2006: The Year in Travel

What was your most memorable trip this year? I'm sure it was trawling the street stalls of Bangkok with Michelin-starred Thai chef David Thompson. Since Thompson has a knack for pushing you to far exceed your Recommended Daily Allowance of Mekong rum, my recollection is positive but somewhat impressionistic.
Your most memorable meal (not necessarily on the same trip)? The durian and sweet coconut rice from a stall in Bangkok. The garnish of tiny dried shrimp was fascinating, particularly in light of the interest many Western chefs now have in using salty elements in their desserts. (Shrimp creme brulee is surely just around the corner.)
What was the most exciting thing that happened close to home? The new wave of wine bars in Sydney. They've got enough style, panache, and edge—not to mention brilliant wines sourced everywhere from southern Austria to South America to South Australia and back again—to overcome the tacky connotations of the wine-bar concept.
Did you stay in, or visit, a hotel that particularly wowed you? The Hotel du Palais in Biarritz recalls the days when the likes of Edward VII, Churchill, Chaplin, and Cocteau used to stay there. The crash of the waves right outside its Belle Epoque windows, and the opportunity to check out the surf while snacking on local foie gras en brioche with poached eggs, truffles, and asparagus, is a rare and beautiful thing.
What place did you find overrated or disappointing? I'm still waiting for something decent to eat in Oxford (Oxford itself, that is. Le Manoir doesn't count). Bad stuff right down to the kebab vans, even by British standards.
What was your worst (or funniest) travel experience? Being $80 over my baggage limit, purely in foie gras and vintage sardines, when leaving France had a certain surreal quality.

2007: RING IN THE NEW

What's going to be hot this year? Emerging wine districts, like the Canberra region, Victoria's King Valley, and New South Wales's Central West, are attracting quite a lot of interest, while New South Wales's north coast and Queensland's Discovery Coast, near Bundaberg, are the hot new big destinations. Surry Hills, in Sydney, is packed to the gunwales with great restaurants, and still more keep opening.
 Is there a restaurant or a chef whom everyone is watching? The new complex at Melbourne's Crown Towers hotel is an attempt to pick up on the buzz of Las Vegas's casino dining, and there's some serious money being spent to make it a reality. The fortunes of Neil Perry's new Rockpool there are being closely watched, while the opening of Australia's first Nobu, also on the site and slated to open midyear, has everybody talking.
What trips do you have planned for 2007? I've already got too many restaurants in mind and not enough time for the annual London restaurant pilgrimage, and it seems the second I get on a flight to leave Spain, six new must-visit gastro-temples spring up. I've been entranced by tales of great eating in Luang Prabang, Costa Rica, and Sardinia. Patagonia beckons, as ever.
Where do you most want to go in the world that is still a dream away? The Cuban dilemma is still there: desperately want to go, can't bear the thought of such dreadful food.
Where wouldn't you go even if you won an all-expenses-paid, first-class trip? I'm not rushing back to Alice Springs.