THE BEST OF 2011

My Best of the Year post takes time to complete.  I go through all the meals of the past year and make a short list of the places that really impressed me with an unforgettable meal.  It doesn't have to be a fancy restaurant, it's all about the food and the experience.

Since 2011 was a year of travel for me, there were many restaurants to choose from.  New places were discovered - Bangkok and Beijing, some revisited - Sydney and San Francisco, along with the usuals - Singapore, Las Vegas and Manila and of course I explored my island home - Bali - as well.  After much deliberation and elimination, and in no particular order, here are my best gourmet experiences of 2011.

BEST BREAKFAST

No questions about it, my best breakfast this year was at bills in Sydney's Darlinghurst.  From the fantastic flat whites to the amazing ricotta hot-cakes, the delicious sweet corn cake to the homemade oatmeal, the breakfast was amazing and the service friendly.  How I wish there was a bills near me!

BEST IN THE PHILIPPINES

Since I'm from Manila, I had to include two restaurants that really impressed me back home: Antonio's and Cafe Juanita.  Antonio's is a no-brainer and on most foodies best list.  It made the drive up to Tagaytay worth it and their fine dining and Colonial atmosphere is just the right mix of fancy and simple.  Cafe Juanita is a bit off the beaten track but also worth the drive to Pasig for home-cooked Filipino food.  This is the kind of food I crave while living abroad.  It felt like I was back at my lola's (grandmother's) house having one of those long leisurely Sunday lunches.

BEST IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Here in Bali, a restaurant that that's a favorite for local food is Cafe Degan for classic Javanese cuisine in a classic wooden joglo (wooden house).  Simple food and friendly service.  They also have half their menu dedicated to Thai dishes as the chef used to work in Thailand.  Whether you order from the Thai side of the menu or the Javanese side, you won't be disappointed.

In Singapore, where I was almost every six weeks, my cousin took me to Ippudo where we had a fantastic noodle lunch - flavorful broth, al dente ramen, chunky pork belly - everything was good.

Two new places we visited this year were Bangkok and Beijing.  In Bangkok, I had my first taste of the real flavors of Thai cuisine.  I tried many types of Thai food and enjoyed most of them but it was chef David Thompson's fine dining take on classic Thai street food at Nahm that left me with a clear idea of how sophisticated Thai food is.

In Beijing, we had the best Beijing duck (aka Peking duck) I've ever tasted at Made in China  - extra crispy non-fatty skin with either sugar for dipping (a novelty!) or the traditional Hoisin-pancake-scallion-cucumber roll.  And it wasn't just the duck, the other dishes were also outstanding and it was the best Chinese meal I'd had all year.

BEST IN THE AMERICAS

In the Americas, we start down South where we made our usual pilgrimage to Buenos Aires and where surprisingly, we didn't eat at our favorite El Mirasol as often as we usually do.  Instead, we rediscovered a Recoleta classic - Munich (or as the locals call it - "el munitch") where we had dinner almost every night and never got tired of their repertoire of classic dishes - a perfectly grilled matambre (pork steak), crispy papas paille (shoestring fries), a simple green salad, the retro Chicken Maryland and Chicken Kiev plus lots of other home-style dishes from the past and the impeccable service from the white-jacketed old-timers just added to the atmosphere.

Finally to North America, first at our usual stop in Las Vegas where we had a superb tapas meal at Jaleo where it felt like we were back in Spain.  It was great to see the quality of Spanish food so lovingly recreated at chef Jose Andres' hip and happening tapas restaurant.  We also revisited our favorite city - San Francisco - so many lovely memories from past visits and so long since our last encounter in 2004.  Dinner at RN74 was impressive - cool concept, fantastic Burgundy wines, packed with a mixed crowd and best of all, the food was really good - simple classic dishes made of incredible ingredients which is what San Francisco is all about.

Last but not least, we go back to breakfast where I just have to mention the best coffee I've had all year (lots of close seconds - Sambalatte in Las Vegas, bills in Sydney and Liberica in Jakarta) but this one topped my list and made my mornings better - Blue Bottle Coffee.  The coffee was prepared with so much love and they took their time getting it right which just goes to show that after all these years, San Francisco's foodie ways haven't changed, it's only gotten better.  And with that I look forward to another year of eating and traveling.  I hope that 2012 will be as food-filled as 2011 was.  Happy Gourmet Travels!

BILLS

Our first morning in Sydney and we were up very early from the jet lag as usual.  We had asked about the nearest bills the night before and were told that there was one not far from the hotel in Darlinghurst.  bills is an Australian institution as with the popularity of his cookbooks, Bill Granger, along with the other Australian Donna Hay, have introduced the simple healthy diverse food and lifestyle of Australia to the rest of the world. 

After watching the clock tick to 6:45, we hopped in a cab and arrived slightly earlier than their opening time of 7:30 a.m.  Since they were still setting up, we decided to walk around and admire the Victorian terraced houses around the neighborhood.  After about half an hour, we showed up hungry and still they weren't quite ready but nicely allowed us in with the kids so we could at least have a much-needed coffee.

bills is a bright space on the corner of a quaint residential street with wooden floors and a large communal table in the middle.  The counter was covered with glass-domed cake servers filled with cookies, muffins, meringues and cakes and a large gleaming chrome espresso machine.  A bunch of daisies plopped into a vase was the only decoration aside from all the fresh produce and baked products.

