Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds
Slide Nr 1True gourmets don’t exclusively dine in the finest restaurants or seek out only tried-and-tested dishes everyone is already raving about. What separates foodies from food snobs is their curiosity and hunger for new tastes, sensations and experiences. Satisfy your inner foodie with inspiration for a year of unexpected food adventures.
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 2Put the title down to the offline adaptation of clickbait culture, but the Disgusting Food Museum is so much more than a museum showcasing gross edibles. The travelling exhibition, stationed in Los Angeles until 17 February, introduces visitors to foods that may seem somewhat unsavoury to the uninitiated, then aims to expand their horizons beyond that first reaction. Each unfamiliar food on display is accompanied by details on the history and cultural background of the dish, plus the opportunity to smell and taste the most pungent, stinky and slimy delicacies. You may not leave craving a “well-aged shark“ or “roasted guinea pig”, but you’ll go home with a better understanding of how cultural influences shape our likes, dislikes and tastes. [Century Eggs, Photo © Anja Barte Telin]
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 3Speaking of food in museums, while you’re in California, you wouldn’t want to miss San Francisco’s excellent museum-restaurant/restaurant-museum In Situ. It serves food inside the SFMOMA building, but it is also a museum of food. Dishes from the world’s best restaurants are recreated and credited to their creators like works of art. If nothing else, it’s the easiest way to eat several Michelin-level creations in one sitting.
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 4The London underground isn’t exactly the first place you think of heading for a drink in the British capital, but it may just be the hottest boozing location in town until 7 April. No, we’re not talking about a bottle of Buckfast on the Tube – we mean the latest hospitality experience by creative catering duo Bompas & Parr. The Lost Lagoon, in an as-yet unknown location, promises “creative adventures and cocktail-based escapades as part of an extravagant and immersive theatrical production” that culminates with a rum punch at Captain Morgan’s island bar.
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 72018 was the year of ceremoniously, sanctimoniously and self-congratulatorily logging off social media. Although we won’t be missing anyone’s half-hearted candid lunch snaps, we would rather not hear the words “digital detox” or #disconnecttoconnect ever again. Instead, recognise the traps social media sets for our foodie aspirations – and avoid them. Instead of choosing restaurants only for a chance to check into a hip location, ordering dishes for their Instagram appeal and striving to emulate the perfection showcased by food bloggers, embrace your fails as much as you celebrate your wins. Browse the hashtag #foodfails for inspiration, then share your next kitchen disaster with the words “nailed it!”
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 8Drinking wine with dinner is widely acceptable in most countries, so why not indulge in a newly decriminalised drug (only where legal, of course). CBD (or cannabidiol) edibles are on the rise, especially in those US states where recreational marijuana is now widely available, but also in places where the psychoactive THC is still illegal. CBD oil, after all, is the non-intoxicating component increasingly hyped for its health benefits, so why not enjoy an infused cocktail with dinner or a brownie for dessert.
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 10On the other end of the scale, if you’re going to eat meat that came from an animal, you might as well do it right. This year, turn your back on mass-produced, industrially farmed, heavily processed meat in favour of fine cuts fresh from the animal. A beginners’ butchery course allows carnivores to confront the reality of how their, let’s say, main sausage ingredient is made. Not only is the immediate experience of carving up an animal likely to inspire a more reverent approach to eating its meat, it will also teach you about less common or popular cuts, inspiring a more sustainable, zero-waste omnivorous diet.
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 11Armed with that knowledge, you can finally get in on the burgeoning offal trend. The concept of eating every part of the animal is hardly new, but recent recessions have led to a renewed surge in the use of less popular cuts, including innards. This gives intrepid diners an opportunity to try unfamiliar meats, as prepared by experts, in some very fine restaurants, rather than dismissing an amateur version of the same dish. St John restaurant in London is a great place to start, as founder Fergus Henderson literally wrote the book on nose-to-tail eating (called Nose-to-Tail Eating). [Photos courtesy Stefan Johnson]
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 12The waste-not-want-not mantra can also be applied to fish. Here, the magic word is bycatch. Educate yourself on the many types of perfectly edible fish that are discarded because there is simply no demand for them. Seek them out at your local market or fishmongers’, marvel at the affordable prices, possibly curse at the number of bones or difficulty of getting a decent filet out of a whole fish, then finally enjoy a whole new taste of the ocean – and the good feeling of contributing to more sustainable fishery practices.
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 13Challenging your tastebuds isn’t only about what you eat, but how you eat it. Fine dining establishments have long known of the power of plating. Most haute eateries serve their creations on unique dinnerware that, more often than not, bears only a passing resemblance to an actual plate. It is sometimes specifically designed to visually enhance the food or underline a theme, however none have celebrated the importance of cutlery and tableware as consistently as the Experimental Gastronomy initiative at Steinbeisser in Amsterdam. They commission artists to create ware and utensils to accompany each dinner event, which can later be purchased in their store.
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 15Travel broadens the horizon, and thanks to Airbnb experiences, you can now broaden your culinary horizons everywhere you travel. Learn to make traditional kimchi in Seoul, bake conchas in Mexico City, go foraging in Iceland … or simply choose your own adventure by browsing the site’s Food&Drinks category.
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Special Ultimate Experiences
15 Experiences That Challenge Your Tastebuds.
Slide Nr 16If global travel isn’t on the agenda, the Civilisations Supperclub series brings different foods and cultures to London. The immersive experience includes dinner, music, performances and visual arts, presented in a setting that reflects the food’s origin. Previous events have ranged from “An Arabian Feast: 1,001 Flavours, Sounds & Stories from Syria” to “A Culinary & Musical Supperclub Journey from Japan to the Mediterranean”. [Photo: Kevin Moran Photography at Leighton House Museum]
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