First meal with your partner...

[srhcb]

I'm drawing a { ..... }

SB (It was a long time ago )

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The talk about brussels sprouts jarred my memory.

I remembered GF announcing she didn't care them, and even though she's come to eat many things she originally claimed not to like, she still won't eat brussels sprouts.

I'd also broiled bacon-wrapped filet mignon. (We used to give Omaha Steaks to the customers of our engineering firm for Christmas, so I always had a few on hand)

I'm not certain, but I probably baked a couple potatoes, although hash browns are a possibility.

SB (afraid to ask unowho in case I'm wrong )

[hummingbirdkiss]

a bowl each of sugar frosted flakes for breakfast

[Luckylies]

First meal was Corner Bistro burgers. I ate. He drank. He was surprised to see me eat my onion

Quite presumptious of him

He thinks the first thing I cooked for him was a roast chicken. Distinct possibility.

[mojoman]

First course: A composed salad of arugula/spinach with grilled shrimp, steamed asparagus, blood orange supremes and a tangerine gastrique

Second course: Pasta "Primafredo" - linguine with zuccini, yellow squash, mushrooms, and tomatoes in a cream sauce topped with lots of Parmesan

Dessert: Tarte tatin

[chromedome]

The first meal I shared with my now-ex was steak and eggs at a Tops 24-Hour restaurant in Vancouver, in the wee small hours of our first real date.

I don't remember the first thing I cooked for her, but since she was living on peanut butter and rice noodles at the time, I do remember her being impressed (she moved in a few days later). I still do almost all the cooking, and my daughter picks up the slack most days if I'm working late.

First thing she cooked for me was her grandmother's borscht (tomatoes instead of beets). She thought she was cooking for leftovers, since it's better the second day. I ate the whole pot in one sitting.

[NeilMalek]

Meatloaf. We had been dating about a week, but we'd been friends for a while, which I guess contributed to me thinking meatloaf was a good idea for 'the first meal I'll ever cook for her'. I started with the standards, but, as I usually do, came up with an interesting flavor combination from whatever was in my fridge at that moment (22 year old college student).

She talked about that meatloaf for a solid hour after we were finished. Oh, and we're getting married in July - and she still asks for meatloaf.

[C. sapidus]

First meal I cooked: I invited her on a walk in the woods with our dogs and got us utterly lost. We emerged from the wood hours later in the next county. A nice gentleman drove us many miles back to my car. When we arrived home I jazzed up a frozen pizza, probably with garlic, chiles, oregano, fresh basil, tomatoes, and feta cheese.

First meal she cooked: I got lost driving to her apartment (are you noticing a trend?) and showed up grievously late. She was remarkably gracious, and served spaghetti with Vienna sausages. I think the Vienna sausages were a test – apparently, I passed.

Clearly, food did not form the basis of our relationship. And yes, she gives me directions whenever I drive anywhere (even if I am driving home from work). I suppose that I earned it.

[pickledgarlic]

My first meal with the recent ex...

I cooked puttanesca, only to find out she had a giant hate for olives. At least she didn't realize I was making whore's pasta as I don't think she would have been impressed.

She stayed around for the poached eggs on toast the next day, so I didn't sweat it. Note to self: find out what they hate before you make them food, or keep it simple.

Planning on the first meal with a new one, got a pound of chantrelles to use up.

- mat

[weinoo]

Ahh, the first meal I made for my wife - of course, we weren't married then, was prepared in my small, 4th floor walk-up in NYC. Chicken soup with matzo balls, roast chicken with roasted vegetables and probably something like an apple crisp for dessert.

[Emily_R]

Great topic! First meal was also my first date with my husband. I invited him over for dinner, and now I'm amazed that I had the nerve to make something I had never made before rather than a tried-and-true. I made a Cambodian dish, Pork with Peanuts and Dried Lilyflowers! Can't remember dessert... Our next date, three days later, I guess I wanted to show I could do something a little more traditional, so I made homemade mac and cheese...

Emily

[helenjp]

Gosh, actual meals, and real restaurants!!!

