2024's Highlights: Of Eating and Writing In The Year I Never Expected.
2024 tested me in ways I would not expect: as a new father, as a new writer. Here are my fondest moments of 2024.
Publishing one's annual highlights is a brazen indulgence, worse when I am cavorting around restaurants and bars worldwide.
I started 2024 knowing it would be different, but not knowing the where’s or how’s.
The usual juggle of work, writing and husbanding would meet its Final Boss: a three-headed Hydra of First-Time Fatherhood, a Long-Term Project and Home Renovations.
Fatherhood was the most disruptive. It dismantled and subsumed my writing routine, supplanting it with sleep training, late-night feeds and other detritus.
Still, I got out—the whole inspiration for EatGoSee. My mantra is “do what you can do”.
This year’s highlights reflect on those moments that stood out and why. It’s not a power ranking. It’s not a countdown. These are the memorable Restaurants, Plates and Moments. Life is experiential after all.
The Restaurants
February started by tearing through South Tyrol’s snow-dusted Dolomites and hurtling towards Brunico in the twinkle of its winter sun. A short, memorable stay in the compassionately restored Ansitz Heufler inspires me to return with the family because, while beaches are my thing, the mountains are hers and Italy is ours.
I made a press trip pilgrimage to Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler for its tasting menu where the lick-the-plate-bowl spatzlan and a slab of syrupy apple tart tatin linger in my mind and arteries. A twinned visit to AlpINN gifted me the Greatest of All Views and Genussbunker revealed an audacious cheese haven borne of wartime spoils.
May’s Cairo Food Week reacquainted me with a city I only observed during work trips via taxi windows, meaning I never experienced it. We ascended the Pyramids of Giza on Mother’s Day as a family, a poignant return not only to our life before Rufus but also towards the life we want for him, of living and seeing this big, wide world. Egypt is his first passport stamp at only six months old. Mashallah.
Cairo Food Week congregates the region’s best chefs, showcasing Egyptian with international talent. A dinner at the Riviera Four Seasons Nile Plaza was its zenith. With Parmesan cheese, green tomatoes, and orzo, Chef Riccardo Forapani of Cavallino Maranello made me feel things that were NSFW.
A nearly week-long trip to Bangkok culminated in an exquisite lunch at the two-but-really-should-be-three Michelin-starred Sühring by the German twin duo. A tour de force that shed my long-held conviction that German food is a joyless wasteland. I was wrong. While Gaggan is indescribable, it is not always recommendable.
I hopped several flights, endured a storm and skirted the precipice of Kasauli Hills to dine at NAAR in Himachal Pradesh: a fun, engaging dinner of lamb brain tacos, Indian wine and what felt like private views of India’s Himalayas. I’ll never forget it.
Then there’s home: Dubai, where the dining scene evolves in miles and inches. DUO Gastrobar, I said they would get that Bib Gourmand. It is still one of Dubai’s Best Restaurants.
TakaHisa remains the suspiciously unMichelin-starred pariah that deserves better recognition. Each dinner is an education in Japanese cuisine and custom. The uni, their abalone. Mika’s hospitality. Chef Taka’s steely concentration. Chef Hisa’s Cheshire Cat smile. Ram’s generosity with his knowledge and time (and pour). TakaHisa is only eclipsed by Grégoire Berger’s volume of collaborations, but the competition is stiff. TakaHisa is also one of Dubai’s best.
Long-time readers know about my enduring admiration for Chef Himanshu Saini and Tresind Studio. Witnessing this team's strides and humble determination over the years and in real-time is one of life's privileges. The Rising India tasting menu, bite by bite, is one of the best menus I’ve ever eaten. It distils centuries of culture, history, and migration and then looks towards its future. Naturally, it is one of Dubai’s best.
I found Kelvin Cheung’s storytelling utterly compelling as he revealed the personal details of his childhood growing up inside restaurants, oscillating between his heritage and his home. Neither the dishes nor the stories felt forced, and it unpeeled a new level of admiration in Kelvin for me. Jun’s is one of Dubai’s best.
Al Naqa Lao Kebab House blew like a gust of fresh air during my first visit with the incomparable Tiffany Eslick. Chef Aphisith Phongsavanh’s smart and disruptive craft was honed repeatedly via supper clubs. I bought my family back. I recommended it and the rest of Neighbourhood Food Hall to anyone willing to tolerate me long enough. Eat the fried chicken and tell them I sent you.
The Plates
Consorzio’s ox heart tagliatelle. A deceptively simple-looking pasta stained telltale yellow to signal its eggy richness spooned with a dense rubble of ragu made with ox heart all steeped in umami-bursting cheese sauce. Fergus Henderson’s doppelgänger is an Italian woman in Turin named Valentina Chiaramonte. Give her all the flowers.
