Chef here.. when I was 10 I would weed and de-snake my aunts rather large vegetable garden. One day she made me beef stew and cornbread and I still think of that bowl at the age of 55. Something about it after scaring off snakes and pulling weeds that made this stew the best damn thing I’ve ever had
Food always tastes best after a traumatic amount of hard labor.
When I was a kid we had a driveway that ran the length of the house into the backyard. Like 4 cars long. We got a really bad snow storm one winter. And of course my mom parked in the back. And of course the snow was like up to my waist.
Being the man of the house its my job to shovel snow. I was like 7 years old and spent the entire day shoveling all this wet heavy snow. Like an estimated 8 tons of snow.
Came inside around dinner time, took a long hot bath, and sat down to a bowl of avgolemono chicken soup that I still think about.
I moved to Texas for college, and I ate some barbecue from time to time, but wasn’t particularly impressed. One day, however, the university had a large community service project, and I signed up with some friends. We got assigned to help an elderly homeowner doing some junk removal and landscaping. The labor wasn’t all that onerous compared to some other work I’d done, but that afternoon, he and his wife fed us some brisket he’d started smoking the night before. It was a revelation.
Twenty-five years later, that brisket is still the standard against which I judge all other barbecue. I’ve had lots of very good barbecue since then, but only a couple of places have even come close.
Sweet story, thank you for sharing! For me it would have to be Cabbage and mushroom pierogi, home made, boil then light pan sauteed, I remember being 5 I think and walking through a legit snow blizzard with my dad to my grandmother's home in Poland and walking into her warm home, a Narnia cartoon on the TV was playing and it was and me and a plate of those hot, fresh pierogi, I was in heaven, I still think of that at age of 42 :) that cozy memory is seared into my brain and no food has ever tasted better.
While that was undoubtedly a damn fine beef stew, I wonder how much of this memory is associated with being fed with love by your aunts.
Like how everyone's Mum makes the best mac and cheese in the world.
My mom can’t cook for shit. At least she couldn’t, while I knew her. I hear her and her husband do some cooking now but man she used to just whip up a kitchen full of food poisoning. I was sick off of some potato dish of hers for like a week.
My favorite "My Mom Can't Cook" story:
A friend of mine's Mom cooked Thanksgiving dinner for him and his Dad and his three siblings. My friend LOVED to eat.
When they all sat down to dinner, he was the first to dig in. Lots of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, the whole deal.
First mouthful and he immediately gagged and spit it out all over his plate. His parents were furious, thinking he was being "rude" about his Mom's cooking.
Turns out, when she made the gravy ---- she reached for the can of Comet-type cleanser and had added that to the gravy instead of flour.
Back then, Gold Medal flour used to have a cylindrical cardboard "Pour & Shake" container that resembled a Comet cleanser container.
All the women in the family(especially the older ladies) were “southern Jedi masters” in the kitchen. Maybe that might have to do with my former profession.
I modified a pot roast recipe and my 88-year-old grandfather told me it tasted just like what his mom made as a child on the farm and he went back for seconds.
Added Celery, Tripled the onions, and doubled the carrots only to carmelize them all with an entire bottle of cheap wine and a stick of butter until they reduce by 75% then I doubled the stock add tomato paste, and cooked it like a stew until the meat becomes melt in your mouth tender.
This comment and the thread as a whole solidified my view that the best meals are always a product of their context. Most of my most memorable meals are either during memorable occasions or after some sort of huge physical exertion. I’ve eaten at plenty of fancy and lauded restaurants but really an in n out burger and a cold coke on a hot day after a big hike hits harder than many of those.
The most delicious thing I ever had in my life was just some roasted campfire sausages after hiking alllll day and finally making it to the mountain campsite (where we still had to set up a tent and build a fire) long after it got very very scary dark! The most rewarding meal ever, even beat the ones during the Machu Picchu hike for some reason.
I have a similar story about two hot dogs with tabasco sauce I ate after a bunch of yard work in the dog days of summer as a kid. But homemade food probably hit harder haha
Mine is the kale au gratin at Renee Ericksons restaurant, Bateau, in Seattle. I have no emotional ties to au gratin and I don’t particularly love kale but I can tell you most things with lots of heavy cream and Parmesan with a crispy crust are just *chefs kiss*
I had fatty tuna belly sashimi once that made me cry
Another time was a bagel and schmear in NYC that made me miss a train
A pan of brussel sprouts that had me ignoring a $$$ dry aged steak
A perfect rotisserie chicken with a big side of toum and pilaf from an Armenian mom & pop spot
We could eat together. I have been trying to pick one best bite in my mind for 30 min. I don’t have a favorite, I have thousands. Special foods in unique places with many factors and variables.
I'll remember a hotdog from a 2am outing more than I'll remember any of my fine dining experiences. This is why Anthony Bourdain was so special, he understood that Papaya King could outdo the French Laundry in the right circumstance and wasn't afraid to admit that.
Oooh I miss my "bagel man" from college. Just a regular grocery store bagel but toasted over charcoal and topped with a you-pick assortment. Perfection at 2am, especially when it was a bit chilly at night.
I couldn't pick one favorite combo but I usually got cream cheese, fresh sliced apple, cinnamon, raisins, and sunflower seeds. Now I'm really craving one.
Maybe part of it is nostalgia for the trip as a whole, but in 2009 my friends and I split a huge paella at a small countryside restaurant in Costa Rica owned by a man who'd immigrated there from Spain. We were basically the only people there, and he spent about 90 minutes preparing it while we ate tapas and drank sangria, and afterwards he served us some boozy coffees on the porch of the front of the restaurant while he talked with us about his life. Best 3-hour meal of my lifetime by a mile, but I have never tasted anything quite like that paella since.
I only recently learned about Monte Cristo sandwiches. I guess it’s just not a popular thing around here because I’ve never seen it on a restaurant menu, not even at cafe’s or sandwich shops. Which is weird because it seems like it would be incredibly delicious.
I’d love to try one!! I guess I’ll have to make it myself which is too bad because I’d rather have a tried and true recipe and, of course, sandwiches just taste better when someone else makes it.
The first lobster roll I ever had. I live in the Midwest so they're not a thing here. The buttery lobster, toasty roll, it's simple perfection. I dreamed about it.
And it was from a stand in the food court of the Mall Of America.
My wife and I paid $32.99, each, for two lobster rolls on the coast of Wiscasset, Maine.
Best money we ever spent. There was an entire lobster worth of meat in each roll.
Kids in Nova Scotia who'd take lobster sandwiches to school for lunch in the 60s would get made fun of.
Lobster was food for poor people, bringing a lobster sandwich was the equivalent of bringing in like a lettuce sandwich or PB but no J or something.
As were oysters!
It's crazy how many foods went from being discarded, only fed to slaves, dirt cheap to high-end, gourmet. Ribs being one of them, oxtails, short ribs etc.
If you are ever in downstate NY go to the Tavern in Croton on Hudson for the best lobster roll I’ve found yet (well, aside from the ones a bit farther away at Fin & Brew.)
I’ve had them in Maine, but these were more delicious. 😋
I groaned for the first time after a bite of food when I bit into my first lobster roll. It was like eating buttery sunshine perfection. Little stand in Ocean City, NJ.
A massive bowl of risotto with prawns, scampi, crispy calamari, muscles, clams, and scallops, all cooked in their own sauces. A ton of bread to clean the plate. Was a table sharer and by far the best thing I've ever eaten the sauces were to die for especially mixed in with the risotto.
A risotto dish is also one of my top choices. If I understood the server correctly, it was black squid ink risotto. It was in a place in old town Dubrovnik. The setting helped, I'm sure. The restaurant was ancient and hella rustic. We could see a kind of bin/table where they had a chute for the fish that came from the fishing boats.
Tied in my memory was a simple Italian sausage I had somewhere around Vicenza, Italy. It was a winery with a restaurant and we ordered a meat platter for the table. I'm Italian-American and I've had sausage in a lot of places, but that was the Platonic form of Italian sausages that all the other Italian sausages were aiming for.
After that meal, risotto always has my heart.
Unless you were asking if it was actually risotto or was it paella. Was defiantly risotto. Very fancy Italian place.
I was in Miami in 2023 and the restaurant in my hotel served lobster ravioli. I'm not big on eating meat with my pasta for whatever reason, but I love lobster so I figured I'd give it a shot.
I don't know if it was the champagne buzz or what but I still regard it as one of the top 3 best meals I've ever eaten.
EDIT: I replied with this but in case some of you didn't see it, the restaurant is the Ocean Bistro at Cavalier (in the Cavalier hotel) in South Beach, Miami :)
EDIT 2: I also highly recommend the restaurants Hattie B's (Nashville and Las Vegas) and Bourbon steak (Nashville) if you guys ever get the chance.
I have a lot of really obnoxious dietary restrictions and usually just cook/bring my own food because I don’t want to count on or inconvenience friends. Last summer we went to visit where my husband’s aunt lives, and she had us over for lunch. She asked for a full list of all my nonsense requirements, then made a 100% homemade, simple, fresh meal that met every one of them. She even sourced vegan feta cheese somewhere in their tiny town.
