Entrees From Around the World

My daughter, Liat, is the leading foodie and palate in our family. She loves great food, she understands it and she has great capacity for discerning it and consuming it. She has recently come up with a deliciously audacious idea: a Food Pilgrimage trip to the best restaurants we've eaten at around the world. That idea, which we will execute and report on next year, has caused us to recall some of the best meals we've had, and, with it, outstanding entrees. Below is our list of favorites, which we look forward to eating next summer.

• Steak at Los Anos Locos, Buenos Aires. I am not a meat person. Put a steak in front of me, and I'll go for the baked potato. But there are exceptions to every rule, and Los Anos Locos is one of them. Situated among a row of restaurants outside Buenos Aires, the restaurant serves uninspired French fries with the most delicious, juicy, flavorful, not-to-beefy fork tender steak. The beef grazes on the unspoiled Argentinean pampas, and proves yet again that the rule "garbage in garbage out" applies not only to computers. The succulent grass it grazes on turns into perfect texture and flavor. PS Many tourists go to La Cabana for meat in B.A., which is fancier, but I prefer this humble restaurant and its superb steaks instead.

• Lobster Osso Bucco at La Cote Jacques in France. The Lauren family has been bestowed three Michelin stars for over a decade. Now the son, following in his father's footsteps, creates unique combinations of innovative dishes anchored in solid traditions. Lobster Osso Bucco is one of those creations. Osso Busso, the famous veal dish from Milan, involves veal shin meat on the bone, cooked in a flavorful tomato sauce, topped with freshly ground lemon zest and chopped parsley (a.k.a Gremolata) and risotto a la Milanese. Michel cooks instead Breton lobster in the sauce after the veal has been cooked and fully imparted its flavors on it, and garnishes the lobster with shredded veal and its sauce for a unique and unforgettable flavor. Thomas Keller of the French Laundry has a similar dish of butter-poached lobster in ox tail ragout, which is also delicious.

• Anton Westermann Poulet de Bresse. Herr Westermann is a proud Alsatian chef whose restaurant, Beurheisel, is located in Strasbourg. He prepares the most wonderful chicken dish, firmly anchored in his roots. The dish starts with this unique French chicken from the town of Bresse with its firm and white flesh that tastes a bit like veal and shares its texture as well. Westermann then stuffs plenty of sliced fresh black truffles from Avignon (the BEST ones) between the skin and the flesh of the breast and thighs. He then adds local Muscadet wine, some vegetables and broth to a casserole, and then seals it with dough around the entire rim to ensure that not an iota of the precious flavors escapes the pot. After baking the dish for a couple of hours, the dough is cut at tableside to release the most incredible aroma, to be followed by the fantastic chicken.

• Any meat from Marius in Rio de Janeiro. The only place that rivals Argentina for meat dominance in my book is Brazil. The beef there is fed in a similar way to Argentina, and its genes have evolved naturally as well. The choicest place to consume it is at the old Marius location at the end of Copacabana beach. Just take a seat at one of the tables, and immediately twelve dishes full of hearts of palm from Marius' private plantation, sliced delicious tomatoes (if I didn't know better I'd say they were New Jersey beefsteak tomatoes), farofa (inedible Brazilian starch), fried plantains (ditto) etc. Then you'll be visited by countless waiters carrying narrow swords (or wide skewers) laden with different kinds of meat, from bacon-wrapped chicken to sausage and many cuts of beef. All are cooked the same way: dunked in salt water and then placed in an extremely hot over (some say over 500F) for a minute or two, then taken to your table, where a slice or two are dropped onto your plate. The process repeats itself endlessly, which is the appropriate duration, and wraps up with Marius' delicious coco puddim (coconut pudding), for which one must make room.

• B'stilla from Yacout. Marrakech is a magical town in so many respects. For the foodie, however, there is one place that must not be missed: Yacout, the increadibly beautiful elegant yet casual dining place. After you check in with the Maitre D' you'll be ushered to the rooftop for an aperitif under the stars, watching Marrakech unfold beneath you. Then off to the courtyard with its fountain and soothing musicians, and to the mazza, twelve or more Moroccan salads, the best of which is tomato marmalade (sounds awful? Try it; you'll like it). The crowning glory, though, is the B'stilla of pigeon, prepared only to special request. This traditional dish is often dry and uninspiring. Not here, where it is executed to perfection, with multitudes of juicy pigeon meat cooked to perfection, enhanced with cinnamon and confectioners' sugar, and wrapped in the most delicious and crunchy puff pastry for perfect combination of flavors and texture.

