Where else but Las Vegas – city of sin and excess – would you find an eating den that is such an unashamed peddler of super-sized fast food? The Heart Attack Grill is the baron of big-bastard burgers: obscenely humongous grease towers, dripping with almost 10,000 calories. You are considered a patient here, not a customer, and the wait staff (nurses) will take you through a menu that defies all sense of dietary restraint.
Choose between the Quadruple Bypass Burger and, because you’re a serious glutton, the Octuple Bypass Burger, and see if you can stomach up to 1.8 kilograms of beef. Grab a side of Flatliner Fries (cooked in pure lard) and wash it all down with a Butterfat Milkshake. Diners who weigh more than 350 pounds (159 kilograms) get unlimited free food. Finish the Quadruple Bypass Burger and you’ll receive a free ride to your car in a wheelchair, which is handy because heart attacks aren’t uncommon here.
As any gastronome worth their salt (and pepper) knows, the best bit about any fine dining experience is when you voluntarily eat something that sets your own arse on fire. The world’s most angry edible ingredient, according to New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute, is Trinidad and Tobago’s moruga scorpion pepper, used in napalm-esque condiments such as Dek’s pepper sauce. In 2012, the Trinidad moruga scorpion chilli was named the world’s hottest, with an average rating of more than 1.2 million units on the Scoville heat scale (by comparison, Tabasco original red sauce has a Scoville rating of 2,500–5,000 units).
Like any local delicacy, it’s best tasted in situ – in the restaurants in Port of Spain – but if you can’t get to Trinidad and Tobago, or you want to buy a gift basket of the sauce for someone you really don’t like, it’s available from igourmet.com. Don’t forget to put the toilet paper in the fridge before you go to bed.
Omanis go gaga for shawarma (kebabs). Every local swears by their favourite shop, but those in the know make a beeline for Istanboly Coffee Shop when they’re after a late-night snack.
Pull up a chair outside and watch the cook carve meat from a hulking spit, doling out goodies to workers ferrying packages between the kitchen and cars. Go for a wrap, packed with tender strips of chicken, and if you’re feeling brave slather on mayo laced with enough garlic to ward off vampires for years to come. Make eyes with the neon Mr Istanboly sign as you munch – he’s giving you the thumbs up for your fine selection.
It’s easy to find hamburger joints and sandwich shops in Muscat, but Ubhar is one of the few restaurants to cook up genuine Omani cuisine. Order the muttrah paplou (seafood soup with plump wontons) coupled with ubhar harees, a porridge-like chicken dish topped with rich onion sauce, before finishing with saffron crème brûlée and frankincense ice-cream. It’s Arabia on a plate.
You’re spoilt for choice to fill your belly at Bareeq Al Shatti mall, but be sure to stop off at B+F Roadside Diner, where trendy twenty-somethings flash eyes at each other while queuing to get inside. Its signature dish of Dynamite Fries – a delicious mess of chips topped with minced beef, cheese, ranch sauce and jalapenos – is downright ugly, but boy does it taste good.
Fairy lights twist through trees and sweet smoke from the shisha coils beneath lanterns in the canopy at the sultry Kargeen Caffe. This is one of Muscat’s best-loved restaurants; inside its grounds you’ll find families feasting in dining rooms, men lounging in courtyards blowing flawless smoke rings and fashionistas with heels and handbags worth many months’ rent glimmering in hidden alcoves.
If you’re peckish, share a serve of shuwa, a dish of goat meat rubbed with spices, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted over hot coals for a day. But don’t get completely distracted by the food – there’s also mighty fine shisha. All the usual flavours like apple and strawberry grace the smoker’s menu, but for something more adventurous suck down a Kargeen Special, made with a selection of freshly carved fruit.
Few meals compare to an evening under the eye of Jiro Ono, one of Japan’s national living treasures and head chef at Sukiyabashi Jiro. Devoting his life to sushi from the age of nine, this octogenarian was the world’s first sushi chef to snare three Michelin stars. Gently pressing each portion of seafood into a stack of lightly vinegared rice sourced from his personal rice dealer, Jiro crafts each morsel to the mould of your mouth. His staff handpicks each creature from Tsukiji fish market, before they’re sliced, diced and tempered.
Hardly larger than a bento box, you’ll struggle to find the 10-stool eatery, which is tucked into a basement in Ginza. And it’s one of the toughest restaurants in the world to make a reservation, especially for gaijin (foreigners) who must find a Tokyo native to dine with. The starting price looms at ¥30,000 (US$252) and each mouthful checks in at US$12 a pop. Diners forking out for the half-hour feast enter a gastronomic symphony, from chilled uni (sea- urchin), to melt-in-your mouth unagi (eel), before the closing chord of succulent soft egg roll.
Quaffing champagne with hot dogs is akin to serving foie gras with Fanta; they’re not exactly culinary cronies. But a London eatery has sent convention to the dogs, teaming the fast food staple with boutique bubbles. Bubbledogs is capitalising on London’s new-found fascination with gourmet fast food, serving up delectable hot dogs with grower champagne.
It’s no meal for mutts. The house-made pork, beef and vegetable hot dogs are made with 100 per cent British produce, freshly baked buns and a lick of condiments and spices. The Trishna Dog – with mint, mango chutney and coriander – has been running out the door. Then there’s the K-Dawg – a mean mongrel of kimchi, fermented red bean paste and lettuce – a mix not to be messed with.
Big on eating out, but short on amigos? Casa SaltShaker in Buenos Aires has you covered. The in-home private dining restaurant in the upmarket Recoleta neighbourhood serves up exquisite Andean-meets-Mediterranean cuisine, prepared by USA-born chef and sommelier Dan Perlman.
Puertas cerradas (closed-door restaurants) are big in BA and Casa SaltShaker’s five-course tasting menu paired with wine is a winner.
Take a seat at the communal dining table with nine of your soon-to-be best mates and tuck into mouthwatering dishes like matbucha (tomatoes and roasted capsicum with spicy coriander sauce), braised pork shoulder with smoked eggplant puree, and chocolate star-anise cheesecake.
The food is guaranteed to please, but it’s the intimate setting and conversation we love the most.
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