I must be getting old as I am making a bucket list. I’ve seen many travel bucket lists out there, and as much as I enjoy reading those, I know I’m not the type that enjoys traveling to a destination unless my taste buds can also be satisfied. So here’s the beginnings of making Donna’s Food Travel Bucket List. Help me out by answering the following:
1. Your overall favorite food destination (city/region).
2. Favorite city/region for high end dining.
3. Favorite city/region for casual/low end dining.
4. A place that doesn’t get much food press but pleasantly surprised you.
5. Favorite place for an outside the restaurant food experience (cooking school? food festival? milking cows on dairy farms? deep sea fishing?)
Although this is my bucket list, perhaps I can contribute to someone else’s bucket list. Thus far…
1. My all time favorite food destination is Hong Kong.
2. My favorite high-end dining destination is San Francisco/Napa/Sonoma.
3. My favorite casual/low end dining destination is a tie: central Texas for BBQ and Shanghai for xiao long bao
4. Cleveland was a pleasant surprise for me. I wasn’t expecting much, but got quite the taste!
5. My favorite outside the restaurant food experience was the half week I spent at La Tavola Marche (http://www.latavolamarche.com/) in central Italy. Slow food at its finest.
1. Santa Fe in the winter. I could easily say Austin or DC, but the quaint little restaurants surrounded by adobe-style architecture and snow are delicious and cozy.
2. Ditto. One of the best dishes I’ve ever had is the Slow Cooked Coffee Cardamon Marinated Confit Of Duck at Oola.
3. San Antonio is dirt cheap and so delicious, and nothing above jeans are ever required.
4. I really think Boston gets shafted when it comes to food. I mean, they have lobster mac ‘n cheese and lobster ravioli!
5. Raspberry picking at Stroik Berry Farm in Mosinee, WI. They have red, black, purple, and white raspberries that are bigger than cherries. And you can eat all you want while picking
Fishing for walleye in Canada is another.
Ciao Donna! Thanks for including us on your Food Travel Bucket List! We had such fun cooking with you – hope you can make it back!
1. Your overall favorite food destination: San Francisco
2. Favorite city/region for high end dining: Berkeley
3. Favorite city/region for casual/low end dining: Chicago
4. A place that doesn’t get much food press but pleasantly surprised you: Crested Butte, CO
5. Favorite place for an outside the restaurant food experience: Dairy farm in Tuscany
1. Your overall favorite food destination (city/region). Rome and pretty much all of Italy
2. Favorite city/region for high end dining. Not sure we go to just one nice place on each trip. Will say that Blue Hill at Stone Barns outside of NYC has been our best meal.
3. Favorite city/region for casual/low end dining. Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, mexico
4. A place that doesn’t get much food press but pleasantly surprised you. New York City food carts
5. Favorite place for an outside the restaurant food experience (cooking school? food festival? milking cows on dairy farms? deep sea fishing?)Afterhours beer and cheese pairings with the folks at Scardello are always great, The Bruery brewery tour was an awesome event, upcoming home cooking alongside great local chefs from different ethnic backgounds (Cajun, Pakistani, Vietnamese, and Thai), suprisingly the food events in Austin are awesome like the Slow Food Austin event we went to a few years back.