It is probably really hard to remember the one best thing you ate over the course of an entire year. Nevertheless, we asked chefs, food writers, growers and producers to give it their best shot and come up with an edible bucket list for 2023.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find dishes and restaurants that come more highly recommended, or more expertly chosen – from tips to recipes, and a handful of far-flung travel inspirations. Here are the meals to seek out this year, chosen by those who remember them most fondly.
Paté en croute at Aru, Melbourne
Chosen by Alice Zaslavsky, cookbook author and culinary correspondent for ABC News Breakfast
Khanh [Nguyen] makes this with the flavours of banh mi and it’s a traditional paté en croute – so wrapped in pastry, layers really clearly defined … We went there with a three-year-old and she loved it too.
Grilled hairtail on Jeju Island, Korea
Chosen by Dan Hong, executive chef of Mr Wong, MuMu and Ms G’s in the Merivale group
The hairtail on Jeju is a lot more oily, fatty and thicker than a lot of hairtail found around the world. It was simply grilled whole with salt and expertly deboned right in front of us by the waitress. It was so moist, gelatinous and flaky all at the same time: really some of the best cooked fish I have ever eaten.
Afghan sheep’s trotter soup (recipe)
Chosen by Adam James, the pickle and ferment enthusiast behind Rough Rice
Mahmood Fazal came in with his mum, Gulshan, and did a whole Afghan banquet at the Future Food System in Melbourne.
The highlight for me was a sheep’s trotter soup. It was just phenomenal. But I think even more so, it was just kind of [the experience of] having Mahmood and his mum explain it. It’s very much a peasant food, even in Afghanistan, but it was delicious and nourishing.
It was super gelatinous and really viscous, and just really, super delicious. Honestly, I can still kind of taste it.
Afghan sheep’s trotter soup
Recipe by Mahmood Fazal
Serves 6
1-2 kg sheep trotters
1 x 400g tin organic black-eyed beans
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
4 potatoes, diced
2 cups pearl barley
2 loaves Afghan bread (or a round of Lebanese bread, per guest)
Plain yoghurt, to serve
The night before, wash the sheep’s trotters under cold running water, and cut at the joints into three or so pieces. Place the trotters in a large stockpot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Strain and discard the broth. Once more, in the stockpot, cover trotters with fresh cold water and bring to a boil, occasionally skimming off any foam and impurities that rise to the top. Simmer on low heat for one hour.
Add garlic, carrots, bay leaf, cinnamon and cumin. Continue to simmer for another three to four hours. Poke the trotters with a fork; the flesh should fall off the bone and the trotters should be gelatinous. Turn off the heat and leave to cool, then place in the fridge overnight.
The next day, when about to serve, bring the pot to a boil, then lower to a gentle simmer. Add potatoes, beans and barley. After 45 minutes, season to taste.
Tear up bread into bite-size pieces and fill a large serving bowl. My preference is Afghan bread, but you can also use wholemeal Lebanese flatbread or naan. Pour the soup over the bread. Add a dollop of plain yoghurt, freshly cracked pepper and a pinch of salt.Nooshe jan (may it nourish your soul).
水餃 (sui gau) at The Eight, Sydney
Chosen by Alex Lynn of Blood’s Bakery
The sui gau is just a really tasty pork and prawn dumpling, and then they pour a soya-shallot sauce over it at the table.
It is something that doesn’t really go around on the [yum cha] trolley. You have to grab one of the waitstaff and try your best to explain it if you don’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese.
Because it’s not on the trolley all the time, they basically make it to order, so it comes over to you proper steaming hot. And there’s a little bit of the theatre of [the server] pouring the sauce on top. I just smash about four plates every time.
Ayam bakar at Ayam Goreng 99, Sydney
Chosen by Kevin La who runs the Instagram account @sydneyfoodboy
[Ayam bakar, or Indonesian grilled chicken, is] one of those things where everyone has their own recipe, but it always tastes brilliant.