Kooya’s fried chicken wings. I write about food that assures a good time and a short life. Kooya’s fried chicken wings sit in a crispy, fragrant pile atop that hill. People talk about Pickl or Jailbird as Dubai’s best-fried chicken—and I’ve long let you believe such things. It’s time you knew the truth. (Also, check out Sticky Rice’s tamarind chicken tenders.)
FZN’s chawanmushi and bone marrow. This bowl delicately fortifies a Japanese custard with a lardaceous bone marrow that recreates the bone marrow’s supple texture with the chawanmushi’s feathery lightness. I could eat this by the bathtub. Read about FZN here.
Mamak’s chicken murtabak, and my son’s reaction. A dish plus a Moment. Michelle Johnson of Pitfire and Laura Coughlin/Reif Othman put me onto Mamak. I gorge on this hearty slab of chicken, paratha and curry for breakfast, more than any man should. Rufus snuck of curry-coated spoon at 10 months old and never looked back. I want more places like this.
Chez Wam’s croissant and chicken gravy. Chef Hadrien Villedieu’s ‘fun dining’ Chef’s Table exudes his joie de vivre and deft hand towards the moreish. The decadent croissant sandwich lysing with truffle and foie gras is dredged luxuriantly into a tumbler of meaty chicken jus. You’ll lick your hands clean. Read about Chez Wam here.
Rye Bakery’s Sausage Rolls and ‘Nduja Pizza. Rye Bakery’s sausage rolls made last year’s list. Now the ‘Nduja wood-fired sourdough pizza with hot honey, fior di latte and ricotta is the most fun I’ve had with my clothes on. I drank Barbera at distressed picnic tables, listened to a live band and gazed into the late summer night sky. We need more carefree, spirited corners of the world like this.
Sri Krishna Bhavan’s medu vada. These woody brown savoury doughnuts are crisp and nutty and tear away with hardly any effort. Round lentil sponges that sop up tomato rasam the colour of advancing rust. Anyone cynical about how delicious vegetarian food can be must be frogmarched here for an awakening. Read about Sri Krishna Bhavan here.
Bordo Mavi’s Ice Cream with Thyme-Olive Oil. A visiting friend and I caught up over a late lunch at Bordo Mavi that I would couch as fine when we alighted on a simple scoop of ice cream with a trickle of thyme-scented olive oil. The unabashed, no-where-to-hide simplicity of it all. Do two things, and do them well.
The Moments
A Coveted Vogue Arabia byline. Each month, my mother would spread glossy mags across her bed. It was the 80s, when maximalism was finding new frontiers and Elsa Klensch reported from its Versace-clad front lines. There was Elle, but there was Vogue, American and British. Hard to source in Trinidad, but she had her ways. Vogue is a byline writers dream of and I had the blessed fortune of being approached to write a short article about speakeasy bar culture in Dubai. I bought multiple copies which, in Mu,’s tradition, sit by my bed. I do hope to write more for Vogue and consider this my formal, manifesting application.
Others writing on EatGoSee. A very special thanks to Matthew Broderick and Sanjay Varma!
Semi-public figure. It is an odd sensation when people come up to you in the malls or restaurants (I had one selfie request) and ask “are you Liam? I follow you on Instagram. I read your reviews.” This means more than you can know, but it is weird. Restauranteurs tell me people dine in their restaurants, point at my article on their phone and say ‘I want this. He said this is good”. Thank you.
Laura’s “Dubai’s Best” Series. I respect Laura deeply, and every event I attend is immeasurably brightened by the wattage of her smile and the sparkle of her eyes. She asked me to share my “Dubai’s Best” list, some of which are featured above. Check it out below if you’ve not seen it, and give her a follow. She’s one of Dubai’s Best.
Watching Rufus’ face as he tastes his way through the world. This one speaks for itself. Weaning is a food father’s joy.
Hitting the Snail Trail with Matt and Lizzie. Two years of plotting and, sometimes, fetishizing a day out eating escargot across Dubai. Legend Matt Broderick, Lizzie Stead, and I invested over 10 hours reviewing 10 restaurants to eat over 140 snails, consume over 12,000 calories and over 1000 grams of fat. We give you Dubai’s Escargot Guide. It was an incredible day, a great article and more than anything, I am proud that so many media outlets wrote about the “Snail Trail” as I quietly chuckled.
Hitting 250 subscribers on Substack. I do not have growth strategies for social media or Substack. I find no joy in it. Worse, disappointment can plague you. I was surprisingly proud when the 250-subscriber bell rang. Thank you.
The Long-Term Project. I have alluded to this more than a few times, and I cannot give you more details. I will point a big neon finger towards it when I can, but suffice to say, it terrifies and humbles me perhaps more than anything else I have done. Thank you to those who are intimately involved. You know who you are.
Liam is a restaurant critic, food and travel writer based in the Middle East. He owns EatGoSee and contributes to other publications. You can follow Liam on Substack, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky!
A year well lived! Very much looking forward when I can also point the neon sign in your direction -- so excited.
What a year! And love that you’re passing your joy of food and travel onto Rufus from such a young age