True 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.
Put 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]
Speaking 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.
The 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.
Clearly, virtual reality could open up a whole new world of dining, but we are still very much in the experimental stages of the technology. For one of the boldest interpretations of VR dining, head to Tokyo’s TREE by NAKED. The artist-curated space hosts small group dinners that layer light installations, as well as elements of augmented and virtual reality, to transport participants into a food-based fantasy world. The result is more of an immersive art installation or dinner theatre performance with audience participation than an actual restaurant.
The less highbrow approach of Project Nourished has resulted in equally fascinating explorations of what is really involved in our enjoyment of a meal. The LA-based VR gastronomy startup has developed a multi-sensory food experience that involves, but isn’t limited to, virtual reality goggles, sounds and smells. Far from art for art’s sake, its developers are hoping it may provide a way for people on restrictive diets to enjoy foods they are usually unable to have. Visit a tasting event to see how VR could help with allergies, intolerances, issues with digestion or weight loss.
2018 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!”
Drinking 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.
The jury’s still out on whether animal-free, lab-grown meat will become widely available to consumers in 2019. If it does, any responsible carnivore with a bit of culinary curiosity will be rushing to try it. “Artificial”, “motherless” or “cultured” meat may still seem like something from a dystopian future, but that future has already arrived – burgers grown from single cells are a reality and our planet needs a sustainable solution like this if we are to inhabit it (and continue eating meat) for another few generations. Check out Mosa Meat, Finless Foods and Memphis Meats.
On 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.
Armed 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]
The 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.
Challenging 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.
Or how about challenging your inner clean freak by eating with no plates at all? Grant Achatz pioneered the idea with his table dessert at Alinea restaurant. Now Fortina, an Italian restaurant with several locations in New York and Connecticut, serves a “family-style” Polenta Table, which is poured directly onto the piece of furniture in question. Your job as a diner is to eat the table clean, so to speak. If trying it in a restaurant strikes you as unsanitary, why not treat your family and friends to a messy table-top meal at home? It beats doing the dishes!
Travel 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.
If 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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