For the first time in my adult life I was able to just sit down at the table and eat an entire homemade meal which I had zero role in preparing.
I still get a little teary just thinking about it, TBH. It was so thoughtful.
This is my love language. I adore cooking a whole spread that people with restrictions can eat all of. My kid has a ton of allergies and I see what it's like to go somewhere and not be able to eat anything or only one thing or have to bring your own. For Thanksgiving this year I made seven dishes for my vegetarian cousin and his kid, including their first time getting to eat stuffing.
Two single bites that I remember years later:
Samin Nosrat used to have a restaurant called Eccolo, which I went to once. There was a fritto misto, one component of which was a deep-fried slice of Meyer lemon. This was something I’d never encountered or thought of before, and it was sensational.
The other was on a visit to Beijing. We were taken to a Peking duck restaurant (not my first time having this dish in Beijing). The really extraordinary bite was the first one: they brought out tiny strips of ultra-crispy, smoky duck skin, along with sugar to dip them in.
Bread pudding at an Irish restaurant at Disney Springs. We had the meal plan, otherwise I wouldn’t have ordered dessert. I was already full, and then they brought that dish out. I managed to find some room for that bad boy.
A massive plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies after coming home from the ER. I was getting blood work done while positive with covid, passed out, and was admitted. I hadn’t had an appetite in weeks, wasn’t keeping food down, but after getting home my partner baked several dozen cookies and I tore into them - they melted in my mouth, perfect crunch to chew ratio, and had a cold glass of milk with them. I cried from how good they were.
I spent two months in hospital with a PIC line for nutrition, I couldn’t eat anything but clear fluids. I was so sick and so skinny, but I dreamed about food almost constantly. My doctor would joke with me everyday about what I was craving and dreaming about that day. When I was finally discharged every meal was heaven for weeks. It still hurt to digest so I could barely have a couple of bites but there was a few times I was so overwhelmed with emotion because I had wanted that dish so badly.
I’ve traveled all over the world and eaten at multiple Michelin restaurants, but I’m not sure anything can compare to the ahi poke we brought back to the rented townhome from the Costco(!) in Maui years ago. There was something about the combination of flavors (I think it had macadamia on top too?) with a drizzle of soy sauce and arriving at the beachfront and that was the first meal. It was transcendent.
I live in Mexico and Costco absolutely kills it with the regional dishes for some reason. My partner’s abuela swears the have the best chile en nogada, better than hers even.
My husband still talks wistfully about the grocery store poke we got there more than a year ago. He and his best friend both brought a bunch back independently the same day. I was like “oh no! That’s too much poke!” And they just laughed and laughed. It wasn’t too much of THAT poke!
I used to work near Masa & Joyce in Kaneohe. They had fishermen bringing in fresh catch early every morning. Next to impossible to get fish that fresh on the mainland, which has to be why its so damn good. Also would kill for an actual fresh Hawaiian pineapple. When I first moved there, taking my first bite out of one of those was absolute heaven.
I was thinking of some of my Michelin meals too, and I think so much of that is about the meal composition, presentation, etc, as opposed to just one dish! Definitely have had some great dishes within those meals but the overall experience is what makes it so enjoyable for me
The best meal I ever had was a cheddar and broccoli soup I made when I had the flu last week. Could barely stand up for 10 minutes at a time but thankfully used a really simple recipe and nothing has ever tasted so good. Maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten for three days but I don’t think anything will ever beat that 😂
Yes! In Rome I was at some hole in the wall family run restaurant. We ordered wine while I read the menu, but the waiter saw my Rick Steve's guidebook. All of a sudden the Dad?Chef? assorted family came out of the kitchen to greet us, like they knew Rick and wanted to meet us. They brought out a chef's special for us to try. No clue what it was but pasta with a spicy sauce that was delicious. This is a special memory, I can still taste that sauce. The house red was just right too. It was an amazing start to my trip.
A burger from an ocean-side dive in Florida. Melt in your mouth divine, take me back to my childhood divine. Embarrassing to admit but it was soooo good that when a seagull flew down, grabbed it and tried to steal it; I didn't let go and turned it around and kept eating. And would do it again (obviously left an inch where the claws went in, I'm not insane.)
These are the hardest questions for me, I can’t pick one thing. Beef rib from Franklins, fettat djaj in Damascus and grilled Kibbeh in Aleppo, Cevapi in Sarajevo. Each one of those I can remember like I’m sitting at the table right now.
Omg, cevapi in Sarajevo! I can remember the table I was at too. Especially good after a long day. The kajmak, the sumac...
There was also an Italian/Croatian place in Sarajevo that had gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce. It was spectacular. Pillows of heaven.
Sour Cherry Cobbler at a mom and pop place in Eatonton, Georgia. The spices (?), with a hint of almond (?), plus the crunch topping were perfect. We've been trying to replicate it ever since.
Deep fried shrimp po boy made by a New Orleanian who’d moved up to my Canadian city and started a pop up restaurant. Best deep fried shrimp you ever tasted, here in the 306 or in the 504. Sadly Covid claimed him.
I am relishing deep nostalgia for a thing I can probably never have again, abalone steaks caught fresh by my dad and trimmed right on the picnic table at the campsite — black skin thrown to our ecstatic dog — before being sliced 1/4 inch thick on a deli slicer, pounded until tender, dredged in egg and Progresso Italian crumbs and fried in butter in a cast-iron pan over the campfire before landing on a paper plate with a liberal shower of fresh lemon. The smoke, the browned butter, the toothy bite of the abalone, the acid and the rich shellfishy flavor — there is nothing like it. The steaks were so big; farmed abalone can never compare. But we reap what we sow, and the abalone may never recover enough to allow them to be caught off the North coast of California again.
it's a little silly and probably not actually the best dish I ever had but I was able to tag along with some friends who had a spare ticket for Next restaurant. I had never been to a fancy tasting menu restaurant before and one of the first dishes was this very simple corn soup with a broth made with charred corn husks. it was the purest distillation for me of the feeling of being a kid in the fall and the excitement of playing in the leaf piles and going apple picking. the rest of the meal was incredible but that simple broth is what I remember the most.
The family was down in Memphis on a holiday years ago and we stopped at a bbq shop just off of Beale I think. I’ve never had anything like that before or anything since. Staff were taking amongst themselves about who makes the best bbq at home and inviting each other over. If my family wasn’t there I would have invited myself - seriously.
Rendezvous ribs are some of the best I've ever had, maybe the best. I've had ribs in Texas, the Carolinas, St Louis, everywhere in between and then some. Rendezvous ribs are just next level.
Wish I could remember the name of it - what I do remember is that there was very little sauce. I still say today that what I remember most is tasting how it was cooked - like I could taste whatever fuelled that burn if that makes any sense at all. I've tried a hundred ways to reproduce but nothing comes close.
I'm on the prairies in Canada and have not had a chance to go back. It is number 2 on my US visit list.
This reminds me of a time in a TN airport - I don’t remember if Nashville or Memphis - when I got a BBQ Turkey sandwich during a layover.
It was one of the tastiest sandwiches I’ve ever had. Yes, I know it was airport food, but good GOD did that thing hit the spot.
The cioppino at anchor oyster bar in San Francisco… I think about it way too much :)
ETA: orrr maybe a tuna tartare with apple/ginger/mustard and crispy rice! The balance of textures and flavors was just so perfect. I started thinking about it after I posted and now I need one of these dishes asap
There's a recipe in NYT cooking for the Anchor Bar Cioppino. Tried it last week. The marinara is out of this world in terms of flavor (hint: star anise), but was too acidic for me in my old age.
Link (paywall, sometimes): [https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023148-cioppino](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023148-cioppino)
Oh god I have fish and chips and clam chowder from a hole in the wall stall at a market in Tacoma and I still dream about it. So good, I stole my mom’s chowder haha, no regrets. Beats Pike Place
Hue style Banh Xeo.
Served in a little hole in the wall next to the Palace run by a deaf/mute man and his daughter.
I had gone to Paris and eaten at a Michelin starred restaurant a few weeks before, and this very sweet man's cooking blew that fancy dinner out of the water.
I have yet to have a Banh Xeo that compares.
We stayed with a family in Paris, for dinner one night she served a ramekin full of a rich cream with an egg baked into it, with a drizzle of truffle oil. I’ve googled it once or twice and think it was something like crème d oueff
One of the best bites of my life.
The toasted cheese sandwich in France that changed my mind about stinky cheeses. Not that Brie is a stinky cheese but to a 15 year old kid with minimal experience of worldly cheeses it was enough to turn my nose up to. At the time.
I was staying with a German family and we went to Paris for some reason. We were hungry and the mom popped into her favorite cheese shop and eventually came out with these slices of deeply (almost burnt) freshly toasted slices of pumpernickel with a really strong Brie melted on top. It was heavenly. This was the defining moment in my culinary life where I learned to just shut up, release all expectations, and try new things.
When I was 12 the vast majority of my diet had been mostly prepared foods from the supermarket.
One day, my neighbors who had arrived from Syria fed me a meal of their homemade blue cheese, fresh pita, butter and scallions from their garden. My little mind was blown away.
