The bittersweet process of recalling the best meals of 2016 begins with technology, going through my year’s articles on the internet. Then I rifle through a stack of paper menus before finally coming to my emotions, asking myself how and why certain meals made a more lasting impression than others.

So here, in a whizz around the world — with apologies to Australia, New Zealand and South America, which we plan to visit early next year — are several highlights.

First of all to Paris, the city that bequeathed restaurants to the world and that has suffered more than most in the past two years. My year actually began and ended in the company of wine lover, modern art collector and restaurateur Robert Vifian over meals at Tan Dinh, the restaurant his parents established after fleeing Vietnam in the 1970s. The cuisine included particularly memorable parcels of roast goose, crab pancakes and great red burgundies.