Best eating of '05

[M.X.Hassett]

Well a new year is almost upon us and it is time to reflect and to look forward on restaurants, but I am also interested in the best non restaurant eating or dining experience you have had this year.

For me it was standing in calf deep water in Cape Cod clamming, shucked and slurped them as we found them. Blissful: salty air, seagulls, briney oystery living goodness going down the ol' gullet.

So what was your best non-rest. experience in 05'

[Pan]

Does takeout and delivery count?

If not, I guess it would be the seder at my cousin's house. The turkey was excellent, but that moist brisket with ginger/raisin chutney was really nice stuff. Tamar always does a great job.

[M.X.Hassett]

Does takeout and delivery count?

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Of course anything not eaten in a restaurant. I am trying to find peoples best food experience disattached from the service aspect of dining.

moist brisket with ginger/raisin chutney was really nice stuff. Tamar always does a great job.

Recipe???

Damn now I am starving and I am in an alien kitchen and do not have my bearings....ahhh...I do have some pasta and white truffle I can heat up from dinner tonight.....yummmmmm......

[M.X.Hassett]

Of course anything not eaten in a restaurant. I am trying to find peoples best food experience disattached from the service aspect of dining.

Maybe if I could eat Keller's Oysters and Pearls barefoot and shirtless in the sea I would have preferred them more, but something about having your feet firmly planted in the source of your food as you eat it does something gastronomical and philosophical for me.

[Megan Blocker]

Hmmmm...for me, this has to be the weekend I spent at my grandparents' house in Connecticut. They'd lived in that house for more than 30 years, and sold it this November. Three friends and I took the house over for Labor Day weekend (the GP's were down in Florida, their new home base), and had a grand old time. The house is on the water in Darien, and has a gorgeous, rocky garden, and a pool that looks right down into the cove - an amazing setting for a weekend built around food.

We never get to grill (we are, after all, Manhattanites), so we grilled for each and every meal (except breakfast) - barbecued chicken, flank steak with garlic and rosemary, grilled vegetables, grilled, garlicky shrimp...my friends Nick and Louisa brought the excellent wines, including two bottles of Dolce, and we just...relaxed.

I'm so happy to have had that time - to have eaten that delicious, simple food, to have spent that time with my friends (Nick and Lou have since moved to Ohio), and to have been able to say goodbye to a place that means so much to me in such a peaceful, relaxing way.

The view from my grandmother's garden:

[raxelita]

Mom came to visit from PA and brought turkey pot pies she made out of the Thanksgiving turkey I missed.

Terribly sweet and so delicious.

[bilrus]

The two best meals I had this year outside of restaurants both happened to be extensively documented on eG.

# 2 - My 4th of July smoked butt.

# 1 - My stab at making a five course meal from the French Laundry Cookbook in April. This was probably my all-time food highlight. I've certainly had better cooking in restaurants and made better individual dishes on my own, but sharing the whole experience and the feedback and support that I got from the eG members following along made this a great food memory.

Edited December 21, 2005 by bilrus (log)

[Chris Amirault]

# 1 - My stab at making a five course meal from the French Laundry Cookbook in April.  This was probably my all-time food highlight.  I've certainly had better cooking in restaurants and made better individual dishes on my own, but sharing the whole experience and the feedback and support that I got from the eG members following along made this a great food memory.

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I didn't taste a bite, Bill, but it's one of MY all-time food highlights! Great work, man.

My best non-restaurant meals have been at home with my family. Probably number one was the beef penang curry from David Thompson's Thai Food cookbook that I nailed in early spring, back before the baby arrived when I could spend hours pounding paste with the mortar and pestle!

[M.X.Hassett]

# 1 - My stab at making a five course meal from the French Laundry Cookbook in April.  This was probably my all-time food highlight.  I've certainly had better cooking in restaurants and made better individual dishes on my own, but sharing the whole experience and the feedback and support that I got from the eG members following along made this a great food memory.

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I didn't taste a bite, Bill, but it's one of MY all-time food highlights! Great work, man.

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Wow how did I forget about that thread, awesome work Bill.

[snowangel]

Any and every meal I ate at The Cabin. Especially the smoked butt.

[maggiethecat]

Last February a friend whisked me up a buttercup-hued hollandaise, poured it over a pile of asparagus and served it alongside baby-pink lamb chops. It was spring come early.