I don't remember the first actual time when my dear unintended and I shared a meal - we were both part of a group of Japanese-tour guides who used to hang out at a certain Chinese restaurant, eating well and telling tall stories about our travels..."You remember the lady who opened her suitcase and got undressed in the middle of the airport concourse?", "Nah, that's nothing, what about the guy who kept walking round with his pants down, asking everybody to try to figure out the combination on his money belt?!"

I do remember that we usually ordered tofu steamed with prawn paste, until we got sick of sending them back because they tasted of bleach; and fish with black bean sauce.

One day everybody else was late arriving, and dear unintended got drunk waiting - then proceeded to hit me over the head with his chopsticks, maintaining that all his troubles were due to my refusing to marry him. Hey what? Marry who?

The first thing I cooked for him was a bento lunch when we were working together. He liked it so much that after that he got really obnoxious, ringing me up to put in orders for what he wanted in his lunchbox and telling me what to leave out. So I started bringing him McDonald's Fishburgers, pretending to mishear him when he asked for McFeast Burgers..."Want me to pick up a burger on my way back to the office?" "Yeah, sure, get me a McFest." "McFish? Gotcha." "McFeast! McFeast, I hate fish! Not McFish." "OK, stay cool, you want a McFish, I understand." "Noooooo!"

First actual meal...he turned up late to a party I was giving, where all the food was laid out buffet style on a low table. Never one to catch discreet social signals, he sat down at one end of the table, pulled all the serving dishes towards him and polished every single one off, exclaiming how good they were. My other guests were so tickled at this strange sight that they just egged him on!

Sorry to go on so long.

[heidih]

First hubby took me to a nice place (Valentino in Los Angeles ) and I was so scared and nervous I was a mess. I was not yet 21 so I thought the world of LAPD was going to descend on me when I had a sip of wine. I think I ended up with rabbit which I had never eaten. The food was great, but my gut was in a knot so I only ate a bit or two of everything. I did recognize that I was being exposed to great food and I did expand my horizons from there..

[Terrasanct]

My husband and I met online, and it was a while before we met in person. He's not a great food lover, but I didn't know that at the time. When we met I brought him some homemade bread and good chocolates. Turns out that bread is about his favorite food, chocolate is second. That's probably the real reason he fell in love with me.

[prasantrin]

First actual meal...he turned up late to a party I was giving, where all the food was laid out buffet style on a low table. Never one to catch discreet social signals, he sat down at one end of the table, pulled all the serving dishes towards him and polished every single one off, exclaiming how good they were. My other guests were so tickled at this strange sight that they just egged him on!

Sorry to go on so long.

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I thought your stories were hilarious. May I ask, was he already a bit older when you first started dating? Your stories remind me of typical behaviour of older (not old, but maybe mid-30's onwards) Japanese men. Or of male Kyodai/Todai graduates! Funny!

[Cadbury]

I have to play this one...

I drove 400km from home to work during the university summer holidays as a housekeeper / cook for a farmer during harvest. I met one of the neighbours while helping move machinery between paddocks.

The farmer then said I should invite said neighbour (actually a relation) over for dinner.

We had my famous meatballs with mashed potato, green beans, cabbage and carrots. Numerous beers were drunk, cards played and when the rain started in the morning he thought he'd better go out and put the windows up in his mother's car .

Oh, and I did actually go home and finish my degree. It took some determination, I can tell you.

Edited November 12, 2007 by Cadbury (log)

[pat_00]

He took me to a sichuanese restaurant, and i beat him at the 'i can eat spicier food than you' game, and i still tease him about it 'cause he's from sichuan.

[helenjp]

was he already a bit older

Yes - I was 30, and I remember that he was 38, because I persuaded his (much younger and more gullible) flatmates to bake a Big 4-Oh cake for what was actually his 38th birthday. No wonder his friends kept bailing me up in the kitchen and asking me if my intentions were honorable! All our entertaining seemed to involve food, probably because most of our friends were expat Japanese who wanted to eat nostalgic homestyle foods they couldn't get in restaurants - but also because I couldn't get out of the habit of cooking for crowds.