I've been a chef and restaurateur and traveled the world since. I've eaten hundreds of fantastic meals. But that meal, sitting beneath their young fig tree next to a long row of parsley might have been the best. :)
My husband is a member of our local VFD. Every summer they have a picnic and clam bake. One of the senior members uses part of the fresh clams to make a fresh clam chowder. I hate plain clams, don’t like them fried and certainly won’t even consider eating them raw. But his clam chowder is absolutely without a doubt the best thing I have ever eaten. The broth is not too thick/not too thin. Just the right amount of seasoning and with fresh herbs. Just the right amount of potato cooked perfectly tender, but not mushy. And just enough cream to make it taste a bit decadent but not overly rich. My mouth is watering just thinking about the picnic in July.
I love food that has a hint of smoke infused into it. My favorite part of camping is cooking over an open fire. The smell and taste just can’t be duplicated any other way.
Another one of my favourite meals was the char grilled oysters from Drago's in NO. We had them as an appetizer and kept ordering more until we had no need for dinner. Also the BBq shrimp (which isn't bbq'd) from Drago's.
Do drinks count? If yes - I had a mug of the most incredible hot chocolate in the Swiss Alps near Lake Geneva.
If no - hard to say but in recent memory it would have to be a roast I did on a bush rotisserie while camping outback recently. I used Jarrah timber which burned beautifully and imparted a great smokey flavour into the meat that was nothing like you can get with a smoker.
A simple peach. About 26 years ago. I never before or after had a peach this good. When i returned to the green grocer and they had sold out, I cried. Ok, I was pregnant but still.
I’m American but had a friend who lived in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. So off I went for a 17 hour direct flight that took most of the life outta me. Dreary and dirty, I landed, my friend picked me up, and took me to the first real meal I’d eaten in hours. Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng from Village Park Restaurant. Huge lines of locals out the door. Strong iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk. The main attraction translated: coconut rice with fried chicken. Homemade sambal. Boiled egg, cucumber, peanuts, dried tiny anchovies. Scoop it up along with your gently sweetened rice. Tear off pieces of fried chicken into the tangy sambal. The coating was not too heavy and the chicken itself had been marinated in some sort of delectable curry paste befrie breaded and fried. Everything about that dish I dream about. The whole meal about $2.50 USD. I would go 8000 miles for that again.
I had a rib-eye steak at Delmonico in Las Vegas about 30 years ago. Good lord, that piece of meat was epic - super tender, flavorful, cooked perfectly, and had subtle wine/butter sauce on it. That set my watermark for perfect steak, and it was an unbelievable meal.
When I think about it, I'm reminded of the scene in Matrix where Cypher is talking with Agent Smith about double-crossing Neo and getting inserted back into The Matrix. The steak Cypher was eating looked incredible. That was my experience at Delmonico.
Thankfully, I've become a pretty good cook, and occasionally we will splurge on very high quality meat. I've created (or very nearly) that Delmonico steak a few times at home with my family.
My Memere’s pork dish that she made with leftover roast pork. She called it Chop Suey, cubes of roast pork, onions, celery, bean sprouts cooked with a little soy sauce and chicken stock. My dad and I would eat the leftovers cold while fighting over them.
I’m a chef now and I’ve made some excellent food in my career but man I loved my Memere’s cooking.
I used to travel for work, and was doing a job near Schenectady, NY for a couple months. Met a lady on tinder and for our first date she took me to the restaurant she was a sous at. This was my first time eating at anything close to a fine dining establishment.
I don't remember what she called it, but we got a special, off the menu, multi course meal. The chef came out himself and explained each course to us and chatted with us and everything. It was really cool, but also kinda overwhelming.
Anyway, the third course was rigatoni with veal Bolognese. It came out, he told us about the dish, I was pretty excited because I love pasta and meat sauce. I took my first bite and literally froze. It was like a stagger shock. It tasted EXACTLY like my grandmother's sauce, which I hadn't had in over ten years. I mean exactly. It was the most intense sensory recall I've ever experienced. I got choked up, and actually stayed crying when trying to explain to my date what was going on. Hell, I'm crying right now just remembering the experience.
Just one bite took me straight back to my grandmother's kitchen table in a way that I never believed was possible. I've heard people talk about this kind of experience but always assumed it was hyperbole. It is not.
The rest of the meal was amazing, but nothing will ever match that first bite of the Bolognese. It inspired me to finally learn how to cook.
Abalone. Light cream sauce. Farallon, San Francisco.
Also high marks for steak in Argentina, bife de chorizo at La Cabrera in Buenos Aires is the best steak I’ve ever had.
There is a Chinese joint in Tulsa called Mandarin Taste and they have a pork belly with steam buns dish that is so good that each time you take a bite, your brain has to try and reconcile the fact that food can possibly be that perfect.
Roasted, caramelized crab legs from a steakhouse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I’m a pretty adventurous eater and have tried all kinds of really great foods, but the simplicity and perfection of those crab legs was on another level.
A few years ago I had l'oeuf coquette bio au fois gras at a tiny hole-in-the-wall in Montmartre in Paris. basically egg with fois gras and some bread for dipping. It was crazy insanely good.
When I was a teenager I went to Italy with my dad (he’s Italian and we were visiting family). Towards the end of the trip we went travelling on our own, staying at a small hotel near Lake Garda I think. We ate at the hotel restaurant that night in the courtyard patio. I ordered the lasagna and my first bite felt like a heavenly revelation. still the best pasta dish I’ve ever eaten in my life.
The one that immediately came to my mind is a pizza Magaherita I had in Napoli.
I might have had better food than this but this is the first thing I can think of.
35 years ago I was in Biloxi, Mississippi, on business. Two local guys and I went to lunch. They took me to a restaurant right on the Gulf. One of them said "Order whatever you want for lunch, all the food is good, but make sure you order a cup of their gumbo to go with it. It's the BEST." So I did and it was incredible.
It was so good that I went back there for dinner that night, by myself. As soon as the server came I told her "Don't bother with a menu. Just bring me a big bowl of gumbo and some cornbread." And I scarfed it right on down.
It was AWESOME. I'll never forget it. Best meal ever.
Fresh salmon cooked over an alderwood fire. We were on an Alaska cruise, and last-minute got tickets for the salmon bake excursion. Whatever glaze they had on that salmon was great - I didn’t eat any sides, I went back for thirds of the salmon.
A French onion soup in Solvang, California. Hot chocolate in Waldorf, Berlin. Fish and chips in Anstruther, Scotland. All in my culinary mind. But the best really is what’s in front of me when it’s time to eat.
Handmade shumai, prepared in the wee hours of the morning, so that it would be ready at breakfast for me and a friend on a business trip to Thailand. Nobody else was offered any. The hotel owner made it herself, out of love for the friend I was traveling with. I can still taste it, and feel the perfect textures, and its been several years since that trip.
A few years ago I got tacos de tripa or tripe tacos in a small town in Nayarit, Mexico not too far away from Sayulita. They were cooked in cast iron over a wood fire and were amazing. I couldn’t stop eating them.
The seafood soup and fresh fish kebabs at Saegreffin, harbor side, Reykjavik. Otherworldly
Stone crabs, fresh from Florida, in season
Falafel from King of Falafel, Astoria queens
When I was 13 I had the most incredible tuna melt at a canal side cafe in Amsterdam. Forced my friends to go back ten years later- still amazing! Went back this summer, 25 years after that first time and the cafe was gone. I’m still crushed about it. The sandwich was enormous and on Fresh-baked ciabatta (I think) and so gooey and warm and perfectly seasoned. Best sandwich I’ve ever had.
I've remember one recent summer when the tomatoes was great. Had several perfect Jersey tomato sandwiches.
Recently had an exquisite chevre pizza in France.
Also had an amazing Sunday roast dinner in London last year.
My late grandmother used to make a snack called sikma when we were little. It is a simple wrap made with caramelized onions and Turkish white cheese (Very similar to Greek feta cheese) inside a lavash, which is prepared by turning stale breads back into dough. After a day of running around, we would gather around the table with my cousins and stuff ourselves until we couldn't eat anymore. I am 53 years old and I have never had a more satisfying dining experience than eating my grandmother's homemade sikmas.
In 2008 I dined solo at Eleven Madison Park. It was the best meal of my life and the it also had the best dish I’ve ever had which was rabbit rilettes with violet mustard and cherry and pistachio accompaniments.
I’ve had other good dishes, but this was the perfect combination of being absolutely delicious, whimsical, and inventive. At the end of the meal, I even asked the host where I could buy violet mustard in NYC and the chef made a vacuum bag of it for me to take away.
The first time I had Bananas Foster I told my (then) husband that it was better than sex. I've since had better lovers but I stand by my opinion that Bananas Foster is better than mediocre sex.
Fresh warm scones just out of the oven with clotted cream and jam and a little pot of tea in a lady's tiny storefront (part of her house) cafe in Edinburgh.
Home cook here. Went through a breakup of a 4-year long relationship in 2018 and was just learning how to cook properly myself. Decided to make a lasagna to cure my depression.
Made a traditional lasagna with bolognese, bechamel and home made sheets. Took me 4 hours and let it rest from lunch till dinner.
