Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There are a lot of years here, and a lot of people. I'm curious - what (over your entire lifetime) was your most memorable or outstanding meal, and what made it so?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,855 posts, read 58,461,786 times
Reputation: 46410
Probably enjoying a Chinese New Year in the home of a national. We were welcomed as family, and the food was wonderful and went on for hours, with a full description of the meanings of each dish.
Everyone tossing the salad into the air was exciting.
We've also had many locally prepared meals by guest home hosts in various countries, and they often cook for us in our home. Very special, very good.
I do appreciate my own home cooked meals after returning to my kitchen after many months on the road or months camping.
Brittany, France, near Morbihan. Passing through, We dropped in on an old friend, unannounced. They took is to a non-electrified thousand year oldd castle, outfitted for dining. Each table in a separate candle-lit bare-stone room with a server in period costume. A simple terrine, bread, wine. Amazing experience.
I have no need/desire to eat in a Michelin 2-star restaurant ever again as our lunch was perfect.
“ The signature dish of the restaurant was scrambled duck egg, which was flambéed tableside with vodka.This was then topped with Sevruga caviar, and served with both buckwheat and plain blinis as well as chilled vodka.”
OMG!
My parents enjoyed wealth (until their divorce) and my mom was a foodie so I have so many memories of culinary excellence. However, there is one very memorable meal I had with them... evidently not just for me, but also my grandmother who mentioned it during our last lucid conversation.
My grandparents had flown down to visit my parents in Dallas while I was away at UT-Austin. For some reason or another I was invited or decided to drive up just for the night to attend one of their fancy meals. That's a 2.5 hour drive each direction... not a small commitment... In any case, I remember being totally deflated in the middle of the meal as I watched my parents schmooze with the "who's who" of Dallas's social and political engines. My dad played it off like he had NO IDEA that all those people would be there that night. Dad was absolutely relishing displaying his social capital in front of his dad, the introverted academic curmudgeon who did in turn appear to be both bitter and diminished. My grandmother, on the other hand, was a lively spendthrift and found the pageant dazzling and approvingly indulgent.
I was disgusted by all of them. Every single relative at that table was royally p!ssing me off. There was mom in the corner... acting like a spoiled trophy wife that could only carry on a confident conversation about Martha Stewart or the next exotic slum tour she was in the middle of booking. Dad there... self-congratulatory, self-aggrandizing, wannabe Goodwill Ambassador of the Universe.. no longer even sitting but standing up with his back against us engaging with the mayor's husband (or someone).... leaving my washed-up grandfather to contemplate in silence how it was ever possible that his college dropout son could actually make something of himself... and my beaming grandmother... well, okay, she liked the finer things in life, but she was genuinely impressed and proud...
Anyway, I was pretty much ignored. And overwhelmed. But mostly I was disappointed my parents decided to share the "family dinner" with half my dad's business associates. Of course they had.... it was undoubtedly predetermined... the intention was clear: dad wanted to "one up" the old man... I finally got it after the palate cleanser between the 2nd and 3rd course... I said to myself gravely "I don't want this kind of life", but I guess I said it out loud because my grandmother heard me and she was truly flabbergasted. I just shook my head and said, "I don't. This is not for me". The conversation stopped there. She just looked at me, sort of squinted and then turned her attention to her darling successful son playing at big city politics...
Well...
She didn't forget that moment. Not after nearly 20 years. She could have brought up a lot of different things but that's what she wanted to talk about last. And the hilarious thing about it is that she was still perplexed! Like, how could I possibly not have been positively delighted?
How about memorable but not outstanding in any culinary way? I was 13, my Midwestern family of five was on a camping trip out west over summer vacation. We went on a side trip, backpacking up a mountain. On the last of three nights, we were almost out of food and were cranky, tired and very hungry. We found a campsite, nobody else around, pitched our tents, and went to the fire pit to start a fire and heat our meager shreds of food for supper. There by the fire was a pile of cans of food with a note. A Boy Scout troop had last camped there, had leftover food, and left it for the next campers. I recall beef stew and baked beans. Our gloom lifted instantly. We ate it all and appreciated every bite. Most memorable meal ever for me, although probably in the lower 20% in terms of taste.
I’ve had many memorable meals, but one that stand out was the summer after my sophomore year in college. A guy I was dating and another couple went to New Orleans for the weekend. We stayed at The Roosevelt Hotel, and we had dinner one night at Commander’s Palace. The food was wonderful , beautifully presented, and the waiters didn’t act like we were a bunch of college students. It was one of the first times that I felt like a grownup.
Mine is a very simple meal. One cooked at home. After 3-4 months of winter and cold weather (I hate more as I get older), it finally warms up. Fire up the charcoal grill, and grill a quarter pound patty of 80/20 ground beef. A few minutes before it comes off the grill I throw the bun on to get it toasted to a nice golden brown. Bring them in and add a little ketchup to the burger. As I bite down on the burger, the interior of the bun is soft but the grilled part is perfectly crunchy and the hamburger with juices flowing has that incredible charcoal flavor. I'll take that burger over any meal at any restaurant.
I was trained as a classical chef in my youth. That pretty much took care of any "foodie" inclinations I may have had.
I like food, but more for the flavor that the price tag.
My most memorable meal was at my cabin during hunting camp. I had 3 friends from Illinois visiting and it was a grand time for them. A real adventure.
The meal came at the end of our stay. My father and his 85 year old brother had come up. A microburst hit the valley and torn a corner of the roof loose so dad and I were fixing it by flashlight. 2 of the guys were trying to process their game from earlier in the day and the third guy hadn't come back to camp, and it was really dark by the time we saw his headlamp coming down the mountain.
Roof fixed, game packed in coolers and the prodigal zone home safely, we started raiding the grub box and coolers to see what was left.
We found a full pork tenderloin and some spuds, and we wrapped everything in tin foil and put it on top of the wood heating stove with big pots of strong black camp coffee.
We were exhausted and starving, drooling waiting for the food, and when it was done, no 5 star dinner on linen and silver ever tasted so good.
The night was cold and clear, we had full bellies and lots of coffee, then the bad jokes and stories started around the wood stove. We were bone tired, and a little silly, but I'll never forget the feelings of friendship and camaraderie that filled that little cabin that night.
Good food is good food, but good friends are a lot harder to find. That night was a real jewel in my memory.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
