Travel expert’s best food to eat around the world, from stir fry in Hong Kong to kaiseki in Japan to seafood in Mexico
- Hong Kong-based Shy Perez-Sala, the founder of SPS Travel, has been all over the world and tried everything from horse sashimi to ants eggs
- For a top cheese trolley she heads to L’Envol in Hong Kong, for heavenly hummus there’s Haret Jdoudna in Jordan, and she pairs Jolibee chicken with champagne
Born and raised in Manila in the Philippines, Shy Perez-Sala is the founder of Special Personal Sojourns (SPS Travel), creating bespoke travel trips around the world specialising in relatively unknown or “difficult” places.
I’ve lived in Hong Kong for 20 years. As an open-minded and adventurous eater, I’ve had zebra carpaccio in Namibia, salt and pepper fried snake in Zhongshan in China, huitlacoche (corn fungus) and escamoles (ant eggs) in Mexico City, and horse and chicken sashimi in Sardinia and Tokyo, respectively.
In Hong Kong, I like Yardbird (154-158 Wing Lok Street, Sheung Wan, tel: 2547 9273) for their consistently good yakitori. Honjo (1/F, 77-91 Queen’s Road West, Sheung Wan, tel: 2663 3772) and their “drunch” – lunch, drinks, dinner – has made me extremely happy during these challenging times. The two-Michelin-star L’Envol (3/F, St. Regis Hong Kong, 1 Harbour Drive, Wan Chai, tel: 2138 6818) offers impeccable pampering and a three-tiered cheese trolley. I always ask for their 48-month comté.
I love Hop Sze (Lai Wan Building, 39 Shau Kei Wan Road, Sai Wan Ho, tel: 2569 0862) as the king of stir fry, plus baked pork chop rice, shrimp toast, soy sauce chicken and claypot crab oozing with roe.
I may be from the Philippines but I’m not biased about Jollibee (several locations including 310-312 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2577 1328). I’ve tried fried chicken from everywhere but no one comes close to Jolibee’s Chickenjoy – crispy on the outside, juicy inside. I always order a bucket for take-out and pair it with champagne.
For overseas, allow me to take you to several continents. In Asia, the Filipino cuisine in the gorgeous Gert Voorjans-designed private club Manila House (8/F, Seven/NEO Building, 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City 1632, Taguig City, Manila, Philippines, tel: +63 917 816 3685) is absolutely delicious.
Tempura Yoshikawa (135 Matsushitacho, Tominokojidori Oike-sagaru, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604 8093, Japan, tel: +81 75 221 5544) is an eight-room ryokan in Kyoto, world-renowned for their tempura kaiseki. They also have the largest private garden downtown, so book a room overlooking this little bit of paradise.
In Palau, Ocean Hunter III (online booking only) is one of the best live-aboard boats for scuba divers. You’ll be spoiled by its freshly baked bread every breakfast, warm chocolate chip cookies served on a plate after every afternoon dive, and the freshest just-caught sashimi at mealtimes.
You can’t go wrong with seafood at Contramar (Calle de Durango 200, Colonia Roma, Delegación Cuauhtémoc, CP 06700, Mexico City, tel: +52 55 5514 9217) in Mexico, especially the whole grilled fish. I remember eating there when an earthquake warning came. My only thought was, “Oh, no, what will happen to my fish?”
Haret Jdoudna (Adel Jumean Street, Madaba 17110, Jordan, tel: +962 5 324 8650) makes the most heavenly hummus on earth. And in Nazareth, Israel, go to Almahdi Sweets (City Rotary Centre 16100, Nazareth, tel: +972 54 538 5210) for the best knafeh (sweet cheese pastry), full stop.
In service and character, Merito Restaurante (Jr. 28 de Julio 206, Barranco 15063, Lima, Peru, tel: +51 1 277 1628) is the Yardbird of Lima. Its Venezuelan chef Juan Luis Martínez is a good friend of Ricardo Chaneton [of Mono, in Hong Kong’s Central business district]. Order the pulpo (octopus), the pork belly and for dessert, their flan.
Hacienda Zuleta (Angochagua Hacienda Zuleta S/N Ecuador, tel: +00 593 6 304 7038) in the Angochagua Valley, Ecuador, is a working farm two hours from Quito and owned by a former president. You can hike up its rolling hills or ride a special breed of zuleteno horse across its 2,000 hectares. This is where I had the most delicious farmed rainbow trout and the creamiest milk.
I would also add, some of the best Italian food I’ve had was in safari camps in Kenya and Namibia, prepared in the middle of the wilderness, from scratch.