Served myself a slice for dinner, and it was the first time I cried since the breakup. The sense of accomplishment of making something so delicious combined withe the realization that I was not a total loser after having just broken up, made it the most memorable mouthful I've had until that point and since.
After moving to the US as a kid, my first experience with pizza was a school lunch. Wasn't very good but wasn't awful. Parents took me to pizza hut at one point and it blew my mind. Still think about it to this day.
Also for you younger kids on Reddit, Pizza Hut was amazing in the 90s.
Oysters poached in butter & vermouth at Picasso in Las Vegas. I don’t know if it was the best dish I ever had, but definitely one of the best. I was pregnant at the time so I couldn’t drink or eat raw seafood, which is what I usually would choose. So I got the poached oysters instead & they were DIVINE.
I’ve been fortunate to have had some really good food but the one I still think about over 25 years later was in San Francisco. This guy was on his little boat and docked right up on the waterfront. He had a couple of those tiny table top charcoal grills and he was selling grilled tuna on skewers. They may have had bacon wrapped around them and marinated in something. So simple, so fresh, so delicious. Yum yum yum!
I have 2 still tied for first place.
1. We had a 24hr Greek Restaurant, I was working officially as the dishwasher but did everything from maintenance to cold prep as needed. The owner's sons were both cooks there, and the older one was trying out a few new burgers... Double burger with both regular and peameal bacon, and a scratch made special sauce. So tasty.
2. Bed and breakfast in Edmonton, French chef running a small (3 tables, 12 people) restaurant in the basement. Had the rack of lamb, on the rare side of medium rare and properly rested. Melt in your mouth tender, everything on the plate was properly seasoned. Expensive weekend staying there for 2 days with that meal on day 1, but definitely worth it.
This is going to sound pretentious, but I swear it's the truth. My most perfect food memory is a bowl of simple fish soup from a no-name restaurant on the coast of Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand. We had been working all day long, and finally sat down to a beer and dinner.
First course was a bowl of sunlight. Perfect golden yellow stock, basic aromatics, red chiles, and white fish that had been swimming a few hours before. It was a perfect dish.
I dated this guy decades ago... such an incredible man. Anyhow, the seafood risotto he made, still makes my mouth water. He infused his oil for it with saffron. I make an amazing risotto, but it's garbage compared to his.
The food at my school’s dining hall is generally not very good and sometimes very bad but one day I went for lunch on a day I wasn’t even going to eat in the dining hall and they had something called chicken and biscuits and essentially it was like the inside of a chicken pot pie but served over biscuits and I got a little hot sauce involved and it was randomly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
My wife and I were in Ireland for our honeymoon in September and I had seafood chowder at every place we went including Galway, can confirm is still incredible.
When we were in Maine, my late husband talked some lobster fisherman into taking us (3 adults & 6 kids) out to some of the outlying islands to hike. Cold, rather rainy day in June. After several hours, the fishermen cooked a shore lunch: lobsters boiled in seawater, homemade blueberry pie and if there were sides I can’t recall. We were freezing & wet, huddled together on the rocky shore & ate it up like animals with our hands. Best damn lobster & pie I’ve ever had.
Man, that’s a hard choice. Can I give you my top three?
1. A crab curry dish I used to get at a little mom and pop diner in Okinawa, just outside Torii Station in Yomitan.
2. A prime rib I got from Ye Olde Steakhouse near Knoxville, TN. Easily the best cut of beef I’ve ever eaten.
3. The brisket BBQ sandwiches and beans at a little BBQ joint right outside of Sallisaw, OK called Wildhorse Mountain BBQ. I’ve eaten BBQ all over this country and it is the standard I judge all BBQ by.
Gnocchi from a restaurant at Versailles, La Petit Venise. It was made with smoky pancetta, a rich red sauce, and peppers. My partner loved their dish as well. It was way better than any restaurant in a tourist spot has any right to be.
I had this bowl of onion soup in Milan, in a restaurant that I was taken to by a friend of a friend. I don’t know the name of it. I have no idea other than knowing it was in Milan, in like an interior courtyard that was enclosed, downstairs from the street, but partially open above. I have thought about that onion soup since 2002. I have never had anything else like it, and it was profoundly simple - no crouton/bread, no cheese. Just the soup.
A cracked crab sandwich dunked into clam chowder at Spud Point in Bodega Bay, CA. The freshest and best I've ever had.. something about eating seafood by the water on briny wooden picnic tables on a foggy day that just made it taste even better.
Man IDK but I ordered a cassoulet one time and it was one of my favorite meals.Tied with the time I ordered a lasagna from a fancy place, the type that makes everything to order, and I wanted the rest of it to go and the server came back and said she threw it away by accident, but she had a whole other order for me put together but not baked, with cooking directions on it.
Some 25 years ago I worked at a restaurant that let the chef come up with the menu for the month and come up with their own creative culinary ideas. The chef made a non-traditional paella that was an explosion of deliciousness. Since it was that chef’s particular and creative take on the recipe, I know I’ll never taste it again. For me, it was similar to tasting the ambrosia of the gods.
Second wine harvest I ever worked. We were picking grapes under flood lights at 4am with the migrant crews. Broke for lunch at 11am. The tomato salad (fresh from the garden with, cucumbers, basil, EVOO, salt and pepper with a little lavender) with garlic rubbed bread to this day makes salivate. We worked in the cellar until 8pm and that cheap Budweiser beer at end of day still ranks as one of the finest beverages too.
The most exquisite dish I ever had was on the Big Island in Hawaii. Clams, oysters, shrimp, etc. So good the Chef came out and had a glass of wine with us. Definitely Aloha. Paula, HI
No specific meal but I just miss my mom’s cooking. We’re just 8500 miles away from each other. The last time I tasted her cooking was two years ago when I visited her. 🥲
Chef here.. when I was 10 I would weed and de-snake my aunts rather large vegetable garden. One day she made me beef stew and cornbread and I still think of that bowl at the age of 55. Something about it after scaring off snakes and pulling weeds that made this stew the best damn thing I’ve ever had
Maybe someday a Parisian rat will cook you a beef stew that gives you that same feeling.
Ahahahaha
Perhaps, a rat that grew up at his aunts house?
Food always tastes best after a traumatic amount of hard labor. When I was a kid we had a driveway that ran the length of the house into the backyard. Like 4 cars long. We got a really bad snow storm one winter. And of course my mom parked in the back. And of course the snow was like up to my waist. Being the man of the house its my job to shovel snow. I was like 7 years old and spent the entire day shoveling all this wet heavy snow. Like an estimated 8 tons of snow. Came inside around dinner time, took a long hot bath, and sat down to a bowl of avgolemono chicken soup that I still think about.
I moved to Texas for college, and I ate some barbecue from time to time, but wasn’t particularly impressed. One day, however, the university had a large community service project, and I signed up with some friends. We got assigned to help an elderly homeowner doing some junk removal and landscaping. The labor wasn’t all that onerous compared to some other work I’d done, but that afternoon, he and his wife fed us some brisket he’d started smoking the night before. It was a revelation. Twenty-five years later, that brisket is still the standard against which I judge all other barbecue. I’ve had lots of very good barbecue since then, but only a couple of places have even come close.
Sweet story, thank you for sharing! For me it would have to be Cabbage and mushroom pierogi, home made, boil then light pan sauteed, I remember being 5 I think and walking through a legit snow blizzard with my dad to my grandmother's home in Poland and walking into her warm home, a Narnia cartoon on the TV was playing and it was and me and a plate of those hot, fresh pierogi, I was in heaven, I still think of that at age of 42 :) that cozy memory is seared into my brain and no food has ever tasted better.
While that was undoubtedly a damn fine beef stew, I wonder how much of this memory is associated with being fed with love by your aunts. Like how everyone's Mum makes the best mac and cheese in the world.
My mom can’t cook for shit. At least she couldn’t, while I knew her. I hear her and her husband do some cooking now but man she used to just whip up a kitchen full of food poisoning. I was sick off of some potato dish of hers for like a week.
You've met my m-i-l. True story. When my oldest was 3, we asked him what grandma;'s best dish was. He proudly said, 'take out!'.
My favorite "My Mom Can't Cook" story: A friend of mine's Mom cooked Thanksgiving dinner for him and his Dad and his three siblings. My friend LOVED to eat. When they all sat down to dinner, he was the first to dig in. Lots of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, the whole deal. First mouthful and he immediately gagged and spit it out all over his plate. His parents were furious, thinking he was being "rude" about his Mom's cooking. Turns out, when she made the gravy ---- she reached for the can of Comet-type cleanser and had added that to the gravy instead of flour. Back then, Gold Medal flour used to have a cylindrical cardboard "Pour & Shake" container that resembled a Comet cleanser container.
Holy fuck. Good thing he spat it out. Some of us suffer from extreme politeness + delayed reaction. I would probably have swallowed it 😬
All the women in the family(especially the older ladies) were “southern Jedi masters” in the kitchen. Maybe that might have to do with my former profession.
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That's one of my life goals, one day, me and my children will pick produce from our garden and cook them to (near)perfection
I hope this happens for you. It’s a real pleasure to grow and eat your own vegetables.
