I was in the town of Menton, France, the last town of the French Riviera before the Italian border. There was a little shop in which a lady sold little pastries, all the same but with different added ingredients. They are about 3 inches in diameter, and about an inch thick. They are made with a slightly salty butter and lots of sugar, plus other ingredients. One bite of a “plain” one, and I thought to myself “This is better than sex.” They are called “Kouignettes,” and can be bought from Maison Georges Larnicol; and yes, you can order them from their site. I think they also have a store in Paris.
A rack of ribs I had on vacation in a restaurant in Los Angeles 18 years ago. The sauce was incredible, a combination of sweetness and hotness and tanginess that I’ve never been able to find anywhere else. I have no idea what the restaurant’s name was, and I suspect it no longer exists, because the next time I was in L.A. (10 years later) I was unable to find a kosher restaurant with cuisine even remotely similar.
Also: A southern-fried chicken leg I had in summer camp when I was 12. I still remember how perfectly crunchy it was on the outside, and then so juicy when I bit into it. I don’t think I’ve ever had a food experience that rapturous as that first bite into that chicken leg.
Ice cream on day four of a river trip in 100 degree heat, 40 miles from the nearest electric light.
Two come to mind:
In high school, our concert band toured Norway. I don’t remember what city we were in, but there was a place called Papa’s Pizza that was divine. The crust was croissant like, buttery and flaky. So different from what I’ve ever had here in the US.
Last year I bought a baby Weber - at that point I had grilled maybe twice in my life, both times epic failures. I made perfect hobo potatoes and straight from the butcher burgers on homemade rolls. It was a simple meal, but one of the best I’ve ever tasted because I brought it to the table.
I had a fantastic duck meal at a restaurant in Le Mans, France. The duck just melted on my tongue, the skin was crisp, and the asparagus tender. It was exquisite. I haven’t had anything like it since and can’t wait to go back and order it again.
Once, at work as a newspaper intern, one of the employees brought his Filipino wife in to make these tiny, delicious egg rolls for a surprise party for a co-worker. OMG, they were fantastic! Light and fresh, you could taste every ingredient on the different parts of your tongue. I’ve never had them since but a Malaysian friend knew exactly what I was talking about when I waxed poetic to her about them and said she knows someone who can make them. I want to learn!
Some sort of pasta dish in a nondescript hole in the wall in Florence. My friend and I just stopped after the first chew, looked at each other and exchanged a mutual “Wow!”
The water was so clear we could easily see the crabs in the traps 20ft down in Nitinat Narrows on the west coast of Vancouver Island. “We’ll take those ones.” and the local First Nations fellow pulled them up and cooked them on the spot. Best seafood I’ve ever tasted.
More First Nations: When I was a little kid my Mom used to take us out to one of the reserves on Babine Lake in British Columbia. They had salmon smoking on racks in the fashion they’ve used for thousands of years. Unless you’ve had smoked salmon like that, you have no idea. I’ve never encountered anything remotely close.
A friend of mine bought a $6,000 grill from Texas and paid $1,200 to ship it across the continent. It looks like a little black coal-powered train and almost smokes as much. He was apple smoking a brisket one day and on the drive over I could smell it a block away. The meat was simply unbelievable. Without a doubt the best red meat I’ve ever had of any sort.
My wife and I were in New Orleans and looking for a place to have lunch. One of the rangers at the Chalmette battlefield sent us to John and Joyce’s for po-boys.
Fresh oysters, freshly fried, on a po-boy roll. My god, for delicious!
Mrs. R is not much for seafood, but, getting into the spirit of the thing, got a shrimp po-boy which was almost as good.
John & Joyce’s got creamed during Katrina, but they seem to have a new joint over on the other side of the lake. Next time we’re in NO, I have half a mind to look them up.
My husband’s hamburgers or anything he grills for me. He always hovers over my food, making sure it is done just the way I like it. Then he comes in and smells like barbeque, which I find both sentimental and really sexy.
