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.
We spent part of a Saturday at Les Amis in Beau Bridge, LA. The warm spice cake with cane syrup and whipped cream probably wouldn't have turned my head in any other setting but for total sensory experience it was memorable.
Living in Tacoma as a Midwesterner and driving to the ocean and to Seattle for our first real tastes of "authentic" American-Asian food and fresh seafood.
The pheasants that my dad hunted and mom browned in butter and roasted to serve with whole cream gravy are meals that I'll never forget.
The sugar and cinnamon toast squares that my grandmother fed me by hand, me sitting in the high chair and her calling me her little "Birdie."
Sitting in my neighbor's green apple tree handy salt shaker out of my shorts pocket and eating the "best green apple in the world."
My sixteenth birthday when my Aunt draped me in one of her furs and some diamonds and took me to a fine restaurant in Minneapolis for my first surf and turf. You know - with the little melted butter thingie and the works.
The over-the-top meal I ate on my wedding night - a seasoned chicken breast atop a half pineapple filled with rice pilaf and a dessert of strawberries Romanoff. LOL.
As I write I think for me that while all the food tasted good it was the meaning of the experience that made it wonderful. I feel sorry for people who only eat to fill themselves up.
A few miles from Hilo, Hawaii (big island), near Pahoa, at the junction of 2 roads was "The Hotdog Man". A little truck with a table set up with THE BEST hot dogs ever. Buffalo, pork and beef with homemade spicy jellies to go with it, plus numerous other toppings. He had a sandwich board at the road juncture on the way to "Isaac Hale" ocean park and the Petrified Trees park.
I fear his spot is covered in lava now. Never had such good hot dogs.
Not "local" food at all but burgers and fries from Room Service in Zagreb, Croatia.
DH and I arrived in the city from the US so we were tired and jet-lagged. We'd also found when we checked into the hotel that there was no hot water. Fortunately there was another hotel in the same chain (Sheraton) nearby so they moved us there, even paying for the taxi.
We woke up in the wee hours of the morning and DH was hungry. I wandered out and NOTHING was open. So- we ordered Room Service. A nice young lady delivered "sliders" and fries. I hadn't thought I was hungry but they were perfect and just hit the spot. I later realized I'd accidentally over-tipped her a lot (like maybe a $10 tip). I didn't care.
Sometimes it's all about the context.
We also had a memorable meal in Zagreb a few year ago. We found a small place that served Peka, a mix of meat and veggies baked for hours under a clay pot.
My husband and I were driving through the Burgundy region of France. When the town where we had thought we would spend the night had no vacancies, we went to the next town, and the next, and finally a village where we found an available hotel room. It was a place we had never heard of, where American tourists are unlikely to go.
The next morning turned out to be market day in that town. At the market, we bought a whole spit-roasted chicken, potatoes fried in the dripping hot fat of the roasting chickens, a bottle of local red wine, and a kilo of cherries. We found a nice spot on a hillside overlooking the Burgundy countryside and settled in to enjoy our picnic lunch.
We hadn't thought to bring cutlery or plates or wine glasses, but it didn't matter. We tore the roasted chicken apart with our hands and drank the wine straight from the bottle. That chicken, and those potatoes, were the best I have ever had, before or since. The cherries were magnificent, and we joked that there would probably be a cherry orchard springing up from the pits we had spit out into the brush. We vowed to come back in ten or so years to see the orchard we had created.
We weren't ever able to go back. My husband became too ill to travel not long after this trip, and he died after a few years of illness. I did give some thought to scattering his ashes on that hillside, but I probably wouldn't be able to find it again.
This probably isn’t that striking but I will never forget the first time I had Bluefish. It was at a restaurant in DC, decades ago. My boss took me out for a business meal. I’ve always enjoyed seafood but that was just amazing. Fresh broiled Bluefish is just pure delight to me.
It is good. People here in NJ go out on party boats for blues, and if you know somebody, they might share the catch.
Chileans love to eat anything they can find in the sea, usually uncooked. Best place is Puerto Montt, where you can be served a whole table of such goodies, forgot what is called, something like "cuantro". Puerto Montt is one of the few places in the world that when you arrive there, you feel that you are in a truly unique place.
The seafood on Cape Cod, very fresh and tasty. The Chicago style hot dogs, very delicious.
The chicken soup in Seoul, on a cold Seoul evening, it warms you up and is delicious!
My husband and I were driving through the Burgundy region of France. When the town where we had thought we would spend the night had no vacancies, we went to the next town, and the next, and finally a village where we found an available hotel room. It was a place we had never heard of, where American tourists are unlikely to go.
The next morning turned out to be market day in that town. At the market, we bought a whole spit-roasted chicken, potatoes fried in the dripping hot fat of the roasting chickens, a bottle of local red wine, and a kilo of cherries. We found a nice spot on a hillside overlooking the Burgundy countryside and settled in to enjoy our picnic lunch.
We hadn't thought to bring cutlery or plates or wine glasses, but it didn't matter. We tore the roasted chicken apart with our hands and drank the wine straight from the bottle. That chicken, and those potatoes, were the best I have ever had, before or since. The cherries were magnificent, and we joked that there would probably be a cherry orchard springing up from the pits we had spit out into the brush. We vowed to come back in ten or so years to see the orchard we had created.
We weren't ever able to go back. My husband became too ill to travel not long after this trip, and he died after a few years of illness. I did give some thought to scattering his ashes on that hillside, but I probably wouldn't be able to find it again.
What an absolutely lovely story! Thank you for sharing it.
My condolences on the passing of your husband. He sounds like a great guy.
One of my most memorable meals was far from exotic but prepared so perfectly it's been impossible to replicate. A few summers ago myself and three friends spent a wonderful week in a home we found on VRBO just outside of Asheville, NC. We spent our time touring the surrounding area and due to my suggestion from a previous visit stopped in at the Knife and Fork run by a James Beard Award-winning chef in the quaint little town of Spruce Pine. The restaurant focus is on fresh, local and in-season so in that day in late July a lunch special was a BLT Sandwich, which too many sounds boring perhaps. However it was by far the best sandwich we all had ever tasted. Plenty of perfectly ripened juicy Heirloom Tomatoes, Crisp Lettuce, Smoked homemade Bacon, thick sliced-lightly toasted Bread from a local bakery and homemade Mayonnaise served with hand-cut crispy Plank-cut French Fries. Simple but drool-worthy even now...*sigh*
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.
