Win a Copy of A Table in Venice by Skye McAlpine

Sitting on a cool marble bench in the wintry Parisian dusk with my new wife sharing a can of warm(ish) French beer and tearing into a fresh pain d’epi loaf.

My favourite food memory is of Essaouria in Morroco. The sights and smells of food surrounds you from olives in the souks (markets) to mouthwatering tagines prepared with the utmost care and love. The best thing I ate every morning was meloui bread with local honey, butter and the most thirst quenching mint tea. Oh how I wish I was there right now!

A holiday in Rome where every day we had great food

We were passing through a small town in northern Italy and had the most spectacular meal. The dessert we had we still recreate at home today – barbequed nectarines with marzipan and dark chocolate. Delicious!

Squid tentacles served in a scallop shell with traditional southern Italian antipasti eaten in Salento Italy.

Greece. Fresh caught fish from the meditaranian right next to the restaurant. It was my first time having such fresh caught fish! Amazing!!

It probably doesn’t sound very exciting but my favourite is all the delicious buns you get in French bakeries.

Holidays in Portugal love the fish

Drinking wine and eating the most perfect, gooey Spanish tortilla in a vineyard at 10am after getting up early to harvest some grapes in La Rioja. Those flavours, that location.

My boyfriend had planned to propose at the top of the Spanish steps in Rome, but I had eaten too many gnocchi and complained on every step up. When we finally got to the top he reached to his bag to get his camera (I thought) out of his bag but actually took out a box with a ring and proposed at the most beautiful view of a night-lit Rome. But I still remember the taste of the truffle gnocchi!

Not a fan of mussels, at least in the US, spent a week in the Liverpool area of the UK. We had dinner at a lovely seafood restaurant and my husband ordered the mussels. Thery were sweet, tender and CLEAN! Paired this with our favorite champagne, Joseph Perrier, and I was in Heaven!!

My favourite food memory abroad has to be visiting the ‘Deux Moulins’ cafe in Montmartre, Paris. I had the most wonderful food in there, a succulent bunless beef burger with frites and salad. The atmosphere added to the joy – so warming and relaxing. I could of spent most of my trip in there!

After a few long hot summer days in Rome, we signed up for a cooking class in a small remote village outside of the city. With the help of a local Italian chef we prepared an authentic Italian pasta meal from scratch along with vegetables and dessert. We then sat down to eat our creation looking out over the beautiful rural countryside. Best meal ever.

My favorite food memory was in England…it was the simplest of things, but we had bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches for breakfast almost every day we were there because they were so good. It made being in England feel like being home. So comforting! Because of that simple little breakfast sandwich, I’m working on making a permanent move to England.

There are not many travels abroad in my backpack but we did stop in Jamaica on a cruise and while there had the best Jerk Chicken and Pork with rice that I have ever had. If we ever get back there I will definitely have it again.

My favourite food memory is from a recent trip to Japan – we did a cooking experience with a local woman in Tokyo and learned how to make lots of things that make up a traditional Japanese meal, including tamago omelette, miso soup, picked vegetables and fish and tofu dishes, which we then had for lunch. This was so much more interesting than just going to a restaurant and eating.

Last summer, sitting in the scorching sun in Fuerteventura at lunchtime on the terrace watching the ginormous paella being made by the local chefs. The smell of the paella cooking was only outdone by those sensational flavours. Mmm, unforgettable memories of delicious food, take me back please.

Fresh chicken curry made from scratch every night by a local man who travelled up the Himalayan mountains with us from India. The cardamon tea he made was even better- I can still remember the taste 8 years later.

My best food memory is Risotto Milanese in Milan last summer. We also went to Venice (by train) – the most beautiful place i have ever visited. I’m going back to Italy next summer :o) I love Italian food, and would love to win the book.

After walking all the way from Kolonaki to Exarchia in Athens, and feeling about to melt with the heat, I relished feasting on cold milky feta and tomatoes so sweet and ripe they dripped over my fingers.

Sitting by the Indian Ocean in Oman

I have fond memories of trying spaghetti for the first time in Pisa , struggling with the technique but loving the taste.

In the Summer of 2008 I lived with a friend in Antibes, France. We decided to end our adventure with a cheese, baguette, and wine picnic on a rocky beach. The moon was visible in the sky as the sunset and we tried very hard to take photos posed perfectly to look like we were holding the moon. The whole afternoon and evening were simply delicious.

In the Summer of 2008 I lived with a friend in Antibes, France. We decided to end our adventure with a cheese, baguette, and wine picnic on a rocky beach. The moon was visible in the sky as the sunset and we tried very hard to take photos posed perfectly to look like we were holding the moon. The whole afternoon and evening were simply delicious.

A wonderful sunset meal in Sienna.

One of my fond memories is from Venice. With a group of friends I visited an Oosteria and out there on the sidewalk we stood eating and drinking wine, the sun was warm and shining and we met new people. A good example of how important food is. It connects!

Eating fish baked in a casing of salt on Guidecca an Island off Venice. Delicious and a lovely setting too.

Sitting by the banks of the Seine with my husband with a bottle of red wine, a baguette and some delicious cheese in the cool April evening. Bliss!

Dinner in Bath, England. We sat at the restaurant’s outdoor tables watching the people in the plaza. I savored a spinach tart or sorts that melted in my mouth while a street singer gave the most beautiful rendition of “Time to Say Goodbye.” The sun set and it was just absolutely heavenly!

Fresh caught octopus on the island of Mykonos. Escargot, macarons, street vendor crepes, & the chocolat chaud (with a side of whipped cream and croque madame, of course) at Angelinas in Paris! Beignets and po boys in New Orleans. Okay, I’ll stop there.

