pork knee

My travels in 2013 gave me some very memorable eating memories. Here are a few of the many great things I ate while away this year.

San Juan: Mofongo

Having now tried the national dish of Puerto Rico, I wonder where mofongo has been up to this point in my life. This is a dish made with fried green plantains that are mashed with olive oil, garlic, some fried pig bits and then filled with meat. While in San Juan I tried two versions. The one on the left from Cafe Manolin, a 50’s style diner, was filling and delicious as I waited out a torrential downpour. The one on the right from Restaurante Airenumo was a more upscale version and the best meal of the five days in Puerto Rico.

Mofongo

Vancouver: Vij’s

Vij’s was a bucket list restaurant for me. For years and years, I’ve known I would eat here once I got to Vancouver. This meal was perhaps the best overall meal from the year of travel. Exceptional service and feeling like you were dining in someone’s home only made it that much better. The food was sublime: flavourful, perfectly spiced, interesting and inventive. Making this the perfect evening was getting a chance to say hi to Vikram Vij himself.

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Drinking beer in Prague is a true pleasure. Great beer is everywhere; you don’t have to seek it out. Over the course of two weeks I didn’t have a single bad beer or ever spend more than $2 Canadian for a beer in a bar. These are a few of my favourite beer-related experiences in Prague – the bars, the delicious traditional Czech snacks, and of course, the beers themselves.

First beer in Prague: After getting settled into our apartment on the first day, we made our way for a much needed meal at Svejk Restaurant U Karla. We picked this location for the ease of gluten-free eating for my wife for the first night. A few minutes after sitting down, I got acquainted with my first Pilsner Urquell: