If I Could Have One Meal Again...

[weinoo]

I think it would be a repeat of my first meal in Florence. My first ever meal in Italy, as a matter of fact.

It was my first time traveling to Europe, I was with my favorite person and it was simply a boiled beef sandwich (panino con bollito) at Nerbone in the Mercato Centrale.

I had no idea how to order, it was a little nerve-wracking...but boy, was it good.

How about you?

[Mjx]

If I could go back to Bolzano and have the chestnut-pasta ravioli with venison, I'd be one happy person. Had that at 'Al Duomo', which always delivers, but hasn't repeated this particular dish since the one time I had it.

[Meanderer]

I would have something called The Special at Stefanich's Tavern, Joliet, Illinois, circa 1965. Stefanich's existed from the 1930's through the late 1990's or so and, as a kid growing up during the middle part of those years, my family would eat there about once a month. After I left the nest, I stopped in whenever I was back in the region. In the 60's, there were only three menu items from which to choose--The Picnic, which was two pieces of fried chicken, fresh cut fries, tossed salad, and a delicious French bread, pre-buttered; The Dinner, which was identical except it had three pieces of chicken; and The Special, which had four pieces.

The chicken, the best I've ever had, was a secret Slovenian recipe and it never changed during the decades I ate there, although the rest of the meal went downhill when the place began serving frozen fries and an inferior bread with Country Crock.

I miss that place more than anywhere I've ever eaten.

[DaleJ]

I was having trouble with this topic until the last post. Also, in Joliet, Illinois, I can recall my grandparents taking me to lunch at the restaurant below the Rialto Theatre (an early mixed use development) before the afternoon movie and OD'ing on my favorites: black olives and blueberry pie desert. This was in the forties and a movie at the Rialto was an event with organ music and a changing color curtain.

[weinoo]

Looks like Joliet, IL really brings back memories .

[kathryn]

Asador Etxebarri, Basque Country, Spain.

[DaleJ]

Both my parents were born and raised in Joliet. And, BTW, I've been to Nerbone several times. Boiled beef in a bun and dunk it! What else does one have there?

[ElsieD]

The best meal I ever had was in Oslo in 1972. It was a dinner in a hotel restaurant and the service, the decor, everything about the place was top-notch. We had reindeer filet with all the trimmings. It was served table-side, and after we had mopped up our plates, out came fresh cutlery and china, and another helping was served. It was incredible.

[barbarataylor]

I had my best meal was in Bulgaria! It such a beautiful place, I was ordered chicken with some cheese sauce and it was wonderful!

[kayb]

I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was a tiny little place hanging off a hillside above the village of Kamakura, Japan, in August, with a breeze blowing in off the ocean. The dining room was downstairs, the kitchen upstairs, and meals came down on a dumbwaiter. We had noodles and tempura and yakitori and platter after platter of wonderfully fresh sashimi and mug after mug of ice-cold Sapporo. It was just one of those magical meals.

[heidih]

Probably 1983 in Puerto Nuevo (Baja, Mexico) with a large group of friends making the trip just to eat their special Pacific spiny lobster. As noted in the link the lobster is pan fried in lard (and garlic was involved) and served with fresh tortillas, various fresh salsas, beans and rice (well and beer of course). We sat in a second story divey kind of place and the ocean view was lovely. It was non stop succulent lobster for a couple hours. Today the place is quite commercialized I hear and the lobster provenance may not be local. Plus the political and safety issues are frightening. I have chased that lobster nirvana with every subsequent lobster meal.....

[Peter the eater]

Cervelle de veau in Aix-en-Provence, summer 1988. Bicycles, red wine and romance.

[Hayley Casarotto]

Pizza margherita at a little restaurant called Mezzaluna in Rome, near Piazza Bologna. It was a proper margherita - just tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella and a little basil on a perfect crust. I actually gasped when I put it in my mouth, it was so utterly perfect. Then then I honestly felt quite sad because I knew, I just KNEW, that I would never have a pizza as good as that ever again.

So if I could relive the experience, that would be pretty special.

[Tim Dolan]

I had the good fortune of wasting a whole day in St. Croix, wading around in a cove off of the mainland. We had enough ice cold beer to last a week but only chips and pretzels to eat. Suddenly two teenagers came by on a boat and traded us 8 or 9 conch shells for a six pack, and two guys who were with us who lived on the island went out with their snorkel gear looking for lobster. We took the conch out of their shells, cut off what is supposed to be the head area with a Swiss army knife, then used rocks from the beach to tenderize the conch. The guys came back with four healthy sized lobster, snapped the tails off and threw everything onto a grill within seconds of pulling them from the water. Everything was so sweet and fresh it tasted like candy. Later that night we had a pool party with more beer and grilled sausages. God damn that was a good day...

[pastameshugana]

My first dinner in Buenos Aires, at a little hotel. It was a simple buffet (salad bar, really), with a grill in the back. My friend ordered 'lomo' for me, and it was the only beef I've ever eaten that caused me to involuntarily smile.

I'm smiling now...just thinking about it!

[Wholemeal Crank]

Either the super-fresh panfried trout caught an hour before, & cooked & eaten while backpacking with the best possible backdrop of spectacular mountains at 12000 feet in the Sierras (note: try to take anglers along on your backpack trips, well worth the effort to cultivate some among your acquaintance); or a dinner at Cowboy Sammy's in Oregon, the first restaurant meal I'd ever had where I was relaxed enough to trust them and eat everything on every plate they served me, even things I'd normally eschew, and rewarded so richly for doing so.

[Jaymes]

Gaddi's Restaurant at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. Back in those days, the Peninsula was generally considered to be the best hotel in Asia, and Gaddi's, the finest restaurant. It was the late 60's, I was 23. It was a grand time to be a young Western woman living in Hong Kong. I dated a man that lived at "The Pen" and we went to Gaddi's nearly every night.

The Prawns au Sherry to start. Not on the menu because it was prepared tableside by legendary maitre d' Rolf Heiniger, and he was too busy to do it for everyone. And then his Steak Diane. Followed up with coffee and a big white basket of truffles for dessert.

Sigh.

I described it in this terrific old thread: Single Best Restaurant Meal You've Ever Had

[qrn]

My Swiss-Tyrol Grandmothers Canederli With salt cod in a white cream sauce. This was back in the

1940'sI have tried to re-create it many times to no avail(close but not quite)

Bud

[Holly Moore]

It is not just the food, it is the situation...

If lightning strikes twice and I again find myself at the helm of a twenty-two foot sailboat on Peconic Bay at the end of Long Island during a thunder storm where lightning hit the water near our boat, I would again seek the safe harbor of Wooley Pond, the marina there and specifically the bar in the restaurant at the marina. Our crew of three, starving and soaked and chilled from the storm, a genuine huddled mass, made our way to the bar only to find that the restaurant was closed between lunch and dinner meal service.

The barman took pity, set us up with beers and shots and headed to the kitchen. He returned with three steaming bowls of the best clam chowder served, at least, along the Atlantic coastline - New England style, prepared from cream, packed with clams and diced potatoes and seasoned with a bouquet of herbs. Our downtrodden souls met their match. Never again has a meal brought such hope for fair winds and a sunny tomorrow.

Otherwise I'd go back in time to the old oyster roasting room at Bowen's Island, before the fire, where I struggled to keep up with the oyster roaster and his shovelfuls of oysters. Mrs. Bowen would be there telling of the time she kicked out the mayor of Charleston because he was politicking and not paying or eating.

[ambra]

I'm with Holly, It's not just the food: I don't think my Grandmother was really the best cook, but I would give anything to eat her Ball roast and crunchy paprika potatoes, or her potato pancakes or her dairy night menu, or her fruit salad. I've got her recipes, but they never come out the same.

[Lindacakes]

It's very hard to choose, but right now I am thinking about a summer evening at home, meaning my parent's house, when I was about ten years old. The sun was a rosy golden color and starting to fade, but coming into the kitchen. I don't remember what the rest of the meal consisted of, but there had been baked potatoes. Only my father and I liked potato skins, and the rest of the family had left the table. Dad and I sat next to each other at the table (I have a whole theory of personality based on where you sat at the family table) and we had a pile of potato skins piled between us. We were buttering the potato skins and chowing down on them. I wish I could go back there, and feel that afternoon again, knowing how my relationship with my father would grow and change over the years and savor that sensual moment again on a higher plane of consciousness.

[Darienne]

It is not just the food, it is the situation...

Holly is so right. Three years ago, DH and I were in Moab and a friend and I put on a Chinese feast at her BF's house. She and I split the dishes, with my Ed cooking the rice. Dessert was Kumquat ice cream and almond cookies. Everything was home made. The BF had even bought a second set of new dishes for the event. All red and crystal on a black background.

Yes the food was excellent, but the company was even better. We invited our Moab friends and a wonderful time was had by all. There were dogs everywhere. The afternoon stretched on and it was a magical time.

I would give a lot to be able to duplicate that wonderful time.

[Toliver]

Two sandwiches from places that no longer exist:

In San Diego there was a bar called Foggy's Notion on Sports Arena Boulevard. They served this wonderful chicken-bacon sandwich that I can only vaguely recall after so many years. I'm pretty sure the chicken breast had been BBQ grilled (it had char marks) and the bacon was Canadian bacon with the slice of bacon being as large as the bun. The sandwich had the most wonderful smokey flavor. I'm sure there was cheese (there was always cheese). I cannot recall anything else about the sandwich except that it was the only thing I would order on every trip to that bar.

The other sandwich I fondly recall was called The Gallo. It was made at a deli counter inside a liquor store on Midway Drive (ironically near Foggy's Notion in San Diego). I believe the liquor store has been gone for many years. The sandwich was amazing. It was best if you ordered it on a long onion roll. They would line one side of the roll with slices of swiss and cheddar cheese. They would then put this in a steamer "thingie" and pump it a few times until the cheese melted completely. Then they'd slather it with mayo and fresh made guacamole. They'd heap the other side of the roll with slices of turkey and the usual condiments (shredded lettuce, tomato and thinly sliced red onion). Perhaps it was the bread, or the cheese or the guacamole (or all of that combined) that made the sandwich so tasty and memorable.

Gone but not forgotten.

[BarbaraY]

For me, it was a special lunch on an Italian tour. The isle of Murano near Venice and started with an antipasto of lightly fried seafood to die for. Calamari, tiny octopus, shrimp and maybe some others, all so tender as to be ethereal. This was followed by a pasta with tiny, tiny clams in a succulent cream sauce. Risotto cooked in seafood broth and then lovely fried white fish. All this with all the wine we could consume. Now I wanna go back.

[suzilightning]

it would have to be "breakfast" with my mom. the last time we had it was about 2 weeks before she died back in 1990. it was something that we always had once when visiting Shelter Island after i had moved away.

1. try out a pound of bacon. move the bacon to paper towels to drain.

2. add some crisco to the the pan.

3. add flounder fillets that have been milk and egg washed then coated

with Corn Flake crumbs

4. serve with boiled potatoes sprinkled with salt and parsley, fresh

lima beans with butter and worcesterhire sauce for the fillets

i have tried to replicate the meal but it is NOT the same... just like her meatloaf and her mac and cheese