eating around the world: may
another episode of "here are the best things to eat in the world"
It’s June. Somehow another month of full time travel has zipped passed and I feel like I hardly had time to process it.
May has been a real high. I spent time travelling to two countries completely different to any I’ve ever been in and became enamoured with not just the food scene, but the beautiful cities and energy of the people in them. I got married. Not only that, but I got married in the south of France and hosted our families in the nicest airbnb (and home in general) I have ever stepped foot in.
Yeah. Crazy. It seems impossible to have done so much in one month. Yet, I wrapped up time in Japan- ending off in Osaka, spent time in Seoul, and then made our way to France for wedding week. A whirlwind indeed.
I was just about to type out, “the best part is, we ate some of the best food of the entire year of travel this month,” but I realize that doesn’t sound great given I just shared I got married. Oops. But still, aside from the obvious highs, having a solid month of excellent eats is always something to be grateful for.
Because I haven’t yet put out newsletters for South Korea or France (well, this stint in France) I won’t go into crazy detail, but I gotta share my top bites for this month!
10. Honey & Cheese Hotteok - Seoul
What I have come to learn time and time again, is that a good cheese with honey is quite possibly my favourite flavour combination in the world. The sweetness of honey just compliments salty, sharp and creamy/mild flavours so well. Take that divine combination and stuff it into fried dough and my gosh do you have a winner.
Hotteok is a South Korean street food that comes sweet or savoury- which is more rare. The stuffed pancake is pan fried to crisp perfection on the outside, and has that soft yeasted dough quality on the inside. We secured ours at the Gwangjang market. I was skeptical, as I don’t love donuts/fried things, and this felt like that, but after one bite I was enamoured!
9. Goat Cheese & Jam on Baguette - South of France
There is just something about French ingredients. All the best things I ate in France were rarely meals, but rather simple things like cheap grocery store goat cheese and a nice jam slathered over a fresh, crusty boulangerie baguette.
Yep. The cheapest of cheeses were somehow better than more expensive ones at home. I relished in having this for breakfast each morning, with a healthy serving of salted butter, of course! If you go to France, don’t only focus solely on restaurants; do a few grocery runs and see how many delicious combos you can consume.
8. Pig Intestine Skewer - Osaka
I wrote about this bar dishing out grilled meat and vegetable skewers here, and this was my absolute favourite one! Justice for organ meat, it tastes so dang good.
In this case, the intestine caramelized beautifully on the grill resulting in delicious crispy bits, and a buttery texture to the meat itself. It had that typical grill flavour and was impeccable.
7. Omurice - Osaka
After seeing a million clips of perfect omelettes on rice being cut open and spilling out custardy egg strands- I knew I had to try the iconic omurice. Omurice Story was the perfect little place to have it. I got a traditional one, where the omelette was served on buttery rice and paired with demi-glace sauce and bacon.
The texture of the eggs was perfection, and scooping up bites of silky egg with richly buttered rice and the sauce was incredible. Truly a new favourite egg dish that I am DYING to recreate at home. It is a rich one, so go hungry!
6. Premium Beef Skewer - Osaka
This was another skewer we ordered at Batten Yakitoh. Grilled beef, high quality. It was juicy, tender, not overly fatty and just plain good.
5. Salt Bread - Seoul
Salt bread is quintessential Seoul baked good. You’ll see the yeasted bread that appears reminiscent of a croissant everywhere. It’s not laminated pastry, but still has that buttery quality and the kind of flakiness you get with a good bread roll.
I had a few salt breads: none were bad, but some were far better. The best salt bread is found at Jayeondo Salt Bread. Here, they sell them in packs of four.Just regular salt bread, nothing fancy is sold here. But man do they nail it.
Go at one of their scheduled bake times to get a still-warm, gloriously crisp on the bottom, buttery bread. The inside had that tell-tale gap where there was pure buttery goodness with a pinch of salt and the flakey salt on top made it SO addictive.
4. Spicy Cold Noodles - Seoul
I was skeptical about the concept of cold noodles after hearing it was common for them to be eaten during Korean bbq. But after watching what felt like a million people online label cold noodles as super refreshing and addictive- I was dying to try it.
We got ours at the Michelin recommended Myeongdong Kyoja. Here they serve spicy chlorella noodles that are finished with sesame oil and crunchy cucumber. Divine. Seriously one of my favourite noodle dishes of the year. It indeed tasted fresh and had a nice heat that kept me going in for more. The cold didn’t seem odd at all either, once you start eating, it just makes sense. Despite getting mandu and a gorgeous kalgusku (knife cut noodle soup), we kept fighting over the cold noodles.
3. Seafood based Shoyu Ramen - Osaka
Okay I love tonkotsu ramen. I do. But after having this shoyu style (soy based) ramen with a seafood broth I wish I had gotten more ramen with broth made from seafood as opposed to pork bones.
The flavour wasn’t overly fishy at all; it just had a slight brininess and great salt from the soy. It was light, deep in flavour and the noodles served at Ramen Great War were perfection. This restaurant also lets you choose up to five pieces of char siu with no extra charge! It worked beautifully with the broth, and I relished every slurp.
If you are in Osaka, I really recommend this place- just make sure you bring cash! Perhaps I was burnt out of pork bases, but this was my favourite bowl of ramen in Japan.
2. Wagyu Sukiyaki - Osaka
Check this out for a better run down of sukiyaki as a dish- because if you’re like pre-Japan Grace, you probably have no clue what this is.
But this beautiful dish was one of my favourites in all of Japan. Succulent, just-the- right-amount-of-fat beef simmered in a delicious broth that you can then pick up and dip in the ultimate dipping sauce: egg yolk. My mouth is watering. We got this dish at Wagyu Sukiyaki Hokuto. Again, see the guide for how to ensure you get the best bang for your buck here!
1. Truffled Brie on Baguette - South of France
Of course. OF COURSE, my top bite of this month was cheese on a baguette. I promise I didn’t pick it for my name’s sake. I just friggin’ love a proper fresh, French baguette & topping it off with one of the best cheeses of my life!? Divine.
I do love blue cheese, but brie is like the og of cheeses for me. The first cheese I ever truly loved. My mom’s go to appetizer used to be a baked brie with a caramelized pecan sauce that we’d greedily spoon onto buttery toasted baguette slices. I would absolutely DEVOUR it.
Anyways. This cheese was served as part of the cheese course at my wedding- so I have no idea where it specifically came from. But wow. The creaminess. The truffle. It was stuffed to the BRIM with. On another level! It was delicious at the wedding, and even more delicious the next day on a boat trip we booked. Nothing like whipping out a baguette and slathering cheese on as we sat under the sun staring at the ocean. Ah.
If you can, go to France and pick out some good truffle cheese at a fromagerie- you won’t regret it.
There you have it team! My top bites for May truly were ones to salivate for. I’m excited to go into more depth on Seoul, France and eventually… Scotland! Stay tuned because euro spring/summer content is coming your way.