I can’t really say anything specific, but my mom puts on a hell of a dinner and my aunt brings something amazing she baked. So I am spoiled for every holiday!
The whipped edamame dumplings at Buddakan. I had them for the first time this winter and went back for my birthday last month, and they’re just incredible. The flavor is great, and the dumplings are light and delicious and sort of melt in your mouth.
Lobster ravioli at a restaurant in NYC whose name I’ve long since forgotten.
Thai pizza at Truby’s in Whitefish*, Montana.
Pork taquitos at Taqueria Poblano in the Del Ray section of Alexandria. Accompanied by one of their rum-rita’s.
*This was in 2005. They’ve moved to Columbia Falls.
Lumpia are fairly easy to make. I’ve probably made 10,000 of them over the years. The difficult part is finding lumpia wrappers, which are NOT the same thing as eggroll wrappers, and the latter are NOT a suitable substitute for the former. The other hard part is peeling the wrappers apart. They’re less-than-paper-thin and can be a real bitch until you get the hang of it. After that it’s just a matter of filling them (don’t overdo it), rolling them, sealing them and frying them.
The linked recipe uses pork, but I’ve made them with diced shrimp and experimented with spices. They’re all good. Serve with sweet and sour sauce or a fish sauce.
Damn, I gotta hit the local Asian market and find some wrappers.
Thank you for that! The ingredients don’t seem quite the same but I can experiment now!
And Chefguy, I’m guessing I can get very similar wrappers at a Vietnamese grocery because their egg rolls use that thin wrapper too. I know the wrapper will be too big, but I can trim it. And diced shrimp is a definite ingredient. Oh yum!
I saw a recipe on line for making the lumpia wrappers. Can’t find it right now but it was just water, flour and egg. Probably the technique is more complex than that but if they’re hard to find in stores might be worth trying.
Potato soup at Alinea.
To begin with, it was the first time in my life that I grokked the word “umami.” After the first spoon, I just sat there for a minute thinking about the flavors I was tasting. It felt like I had just heard a radically beautiful piece of music. I needed a moment to process it before I could move on.
Then, it became less analytic and more experiential. It was like sipping hugs. I just felt warm, and soothed, and comforted and, honestly, loved. It was sublime.
The best part, talking about it with my wife, was that it was so simple a dish (well, it seemed simple. This was Alinea, so for all I know there were half a hundred ingredients in that little bowl). A bit of creamy potato soup, with a small bit of truffle suspended over the bowl, which you would then drop in the soup.
Single best thing I’ve ever consumed in my life.
Sea scallops poached in milk at a friend’s house. The husband dove for the scallops. Simple, melt in your mouth.
Baguette, tomato, and cheese in St Girons, France. Since I was traveling around, I ate this every day but this day, the bread was baked in a stone wood-fired oven, the tomatoes were ripe and extra-flavorful and the cheese, can’t remember what the cheese was but probably a triple creme. After my 2nd bite, I realized this was a meal for the ages.
The steamed clams I made a couple weeks ago with unsalted cultured butter were pretty amazing.
Two things I can think of.
There was a restaurant here in town where I took my wife one year for our anniversary. For dessert we split a slice of the most amazing cheesecake I have ever tasted. It was light, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The restaurant closed after less than a year so I’ve never been able to go back for more.
The second was a “$50” chocolate truffle that my wife bought for me from a shop in Rockefeller Center. It wasn’t really $50, that’s just a long running joke between us. But I’d believe it if it were true - it was that good!
Beef Wellington at, if I remember correctly, the Kedron Valley Inn outside Woodstock, VT about 20 years ago.
I’ve had so many best thing I’ve ever eaten, it’s difficult to decide!
The first thing that popped into my head was Chocolate Moose pie at some Murphy’s Irish pub in Alexandria VA. Probably a common enough item, maybe I was just in the mood, but this slice was the best piece dessert ever and I’ve been looking for its like ever since.
Otherwise, my own baby back ribs. Fresh off the smoker, the lard melding with my spice rub and soaked into the meat. They are never the same the after they cool.
My mom’s mac and cheese.