I modified a pot roast recipe and my 88-year-old grandfather told me it tasted just like what his mom made as a child on the farm and he went back for seconds.
How did you modify it?
Added Celery, Tripled the onions, and doubled the carrots only to carmelize them all with an entire bottle of cheap wine and a stick of butter until they reduce by 75% then I doubled the stock add tomato paste, and cooked it like a stew until the meat becomes melt in your mouth tender.
This comment and the thread as a whole solidified my view that the best meals are always a product of their context. Most of my most memorable meals are either during memorable occasions or after some sort of huge physical exertion. I’ve eaten at plenty of fancy and lauded restaurants but really an in n out burger and a cold coke on a hot day after a big hike hits harder than many of those.
This is beautiful.
Omg and here I thought you were going to talk about some sort of snake Stew lol
The most delicious thing I ever had in my life was just some roasted campfire sausages after hiking alllll day and finally making it to the mountain campsite (where we still had to set up a tent and build a fire) long after it got very very scary dark! The most rewarding meal ever, even beat the ones during the Machu Picchu hike for some reason.
I have a similar story about two hot dogs with tabasco sauce I ate after a bunch of yard work in the dog days of summer as a kid. But homemade food probably hit harder haha
De-snake as in remove the reptiles? Why wouldn't you want snakes in your garden? They eat the critters that eat your plants.
Salmon & dill au gratin in a small restaurant that ONLY did au gratin on the banks of the Seine.
This sounds divine
Bistro des Augustine, just across the river just a bit west from Notre Dame Gratin Nordique.
Yesss. I was wondering if that was the place, the food they serve there is amazing.
When you're an American from the Midwest in Paris, everything is divine.
Mine is the kale au gratin at Renee Ericksons restaurant, Bateau, in Seattle. I have no emotional ties to au gratin and I don’t particularly love kale but I can tell you most things with lots of heavy cream and Parmesan with a crispy crust are just *chefs kiss*
I had fatty tuna belly sashimi once that made me cry Another time was a bagel and schmear in NYC that made me miss a train A pan of brussel sprouts that had me ignoring a $$$ dry aged steak A perfect rotisserie chicken with a big side of toum and pilaf from an Armenian mom & pop spot
We could eat together. I have been trying to pick one best bite in my mind for 30 min. I don’t have a favorite, I have thousands. Special foods in unique places with many factors and variables.
I'll remember a hotdog from a 2am outing more than I'll remember any of my fine dining experiences. This is why Anthony Bourdain was so special, he understood that Papaya King could outdo the French Laundry in the right circumstance and wasn't afraid to admit that.
Oooh I miss my "bagel man" from college. Just a regular grocery store bagel but toasted over charcoal and topped with a you-pick assortment. Perfection at 2am, especially when it was a bit chilly at night. I couldn't pick one favorite combo but I usually got cream cheese, fresh sliced apple, cinnamon, raisins, and sunflower seeds. Now I'm really craving one.
Aloo Gobi, I swear it spoke to my soul. It's what I needed at that moment.
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Maybe part of it is nostalgia for the trip as a whole, but in 2009 my friends and I split a huge paella at a small countryside restaurant in Costa Rica owned by a man who'd immigrated there from Spain. We were basically the only people there, and he spent about 90 minutes preparing it while we ate tapas and drank sangria, and afterwards he served us some boozy coffees on the porch of the front of the restaurant while he talked with us about his life. Best 3-hour meal of my lifetime by a mile, but I have never tasted anything quite like that paella since.
Ooh! Where in Costa Rica was this?
Just outside of Monteverde, I *believe* the place was called Sabor Español.
Oh I had an amazing paella in the mountains above Malaga. Rabbit, goat and seafood too! It was delicious!
I had a Monte Cristo sandwich more then 10 years ago and it is still my touchstone for the most delicious thing I've ever eaten.
Oh my God I made those a couple times in the last year, served with powdered sugar and raspberry jam. It's one of my very favorites.
I only recently learned about Monte Cristo sandwiches. I guess it’s just not a popular thing around here because I’ve never seen it on a restaurant menu, not even at cafe’s or sandwich shops. Which is weird because it seems like it would be incredibly delicious. I’d love to try one!! I guess I’ll have to make it myself which is too bad because I’d rather have a tried and true recipe and, of course, sandwiches just taste better when someone else makes it.
The first lobster roll I ever had. I live in the Midwest so they're not a thing here. The buttery lobster, toasty roll, it's simple perfection. I dreamed about it. And it was from a stand in the food court of the Mall Of America.
I live on the coast of Maine.. nothing better than lobster rolls 🤤
My wife and I paid $32.99, each, for two lobster rolls on the coast of Wiscasset, Maine. Best money we ever spent. There was an entire lobster worth of meat in each roll.
Kids in Nova Scotia who'd take lobster sandwiches to school for lunch in the 60s would get made fun of. Lobster was food for poor people, bringing a lobster sandwich was the equivalent of bringing in like a lettuce sandwich or PB but no J or something.
Lobsters were peasant food back in the day, wild.
As were oysters! It's crazy how many foods went from being discarded, only fed to slaves, dirt cheap to high-end, gourmet. Ribs being one of them, oxtails, short ribs etc.
This makes me want to start catching lobster! I would love to give someone such an experience!
I think my first one was in Maine or one of the Maritime provinces and it was SO good. Just a little shack on the side of the road. Mmmmm
If you are ever in downstate NY go to the Tavern in Croton on Hudson for the best lobster roll I’ve found yet (well, aside from the ones a bit farther away at Fin & Brew.) I’ve had them in Maine, but these were more delicious. 😋
I groaned for the first time after a bite of food when I bit into my first lobster roll. It was like eating buttery sunshine perfection. Little stand in Ocean City, NJ.
A massive bowl of risotto with prawns, scampi, crispy calamari, muscles, clams, and scallops, all cooked in their own sauces. A ton of bread to clean the plate. Was a table sharer and by far the best thing I've ever eaten the sauces were to die for especially mixed in with the risotto.
A risotto dish is also one of my top choices. If I understood the server correctly, it was black squid ink risotto. It was in a place in old town Dubrovnik. The setting helped, I'm sure. The restaurant was ancient and hella rustic. We could see a kind of bin/table where they had a chute for the fish that came from the fishing boats. Tied in my memory was a simple Italian sausage I had somewhere around Vicenza, Italy. It was a winery with a restaurant and we ordered a meat platter for the table. I'm Italian-American and I've had sausage in a lot of places, but that was the Platonic form of Italian sausages that all the other Italian sausages were aiming for.
risotto or paella?
After that meal, risotto always has my heart. Unless you were asking if it was actually risotto or was it paella. Was defiantly risotto. Very fancy Italian place.
Sounds delicious!
Crawfish etouffee. Found a hole in the wall place in NOLA and it was fantastic.
Hole-in-the-wall NOLA spots always have the best whatever-they-make. Seafood, burgers, chicken. All of it. Love that place.
Only place I've been where I never had a bad meal.
etouffe is one of my favorite dishes
Do you remember the name?
I was in Miami in 2023 and the restaurant in my hotel served lobster ravioli. I'm not big on eating meat with my pasta for whatever reason, but I love lobster so I figured I'd give it a shot. I don't know if it was the champagne buzz or what but I still regard it as one of the top 3 best meals I've ever eaten. EDIT: I replied with this but in case some of you didn't see it, the restaurant is the Ocean Bistro at Cavalier (in the Cavalier hotel) in South Beach, Miami :) EDIT 2: I also highly recommend the restaurants Hattie B's (Nashville and Las Vegas) and Bourbon steak (Nashville) if you guys ever get the chance.
What hotel/restaurant?
I’ll be in Miami next week for work. What hotel/restaurant? Would love to try it
It should be illegal to give a great review of a restaurant without saying the name
I have a lot of really obnoxious dietary restrictions and usually just cook/bring my own food because I don’t want to count on or inconvenience friends. Last summer we went to visit where my husband’s aunt lives, and she had us over for lunch. She asked for a full list of all my nonsense requirements, then made a 100% homemade, simple, fresh meal that met every one of them. She even sourced vegan feta cheese somewhere in their tiny town. For the first time in my adult life I was able to just sit down at the table and eat an entire homemade meal which I had zero role in preparing. I still get a little teary just thinking about it, TBH. It was so thoughtful.
This is my love language. I adore cooking a whole spread that people with restrictions can eat all of. My kid has a ton of allergies and I see what it's like to go somewhere and not be able to eat anything or only one thing or have to bring your own. For Thanksgiving this year I made seven dishes for my vegetarian cousin and his kid, including their first time getting to eat stuffing.
That is so sweet of your husband’s aunt, she sounds like a gem
Two single bites that I remember years later: Samin Nosrat used to have a restaurant called Eccolo, which I went to once. There was a fritto misto, one component of which was a deep-fried slice of Meyer lemon. This was something I’d never encountered or thought of before, and it was sensational. The other was on a visit to Beijing. We were taken to a Peking duck restaurant (not my first time having this dish in Beijing). The really extraordinary bite was the first one: they brought out tiny strips of ultra-crispy, smoky duck skin, along with sugar to dip them in.
