2011's Most Memorable Meals, Dishes, and Desserts

Happy New Year!
This may be the 100th "best of 2011" lists you've seen by now. Well, here's my list of the most memorable experiences and tastes I had this past year! What's on your list? What do I need to try this year?

Most Memorable Meals:
1. FIG's Table-to-Farm dinner at McGrath Farms

2. The Aviary's Kitchen Table experience in Chicago

Most Memorable Dishes
1. Quesa Taco at Tacos Los Salceados (Tijuana, Mexico)

2. Bihun Bebek (Duck Noodle Soup) at Bihun Bebek Asie (Medan, Indonesia)

3. Peking Duck from WP24

4. Blue Corn Muffins from Playa - or are these considered desserts?

5. Squid ink pasta with uni and caviar from Petrossian (Beverly Hills)

Most Memorable Desserts
1. Buckwheat waffle at King's Row Gastropub (Pasadena)

2. Chocolate gelato at Grom (Malibu)

3. Banana cream pie at Random Order Coffeehouse (Portland, OR)

4. Coconut panna cotta with guava soup, caramelized pineapples at Scarpetta

5. Eating durian on the roadside with my family in Medan, Indonesia.

Smoked Crab at Rasane (Surabaya, Indonesia)

If there is one thing I have to eat when I come back to Indonesia, it'll be CRAB. Crab in spicy sauce, crab with salted eggs, or smoked crab. Whichever it is, I want it.
This time around, I went to try a new(ish) seafood place called Rasane, which is famous for their smoked crab (kepiting asap). Rasane in Indonesian means "the flavor" or "the taste".

As with most seafood places in Indonesia, they serve live seafood kept in tanks. Customers would go up to the tanks and pick out which crab, fish, lobster, etc they want to eat that night. Or you can just tell them how much you want and have them pick it out for you.

Read more »

Indonesia Street Eats: Soto Ayam Tidar (Surabaya)

There are few better ways to spend your time in Surabaya than eating your heart out at a street side dive late at night. When my cousins were visiting from Singapore, we did just that. A bowl of Soto Ayam (chicken turmeric soup) on the side of the road, wooden benches, old style glass soda bottles. Tropical heat with a side of night breeze mixed in with street fumes. This is Soto Ayam & STMJ Tidar, a street stall on a street called Tidar.

(STMJ refers to "susu telur madu jahe", which translate to "milk egg honey ginger". It's a traditional health drink).

Soto ayam is a chicken soup made with turmeric, ginger, curcuma, galangal, and more. At Soto Ayam Tidar, the soup is filled with chicken (ayam kampung, aka "village chicken" which is much more flavorful than the farmed kind) and you can choose between meat, skin, or offals, rice noodles, and egg. The best one to get at this place is the soft boiled egg but they were out that night. It's also served with rice either in the soup or on the side.

Read more »