[It] really makes use of all the heat, all those flavours, so you get the sweet, savoury, the spicy, like it’s “bang!” in your mouth. It’s very cool. Vietnamese barbecued chicken is delicious but it will hit you with the aromatics like lemongrass, but with Indonesian grilled chicken, you have that really nice balance of sweet, savoury and spicy.
I would say my favourite in Sydney is probably the one at Ayam Goreng 99 in Kingsford.
Duck meat koay teow (duck meat rice noodle soup) in Kimberley Lane, Penang, Malaysia
Chosen by Junda Khoo, head chef and co-founder of the Ho Jiak restaurants in Sydney
On the streets on Penang, eating this bowl of noodles in 32C weather beside a gutter that smelt so bad, I thought to myself: “Oh God, it’s great to be back home.” It had been more than two-and-a-half years – my first trip back after Covid.
Mutton tartare at Onzieme, Canberra
Chosen by Al Reed, a minimal intervention winemaker and co-founder of Konpira Maru with Sam Cook
I ate an excessive number of tartares this year, literally all around the world, but this one was absolutely brilliant and outshone them all. The mutton had an incredible texture and was flavour-plus.
ไข่ปูดองยำ (khai pu dong yam, or pickled crab) in Bangkok, Thailand
Chosen by Palisa Anderson author, restaurateur of @chatthai_official and grower of organic produce at Boon Luck Farm
I took a trip to Bangkok this year with some of my colleagues from Chat Thai, and as we do when we go on these R&D trips, we just ate, like, 10 meals a day.
The one thing that we constantly go back to talk about is – it’s not quite street street food, they call it a ร้านข้าวต้ม [ran khao tom] which is a very casual diner-type situation that serves late supper. You get a bowl of very plain rice congee and then you order a bunch of different things.
And one dish – this was a pre-dinner meal – we just gorged ourselves on, ไข่ปูดองยำ [khai pu dong yam], which is a blue swimmer crab that has been pickled for three days through a lactofermentation process, and then frozen to kill off any residual bacteria or anything.
They freeze it whole, then they defrost it, and it’s chopped up with a very, very sharp knife.
The most important thing is it has to have the roe attached. So it’s mostly female crabs – the good places will only have female crabs. And then it’s dressed with a hell of a lot of garlic and chilli. Each restaurant probably does a different version of their seafood sauce which is green chillies, lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar, and then it’s hit with a lot of mint. It’s addictive, it’s crazy addictive.
Marron with sweetcorn at Restaurant Botanic, Adelaide
Chosen by Ben Devlin, co-owner and chef at Pipit in Pottsville, NSW
[My] favourite dining experience of the year was at Restaurant Botanic in Adelaide, specifically their marron with sweet corn. It was memorable as it was tasty, fun and multi-sensory; it’s a hands-on dining experience showing great detail, care, and technique.
Buffalo labneh, beetroot molasses and sorrel at Aalia, Sydney
Chosen by Lee Tran Lam, editor of the New Voices on Food books and host of podcasts Culinary Archive and Crunch Time
When you swipe through the buffalo labneh at Aalia restaurant in Sydney, you’ll uncover a surprising trail of pink molasses underneath: it’s a candy-striped joy. That warm swirl of colour is the Pantone shade that emerges when beetroot juice is reduced for around six hours – until it achieves a beguiling sweetness that lights up all the pleasure circuits in your brain. The creamy labneh on top might seem uninteresting at first – just a bank of yoghurt that’s been hung for a day – until you dip into it and taste a scorched, smouldering complexity: a flavour built from time spent in Aalia’s wood smoker.
The fact you eat this appetiser by swiping sorrel leaves through it is another genius element to executive chef Paul Farag’s dish.