I'm enjoying the tales, and noticing the effect that different lifestyles have - students and under-25s in New Zealand rarely lived in their own apartments when I was young - there wasn't a big supply of single housing. So going to your date's place for dinner usually meant chancing it with Mike's Very Strange Spaghetti along with all the other flatmates; while cooking for a date was never extravagant, because Romantic Candlelit Dinner for Two doesn't translate well into Pyromaniac's Special for Eight People Crammed Onto One Sofa.

[Lindacakes]

I'm amazed at how many people remember this -- probably because dates almost always involve invitations out to restaurants and first dates are usually remembered.

If you put a hot poker to my eyes I couldn't tell you the first meal (we worked together, so it was probably lunch) but I remember two quite well:

I was dancing in a Middle Eastern restaurant not far from her house, her girlfriend was away at art camp and she invited me back to her house for a picnic. On the floor. We still have a set of nested glass bowls used for picnics on the floor.

The other was a spinach pie. We ate spinach pie for breakfast this morning and reminisced about the first one. Details of which I cannot share with you.

[moreace01]

First meal we made together was, sadly, spaghetti. Pasta, jarred sauce, some sauteed onions and garlic. And I believe there was garlic bread involved. We went shopping together and I asked him to get some parmesan and he came back with the little green can...

Despite the powdered parm, we managed to stay together for 10 years and are getting married next Tuesday.

[CKatCook]

My love and I's first meal together was at this chinese food resturant that no longer exist. It was a small rather crappy buffet. But I made up for it on the third date when I made lasgana (sp?) with everything hand made, down to the pasta, with eggplant patties. He hates eggplant, but ate it anyway to impress me. -> now that is love.

[HVRobinson]

I met my beautiful bride ten years ago on a flight from Oakland, CA to Burbank, CA. She noticed that I drank cranberry juice and on our first date made sure to have a supply of said juice ready at hand. She laid out a spread of everything wonderful, pate from Marcel et Henri, a half a dozen cheeses, several different types of crackers and breads, nuts, fresh fruit, all kinds of wonderful stuff! And what did I do? I was on my first date after separating from my wife of 14 years and was terrified. I couldn't eat. I could barely talk. I drank a little bit of juice. I nibbled a few crackers. I think I tried some pate. Five years to the day later I married this fine lady. On our honeymoon we spent $100 on illegal (unpasteurized) cheese... but on that first night... I didn't acquit myself very well... and I'm the real foodie in the couple. Sigh... ain't love great?

hvr

[kbjesq]

I don't remember what we ate, but I do remember what the woman who was seated at the table next to us ordered.

We were at an upscale seafood restaurant, dimly lit, and very crowded with mostly older, country club types. Shortly after we were seated, the waiter delivered a very lovely seared tuna steak, with an unbelievably large scoop of wasabi on the side, to the table next to us. As I was admiring the tuna and wondering why anyone would serve such a large quantity of wasabi (it was about the size of a golf ball), I heard the woman exclaim, "Oh, guacamole . . . I love guacamole!" With that, she grabbed her fork and dove in - with gusto.

Then all hell broke loose. Eventually paramedics were called, and the poor woman was helped out of the restaurant, in the biggest fit of coughing, sweating and crying that I have ever seen.

We still refer to wasabi as guacamole in our house.

[rarerollingobject]

I had just had wisdom tooth surgery and was in lots of pain..he came over for our second date, promising to cook me "something soft". So he made risotto - for the first time in his life.

I'm not sure he realised how long risotto takes, but slaved away dutifully and evidently nervously, and was SO proud when he finally managed to present me with the meal - I crunched through grains of par cooked rice on a raw wisdom tooth for oh, a tiny bowlful.

That's when I realised I must quite like him! No way I would be that "polite" now!

[shrek]

My first meal with my husband was on our first date. We went to a movie and then went to the local pizza place. It happens that at the time we worked in the same office, and no one knew we had eyes for each other. The pizza place was very close to our office and our staff were all regulars at lunchtime.

We went in after the movie and ordered a small Hawaiian pizza. The pizza chef gave us a wave since he knew we were regulars. Twenty minutes later our waitress shows up at the table with our pizza and he had made our pizza in the shape of a heart. He must have guessed by the dopey way were were looking at one another, but I guess it was meant to be since we have been married for 16 wonderful years.