• Honey chicken in Chaing Mai, Thailand. I'd give you the restaurant name but all I know is Honey Chicken. It is located in an alley in the remote town of Chiang Mai, with the entry on one side of the street and the miniature kitchen on the other. The chicken comes out tiny, sweet but not overly so, and tasty enough for Liat to want to return to it during our Food Pilgrimage. When my entire family (ten of us) went there three years ago, we demolished fifteen chickens. That number speaks for itself.

• Beggars Chicken from Hong Kong. This dish is one of my favorite ways to prepare chicken, and I can't make it at home. A traditional Chinese dish, it involves stuffing the chicken with pickled Chinese cabbage and mushrooms, wrapping it with lotus leaves, enclosing it in clay and baking in the over for hours. It then emerges in its clay container for you to smash and eat. I can't tell why it's so fabulously flavorful, I can also attest to the fact that it is, and that the flavor isn't so offbeat that a Western palate will balk at.

• Shrimp Tempura Joel Robuchon. Chef Robuchon is one of my idols. Not only did he invent the most silky and fabulous chocolate tart ever, but he also had a phenomenal restaurant in Paris, Jamin, which is sold to Alain Ducasse who retained the location's three stars. Recently, Robuchon returned to the culinary scenes with several restaurants worldwide (including Las Vegas) of two ilks: a fancy dining room and an Atelier (studio) that serves tapas-like food. In his Paris Atelier Robuchon serves the lightest and most flavorful shrimp tempura I've tasted (Japan included), accompanied by a not-to-dominant pesto sauce. The Las Vegas edition wasn't as excellent, though, for those of you who's like to try this dish. And, while you're at it, his quail is superb as well.

• Veal in white truffle sauce. I'm not a huge fan of white truffles. They are too garlicky for me. However, when Camilo of Florence prepares this dish, I find the thinly sliced veal scallopine enrobed in the creamy white truffle sauce to be incredible! It's simple and it lacks nothing.

• Russo's steak in pita. When I was a teenager, one of our favorite pastimes was to go down to Russo's steak stand in Tel Aviv. It was a small restaurant where Russo would grill steaks of not-so-great meat to the point that the smokiness of the grill perfectly flavored the meat. He would then put the meat in a pita and douse it with tehini sauce that had no garlic in it, was very lemony and sufficiently salty, that is, perfect. This combination still smells like home to me and I'll eat it anywhere.

• Maswadeh's mazza. Maswadeh was King Hussein's cook at some point in his life. He then left for Jerusalem, which is where I found him years later. His assortment of mazza (appetizers) was so good that it became a main course for me and I would be remiss if I didn't include it in this list. Maswadeh has retired, but Minaret has taken over and boasts a similar variety (around 15) and excellence of appetizers, including hummus, baba ganoush, falafel, kibbeh maklieh (fried), chopped salad, pickled eggplant, fried cauliflower and many others.

• Thomas Keller's carrots and peas. No perfect food list can be complete without mention of the French Laundry. I debated which of the dishes is the right one to put on the list, as there are so many outstanding creations, and have selected the whimsically names "Carrots and peas", which will remind you nothing of your childhood dish. It involves butter poached lobster served with a perfectly seasoned, not-too-buttery, subtly understated carrot sauce. Thomas says that it's much harder to take a humble cut of meat, offal etc. and make a superb dish out of those, and of course he is right, but this lobster is king among lobsters nonetheless.

• Gerard's olive crusted halibut. Gerard's Place off Farragut Square in Washington DC is an unsung culinary haven. Gerard was the youngest French chef to be awarded two Michelin stars. He then left the rat race behind and opened this jewel of a place where he practices his craft to his patrons' delight. His olive-crusted fish, while not unique, is the tastiest I've had in years, which means that: the fish was not too fishy; the olives Mediterranean; the sauce not too tomato-ey; and the overall effect most pleasing.

• Eric Ripert's fish in yuzu sauce. Eric Ripert is the king of fish. He prepares the most delicate fish dishes at Le Bernardine in New York and I love his food, which is saying a lot, since I don't like fish as a general rule. Yuzu is a Japanese fruit with citrus undertones that compliments Ripert's thinly sliced fish well without overwhelming its underlying flavor, a balance that is difficult to strike.