BonVivant

First meal in Lyon, France. Pork scratchings and Rosette de Lyon, the most famous of all Lyonnaise sausages. A giant pike dumpling served with lobster sauce. Reminds me of Norwegian Fiskeboller/fish balls but then a lot more refined and fancy. Cut open The dish I wanted to order wasn't available yesterday so I got this braised pork shoulder. Came in a perfect disk shape, smelled and tasted stronger than typical pork. (Aesthetically uninteresting before slicing in 2 pieces) Fan of French gastronomy who hasn't met a potato she didn't like, especially cooked in cream. I love cream, butter, and most dairy products!!! I don't have this quality of baguette at home. The texture is like sourdough. People tell me "if I eat like you I'd be fat fat fat". Now I can say "if I eat like Lyonnaise I'd be fat fat fat". Haven't seen a fat French person yet since my arrival last night, and they eat twice as much as I do. Usually full 3 course meals and lots of wine. Menu on a little chalk board brought to your table soon after your arrival. Buchons are traditional restaurants serving traditional (heavy and delicious) home-style food. Dishes listed are all typical Lyonnaise. I was the first to show up, 5 minutes later the place was completely full. I wouldn't be able to make this photo then. Authentic Lyonnaise buchons are always always always full so if you don't have reservation then too bad for you, unless you are very lucky that day. Only authentic certified buchons are bestowed this honour. Exterior of restaurant. It's very small inside. Back at my lodging shortly after. This is Lyon, I expect no less. Chips with black truffle. 0,25% truffle

I use bamboo skewers to seal the openings. The excess skin makes a tighter seal and easier to pierce with a skewer. Recipes always say "trim excess skin". It's the simplest method: - Poke the skin all over with a small, sharp metal skewer. - Pour boiling water over the bird and leave to dry. If using any flavouring glaze keep basting it repeatedly and chill (uncovered), preferably overnight. - Roast each side, how long it takes depends on the size of the bird. - Baste with the glaze repeatedly. - Done when juices run clear (if you must control precise internal temp look up a general chart) PS: thanks!

Turning (pseudo) Russian! Love beetroots already as a child and am still eating them year round. The herring is supposed to be "under the fur coat", but mine is clearly not "under". Curly bits are grated salt-cured yolk. My cheat's version of "Paskha" (Russian Easter cheese cake, but then without the crust). You are supposed to eat it with Kulich but I ate it with the bread in photo above. I made it with full-fat farmer's quark which has the texture and consistency of crème fraîche. I made 2, in case 1 didn't turn out. Russian-style gherkin soup. Made mine without meat and loosely based on Rassonik. Garlic bread to go with the soup. Speck and minced garlic mixed with some oil were scatter on the bread near the end of baking. Garlic rolls are normally served with Borscht, however. There's pureed beetroots and liquid in the batter but the colour was lost when cooked. The beetroot sauce here is a little sweet. Little cottage cheese cakes with blueberry-honey compote. The original Russian pancakes are called Syrniki. Savoury version with the same cottage cheese cakes. Hate beetroot? More for me and Chefmd. Washed down with a beetroot broth, contained no vodka... I used Korean dumpling skins (twice as thick as Chinese and Japanese ones). The end of my Russian-style feast. What shall we do with him?

Skrei season has just come to an end. I got 2 fat loins. The fish is so delicate and expensive you really need to keep it simple. I just seared, topped with onions fried in butter. Got 5 meals out of this lean duck. This is the last one. Used the stock in the soup and made some crispy Speck.

Looks like shacha sauce. It's a popular paste/sauce and has multiple uses. You tend to get it with soups and hot pot meals. Did you eat the dark block in your bowl? I love this stuff.

Dumplings with various filings. Quark, honey, pistachio. Half has potato and the other half chickpea puree. Fried Speck and Sauerkraut because they go so good together. Potato-quark and Sauerkraut fillings.

SV octopus. Chickpea tomato stew Another dinner. Steamed with salted vegetables. The roe. Don't know from which fish it came. Fishmonger guts fish and throws all the roe in the same pail.

Swedish-style herring.

Lentils and Spätzle with Knackwürste. This home-style food is on menus everywhere in Swabia nowadays. The original mac and cheese, "alpine noodles and cheese". Has chunks of boiled potatoes in it and served with apple mush alongside. So simple and yet satisfying, especially after hiking or skiing. The cheese I used: 2 hard wedges bottom right

Never had "promite" (sounds like a knockoff). Would eat vegemite if there's absolutely no other options, life and death kind of situation. Bovril for me, preferably with some really old cheese on it. I sometimes bring Bovril on holidays. Surprised to see how common it is in Namibia, and the jars are big. I mean the size of peanut butter jar. (Ex) colleages used to make condescending comments and faces whenever I ate it. To irritate them I ate it even more often. Never tried it but slagged it off anyway. Not a fan of any thing Italian but this is a good cheese. Haven't come across it again since but fortunately I have access to good stuff from other established cheese-producing countries..