Tiny restaurant in Sicily where the lady who ran it brought me out some homemade chickpea soup as a gift (in addition to what we’d ordered for lunch) to show me what the locals eat. Fabulous.

My favorite food memory from a trip abroad was exploring the food of Korea with some friends. We had a great time and made some fabulous memories while trying new foods and exploring new places.

Probably the best steak ever: almost raw, served only with olive oil and rucola. Sounds not like much, but that Roman experience was one of a kind. ✨

2012 After 2 weeks of travelling Italy on my first Solo trip abroad, I ended it people watching at a table for one overlooking a piazza in Turin. A glass of Chianti Classico in hand with the simplest white bowl containing nothing more than pici pomodoro pasta with a ball of buffalo mozarella and a basil leaf.

It was the simplest and the best thing I had ever eaten, and from that moment I knew italy had stolen my heart and I have returned every year since

Linguine and clams in Naples. Bliss!

Visiting the food Market in Penang then taking our produce back for a Nyonya Cooking lesson with Pearly Khee perfect.

In Beijing with friends, we ordered plates piled with freshly steamed dumplings and boazi and washed it down with Tsingtao. Delicious!

My favourite food memory is actually Venice. I went this year for long weekend with my sister and Mum. It was my Mum’s 70th. I had Vongole – sat in a little restaurent, out on the street in the San Polo area. The Food was wonderful, had an amazing tiramisu for dessert. Atmosphere and ambience were wonderful – very relaxed. I would thoroughly recommend Venice – not just for the sites but also the food.

The first moment I saw and ate black squid ink Pasta. I was in a restaurant by the Rialto Bridge and The Grand Canal in Venice. The moment the waiter brought that plate of black food to me I thought there’s no way I am eating that! But the first tentative fork of a divine marriage of seafood and black squid ink was something I will never forget. The texture and salty taste was heaven. Every time I see the dish on a menu it takes me back to magical Venice. One day I will be able make it myself ❤️

Eating the most vibrantly blue and white moules (muscles) in a delicious sauce of white wine, butter, shallots and herbs along the coast of Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the Basque Country. This was followed by my second (let’s be real…most) favorite part: the ritual dipping of the quintessential baguette into said sauce of deliciousness. I am continually trying to find this meals equivalent in the states and the search has been fruitless so far.

Spending some time in Budapest I found a dessert of sorry of caramelised poppy seeds with a merengue topping, delicious.

We found this cute little Indian restaurant in London in a quiet street. There was nobody else there but the waiters were the best I’ve ever met and served us the best onion rings of my life 🙂 After we finished our meals we started talking to the waiters and all in all we spent 3 hours there.

Eating a simple dish of lightly tempura fresh fish ‘Frito Miso’ with a slice of lemon caught that very morning sat on the glitzening shores of the beautiful blue Mediterranean Sea on the ‘Cinque Terre’ Italy with my best friend. Happy memories.

My favourite food memory is the breakfast we had in our hotel in Matera, Italy, So many different cheeses, slices of various pizzas, olives and the best walnuts I’ve ever tasted – and so much more besides !

Picking a ripe mango from a tree in India, taking the skin off and eating it there and then. Delicious, juicy and messy!

My favourite food memory…was waking up to breakfast everyday in Corfu, at a beautiful hotel situated overlooking the ionian sea. There was every type of Greek food you could want ranging from yoghurts to cured meats, cheeses, olives, pastries etc etc. Wonderful! So much so, I’m planning my next trip!

We went to an amazing little restaurant in Rome – real home cooked Italian country food

I remember a visit to Venice many years ago – great sights and fine food

BBQ on the beach in Rhodes Greece

Going into an ice cream parlour on the German Exchange when I was 15 – I had a spag bol looking ice cream (not that flavour) and it was delicious and looked fantastic!

I loved my family holiday to Florida sitting in a fish restaurant in the Florida Keyes enjoying the fish chowder while staring out across the gulf of Mexico

I went to Lyon last year and had the best steak i had ever had. it was amazing

a holiday in rome great sights and food

My favourite food memory from abroad is eating proper pizza in a square in Florence.

Pineapple ham and banana pizza in Portugal was delicious

On holiday in Florida with my family, and my youngest son holding my hand and saying “I will never forget this for as long as I live.”

On a recent trip to India I was in a food market that had carts upon carts of various meats and fruits which were all just swarmed by flies and insects of all sorts. People were buying these products which turned my stomach.

Artichokes, in Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice). I love artichokes, and you can never fail to find them in Italy. If artichokes is on the menu I’m having it!

The first time we sailed past the Twin Towers in New York on Cunards QE11 after a year of being told it was to posh for my family. 35 yrs on we have taken the trip many times.

Desperate for some winter sun my best friend and I booked a last minute trip to Palamos in the Catalan region of Spain (not because we knew anything about it, but thanks to a ‘cheapest flight search’). It was off season and the town was sleepy with only a few tapas bars open, we walked into the nearest to be immediately greeted with a glass of red wine (without even being asked, my kind of people) and asked for a menu only to be met with a look of confusion. Of course there were no menus here and only chef specials based on the freshest food of the day. We sat at the high stools on the bar knowing this was going to be special. Soon a large wooden plank was placed in front of us with huge tentacles of grilled octopus and lowly salty boiled potatoes. Although I had squid before on many occasions it was never like this, a sweet tender smoky flavour. We ended up returning and eating it every day of our holiday.

Visiting the Time Out Cafe in Lisbon. It’s a massive warehouse full of chefs, wine beer and tables. I love that you just sit down next to strangers to eat delicious food.

On business in Hong Kong, great restaurant on Hong Kong island near the JW Marriot hotel, great Pak choi and chicken starters, great sea food, can pick your own LIVE fish, lobster, etc, great range of deserts, all served with efficiency, well cooked and tastes great reasonably priced compared to other places, hence lots of customers