Anchovy and cultured butter on sourdough baguette (recipe)
Chosen by Sharon Flynn, founder of The Fermentary and author of Ferment for Good, and Wild Drinks
It’s usually the context, the people and the food that makes me remember and love a thing – but a very good salty anchovy atop kefir-cultured butter on a hand-ripped piece of sourdough baguette is the winner. I took a jar of cultured cream, baguette and tin of anchovies to the park for an exciting (nerve-filled) first date. We shook it into butter – slurped the buttermilk straight from the jar – delved into the jar to smear the butter onto our bread and placed anchovies right along the bread.
Kefir-cultured butter
Recipe by Sharon Flynn
Prep 2 days for fermenting, plus 5 mins for shaking
200ml cream
50ml milk kefir, or milk kefir grains
Salt, to finish (optional)
Bread, to serve
To make cultured butter, pour cream into a large jar (about 350ml), add a healthy dash of good quality milk kefir (or milk kefir grains), and let it sit at room temperature for one to two days.
On day two, taste the cream – it should taste lively and slightly sour like creme fraiche. Make sure the lid is sealed tightly and start shaking it vigorously. It may take a few minutes but it will first start to thicken, and go almost into a solid blob. Keep shaking - it will push through this stage and start to turn yellow and separate. Open the lid every now and then to check on it and release some pressure that may be forming in the jar. Stop shaking when you are satisfied with the consistency of the cream.
In the case of a picnic or camping, I drink the buttermilk from the jar and tip the butter onto a plate, simply letting it tumble out of the jar. Salt it if you like. We salted it with Ortiz anchovies and scooped the butter out of the jar directly with a local baguette. Keep any remaining butter covered and refrigerated.
This butter is so good – enjoy generously sitting under jams, smothered on hot corn or crusty bread, or all melty on baked sweet potato slivers. You get the picture.
Choko leaf stir-fry in Thailand
Chosen by Thanh Truong, also known as Fruit Nerd
I went to Thailand for a fruit conference, the Fruit Logistica, and when I landed, it was quite late at night. It was like 11pm, restaurants were still open. And I ordered choko leaf stir-fry, which is very seasonal. It’s only available in the summertime. It’s not only the leaves, but the shoots and new buds.
I think for chokos, most people just eat the fruit and not many people think that the leaves are great. [But] just like snow peas, the leaves and tendrils are really delicious. It had garlic, chilli, and most likely fish sauce, soy sauce and oyster sauce.
Aphrodite galotyri (available at some specialty grocers)
Chosen by Will Studd, cheese expert, author and host of the documentary series Cheese Slices
We filmed a story in Greece earlier in May about barrel-ripened feta. During the course of that filming, I came across a cheese called galotyri.
It means milk cheese. It’s made as a byproduct of making feta, by shepherds up in the mountains. Basically, they kept filling this pot. It’s a lactic cheese, sort of like a yoghurt cheese, made of sheep and goat’s milk. They’d keep the pot cold in the mountain streams and just keep filling it up and taking from it. They were very, very passionate and emotional about it, they call it “shepherd’s gold”.
Everything in the dairy was pretty modern, but the galotyri was clearly a labour of love – it was all handmade. I had some the other day, actually, with ripe tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and some Greek basil – and it’s like, wow.
Bombe Alaska at The Point Revolving Restaurant, Tasmania
Chosen by Rosa Cienfuegos founder and owner of Itacate Deli and La Tamaleria in Sydney
I got invited to Fearless festival in Tasmania, as a chef to give cooking lessons for young girls.
Then all the chefs, there were four of us, got invited to tThe Point Revolving Restaurant. I was sort of intimidated, because I was with a chef’s chef that had been cooking for 45 years. And I’m like, “Oh my God, What do I order?”
I ordered the lamb rump, and it was really, really good. Everything we tried – and pretty much everybody got different dishes – was amazing.
And then they served bombe Alaska for dessert. Oh my god! And I’m not into sweets, you know? I prefer chilli, salty, limey, tangy sort of flavours. But that was like – oh my God, just inject that into me. Delicious.
If I ever go back to Tasmania, I would like to go there again.
