I’m feeling rather foodie at the moment.  I’m still salivating after writing my homage to Peruvian cuisine, and I’m starting to tool around with ideas for a submission to Lonely Planet’s latest anthology, A Moveable Feast (wish me luck!).

So partly because I have food on the mind at the moment, and partly because I’m rather too busy to have a) done anything touristy around Cusco worth writing about or b) done any kind of research into the million and one fascinating Andean cultural topics that are on my to-write-about list, I present to you here a somewhat-phoned-in but 100% sincere list of those 10 travelling meals that I still dream about:

10.  Zip-lined in dinner, Gibbon Experience, Laos

The first day, purely for the fact that it was zip-lined to me in a tree-house after a long day trekking and zipping through the canopy.  And because it was followed by dessert of condensed milk, which I had forgotten how much I loved.  The second and third nights, not so much.  Rice and vegetables are quickly tired of.

9.  Just about every meal I ate while working in Corfu, Greece

My bosses had an organic farm.  She was an amazing cook.  And nothing tastes better than the cow whose carcass you have personally helped drag in to the kitchen from the back of ute.  And I adore olives and fetta cheese.  Need I say more?

8.  Bouillabaisse, Marseille, France

Bearing in mind that I was only just beginning to embrace seafood when Mum and I ordered this dish, the huge, creamy, steaming bowl of fish stew was a hell of a welcome to seafood obsession.  Not for the faint-hearted, as its a minefield of bones, but oh-so-fresh and best eaten by the harbour, looking out at the water, with a glass of wine and a wee limoncello to finish on.  Mmm-mmm.

7.  BBQ Pork, chilli sauce, and a large beer, 6.30am, somewhere just across the border of Thailand and Malaysia

Greg, Dan and I still talk about this breakfast.  A late and boozy night before, a hellish bus trip at 4.30am or so to cross the border, pumping and I mean pumping Indian dance music, bad tempers, the usual border-fatigue and at last, oh my word, pork has never tasted so good.  Simple street fare that would probably have not been so noteworthy in any other situation, but wow.

6.  Lamb Tagine, Cascades d’Ouzoud, Morocco

The first night of a fleeting dash through Morocco (damn you, school and work commitments) with Sara, and a lucky encounter with a local rasta in the medina of Marrakech.  On our return from Fez he was kind enough to accompany us to the Cascades, bringing along a bottle of the local fig-based moonshine, a little hash, and his instrument.  We dined on the divine lamb tagine of Morocco, a dish I am desperate to master, spitting distance from the waterfall, while all the Moroccan lads within hearing distance dashed to fetch their instruments as well for an impromptu concert.  What an evening.  The cab breaking down approximately 8 times on the way back to Marrakech, less entertaining.

5.  Hostel meals, San Sebastián, País Vasco, Spain

Unusually enough, and especially in a town known for its tapas, and for having more Michelin stars per capita than any other European city, it’s the meals shared in Hostel Beti Anayak that I enjoyed more than anything.  Spaghetti Bolognaise cooked for 20 people (4 giant pots bubbling over, it was intense); mussels in white wine broth with a collection of Italian, Spanish, Basque and Hungarian friends; gulyas, prepared by aforementioned Hungarian; a yellow Thai curry that cost me approximately three days of wandering around horrifying local shopkeepers with my attempt to describe ‘lemongrass’, ‘fish sauce’ and ‘coconut milk’ in Spanish.

4.  Ceviche, on the beach, near Lima, Peru

Can I add to the previous raves about ceviche?  Not really.  Although when it’s consumed in good company a matter of metres from the waves it is even further beyond description.

3.  Thai BBQ, Koh Tao, Thailand

Two months in Thailand was basically one ridiculously amazingly delicious food experience, a coriander-lime-and-chilli lovers heaven.  But if I could pick one meal I’ll remember for the rest of my life, it was the thai BBQ on Koh Tao – interactive food is always a winner.  Cook-it-yourself meat, vegetables, and soup.  Mmm-mmm.  Tragically my travel buddy of those days has recently returned and informs me that it’s closed or moved; days of desperate searching did not result in a reliving of the dream.  The one in Chaing Mai is no comparison.

2.  A closed trattoria, overlooking the Adriatic in Le Marche

I don’t know how the Italians manage it, but they can turn a handful of ingredients (tomato, olive oil, pasta, garlic, a sprinkle of herbs) into something incredible.  I have observed, assisted, spied; but this is I skill you’re born with, I believe.  That and their amazing hospitality – we were welcomed into a trattoria closed for a small family party.  This was a glorious meal – sunshine, delicious food, a wonderful local red and the company of some good girlfriends and my father; all of us enjoying a view over the millpond that is the Adriatic.

1.  Laos New Year, Vientiane

Laos food suffers from it’s proximity to Thailand.  Delicious it may be, but it lacks something of the fire and complexity of its neighbour’s cuisine – and the fact that they share many of the same ingredients and methods makes the comparison even more damaging.  However, a food experience isn’t only about the taste – it’s the experience.  And what an experience it was.  Throughout the duration of the holiday, I had only to stick my nose outside of the hostel before I was drenched by a bucket of water (a blessing, and not only in the spiritual sense – it’s roasting in Southeast Asia that time of year) and invited to eat with the locals.  Laap, a spicy meat salad; chicken noodle soup, still my favourite breakfast; sticky rice; deep-fried crickets (the ultimate beer snack).  The icing on the cake was meeting Beto, a Mozambican development worker, and being taken way out into the suburbs for a glorious meal with his local friends, a feast of BeerLao and fresh Mekong fish wrapped with sticky rice and spicy, spicy sauce in lettuce leaves.  Oh my word, what a day…

And to conclude this post on something of a tangent, it’s pronounced Lao people, not Laos.  As an ex-French colony you chop off the ‘s’.  Trust me, I was there two months.  And my word it irritates me when people correct me.  TWO MONTHS, PEOPLE!

Oh by the way, not a lot of photos – sorry all.  Sara has the Morocco shots, and the Southeast Asia shots are, hopefully, on a DVD somewhere one of my parents’ houses.  I have possessions scattered all over, its a nightmare.

And I can’t believe Mexico didn’t make the list either.  Mole Poblano, I hereby grant you position #11.

And now, my oh-so-silent readers, what were your most heavenly food experiences?