Arctic char is by definition one of the finest fish you can eat. I found some in Aldi’s once. I went back the next day to buy the entire shelf and wept bitter tears to find there was no more.
A chicken breast in Rome. It was, I think, seasoned with just salt and pepper and came cubed - I think to make sure it was cooked all the way through. I tried a bite and told dad “this is the best chicken I’ve ever had.” I spritzed the lemon slice over it and it was better.
In 2012 I was in London with some friends, and after breaking into different site seeing groups, we wanted to get back together at a pub to hang out and eat. Whatever offline 1st gen smart phone guide app I had showed a little gastro pub behind the Royal Courts of Justice was in a convenient place for everybody to go.
Turns out it was The Seven Stars, which is possibly the oldest pub in London and has received many awards for food. It’s also completely unpretentious, has cats that wear judge collars (scroll to the bottom of the link above), and was reasonably priced.
I ordered a chicken and bacon sandwich and it is without a doubt the best sandwich I’ve ever had. I think it was £12.
Akaroa Fish and Chips, Akaroa, New Zealand. This place had about 10 kinds of fish available. I asked the guy taking orders what would he recommend to an American that hasn’t tried some of the kinds of fish they serve. All he said to me was, got ya. He brought out a sampler of each kind of fish they had. They had the usual types, salmon, cod, snapper. Then there was hoki, trevally, shark, tarakihi, dory and gurnard. He also tossed in a whitebait fritter. All were excellent. Sat with the owner of the place while we ate, he was in awe as I told him about the 50, 60, even 70 pound King salmon that I saw caught while working on a charter boat out of Westport, Washington. I have 3 pictures above my desk, I took then while in New Zealand. Lake Te Anau, Lake Tekapo and Akaroa Sound. All were special places while traveling around New Zealand.
Ooh, one of my best meals WAS a bowl of ramen, now that you mention it. At a ramen place, that makes the ramen in the shop.
For a while, whole foods carried it, frozen into individual portions. I am very very sorry they don’t have it now. I bought some sockeye salmon, which is similar, but just not as good.
Yes!
I’m unable to even scratch the surface of my culinary experiences. I love good food and have managed to find it anywhere I go. Jamaica, St Martin, Sint Maarten, NOLA, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hilton Head, Pennsylvania, wherever.
Our local Giant Eagle gets a shipment of Copper River salmon occasionally. Pricey, but worth it.
I love Copper River salmon. It seems to be seasonal-- I think it shows up in stores around here in May, for a few weeks.
I don’t think I’ve ever had Arctic char. I want some now!
Wow, what a lot of great stories so far. I usually don’t eat breakfast, so maybe I should have waited to catch up with this thread after lunch!
All the stories of fantastic meals in various locations throughout the world make we wish all the more that Mrs. solost and I could travel. For various reasons we really can’t right now, but someday…
Cheeseburger
After a 6 day hike through the Grand Teton National Park, eating freeze dried food out of a bag, losing my appetite to altitude sickness, and just generally being over it all, my brothers and I had reservations at Jenny Lake Lodge for dinner. I had the greatest cheeseburger that’s ever been made. I’m sure under normal circumstances it would have still been a really good burger, but with these things context matters so much.
Pho
I’d never had pho before, but had always wanted to try it. So when the girl I had just started seeing suggested it, I jumped at the chance. The place was a tiny hole in the wall in Indianapolis, but fairly authentic. Pho makes such a great date meal - you can talk about all the things you put in it, you get to experience something culinarily unique (certainly in Indiana). Absolutely memorable.
Burnt ends
Being from Kansas City I’ve had a lot of burnt ends. For some reason, a lot of places (like Bryant’s) serve theirs smothered in sauce, which I don’t really enjoy. So when I came back to KC to visit family, and my brother said “there’s a new BBQ joint over by my med school - it’s inside of a gas station” I had to jump at the chance. We got there and there was a line out the door. At a gas station restaurant! Well, we finally made our way up, and they actually gave me a burnt end to sample, which I ended up ordering for a full meal (they don’t add any sauce to theirs, and it’s the most succulent, unctuous cube of meat you’ll ever bite into). I don’t know if Anthony Bourdain was right when he called Oklahoma Joe’s (now “Joe’s Kansas City”) the best BBQ in the world, but it sure as hell was that day.
40+ years ago, in a restaurant in Maine (Yarmouth, I think) that I couldn’t find again if my life depended on it, I had a charbroiled halibut steak which is the best thing I have ever eaten, ever! I didn’t really like seafood at the time but, being Maine, you could have the seafood or the seafood and that seemed the best choice. I might still have a little piece of it behind a back molar to remind me.
Glad to hear you made the right choice. I might have picked the seafood instead.
Waterzooi is pretty fantastic. We didn’t eat it at Amadeus on Plotersgracht, but at some place on the Vrijdagmarkt. Ours was made with chicken. I wouldn’t class it as one of the best things I’ve ever eaten at a restaurant though.
Those waffles you get on the street with the nutella, and the street stand frites in Belgian cities? Wow. Those definitely punch way above their weight in terms of deliciousness for your Euro.
Yeah, it’s on my radar now to make in the near future, thanks to the mentions in this thread. Looks like some nice Winter comfort food.
I’ve had the best and the worst things I’ve ever eaten while in Tonga, where I spent some time collecting fish for the aquarium trade.
Not technically a restaurant, a bakery down the road from our collection station had the most incredible meat pies. Try my heart out, I’ve never been able to duplicate them. And their fresh baguette, with a good slathering of Anchor butter from New Zealand, was lunch for me every time we went out on the boat.
The raw sea urchin, on the other hand, gives me a comparison for all other food - “Not good, not as bad as raw sea urchin!”
He was right then, and it’s still correct today.
A long time ago, in 1976, two buddies and I were on a road trip in California. Based on a local recommendation, we went to a seafood place in Berkeley whose name escapes me. The waiter suggested lobster Newburg, which I ordered because I had never had it before (hell, I had never heard of it.) It was, quite frankly, the best seafood I had ever eaten. I have tried the same dish many times over the years, but none has quite matched that first time.
Stretching the parameters of the OP a bit, I still vividly remember visiting my sister when she was teaching English in Guadalajara in 1996. Her boyfriend José Luis wanted to show off his country’s capitol, so we took an overnight trip to Mexico City. On a miserably hot day, José Luis led us to a juice bar in the central station of the subway, where I was given a Ziploc bag (their operating budget did not include cups, apparently) of a bright, grass-green liquid that subsequently proved to be alfalfa juice. It tasted exactly as fresh-mown grass smells, with a subtle citrus top note, icy-cold, and is to this day the single most refreshing drink I’ve ever put in my mouth.
Prime rib at the Holiday Inn in—one of the northern suburbs of DC. This was back in the 80s or so, so I don’t recall exactly where anymore.
Hamburger at “The Great American Disaster” in South Kensington, London.
Licorice ice cream at Rummel’s in Waterville, ME, back in the 50s–60s.
When I visited KC about 10 years ago, it was definitely the overall winner for barbecue. But each individual dish? I had other favorites for. You can’t win 'em all. But if there’s only one barbecue in KC to visit, that would be the one I recommend to friends. (Me, though – I’m a fan of LC’s. A little rougher around the edges, but I like that.)
Mushroom Swiss is an awesome burger combination for sure. Even the one MacDonald’s had was excellent. My local sports bar, Harry Buffalo makes a great one and can be ordered with bison meat.
Yucatecan food is awesome. I make it, but it just isn’t as good as the real thing.