As the glorious summer days ticked on in New York, I was beginning to understand why and how the food scene here far exceeded that of London, and with good measure. One way to balance all the food was to walk about 4-6 miles a day – best way to see the city, and best way to get hungry and fit! Not being sure of where to meet Mrs. E for lunch, I randomly thought of giving Le Bernardin a shot, at the last minute, to which Mrs. E replied, “I didn’t have you pegged as a classic kind of guy” and that’s true! I’m really not one for classical French dining, if I can get something else, but on this occasion, one had to see what all the fuss surrounding Eric Ripert’s creations with fish was all about, and, more so, that there was hardly any meat on the menu, meant that at best, it would be a light and ‘healthy’ meal, so against all my food odds, I stuck to it. Well, from the moment we opened the menus, it was clearly obvious that there was nothing classical about the design and sound of the dishes here, and what ensued was a couple of hours of the finest, most exquisite fish preparations known to man, inspirational and just, simply, divine!
Patagonian Feasting: El Calafate, Argentina
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Leaving the lush green, red and orange autumnal colours of Ushuaia, a short journey on the other side of the mountains revealed a Patagonian landscape completely opposite to one I’d just left behind. Here there were no tall trees or hills covered in greenery, but a barren landscape only dotted by a few shrubs and the native calafate bush, which lends its name to the town of El Calafate.
Patagonian eating: Ushuaia, Argentina
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Having boarded an Aerolineas flight at Buenos Aires and settled into my seat with Bill Bryson’s At Home, a remarkable and extremely humorous piece of work, as all of his other opus’ on life and beyond, I couldn’t help but wonder what was lying at the end of a three and half hour flight, a place fondly known as The End of the Earth. Naturally, there was an unbearable excitement, especially as the plane on its descent took a turn and out of the window was the curved corner of Argentinas southern coast, the piece of land closest to Antarctica, truly at the end of the earth. Patagonia,
Colectivo Felix, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires is, no doubt a wondrous city, and one that is a walkers heaven, with its countless streets decorated in the most picturesque graffiti, to its numerous restaurants serving the finest steak and Malbec. However, after days of eating meat and all sorts of offal, the desire for something a bit different gets stronger and stronger. Luckily for me, a fellow foodie had previously visited Buenos Aires and been to a supper club by the name of Colectivo Felix and raved about it (here they’re known as ‘closed door restaurants’) especially as there was no meat served during the course of the meal. As much of a shock as it may seem to most people, it is quite possible to escape the lure of juicy Argentinian beef and there’s no place better than Felix to experience Argentine cuisine without it. The darling of chef Diego Felix and Sanra Ritten, the food here is nothing short of spectacular, dining in the courtyard of their house with a bunch of people who share a love for all things culinary.
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