Feb242014

Gail’s 11 Most Memorable Meals of All Time & Place

As you may or may not have sussed, Gentle Reader, I travel a lot. I travel to conventions and signings, to festivals and book fairs, to lands far away and right next door. I have blogged about packing and surviving constant travel, and I have utilized skills learned as an itinerant archaeologist far more than I thought I might when I gave it up for authordom.

Why do I do it? Mostly because I want to meet you, Gentle Reader. Sometimes to see my author friends and meet with my agent and editors. Sometimes because I’ve never been to that part of the world before. But I can’t deny the fact that what temps me more than anything else, is food.

I like to eat strange foods. I will pick up a menu and focus in on the thing I have never tasted before. Although, I’m not one of those adventurous eaters who will pop a bug in her mouth just because. Instead, I would say that I am an adventurous gourmand. It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, it just has to be prepared in the best way possible. I want that bug exquisitely cooked, fresh, and served in its native country. I guess what I really want is to find the next tasty thing. Can I tell you about alpaca? Oh my goodness is it delicious. Like the Kobe beef of the pork world. Tender, flavorful, amazing. Or cuy roasted and crispy with potatoes stuffed with ground beef chilli and raisins on the side? Next time you are in the Peruvian highlands…

So, without further ado:

Right now, these are the 10 meals I remember most.

  1. Fresh grilled prawns on a bed of arugula with papaya, avocado, coconut, and macadamia nuts with a lemon and sour cream dressing followed by a small cinnamon roll and flat white in Canes, Australia
  2. Seared duck with sides of squash mash, light chutney compote, and micro-greens accompanied by copious wine and finished with floating islands in Paris, France
  3. Prosciutto and cantaloupe followed by pesto lasagne with fried squash flowers and white bean side in Vicchio, Italy
  4. Marinated alligator followed by morton bay bug and then chocolate cake in Sydney, Australia
  5. Carpaccio followed by fruite de mar pizza and then summer berry tiramisu in Florence, Italy
  6. Latte followed by poached eggs in stewed tomatoes with toast tips in Denver, Colorado
  7. Alpaca steak wrapped in bacon smothered in creamy pepper sauce with baked potato side and a pint of passion fruit juice in Cuzco, Peru
  8. Light salad, followed by homemade carbonara pasta finished with fresh peaches marinated in white wine with vanilla gelato in the hills above Borgo San Lorenzo, Italy
  9. Celeriac soup with pear compote and Stilton crunchy toast wedge at the Tate Modern Cafe shortly after it opened, London, England
  10. Endless tapas of all kinds in that one magic moment in Barcelona, Spain
  11. That amazing risotto that looked like they scrapped all the fish off the sea floor in Moterosso, Italy

GAIL’S DAILY DOSE

Your Moment of Parasol . . .

Parasol tea party Colmal Museum painting

Your Infusion of Cute . . .

Your Tisane of Smart . . .
Quirky Victorian Term explained
Pounce “Gum Sandaric reduced to a fine powder, and used to prevent the stinking of paper after the erasure of writing. It is procured, likewise, from pulverised bone of the cuttle-fish.”
~ Mangnall’s Questions, 1830

Book News:

Boeklogboek says of Curtsies & Conspiracies, “I love following Sophronia in her adventures, and hope there will be many more books.”

Quote of the Day:

Ig® Nobel Prize in Archaeology: for parboiling a dead shrew, and then swallowing the shrew without chewing, and then carefully examining everything excreted during subsequent days — all so they could see which bones would dissolve inside the human digestive system, and which bones would not.
~ “Human Digestive Effects on a Micromammalian Skeleton,” Peter W. Stahl and Brian D. Crandall, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 22, November 1995, pp. 789–97.
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Posted by Gail Carriger

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Comments

  1. Anne D said:

    You're a braver woman than I am, Gail.

    By the way, every time I read your blog and see "Custard Protocol", it makes me smile. Not just because of more stories in the future, but because it's such a whimsical phrase.

  2. M. Edwards said:

    Oh, perhaps you should try dinuguan – which is a Filipino dish "of meat and/or offal simmered in a rich, spicy dark gravy of pig blood, garlic, chili, and vinegar. The term dinuguan comes from the Filipino word dugo meaning "blood"." Yeah, my second boyfriend, Wikipedia, came up with a better explanation than I. But the dish is super yum and I bet it'd appeal to your taste buds. ;p

    (long-time stalker, first-time commenter)

  3. M. Edwards said:

    Huzzah! Do let us know what you think of it when you try it. Also, at the risk of sounding like a rabid fangirl, may I say that, after devouring all your books in one fell swoop (Parasol Protectorate in its entirety in 3 days and Finishing School in half that), I broke my self-imposed fast on purchasing books (borrow from the library, don't you know) and just now bought all of them. And I'm going to start peddling them out to my students. You are sheer genius!

  4. cheryl said:

    Alright, after reading your memorable meal list, I'm hungry.

    Looking forward to the Custard Protocol as I look forward to everything you write!

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