|
There are times when as Shakespeare might
have said, the food is the thing. It is among the reasons for traveling.
We happened to tell a Maltese-born New York chef that the gbejniet
cheese we tasted in Malta was the best cheese in the world and how
disappointed we are that it is not sold in New York. He insisted that
is all about location and that if the product were available here,
it would not be as savory as in Malta. And so it goes. Moroccan cuisine
is to our way of thinking, the most sophisticated cuisine in the world.
But try it in New York or even Paris and it misses the mark. The food
and the ambience of Marrakesh’s finest restaurant, Le Yacout,
can not be duplicated. There is nothing like the taste of roasted
pig falling off the bones at Botin in Madrid. Or the fresh herring
at Copenhagen’s waterfront restaurants. Salzburg nockeral, the
town’s indigenous dessert, must be sampled in its original setting.
Sometimes we come across dishes that don’t live up to our
expectations like the soufflés at the eponymous Parisian restaurant.
Dining out is about adventure and new experiences. The tastes you
savor on the road become pleasant memories as much as other aspects
of a trip.
Would that every restaurant had a 27-page wine list like the one
at Aujourd’hui in the Boston Four Seasons. Each of the hundreds
of wines from their cellar is followed by a description: elegant
with spicy pear, tangerine, citrus and honey notes, finishing with
a light toasty oak; full-bodied, buttery rich, crisp with well-defined
acidity and aromas of apples, toast and citrus; concentrated flavors
of blackberries and black cherries on the palate with earthy undertones.
There’s poetry in the list.
|
|