After our first amazing flat whites of the day (what is it about coffee in Australia that makes it soooo delicious?), we were given the simple paper menus with the selection of all-day breakfast items, fresh-baked goods, juices, coffees and drinks.  (There is a separate lunch menu as well with a few breakfast items, sandwiches, salads, soups and pastas). Each of us tried to order something different so we could try from each other's plates.  We had some fresh orange juice to start then the food started coming.  The kids both had the scrambled eggs with sourdough toast and a side order of sausage.  They were creamy (no wonder as the recipe is equal amounts of organic eggs and full fat cream cooked slowly over a low heat) and perfect scrunched on top of the crisp buttered sourdough toast with the chipolatas.  A chose the soft-boiled eggs with buttered sourdough soldiers - again, simple orangey-yolk organic eggs cooked to perfection and just right for dipping those toast soldiers in.  Y had the famous ricotta hot cakes with fresh banana and honeycomb butter - soft, fluffy hot cakes filled with powdered sugar and drizzled with warm maple syrup.  I chose the equally famous sweet corn fritters with roast tomato, spinach and bacon - more of a brunch rather than breakfast dish - the fritters were crisp and sweet and filled with corn and the bacon and tomato were a great accompaniment to the fritters.  We were still feeling a bit peckish after that, so more sourdough toast was ordered which came with their homemade jam and we also shared a bowl of the most delicious five-grain porridge with stewed fruit and just a few spoonfuls of brown sugar  and cold milk swirled into the hot porridge.  Another creamy flat white and it was still only 9:00 a.m. so we lingered a bit and spoke with one of the staff and ended up buying bills new cookbook (I already have two of them) - Everyday Asian.  (Although I know it'll be difficult to duplicate the exact flavors because I don't have access to the same quality of organic produce here in Bali that is available in Australia, it's still good to try.)

Since nothing was open yet, we followed our waiter's suggestion and walked the long way back to our hotel via Victoria street with it's Victorian houses then at the end of the road, we took the steep stairs down to the wharf at Woolloomooloo where we saw the preserved docks transformed into a hotel with a fantastic wooden deck running alongside the docks.  From there, we walked up another quaint residential area on Bourke street then up towards Hyde park to our hotel.  All in all about an hour's walk and just right after our big breakfast.  Unfortunately, that's all we had time for in Sydney as we left that afternoon for Indonesia.  Between dinner at Spice I Am and breakfast at bills, we had a real taste of the diverse cuisines and delicious food that Sydney (as well as Melbourne) is known for.

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bills (the original one)
433 Liverpool Street
Darlinghurst, Sydney
Telephone: +61 2 9360 9631
*Open for breakfast and lunch Mondays to Saturdays 7:30-3:00, and Sundays from 8:30-3:00
*Newer locations in Woolhara and Surry Hills in Sydney and three more in Japan.

SPICE I AM

After two weeks in Buenos Aires, we arrived in Sydney for an overnight stay on our long way home to Bali.  First thing we did after checking into the hotel was to find a decent Asian restaurant nearby.  Luckily, a few blocks from our hotel there was Thai restaurant, Spice I Am.  The concierge highly recommended the restaurant but warned us that the place was nothing fancy, even better for us as we were jet lagged and hungry.

We walked in to a tiny open-air place with a few small round tables and stools.  When we arrived at around 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday, the place was pretty packed and we were lucky to snag a table right by the sidewalk.  Since we were starving, we ordered a whole load of dishes - so many that when they started coming, we couldn't fit them all on our table and had to leave some on another stool nearby.

The menu is traditional Thai.  We had two orders of mini vegetable spring rolls with sweet chili dip, two orders of prawn Pad Thai, Thai fried rice with chicken, stir-fried crispy pork belly with basil and chili, stir-fried Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce and some steamed jasmine rice along with tall glasses of refreshing lemon-iced tea.  Unsurprisingly, we managed to finish it all (there were 5 of us, 3 adults and 2 children).  The food came fast and was delicious.  Service was quick and efficient.  Everything was going well until we finished our dinner and found out that they didn't accept credit cards!  Good thing there was an ATM nearby.  For our first taste of Thai in Sydney, we were impressed and this was the perfect meal especially after two weeks of non-Asian food in South America.

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Spice I Am (Eat in and Takeaway)

90 Wentworth Avenue

(corner Campbell and Elizabeth Streets)

Surry Hills, Sydney

Telephone: +61 2 928 00 928

*Open Tuesdays to Sundays for lunch and dinner

*BYOB (bring your own bottle of wine) with no corkage

Another Spice I Am full-service restaurant in Darlinghurst plus a Thai street food restaurant called House in Surry Hills.

Travel 2011

2011 has been my year of travel.  I have never been on a plane this much ever.  There were trips to new places - Bangkok and Beijing, a trip to my favorite city - Paris, trips to visit family - Buenos Aires and Las Vegas, several trips to see the doctor - Singapore, trips to do renew our passports - Jakarta and quick trips on a stopover - Sydney.

November, though, is going to be the busiest travel month for me, with a week in Manila from today (to finish unpacking boxes that have been in storage for several years) then a week in Osaka and Tokyo (my first trip to Japan) and finally, two weeks during Thanksgiving in Laguna Beach, Las Vegas and San Francisco, before I head back home to Bali just in time for the children's holidays and Christmas.  And there are still so many places I haven't been to and hope to visit in 2012.  So bear with me and my erratic posting.  I promise there will be lots to read very soon with my Buenos Aires posts coming out, slowly but surely, and with more gourmet travel write-ups soon.