Perhaps it's because deep-fried seafood is so often associated with fast-food joints that we forget how good a whole deep-fried fish can be. The skin, coated lightly in flour and a sprinkling of cayenne pepper or Old Bay, turns crispy with little bubbles and craters. When you take your first bite, a rush of steam from the interior gives way to moist, tender flesh. You can eat the fins as well as the whole fish head, which turns as crispy as a potato chip. To repeat: you can actually eat the whole head, except for the eyeballs. More

When one talks about food, the word decadent is usually reserved for things like rich chocolaty desserts and expensive ingredients like truffles or foie gras. It isn't usually used to describe dishes like ox heart or pig's head—and yet after a recent meal at Fergus Henderson's St. John Restaurant in London that included both of those things, I can't think of another word to use. If you are going to consume a meal entirely of pork fat and offal (pronounced "awful" by those who both love it and hate it), there is really only one place to do it. Opened in 1994 by Henderson, St. John Restaurant has become a mecca for eaters looking for a bit of "nose to... More