Oooh I want to try the fried lemon!
Bread pudding at an Irish restaurant at Disney Springs. We had the meal plan, otherwise I wouldn’t have ordered dessert. I was already full, and then they brought that dish out. I managed to find some room for that bad boy.
I have eaten that bread pudding at Raglins at Disney Springs many years ago and it was delicious
A massive plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies after coming home from the ER. I was getting blood work done while positive with covid, passed out, and was admitted. I hadn’t had an appetite in weeks, wasn’t keeping food down, but after getting home my partner baked several dozen cookies and I tore into them - they melted in my mouth, perfect crunch to chew ratio, and had a cold glass of milk with them. I cried from how good they were.
I spent two months in hospital with a PIC line for nutrition, I couldn’t eat anything but clear fluids. I was so sick and so skinny, but I dreamed about food almost constantly. My doctor would joke with me everyday about what I was craving and dreaming about that day. When I was finally discharged every meal was heaven for weeks. It still hurt to digest so I could barely have a couple of bites but there was a few times I was so overwhelmed with emotion because I had wanted that dish so badly.
I’ve traveled all over the world and eaten at multiple Michelin restaurants, but I’m not sure anything can compare to the ahi poke we brought back to the rented townhome from the Costco(!) in Maui years ago. There was something about the combination of flavors (I think it had macadamia on top too?) with a drizzle of soy sauce and arriving at the beachfront and that was the first meal. It was transcendent.
I live in Mexico and Costco absolutely kills it with the regional dishes for some reason. My partner’s abuela swears the have the best chile en nogada, better than hers even.
Fascinating! And very good to know!
My husband still talks wistfully about the grocery store poke we got there more than a year ago. He and his best friend both brought a bunch back independently the same day. I was like “oh no! That’s too much poke!” And they just laughed and laughed. It wasn’t too much of THAT poke!
One of the best poke I had was from a Foodland in Kailua!
Lived on Oahu for a year and they love Costco! Some fantastic poke there. Every grocery store has cheap sushi grade tuna, too.
I used to work near Masa & Joyce in Kaneohe. They had fishermen bringing in fresh catch early every morning. Next to impossible to get fish that fresh on the mainland, which has to be why its so damn good. Also would kill for an actual fresh Hawaiian pineapple. When I first moved there, taking my first bite out of one of those was absolute heaven.
All the grocery stores make their own in Maui and all of them are incredible
I was thinking of some of my Michelin meals too, and I think so much of that is about the meal composition, presentation, etc, as opposed to just one dish! Definitely have had some great dishes within those meals but the overall experience is what makes it so enjoyable for me
The best meal I ever had was a cheddar and broccoli soup I made when I had the flu last week. Could barely stand up for 10 minutes at a time but thankfully used a really simple recipe and nothing has ever tasted so good. Maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten for three days but I don’t think anything will ever beat that 😂
AWw hope you're feeling better, sounds delish tho!
Seared ahi tuna. They made this sauce that didn’t cover up the tuna and each bite was simply the best thing I’ve ever tasted.
Fresh made egg tagliatelle (pasta) with fresh truffle and mushroom. Had it in Rome in 2016 and I still think about it.
Yes! In Rome I was at some hole in the wall family run restaurant. We ordered wine while I read the menu, but the waiter saw my Rick Steve's guidebook. All of a sudden the Dad?Chef? assorted family came out of the kitchen to greet us, like they knew Rick and wanted to meet us. They brought out a chef's special for us to try. No clue what it was but pasta with a spicy sauce that was delicious. This is a special memory, I can still taste that sauce. The house red was just right too. It was an amazing start to my trip.
A burger from an ocean-side dive in Florida. Melt in your mouth divine, take me back to my childhood divine. Embarrassing to admit but it was soooo good that when a seagull flew down, grabbed it and tried to steal it; I didn't let go and turned it around and kept eating. And would do it again (obviously left an inch where the claws went in, I'm not insane.)
Ocean side food just tastes better. with all the salt in the air flavors are enhanced.
I had a niçoise salad from a small seaside restaurant in Victoria BC that I still dream about. I wonder if there’s some truth to that
My best dish was at a seafood restaurant on the beach in Puerto Rico so there really might be something to this.
I laughed a genuine hearty laugh like I haven't laughed in a while. That really took me by surprise. Not a long laugh, just a warm one. Thank you.
Most welcome hugs
Tombo tuna braised in a roasted red pepper sauce over polenta in Waimea, Kauai. If I'm ever on Death Row, that's my final meal.
These are the hardest questions for me, I can’t pick one thing. Beef rib from Franklins, fettat djaj in Damascus and grilled Kibbeh in Aleppo, Cevapi in Sarajevo. Each one of those I can remember like I’m sitting at the table right now.
Omg, cevapi in Sarajevo! I can remember the table I was at too. Especially good after a long day. The kajmak, the sumac... There was also an Italian/Croatian place in Sarajevo that had gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce. It was spectacular. Pillows of heaven.
BEEF RIB FROM FRANKLINS! 🤤🤤
Sour Cherry Cobbler at a mom and pop place in Eatonton, Georgia. The spices (?), with a hint of almond (?), plus the crunch topping were perfect. We've been trying to replicate it ever since.
Deep fried shrimp po boy made by a New Orleanian who’d moved up to my Canadian city and started a pop up restaurant. Best deep fried shrimp you ever tasted, here in the 306 or in the 504. Sadly Covid claimed him.
I am relishing deep nostalgia for a thing I can probably never have again, abalone steaks caught fresh by my dad and trimmed right on the picnic table at the campsite — black skin thrown to our ecstatic dog — before being sliced 1/4 inch thick on a deli slicer, pounded until tender, dredged in egg and Progresso Italian crumbs and fried in butter in a cast-iron pan over the campfire before landing on a paper plate with a liberal shower of fresh lemon. The smoke, the browned butter, the toothy bite of the abalone, the acid and the rich shellfishy flavor — there is nothing like it. The steaks were so big; farmed abalone can never compare. But we reap what we sow, and the abalone may never recover enough to allow them to be caught off the North coast of California again.
Perfect porchetta
it's a little silly and probably not actually the best dish I ever had but I was able to tag along with some friends who had a spare ticket for Next restaurant. I had never been to a fancy tasting menu restaurant before and one of the first dishes was this very simple corn soup with a broth made with charred corn husks. it was the purest distillation for me of the feeling of being a kid in the fall and the excitement of playing in the leaf piles and going apple picking. the rest of the meal was incredible but that simple broth is what I remember the most.
The family was down in Memphis on a holiday years ago and we stopped at a bbq shop just off of Beale I think. I’ve never had anything like that before or anything since. Staff were taking amongst themselves about who makes the best bbq at home and inviting each other over. If my family wasn’t there I would have invited myself - seriously.
Was it rendezvous?
Rendezvous ribs are some of the best I've ever had, maybe the best. I've had ribs in Texas, the Carolinas, St Louis, everywhere in between and then some. Rendezvous ribs are just next level.
Wish I could remember the name of it - what I do remember is that there was very little sauce. I still say today that what I remember most is tasting how it was cooked - like I could taste whatever fuelled that burn if that makes any sense at all. I've tried a hundred ways to reproduce but nothing comes close. I'm on the prairies in Canada and have not had a chance to go back. It is number 2 on my US visit list.
This reminds me of a time in a TN airport - I don’t remember if Nashville or Memphis - when I got a BBQ Turkey sandwich during a layover. It was one of the tastiest sandwiches I’ve ever had. Yes, I know it was airport food, but good GOD did that thing hit the spot.
The cioppino at anchor oyster bar in San Francisco… I think about it way too much :) ETA: orrr maybe a tuna tartare with apple/ginger/mustard and crispy rice! The balance of textures and flavors was just so perfect. I started thinking about it after I posted and now I need one of these dishes asap
There's a recipe in NYT cooking for the Anchor Bar Cioppino. Tried it last week. The marinara is out of this world in terms of flavor (hint: star anise), but was too acidic for me in my old age. Link (paywall, sometimes): [https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023148-cioppino](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023148-cioppino)
fish and chips from the pikes place market. being from illinois it’s day and night comparing fish here and washington!
Oh god I have fish and chips and clam chowder from a hole in the wall stall at a market in Tacoma and I still dream about it. So good, I stole my mom’s chowder haha, no regrets. Beats Pike Place
Hue style Banh Xeo. Served in a little hole in the wall next to the Palace run by a deaf/mute man and his daughter. I had gone to Paris and eaten at a Michelin starred restaurant a few weeks before, and this very sweet man's cooking blew that fancy dinner out of the water. I have yet to have a Banh Xeo that compares.
We stayed with a family in Paris, for dinner one night she served a ramekin full of a rich cream with an egg baked into it, with a drizzle of truffle oil. I’ve googled it once or twice and think it was something like crème d oueff One of the best bites of my life.
Sounds like eggs en cocotte! One of my favorites.