[purplewiz]

- just about everything out of the garden: the first chive and thyme flowers (mixed into butter and melted over steaks), the first grilled zucchini, the fresh salads, the cherry tomatoes warmed in the sun, picked, wiped off on one's shirt, and eaten while still warm.

- the stuffing on Thanksgiving. I only really get stuffing the way I grew up with it once a year, and oh, god, it was good. Yes, it's out of a package, just like Mom used to make. I don't care. I love it.

- the turkey skin off the above mentioned turkey. Crisp and delicious right out of the oven.

I know there were more, but I didn't write them down, and I have a memory like a steel sieve these days. I should probably resolve to keep better notes .

Marcia.

[snowangel]

Let's not forget the first BLT of the summer with the bestest of the tomatoes and some really good bacon on great toast with crunchy lettuce.

I sure have a lot of best food moments. Another would have been the first of the sweet corn. I am a sweet corn addict. Picked as close to the boiling water as possible. That first of the season that needs no butter, no salt.

Sigh. It's cold. It's gumbo and braising season. Better go an look at my summer pictures again.

[Pan]

Does takeout and delivery count?

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Of course anything not eaten in a restaurant. I am trying to find peoples best food experience disattached from the service aspect of dining.

moist brisket with ginger/raisin chutney was really nice stuff. Tamar always does a great job.

Recipe???[...]

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Sorry, I don't have her recipe.

Given what I now realize about the breadth of your question, I'd say that my best eating outside a restaurant would include takeout or delivery from Grand Sichuan St. Marks and Congee Village and a banh mi gai from Banh Mi Saigon Bakery.

[I_call_the_duck]

Most non-restaurant meals were those that were shared with family and friends. In April, friends from Italy were visiting, so I cooked up a Chinese meal for them. They reciprocated the next evening by making us the most amazing pizza. It was accompanied by wine (2003 Sangiovese) from their vineyard.

In August, I married Mr. Duck, bringing in my SIL and her family from Italy. I made a Chinese meal for them their first night here. The day before our wedding, on the next-to hottest day of the year (the hottest day being our wedding day, where it was 80 degrees at 8am), our families got together for a meal at my mom’s house. She cooked up a feast—about eight dishes. Her house does not have A/C, but despite the oppressive heat, we all had a great time.

One more memorable meal was in July(?), where Mr. Duck and I had a picnic in Central Park before we went to see Shakespeare in the Park. We got bagels from H&H, and bought lox, cream cheese, and cucumber salad from Zabar’s.

[Ling]

The Tarte Grenobloise was one of the best desserts I've had this year:

Here's an interpretation of the same dessert I made for the holidays. Instead of caramel pecans, I ground up some candied pecans and put a layer of that under the top layer of ganache.

I have a feeling that The French Laundry meal I'm cooking this Friday, the 30th, will be the best meal I cook this year.

[M.X.Hassett]

The Tarte Grenobloise was one of the best desserts I've had this year:

I have a feeling that The French Laundry meal I'm cooking this Friday, the 30th, will be the best meal I cook this year. 

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Ling your desserts leave me speachless and hungry. Can't wait for the FL meal breakdown where are you going to put it the dinner thread?

Edited December 26, 2005 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[PamelaF]

Discovering the tasting room and store at the Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Oregon.

I made three driving trips from Sacramento, CA to the Seattle, WA area in the past few months. After the first visit, this became a required stop for subsequent trips. The creamery is located only a few minutes off I-5, Central Point is about 30 miles from the California/Oregon border in the Rogue River valley.

These artisan cheesemakers make in wonderful blue cheese, their Crater Lake Blue is perfection, they also have a smoked blue cheese and other varieties. Their other specialty is Cheddar. The plain cheddars are great, but the flavored ones add another dimension to the experience. Pesto, horseradish, garlic, paprika, and more.

The factory store is very friendly and casual with many varieties of cheese available for tasting.

On my last trip I purchased a cooler full and was able to bring these fine cheeses to add to a friends Thanksgiving weekend dinner. I still have some stashed in my frig. I made a tasty blue cheese butter to complement my christmas dinner beef filet.

[Daddy-A]

The Tarte Grenobloise was one of the best desserts I've had this year:

I'll second that ... a large portion was left at Chez Daddy-A after the 2005 Cookie Exchange. It didn't last long.

Best eating for me this year is documented here on eGullet

1) My first smoked butt (CLICK)

2) Eating and drinking through the Okanagan.

Oh yeah, Blogging was kinda fun too ...

A.