a strict low-calorie regime. However, chef Patrick Jarno’s cooking was remarkable for preserving and even enhancing the pleasures of French gastronomy. A sample meal: warm oysters in their shells on a vegetable remoulade; steamed cod in lemon-seaweed broth; and a deconstructed tarte Tatin.
Featuring Peruvian-Japanese cooking — pakta means “together” in the Quechua language of the Andes — the seafood-rich tasting menus at chef Albert Adrià’s small, stylish Barcelona restaurant dazzle with unexpected combinations of flavors and textures. Outstanding dishes include sea bass ceviche with kumquats and Peruvian corn, suckling pig dumplings with golden berry tempura and yuzu salt, and red prawns in pine smoke.
At this Four Seasons on Lanai, chef Eren Guryel serves exceptional upcountry cuisine, featuring local and sustainable ingredients sourced from throughout the Hawaiian Islands. On our recent trip, I enjoyed a memorably succulent Hawaiian snapper (onaga) on a bed of black rice with poached fennel and luscious caviar.
Chef Murray McDonald creates an unforgettable lunchtime dish called “Ocean in a Bowl,” a masterful concoction of smoked lobster broth with local scallops, shrimp and seaweed. It reminded me of some of the elevated dishes I’ve enjoyed at kaiseki meals in Japan — but this was in Newfoundland.
Superstar chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten recently renovated a grand 1833 residence at Pound Ridge, north of New York City. A dinner entrée of a Berkshire pork chop wrapped in prosciutto with mushrooms and sage in a white-wine sauce could not have been more delicious, or satisfying.
While in Tuscany, on more than one occasion I was able to indulge in one of my favorite dishes: ragu of wild boar on a bed of fresh fettuccine. The best by far was that made by chef Riccardo Cappelli at Castello Banfi, southeast of Siena.
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