It’s always a shame that holidays begin and end with airplane food because all the bits in-between are tops.

Here are my top five foodie favourites –

5. All the chocolate in Berlin. I can’t tell you how many Mon Cheri liqueur cherries I brought back because if I did, I may have to pay import fees. Needless to say, a trip to the supermarket was a walk down student-exchange-memory-lane.

It was just an average supermarket and it had eight aisles of chocolate and lollies. Eight aisles. Germans know how to do chocolate. At the back of the store there was an alternative exit which had an additional two aisles of chocolate, in case you’d forgotten something.

4. The Ivy is an institution. Everything we ate was perfection but our entrees were memorable – seared foie gras with caramelised chicory tart and sour cherries, and a salad of duck, watermelon, pickled ginger and salted cashews.

3. Maids of Honour cakes near Kew Gardens (that’s them at the back of the picture). What are they? They’re little cakes that are crammed with history and buttery deliciousness (kind of like a Portuguese tart but far less custardy. The pastry is flaky, the topping is sweet, slightly caramelised). So good was our Cream Tea, that we bought dinner there to take home – delicious salmon and leek pie and sausage rolls.

2. We ate well in Berlin, enjoying lots of regional specialties (cherry cake, Currywurst, apple strudel, venison salami, roasted Oldenberg duck) but the highlight was the beer hall meal on our first night- schnitzels so large (but thin and crisp) that they were falling off the sides of the plate served with creamy potato and cucumber salad, and of course, beer.

1. Our meal at St. John was incredible but the rhubarb sorbet with a shot of icy Russian Vodka was undoubtedly one of the most exquisite things I’ve ever eaten (you can see the also-excellent chocolate terrine in the background).