What was the best dish you've ever eaten in your life?

[Gatopescado]

@Jack_Batty

Frutti-di-mari at an Italian restaurant that now I can’t remember the name of in San Francisco. Leonardo’s? Michaelangelo’s?

Probably Scoma’s.

[Baker]

@Chefguy

Possibly the bouillabaisse I had on the waterfront in Marseilles, France. The real deal. I’ve also swooned over the steak au poivre a la creme with frites in a Brussels pub on many occasions.

Probably the most satisfying meal, though, was in boot camp. We went out to the firefighting training place, which was off the base. After an exhausting, sweaty morning of manhandling fire hoses in a smoke-filled building, we were presented with a long table piled with cold cuts, cheese, rolls, potato salad, and beans. By any standard of such things, this was pretty crappy food, but sitting under the trees in the sun, it tasted like heaven to us.

I do not know what the best FOOD meal I ever had was, but, oddly enough, the best liquid I ever drank was in Army basic training. We were in South Carolina, in August, on a long march. Hot as blazes and our tails were dragging. Our drill sergeant surprised us by having a refreshment stage set up, with sweet tea infused with lemon, and so very, very cold. Lots of ice. To this day, forty five years later, I can remember how good that tea felt and tasted.

I went on Facebook and registered, a few years ago, to find that drill sargeant and tell her about that memory…I did find her and boy was she surprised that someone still had that in their brain.

[silenus]

BBQ Division: Either the mixed plate at Bridge’s BBQ in Shelby, NC, with hush puppies that look like they were extruded from a very large caulking gun or the 1/2 lb. of brisket and 1/2 lb. of sausage I had last time I was at Smitty’s in Lockhart, TX.

[Wrenching_Spanners]

At a French restaurant in London, the sadly now closed Galvin Bistrot de Luxe, very tender lamb sweetbreads and escargot in a garlic and jus sauce with a glass of red burgundy paired with the dish. I’d had escargot before but not sweetbreads. I was amazed at how much I loved it. My wife wasn’t sure about the dish, so I had the half of hers that she didn’t eat. I would have eaten ten more.

[Buck_Godot]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

It’s a little weird, but one of my strongest meal memories was eating at the Pueblo Cultural Center in New Mexico. I ordered a bean burrito, and my god but that meal nearly brought me to tears of joy.

We would always go there for lunch on our way to catch a plane out of Albuquerque. I don’t think I ever tried the burrito because I’m fixated on their Indian Tacos. There is a helluva lot of good food in New Mexico. Just remember, if they ask you “red or green?” the answer is green.

[Ashtura]

First real philly cheesteak I had in Philadelphia area. I was hooked forever.

[ivylass]

Ivylad and I went to Bern’s for our anniversary a few years back. I could cut my steak with a fork, it was that tender. And the loaded baked potato? The waiter mixed in all the toppings tableside.

Would go back in a heartbeat.

[Ludovic]

For me it’s pretty much any garden salad with ginger dressing. The local teppanyaki place has slightly below average dressing but only because it is thin enough that it mainly goes to the bottom of the bowl rather than staying on the lettuce, but it’s still better than anything else I’ve eaten.

Second is probably when I cooked a t-bone very rare and the part next to the bone had an absolutely amazing texture, but I’m too scared to try to recreate it.