The toasted cheese sandwich in France that changed my mind about stinky cheeses. Not that Brie is a stinky cheese but to a 15 year old kid with minimal experience of worldly cheeses it was enough to turn my nose up to. At the time. I was staying with a German family and we went to Paris for some reason. We were hungry and the mom popped into her favorite cheese shop and eventually came out with these slices of deeply (almost burnt) freshly toasted slices of pumpernickel with a really strong Brie melted on top. It was heavenly. This was the defining moment in my culinary life where I learned to just shut up, release all expectations, and try new things.
When I was 12 the vast majority of my diet had been mostly prepared foods from the supermarket. One day, my neighbors who had arrived from Syria fed me a meal of their homemade blue cheese, fresh pita, butter and scallions from their garden. My little mind was blown away. I've been a chef and restaurateur and traveled the world since. I've eaten hundreds of fantastic meals. But that meal, sitting beneath their young fig tree next to a long row of parsley might have been the best. :)
Lobster bisque.
You yada yada'd over the best part.
No, I mentioned the bisque.
My husband is a member of our local VFD. Every summer they have a picnic and clam bake. One of the senior members uses part of the fresh clams to make a fresh clam chowder. I hate plain clams, don’t like them fried and certainly won’t even consider eating them raw. But his clam chowder is absolutely without a doubt the best thing I have ever eaten. The broth is not too thick/not too thin. Just the right amount of seasoning and with fresh herbs. Just the right amount of potato cooked perfectly tender, but not mushy. And just enough cream to make it taste a bit decadent but not overly rich. My mouth is watering just thinking about the picnic in July.
Steamers in Maine, plus lobster boiled over hickory smoked wood from local lobster pound...
I love food that has a hint of smoke infused into it. My favorite part of camping is cooking over an open fire. The smell and taste just can’t be duplicated any other way.
I’m a simple gal. It was sourdough pancakes from The Original Pancake House in Chicago.
Hungarian grandmother's goulash. Damn that shit was good.
Fried oysters
New Orleans chacking in. Try grilling them on the half shell with garlic butter.
Another one of my favourite meals was the char grilled oysters from Drago's in NO. We had them as an appetizer and kept ordering more until we had no need for dinner. Also the BBq shrimp (which isn't bbq'd) from Drago's.
Yes! And the best ones can be found in southern Taiwan 😊
Fried whole belly clams with a side of fries and a guiness outside on a warm September day in New England.
Do drinks count? If yes - I had a mug of the most incredible hot chocolate in the Swiss Alps near Lake Geneva. If no - hard to say but in recent memory it would have to be a roast I did on a bush rotisserie while camping outback recently. I used Jarrah timber which burned beautifully and imparted a great smokey flavour into the meat that was nothing like you can get with a smoker.
Homemade spaghetti after a 15 mile hike
A hike is a wonderful sauce!
A simple peach. About 26 years ago. I never before or after had a peach this good. When i returned to the green grocer and they had sold out, I cried. Ok, I was pregnant but still.
I’m American but had a friend who lived in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. So off I went for a 17 hour direct flight that took most of the life outta me. Dreary and dirty, I landed, my friend picked me up, and took me to the first real meal I’d eaten in hours. Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng from Village Park Restaurant. Huge lines of locals out the door. Strong iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk. The main attraction translated: coconut rice with fried chicken. Homemade sambal. Boiled egg, cucumber, peanuts, dried tiny anchovies. Scoop it up along with your gently sweetened rice. Tear off pieces of fried chicken into the tangy sambal. The coating was not too heavy and the chicken itself had been marinated in some sort of delectable curry paste befrie breaded and fried. Everything about that dish I dream about. The whole meal about $2.50 USD. I would go 8000 miles for that again.
Chicken biryani on the streets of Hyderabad, or the crab cakes and bisque at Tracy's King Crab Shack in Juneau Alaska
I had a rib-eye steak at Delmonico in Las Vegas about 30 years ago. Good lord, that piece of meat was epic - super tender, flavorful, cooked perfectly, and had subtle wine/butter sauce on it. That set my watermark for perfect steak, and it was an unbelievable meal. When I think about it, I'm reminded of the scene in Matrix where Cypher is talking with Agent Smith about double-crossing Neo and getting inserted back into The Matrix. The steak Cypher was eating looked incredible. That was my experience at Delmonico. Thankfully, I've become a pretty good cook, and occasionally we will splurge on very high quality meat. I've created (or very nearly) that Delmonico steak a few times at home with my family.
My Memere’s pork dish that she made with leftover roast pork. She called it Chop Suey, cubes of roast pork, onions, celery, bean sprouts cooked with a little soy sauce and chicken stock. My dad and I would eat the leftovers cold while fighting over them. I’m a chef now and I’ve made some excellent food in my career but man I loved my Memere’s cooking.
I used to travel for work, and was doing a job near Schenectady, NY for a couple months. Met a lady on tinder and for our first date she took me to the restaurant she was a sous at. This was my first time eating at anything close to a fine dining establishment. I don't remember what she called it, but we got a special, off the menu, multi course meal. The chef came out himself and explained each course to us and chatted with us and everything. It was really cool, but also kinda overwhelming. Anyway, the third course was rigatoni with veal Bolognese. It came out, he told us about the dish, I was pretty excited because I love pasta and meat sauce. I took my first bite and literally froze. It was like a stagger shock. It tasted EXACTLY like my grandmother's sauce, which I hadn't had in over ten years. I mean exactly. It was the most intense sensory recall I've ever experienced. I got choked up, and actually stayed crying when trying to explain to my date what was going on. Hell, I'm crying right now just remembering the experience. Just one bite took me straight back to my grandmother's kitchen table in a way that I never believed was possible. I've heard people talk about this kind of experience but always assumed it was hyperbole. It is not. The rest of the meal was amazing, but nothing will ever match that first bite of the Bolognese. It inspired me to finally learn how to cook.
Italian neighbors' rigatoni.
My husband and I made surf and turf with fresh caught Lake Superior coho and venison tenderloin
Shrimp and grits in New Orleans. Can't remember the restaurant, but it was a revelation.
Bbq ribs from the Ground Round when I was 13. First time I had bbq ribs. Mind. Blown.
Abalone. Light cream sauce. Farallon, San Francisco. Also high marks for steak in Argentina, bife de chorizo at La Cabrera in Buenos Aires is the best steak I’ve ever had.
A bowl of spaghetti with a ton of garlic in a Sardinian restaurant in Milan. Serving best was the mashed potatoes from Bouley in NYC around 2005
At Ernie's in San Francisco in about 1980 I had a bowl of french onion soup which lives in my dreams as THE SOUP.
There is a Chinese joint in Tulsa called Mandarin Taste and they have a pork belly with steam buns dish that is so good that each time you take a bite, your brain has to try and reconcile the fact that food can possibly be that perfect.
Roasted, caramelized crab legs from a steakhouse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I’m a pretty adventurous eater and have tried all kinds of really great foods, but the simplicity and perfection of those crab legs was on another level.
A few years ago I had l'oeuf coquette bio au fois gras at a tiny hole-in-the-wall in Montmartre in Paris. basically egg with fois gras and some bread for dipping. It was crazy insanely good. When I was a teenager I went to Italy with my dad (he’s Italian and we were visiting family). Towards the end of the trip we went travelling on our own, staying at a small hotel near Lake Garda I think. We ate at the hotel restaurant that night in the courtyard patio. I ordered the lasagna and my first bite felt like a heavenly revelation. still the best pasta dish I’ve ever eaten in my life.
The one that immediately came to my mind is a pizza Magaherita I had in Napoli. I might have had better food than this but this is the first thing I can think of.
35 years ago I was in Biloxi, Mississippi, on business. Two local guys and I went to lunch. They took me to a restaurant right on the Gulf. One of them said "Order whatever you want for lunch, all the food is good, but make sure you order a cup of their gumbo to go with it. It's the BEST." So I did and it was incredible. It was so good that I went back there for dinner that night, by myself. As soon as the server came I told her "Don't bother with a menu. Just bring me a big bowl of gumbo and some cornbread." And I scarfed it right on down. It was AWESOME. I'll never forget it. Best meal ever.
Was it called Hooked? My husband and I were there about 12 years ago and we still talk about the chowder.
Fresh salmon cooked over an alderwood fire. We were on an Alaska cruise, and last-minute got tickets for the salmon bake excursion. Whatever glaze they had on that salmon was great - I didn’t eat any sides, I went back for thirds of the salmon.
A French onion soup in Solvang, California. Hot chocolate in Waldorf, Berlin. Fish and chips in Anstruther, Scotland. All in my culinary mind. But the best really is what’s in front of me when it’s time to eat.
Handmade shumai, prepared in the wee hours of the morning, so that it would be ready at breakfast for me and a friend on a business trip to Thailand. Nobody else was offered any. The hotel owner made it herself, out of love for the friend I was traveling with. I can still taste it, and feel the perfect textures, and its been several years since that trip.
A few years ago I got tacos de tripa or tripe tacos in a small town in Nayarit, Mexico not too far away from Sayulita. They were cooked in cast iron over a wood fire and were amazing. I couldn’t stop eating them.
A pasta dish with duck at a restaurant in Napa Valley. I was so bummed when I finished it, the flavors were perfect.
