Food memories

Recently saw someone posted something on Barcelona. The first thing that came to my mind was not the la sagrada familia but El Xampanyet. El Xampanyet is a small little tapas bar near Picasso museum in Barcelona with just a few tables and seats. It gets crowded fast and most of the time, customers have to stand and share the small bar tables scattered around the tiny floor space. But the ambience, the homemade cava, and the tapas are the bomb. I love the pepper bombs to death, the fried potatoes with chorizo, almost everything except the canned food. The popularity of canned food (which can be really costly) in the tapas bars in Spain puzzle me. I tried some mussels and sardines and did not find them remotely palatable. Anyhow it is funny how food plays such an important role during our travels and how it sometimes surpasses the memories/ ecstatics of seeing architectural marvels, sculptures, etc. Perhaps it is because food engages almost all our senses- smell, sight, taste, and I would think touch too, when we feel the texture of a food with our tongue. All these plus the bliss we feel when we taste something good, make food a vital part of our travel experience. 

I think my most loved places for food for now are Thailand and Spain. 

Food that I find myself reminiscing and longing for are the supions (grilled baby octopus) in southern france, the buffalo cheese with basil and tomatoes in Cicheti in the Arab street area in Singapore (they are so creamy and smooth), beef and duck kwayteow from the street stalls in Bangkok, sai grog(grilled fermented pork sausage) outside the Big C opp centralworld in Bangkok, som tam (papaya salad) from perpetually any street stalls in Thailand, grilled squid with olive oil at one of the smaller markets in Barcelona (not la boqueria but I have forgotten the name of the market), fried jalapeños at one of the tapas bar at carrer commercial district in Barcelona, oyster mee suan from Ah zhong in ximengding in Taipei, spicy hotpot at dingwang franchise in Taiwan, beef tongue at the now defunct Japanese restaurant in takashimaya, parkway mini steamboat, specifically the vegetarian fish slice, thinly sliced pork and the chilli dip( I've patronized the place for 25 years but sad to say standard has dropped over the years), bachormee from 85 market in bedok, Mookata at tomyum kungfu at boat quay, chirashi don at one of the small shops (they have only 3 tables!) at tsukiji market in Tokyo (ultimate freshness!). It's funny how france is like the food capital of the world but I don't find the food particularly memorable except for that one supion, which is more Mediterranean than traditional french. The food in Italy was good and cheap too yet vaguely memorable as well. I did like the bistecca florentina though and the gelato but it just doesn't create that kind of longing that I have for the other food listed in this post. Sadly there's no food memorable from the US except for Hawaii (the ahi poke in a popular rest in Haleiwa(I think) was so good- pan seared tuna with a burnt crust of sesame seeds and ?nuts with the tuna still tenderly raw with sesame dressing) and the mahi mahi, and salad with papaya seed dressing. Good food memories....