Sun, 22 Jul 2007 15:07:00
Best meal ever?
In this post at Daily Pundit, Chef Mojo throws out the challenge to describe your best meal (among other things), both in any context and in a restaurant. Mine are easy, although one of the commercial establishment ones isn’t exactly from a restaurant....
First off, my best meal ever was the first time I ever met my wife. I cooked for her, a simple corned beef & cabbage boiled dinner. I make it really, really well, but that’s not the point. The point was that we were in my apartment, with my then-girlfriend (it was ending and ending badly, and please do not ask me to explain how we arrived at this dinner, it will not make sense to anyone but us!) sitting at my kitchen table that I made with my two hands. It was a tile-top table, an old work table I rescued from a former landlord, which I refinished and tiled. We were not a couple or anything, and Jen (the ex) was sitting at the table, but for hell or high water I wouldn’t count another meal as more exciting or more vividly remembered.
For me, the “professional category” has to be a tie. Two moments stand out. First of all, it was New Orleans, 1996, and I was with a large group of friends trolling the French Quarter. A bunch of the ladies wanted to do lady things, i.e. shop for clothes, and I wasn’t into it. If memory serves, and you will see that it’s a bit hazy, the splinter group that came with me was John, my brother-in-law, another John, and I want to say Dave and Doug, but I’m not 100% sure. I know the two Johns were there. We just kind of wandered around, not paying a lick of attention to where we were going, and someone got the idea to get some lunch. We see this place...the building was white brick, and it had saloon-style doors, painted black. It was a seedy, terrible bar, with a TV in the corner and I think i remember one of those basketball-shooting arcade games in the back. We sat down and ordered gumbo, and to this day I have never had seafood & sausage gumbo that good again. I order it everywhere I go in NOLA, hoping to someday find another gumbo that good. I also remember an hour or so of joking and chatting in the cool air conditioning, and generally a fine, lazy afternoon.
I never found the place again, and no one I have ever asked knows where it is.
The other tie for first is the time that Donna and I, very early on in our relationship, went to The Real Seafood Company in Albany, NY. I don’t remember a thing about the food. I don’t even know what I ordered. But I do remember the waiters and waitresses all gathered around us cooing and watching us stare at each other and hold hands and whatnot. :) I still have a matchbook I picked up on the way out. That was...early spring 1995, I think.
My second place dining experience is a whopper of a tale for which I have witnesses, so no one can accuse me of making any of this up. It was at Emeril’s NOLA, obviously in New Orleans, the joint he has on St. Louis street. This place used to have a reputation for a darker, let’s say a more “colorful,” more uhh..."organized" criminal element of a particular Mediterranean ethnicity hanging out there. No matter. Must eat the Emeril foods. We go. I believe the party included me, Donna, John (bro-in-law), the very same Jo-Jo that comments here (sis-in-law) and I want to say Risa. Jo-Jo, help me out, is that everyone?
Anyway, so we all order this specialty of the house, at the time it was a cedar-plank-grilled fish. Salmon, I think? Everyone’s eating it. Some comments as to the fact that it’s just not good. I really can’t eat it. I just flat-out hated it. A waiter notices. He asks me how it is, and I tell him, I apologize, but I just do not like it. A few minutes pass. At this point, John and Jody, who can see the room (my back is to the room) can see a gaggle of waiters and floor managers and a shiny-suited dude from Central Casting all staring and pointing. This shark-suited slick-haired goombah comes over and in an intimidating voice STRAIGHT out of a gangster flick says ‘So...I heah you din’t like da fish.”
I look up at this guy who, in my mind, was about to put two in my head mob-style and stammer out “Well, I...I...I tried to like it! I swear I did!” At which point my table full of family and friends proceeds to start laughing at me.
Sonsabitches. They didn’t stop laughing until about a week later. But I digress.
Me and Shark-Suit Slickhair hammer out that he feels awful about it, wants me to enjoy my meal, and would like to replace my entree. I look at the menu and order the easiest, fastest thing for the chef, as I feel pretty god-damned conspicuous. It was a grilled combo seafood thing, and it was delicious. As was every other item on the menu. Especially those Miss May’s wings they make with the hoisin sauce. So we eat, and even get dessert, and the whole time John is making comments. The best line at the table had to be when he found a hole in the brick wall behind him. It was big enough to put your finger through. He points it out, sticks his finger in and says ‘See that? That was the last guy who didn’t like the fish.”
Sonofa…
We’re leaving, and I’m a step in front of everyone when I hear John again. “Jim, you better watch out! They might want to get even. Serpentine, man, serpentine!” So I did. I walked serpentine down the block just in case NOLA had trained snipers on the rooftop. You never know. :)
IN talking with various local people about this at the hotel, that weekend, I learned something: I might be the only person to ever send a dish back at NOLA. Some days I think they might still be after me. A picture of me hangs in a dingy office somewhere with the caption “SHOOT ON SIGHT: HE DIDN’T LIKE THE FISH.” I must not be the only one, though, as I can’t find that planked fish on the current menu.
Those are a few of my favorite meal-related stories. Got any of your own?
Posted by JimK at 03:07 PM on July 22, 2007
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#2 Posted by Ryley R. Hayes 
on 07/23 at 02:15 AM -
Actually quite a few memorable meals. In college, I’d often save my money, rather than steadily spend it away on a steady stream of beer and cigarettes. Instead, I’d save, and blow it all on one night of drunken debauchery and gluttony.