Leftover octopus More duck Finger-size sausages.

Galician-style or simply grilled (Portuguese) is my favourite when it comes to octopus. All you need is good olive oil, paprika powder and boiled potatoes. (SV it first) SV duck leg. Last summer I made a big batch of scotch-infused cherry compote and finally it's all gone.

I can get it whole (half the price of skinned tails) or tails only (membrane removed and without bone). I usually buy it whole and use the rest for something else. Fishmonger always removes the membrane for me. Here I seared the tail and roasted it in the oven. Tying it with butcher's twine makes it easy to turn when browning. This is it and it's huge. Price has doubled in recent years.

Ishigaki island. Last time to eat some Okinawan classics on my last day. "National dish" of Okinawa. Dinners at home: Golden brown The most typical meal in Zürich: "sliced meat with Rösti Zürich-style". Basically it's calf ragout.

Returned to Taketomi island for a festival in which almost all residents took part. Most lodgings were closed for 2 or 3 days. When I was here previously the streets were almost empty of residents (but absolutely full of day-trippers), today they were all outside watching traditional performances throughout the day. If you want to see a high concentration of healthy elderly Japanese just come to Okinawa. Typical Okinawan food stands because restaurants were closed during the festival. Besides, there are about 3 restaurants on the island serving lunch only. I got a few things from the stand above. Sticky rice needed a chainsaw to cut through. Where I sat to eat my lunch on my last day in Okinawa and started planning my next holidays. Lunches at home: Tamari marinated trout roe on soft tofu (soba not shown).

Half yellow and half Chioggia (pink stripes).

Found several sashimi specialists near my lodging so I got a few things from different places and put together my own picnics. Interestingly, the fishmongers are usually women. I devote my sashimi-eating life to Japan. My travelling companion wanted rice, I only needed vegetables. Fish again at home:

Ishigaki island. Yaeyama-style soba noodle soup with braised meat. Mine: Beetroot Rösti with Speck And cured salmon

Quick "frittatas" with burrata. With cheese, corn and sweet onion ones are equally yummy.

Butter of the forest, the one tree I wish I could have. In Chile it's common to fill hot dog and sandwiches with avocado mash. One can make avocado ice cream, chocolate mousse/cream, blend with milk and some honey, uncooked cheesecake etc. Have also seared or grilled, with crispy-fried Speck and/or soft eggs. But 99% of the time I just cut if open and eat with a spoon. There are several versions of "completo" hotdogs and sandwiches in Chile, here are the 2 I have photos of. Completos are Chilean "iconic" fast food sandwiches. Btw, avocados in Chile are the size of rugby ball! Hotdog is buried under there. I especially asked to omit the mayo, which comes in the same amount of avocado, or more. Chileans are baffled when you don't want any mayo. They eat so much of it. Half the supermarket space is for mayo, the section is big. Mine: With avocado-99% pure chocolate-macadamia paste (homemade, just blend all ingredients together). With nori and sesame oil Beetroot salmon/eggs/roe Seared salmon, wasabi yogurt sauce. Franconian Silvaner. Hard to find outside silvaner producing places in Franconia where it is one of the most important grapes (second only to Müller-Thurgau)

Last week many places celebrated carnival. There are several snacks/light meals that are eaten during the silly partying days in Köln, Germany but I made them a bit differently. Purple sweet potato rösti with apple mush (in Germany you get potato fritters). Tempeh tomato paste on bread (in Germany Mett-häppchen or Tartar-häppchen. Raw mince on half a roll.) Herring with cream and beetroot The dough is simple: flour, ground almond, booze, eggs, baking powder etc. Berliner is a must during carnival. These are store-bought.

Tyrolean sausages and Speck. Stir-fried squid

Tofu and fish. Iriomote island. Mine: 2 kinds of Speck, blood sausage and foie. A typical light meal in north Germany. Herring and scrambled eggs on bread.

Back on Ishigaki island again where I stayed the last 3 days in Okinawa. Wanted to eat at this restaurant earlier but it was full so I returned for dinner. Ishigaki has its own beef production and of course there are many (high-end) beef restaurants on the island. They have videos of the farms where the pork and beef come from. To order one browses the menu on the same tablet. Everyone round me ordered so much meat. Mine was already too much. The restaurant, taken earlier. Wanted to try the meats after seeing these 2 pages on the window. The pigs are a Japanese species according to the translation app. Mine at home.

The massive presence of American military is a contentious issue in Okinawa, but the locals don't mind American(-style) food. You'll find taco rice even on far-flung islands (0where I visited). Beef chanpuru. Mine at home: pistachio sauce for the raw vegs. Home-cured meat and fish.