Forumites' fave places to eat, drink abroad

[lozzyloz]

To digress slightly, I had an entire relationship fuelled on creme brulee about ten years ago.

You've put me right of me kebab!

[Keef]

A small little Cr?perie somewhere in the backstreets of Bordeaux... Truly one of the nicest meals I've ever had!

[david_carnell]

Restaurant 54 in Albufeira, Portugal. The only redeeming feature of an otherwise horrid town.

Situated on the cliff-top overlooking the beach. Great fish.

[Cassius]

Can't remember their names:

An amazing fish restaurant in Lisbon behind a locked wooden door, where you went down some stairs into a huge open space with an atrium - and the wine list was to die for.

A vegetarian restaurant in Rome with a 7 course tasting menu - where all the Roman women came in with their fur coats and didn't see the funny side.

A little restaurant on the island of Lipari where I had THE most amazing swordfish ravioli (I think it was on a previous thread)

[Keef]

A little vegetarian cafe in a little town by the blue mountains in Australia. Mrs Keef had had to endure lots of very meaty eateries, and was getting fed up with chips or salad, so we went to this little place, and it was one of the nicest meals I had over there. All home made soups, humous, lentil things, and that kind of thing. Very hippy, and very very tastey!

[Ladygooner]

Best meal ever at Le Voile d'Or in St Jean Cap Ferrat. Make sure you take your gold credit card with you!

[TillieTrotter]

A converted castle in Fiesole, which is a small hill top town overlooking Florence. Expensive but utterly amazing food in a fabulous setting.

[Brendan]

This is abroad for me. I like kebab and wine and chips from Emily?s

[Bellenden Belle]

Restaurante Illary (Hotel Monasterio) in Cuzco, Peru

Hotel Bristol, Vienna

Bonsai Japanese restaurant in Edinburgh (just round the corner from the Pleasance courtyard)

[mockney piers]

2 places in Madrid for you.

El Botin, just off the Plaza Mayor. Great sopa de ajo, and you might be lucky enough to sit where my mother was sitting when her waters broke for my brother.

La Trucha (the trout) in the old theatre district; you cannot get a more typical Madrile?o tapas establishment, be sure to have a bit of spanish with you y ten coraje (especially with the sheep's brains)!

[wee quinnie]

???? Wrote:

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> My missus is a vegeterian and we lived there

> (Andulusia) for a year...she struggled, and would

> agree. Whereabouts were you living?

Estepona, (halfway between Marbella and Gibraltar), then Villablanca - about 10 miles from Portuguese border.

The food was the only negative aspect, everything else was completely, ESTUPENDO! If I was going again, I'd like to live up in the hills behind the Costas, or maybe on the Western Coast.

What about you?

[SteveT]

Anywhere in Rome

almost anywhere in Lyon

[ClareC]

cheese on toast type of dish and bottle of red wine for an extortionately mortgage your house to pay high price in a mountain refuge somewhere on the Vallee Blanche.

I suppose the food and wine may have been particularly good because at the time I was certain it was to be my last meal;-)

[jimbo1964]

I've had my share of fancypants meals, but my favourites have always been eating simple seafood by the seaside.

Grilled prawns, ailoi and an ice cold beer, El Cotilo, Fuertaventura, overlooking the Atlantic ocean

Scallops at the Inver Cottage, Loch Fyne

Lobster and fries, Ogunquit, Maine

Grilled squid and a Greek salad, Istron Bay, Crete

Almost any food anywhere in Normandy.

[louisiana]

L' Esguard in Saint Andreu de Llavaneres (north of Barcelona), run by part-time neurologist Miguel Sanchez Romera, for a proper feast.

Sant Pau in Sant Pol de Mar, again near Barcelona.

[cdonline]

The Black Marlin Fish Restaurant down the coast from Cape Town.

A beautiful setting and the food was delicious.

[Guest]

Squid at the cafe on the market on Las Ramblas in Barcelona.

[snorky]

Paella in Alghero sardinia ( yes,Italy )

Moule Frite & a bottle of Chiiled cidre in Brittany

Rice and peas / Lobster tail sanwich on Caye Cauker Belize

[Cassius]

Fish seems to be the memorable meal of choice -is this why Moxon's is always so busy?

[spadetownboy]

giggirl Wrote:

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> spadetownboy Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > me ma,s

>

>

> Really classy. My mother had many talents but

> sadly cooking wasn't one of them.

ah, you,ve havn,t tasted irish stew until you,ve tasted spadetownmums.

[wee quinnie]

spadetownboy Wrote:

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> giggirl Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > spadetownboy Wrote:

> >

> --------------------------------------------------

>

> > -----

> > > me ma,s

> >

> >

> > Really classy. My mother had many talents but

> > sadly cooking wasn't one of them.

>

> ah, you,ve havn,t tasted irish stew until you,ve

> tasted spadetownmums.

Stop it STB, you're making me hungry. (And I'm a veggie).

[louisiana]

Cassius Wrote:

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> Fish seems to be the memorable meal of choice -is

> this why Moxon's is always so busy?

Yeh but no but...

Traditionally, the British fish experience has not been good.

My own family is Basque, so fish has been a big tradition in our diets (lots of sailors in the family going back generations, living near the sea, fish is something you can catch yourself, especially useful under the starvation conditions in parts of post-civil war Spain etc etc. The Basque fleet fishing all over still supplies even Catalunya's best restaurants, which some find surprising as Catalunya has its own sea, the Med.)

My mum (who for many years was a professional/personal chef) was horrified by the generally appalling fish situation when she arrived in England in the 50s. Fish is something few people do, and hardly anyone does well. Fish is delicate but is often overcooked. Freshness is important - and it's often been difficult to get good fresh fish across the UK. So fish is something we have generally had to go somewhere else to find.

Fish is also very regional. Names and fishes change from location to location. It's quite exciting to be presented with something for the first time (sea urchin?), or to have something you can't have in many places.

There is an absolutely fab fish restaurant in the port of Algorta, near Bilbao (N coast of Spain). I was introduced by a distant cousin who is a regular and lives around the corner. It only has about eight tables. It doesn't even have a restaurant sign outside. You eat what they have, what was good for the chef to buy at the fish market that day. It's food, food, food, and none of the performance. That is I think what a good restaurant should be.

I find it so difficult to cook for people here, though it used to be worse in Brighton: 'I don't eat this', 'I *can't* eat that'...

I mean, how do you cook when three people won't eat fish, another won't eat any meat, another will only eat white meat, one won't eat 'anything green except edamame', one won't eat vegetables, one won't each root vegetables, one won't eat nuts, two won't eat milk products, three won't eat 'anything hot', one won't eat pulses/legumes, most won't eat wheat, and one will only eat cheese if it's made from potatoes and wants to bring their entire dinner to yours in a set of tupperware!

One tradition that is very strong in the Basque Country - well, at least since the 19th century - is dinner clubs, where everyone takes turn to cook. I think it would be great fun. Any takers?

[LuvPeckham]

Does the Rye Hotel count as being abroad as it is outside the confines of East Dulwich

however - best fish ever was at Silver Darlings - overlooking Aberdeen harbour... now that is abroad...