But before all that, one of my most memorable meals might be a simple pizza from Domino’s my first night at college. I was in a tiny dorm hall, only about 30 people, and a bunch of us, most of whom would be some of my closest friends the next four years, all ordered a ton of pizza and stayed up watching pirated movies all night.
Another one would be a night that 20 or so of use college kids went to a local Mexican restaurant who’s name now escapes me. It was a loud, obnoxious, and really qutie delecious night. I got this gargantuan burrito, full of beef, chicken, rice, exquisite vegetables (and I don’t really like veggies at all), sour cream and guacamole, and this amazing hot sauce that tasted like heaven… really hot but somehow without being uncomfortable.
I went to school for aviation. The school I went to produced one of the world top aerobatic pilots. Our campus was right on the airport, and the annual airshow was always a big attraction. There’s a little place called the Midfield Cafe, which is basically on top of a hangar and overlooks the whole field. Heck of a burger too, and I almost wonder if they got their Pepsi from Canada, cause it tasted better than soda you get anywhere else. Basically just sat there watching that guy do his routine, followed by some A-10s, while chowing down on what was definitely the best burger I ever had.
As it happens, I also had maybe the best steak of my life last night. My friend was celebrating his birthday. We went to this nice grill that’s part of the local ski resort, but is open year round. I got a 22 oz ribeye that was more like fillet mignon. It was a perfect red the whole way through… no brown, and was more than an inch thick at that. On the side were some Chipotle chicken wings, mashed potatos infused with dijon mustard, a “summer medley” of chopped vegetables - corn, zuchinni, scallions. To drink I ordered a couple of beers, both from a Brewary that was right down the road. A Red Ale and a Nitrogen India Pale Ale. The IPA was probably the hoppiest beer I’ve ever had, and in an entirely delicious way.
#3 Posted by morganafq on 07/23 at 06:23 PM -
Awwwwww! I love my husband so much! *smooches* :)
Since Jim and I apparently have some sort of hive mind when it comes to such things, my three meals are the same as his. I remember that hilarious night at NOLA - it was just my brother and his now-wife and Jim and I, BTW. Truly sidesplitting story. And I remember the Legal Seafood dinner, although I haven’t a clue as to how the food was or what I ate… I think maybe scallops of some kind? But I do remember those waiters and this one diner that kept walking by our table with this bemused smile on his face. What can I say? We were in love! :)
I can remember that first meal with him at his apartment like it was yesterday. Jim and I were sitting across from each other at that tiled table, his ex sitting basically between us, and our fingertips were just three, maybe four inches apart. I spent the night simply *longing* to reach out those last couple of inches just to feel his touch.
Side note to this story… Jim lived in Albany at the time, I still lived with my parents just outside of New Haven. It was a long-as-fuck drive, but I think I flew home that night. When I walked into my parents house my dad was sitting in his chair reading. He looked up and asked me how my day went. And I, smiling from ear to ear, told him “I just met the man I’m going to marry”. My dad laughed - he didn’t think I was serious. I was. The rest, as they say, is history. :)
I have one meal to add to the memorable meal list - our tasting at Oheka Castle where Jim and I got married. I don’t mean the actual wedding dinner itself - I was too crazed and in a fog to really enjoy that as much as I wish I could have. But I do remember vividly going up to that gorgeous castle with Jim and my parents to have a tasting dinner. The chef there was simply divine, and I remember the bursts of flavor from the Chilean sea bass as I ate it, thinking “this will be the first food I eat when I’m a married woman”. Yeah, that definitely ranks as a memorable dinner. :)
#4 Posted by Drumwaster on 07/23 at 10:11 PM -
Awwwwww! I love my husband so much! *smooches* :)
Jeeeeeez, you two… get a room! ;-)
#5 Posted by JimK on 07/23 at 10:39 PM -
Best meal was a little hole-in-the-wall cafe (that isn’t there any more) in downtown San Diego. They made the BEST breakfasts I have EVER tasted.
Wow, that totally reminded me. I had forgotten about this really shitty diner we used to hit up at 4AM before work at the radio station. TERRIBLE food except for the steak & eggs and hash browns. THOSE were simply heaven on a plate.
Jeeeeeez, you two… get a room! ;-)
OK. Twist my arm why don’tcha. :)
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#1 Posted by Drumwaster
on 07/22 at 11:15 PM -
Most memorable meal was one that didn’t involve the food, and best food was at a place I can never go back to.
Most memorable meal was at this place called “The Big Texan” on the road from Lubbock to Amarillo (but I wasn’t driving, and don’t remember too many other details). We stopped there every time the debate team went to Amarillo
This was the kind of place that everyone has heard of, but very few have actually visited - it had one meal on the menu that dared you to try, and while I was seriously tempted, I didn’t dare, because I wouldn’t have been able to afford it, being just a high-school kid with damned little pocket money.
* a 64-ounce steak (Yes, that is four pounds of meat, cooked to your liking)
* baked potato
* salad/assorted veggies
* “Texas” bread
* beverage(s)
If you could eat it all in a single sitting, you got it for free.
They had a mariachi band walking around the tables, taking requests (and I got into trouble with the debate coach when I asked for “Back in Black” by AC*DC)
Best meal was a little hole-in-the-wall cafe (that isn’t there any more) in downtown San Diego. They made the BEST breakfasts I have EVER tasted.