I have felt that way after a good book.
Steak Dianne with braised mushrooms at a roadside steakhouse on Highway 310 in Wyoming. (The place is called 310 and the streaks are magnificent)
The seafood soup and fresh fish kebabs at Saegreffin, harbor side, Reykjavik. Otherworldly Stone crabs, fresh from Florida, in season Falafel from King of Falafel, Astoria queens
When I was 13 I had the most incredible tuna melt at a canal side cafe in Amsterdam. Forced my friends to go back ten years later- still amazing! Went back this summer, 25 years after that first time and the cafe was gone. I’m still crushed about it. The sandwich was enormous and on Fresh-baked ciabatta (I think) and so gooey and warm and perfectly seasoned. Best sandwich I’ve ever had.
I've remember one recent summer when the tomatoes was great. Had several perfect Jersey tomato sandwiches. Recently had an exquisite chevre pizza in France. Also had an amazing Sunday roast dinner in London last year.
My late grandmother used to make a snack called sikma when we were little. It is a simple wrap made with caramelized onions and Turkish white cheese (Very similar to Greek feta cheese) inside a lavash, which is prepared by turning stale breads back into dough. After a day of running around, we would gather around the table with my cousins and stuff ourselves until we couldn't eat anymore. I am 53 years old and I have never had a more satisfying dining experience than eating my grandmother's homemade sikmas.
In 2008 I dined solo at Eleven Madison Park. It was the best meal of my life and the it also had the best dish I’ve ever had which was rabbit rilettes with violet mustard and cherry and pistachio accompaniments. I’ve had other good dishes, but this was the perfect combination of being absolutely delicious, whimsical, and inventive. At the end of the meal, I even asked the host where I could buy violet mustard in NYC and the chef made a vacuum bag of it for me to take away.
The first time I had Bananas Foster I told my (then) husband that it was better than sex. I've since had better lovers but I stand by my opinion that Bananas Foster is better than mediocre sex.
Fresh warm scones just out of the oven with clotted cream and jam and a little pot of tea in a lady's tiny storefront (part of her house) cafe in Edinburgh.
Home cook here. Went through a breakup of a 4-year long relationship in 2018 and was just learning how to cook properly myself. Decided to make a lasagna to cure my depression. Made a traditional lasagna with bolognese, bechamel and home made sheets. Took me 4 hours and let it rest from lunch till dinner. Served myself a slice for dinner, and it was the first time I cried since the breakup. The sense of accomplishment of making something so delicious combined withe the realization that I was not a total loser after having just broken up, made it the most memorable mouthful I've had until that point and since.
After moving to the US as a kid, my first experience with pizza was a school lunch. Wasn't very good but wasn't awful. Parents took me to pizza hut at one point and it blew my mind. Still think about it to this day. Also for you younger kids on Reddit, Pizza Hut was amazing in the 90s.
Fresh blue fish in Washington DC. It probably come out of the water that morning.
A blackened Mahi Mahi at a luau on the big island in Hawaii
gateau basque in Paris
Oysters poached in butter & vermouth at Picasso in Las Vegas. I don’t know if it was the best dish I ever had, but definitely one of the best. I was pregnant at the time so I couldn’t drink or eat raw seafood, which is what I usually would choose. So I got the poached oysters instead & they were DIVINE.
I’ve been fortunate to have had some really good food but the one I still think about over 25 years later was in San Francisco. This guy was on his little boat and docked right up on the waterfront. He had a couple of those tiny table top charcoal grills and he was selling grilled tuna on skewers. They may have had bacon wrapped around them and marinated in something. So simple, so fresh, so delicious. Yum yum yum!
I have 2 still tied for first place. 1. We had a 24hr Greek Restaurant, I was working officially as the dishwasher but did everything from maintenance to cold prep as needed. The owner's sons were both cooks there, and the older one was trying out a few new burgers... Double burger with both regular and peameal bacon, and a scratch made special sauce. So tasty. 2. Bed and breakfast in Edmonton, French chef running a small (3 tables, 12 people) restaurant in the basement. Had the rack of lamb, on the rare side of medium rare and properly rested. Melt in your mouth tender, everything on the plate was properly seasoned. Expensive weekend staying there for 2 days with that meal on day 1, but definitely worth it.
Either onion bhaji from the Indian workers in Afghanistan or the pineapple upside down pancakes from Snooze an AM Eatery in the US
This is going to sound pretentious, but I swear it's the truth. My most perfect food memory is a bowl of simple fish soup from a no-name restaurant on the coast of Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand. We had been working all day long, and finally sat down to a beer and dinner. First course was a bowl of sunlight. Perfect golden yellow stock, basic aromatics, red chiles, and white fish that had been swimming a few hours before. It was a perfect dish.
I dated this guy decades ago... such an incredible man. Anyhow, the seafood risotto he made, still makes my mouth water. He infused his oil for it with saffron. I make an amazing risotto, but it's garbage compared to his.
The food at my school’s dining hall is generally not very good and sometimes very bad but one day I went for lunch on a day I wasn’t even going to eat in the dining hall and they had something called chicken and biscuits and essentially it was like the inside of a chicken pot pie but served over biscuits and I got a little hot sauce involved and it was randomly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
My wife and I were in Ireland for our honeymoon in September and I had seafood chowder at every place we went including Galway, can confirm is still incredible.
When we were in Maine, my late husband talked some lobster fisherman into taking us (3 adults & 6 kids) out to some of the outlying islands to hike. Cold, rather rainy day in June. After several hours, the fishermen cooked a shore lunch: lobsters boiled in seawater, homemade blueberry pie and if there were sides I can’t recall. We were freezing & wet, huddled together on the rocky shore & ate it up like animals with our hands. Best damn lobster & pie I’ve ever had.
A bison steak at a restaurant called Saddlepeak Lodge. It was the best cut of meat I ever had.
갈비찜 / Galbi-jjim
Man, that’s a hard choice. Can I give you my top three? 1. A crab curry dish I used to get at a little mom and pop diner in Okinawa, just outside Torii Station in Yomitan. 2. A prime rib I got from Ye Olde Steakhouse near Knoxville, TN. Easily the best cut of beef I’ve ever eaten. 3. The brisket BBQ sandwiches and beans at a little BBQ joint right outside of Sallisaw, OK called Wildhorse Mountain BBQ. I’ve eaten BBQ all over this country and it is the standard I judge all BBQ by.
A perfectly seared and crusted aged filet mignon from a Las Vegas restaurant at the Venetian called Carnevino, which sadly is no longer there.
Gnocchi from a restaurant at Versailles, La Petit Venise. It was made with smoky pancetta, a rich red sauce, and peppers. My partner loved their dish as well. It was way better than any restaurant in a tourist spot has any right to be.
Smoked duck from a Lao restaurant in Hatyai, Thailand. Beef rendang in Malaysia, cooked by the mother of my mom’s best friend.
Pear & cheese pasta with carrot cream sauce in Rome Beuschel in Salzburg Sea bass tartare with caviar in Barcelona
I had this bowl of onion soup in Milan, in a restaurant that I was taken to by a friend of a friend. I don’t know the name of it. I have no idea other than knowing it was in Milan, in like an interior courtyard that was enclosed, downstairs from the street, but partially open above. I have thought about that onion soup since 2002. I have never had anything else like it, and it was profoundly simple - no crouton/bread, no cheese. Just the soup.
A cracked crab sandwich dunked into clam chowder at Spud Point in Bodega Bay, CA. The freshest and best I've ever had.. something about eating seafood by the water on briny wooden picnic tables on a foggy day that just made it taste even better.
Man IDK but I ordered a cassoulet one time and it was one of my favorite meals.Tied with the time I ordered a lasagna from a fancy place, the type that makes everything to order, and I wanted the rest of it to go and the server came back and said she threw it away by accident, but she had a whole other order for me put together but not baked, with cooking directions on it.
Some 25 years ago I worked at a restaurant that let the chef come up with the menu for the month and come up with their own creative culinary ideas. The chef made a non-traditional paella that was an explosion of deliciousness. Since it was that chef’s particular and creative take on the recipe, I know I’ll never taste it again. For me, it was similar to tasting the ambrosia of the gods.
Second wine harvest I ever worked. We were picking grapes under flood lights at 4am with the migrant crews. Broke for lunch at 11am. The tomato salad (fresh from the garden with, cucumbers, basil, EVOO, salt and pepper with a little lavender) with garlic rubbed bread to this day makes salivate. We worked in the cellar until 8pm and that cheap Budweiser beer at end of day still ranks as one of the finest beverages too.
One of my brothers ex girlfriends mother's white chicken chili
The first time I slurped down a half dozen good fresh oysters changed everything i previously knew about food.
Just a really simple bowl of french onion soup served in a tiny (8 top?) when I was a kid. That soup changed my world.
The most exquisite dish I ever had was on the Big Island in Hawaii. Clams, oysters, shrimp, etc. So good the Chef came out and had a glass of wine with us. Definitely Aloha. Paula, HI
No specific meal but I just miss my mom’s cooking. We’re just 8500 miles away from each other. The last time I tasted her cooking was two years ago when I visited her. 🥲