Your Ultimate Food Experience

R

richard-in-cincy

Well-known member
I was looking through the new cookbook acquisitions on the Cincinnati Library web site and ran across "Ultimate eats : the world's top 500 food experiences...ranked" A bunch of foodies sharing their ultimate experience and someone who didn't experience it decided they were qualified to rank them 1-500. I'm sure there are some lovely tales there, but what about us?

What is your ultimate food experience?

I've had so many over the years. From the fabulous to the ridiculously simple, but the one that always pops into my head first was my picnic on the Lido: seat for 1 in the sand at sunset.

I wandered through the back alley ways of Venice to a Mom and Pop storefront bodega where I had been shopping for food during my stay in the neighborhood (poor student eating cheap).

I bought a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, a slab of camembert, and a half dozen baby octopi marinated in olive oil, peppers, and spices. All was wrapped up in sheets of paper and I stuffed them into my ubiquitous black bag as they handed the little parcels to me. The elderly couple running the place were all smiles, spoke no English, I spoke no Italian except hello, goodbye, how much, thank you, etc., but they made me feel so welcome in their tiny little shop (I would love to have a nice long look around that long gone shop today!). The cost for this feast was a dollar and some change (the bottle of local red wine was .40¢).

I boarded a vaporetto and headed to the beach as the sun began to set to find a place for my picnic. I settled on a stretch of empty sand, that magical time when the crowded beaches clear out as it starts to get dark and its time for dinner. I opened the bottle (drinking from the bottle of course) and unpacked my little parcels of food, spread them out, and started my dinner as I watched the golden sun sink below the horizon.

After it became dark and I had finished dinner, I had a nice after dinner nighttime swim in the Adriatic Sea.

This was my ultimate food experience--the meal that always comes first to mind when I think of amazing past food experiences.

 
I have so many but one always comes back to me. As you all know

John went to work for Saudi Airline in 1990 and we lived in Jeddah for 12 years so we traveled a lot and often and I had wonderful food experiences but the one that was so special was in Jeddah. One of John's co workers, Yaya, became a good friend of ours and spent a lot of time with us. After many years he invited us to his home for dinner with his family. No one in the family spoke English but I asked if I could learn some of their recipes. His mother did the cooking and to my surprise newspapers came out and spread on the floor and food prep began all of us women peeling and dicing. I asked if one of them would show me how to make a great hummus. Yaya told them what I wanted and suddenly abayas came out and hair and faces were covered and in came the father and he began making hummas. We ate our dinner in a room all sitting on the floor, men in one room, women in another. I will never forget it.

 
Here's mine: 1983, Larry and I spent 5 weeks in Europe on a VERY limited budget. Our Bible was

literally "Europe on $25 a Day" and we were poor enough that we had to stick with it. Larry was a grade school teacher ($15,000/yr) and I was a draftsman ($12,000/yr), so when I say poor, I'm not being snooty. We really had to stick to a tight budget for that trip.

At our $14/night pensione in Florence (bathroom 2 floors down), the owner told us we HAD to visit Sirmione on Lake Garda, a gorgeous lake near the top of Italy, surrounded by the Dolomites with Germany, France and Austria a mere two hours away in any direction. He was so persuasive that we adjusted our plans to go there after Venice ($13/night, bathroom 3 floors down) but before Switzerland. The Florence hotel owner called them before we left and made us reservations for 2 days. We were down to the last 12 days of the trip.

After three sweltering days in Venice, we arrived in Sirmione on a Sunday and the little old lady behind the desk at Hotel Grifone spoke to us in Italian. We shook our head, no.

Then she tried German.
Nein.

Then French.
Non.

I felt very American at that point.

She called in the owner who had spent military time in Liverpool, so he spoke English with an EXTREMELY cockney Liverpool accent topped off with Italian hand gestures. First he insisted we have martinis because he had been to New York City once and assumed all Americans drank martinis. Then he sent a porter to show us to our room.

It was gorgeous. Twelve foot ceiling, balcony with billowy curtains blowing out overlooking the lake and...and...and...it had an ensuite bathroom!!!!!!!! For $24 a night.

We literally ran downstairs and by pointing to the calendar and pleading and pointing some more, got the little old lady behind the desk to increase our room reservation to a week. After 3 weeks of walking down strange hallways to find the shared common bathrooms, an ensuite beat out Switzerland without a second thought. We had to end up in Amsterdam for our flight home, but that was our only constraint.

Then we told Mr. Cockney that our wedding anniversary was coming up and we wanted him to decide what to make for our dinner. It was totally up to him.

At 6:30 we came down and were seated at a table with a large floral centerpiece just for us. (I looked around. None of the other tables had a centerpiece that big.) We weren't handed menus as our meal had been left up to the manager.

First they brought out two huge conch shells filled with iced langostinos and a chilled white wine.

When that was cleared away they prepared pasta at our table side with another bottle of red wine.

Then they flambéed thick steaks with mushrooms and tiny potatoes. And opened ANOTHER bottle of wine. By this time, Larry and I are drunk AND panicking because we only brought down $50 for dinner. Larry went back upstairs and came back with $80.

It's now 9:30 and they're just starting on dessert for us. Another flambéed masterpiece was performed (by now the entire restaurant is watching our table) and a bottle of champagne is popped. Larry left the table again and got our emergency credit card which we had promised we'd only use for an emergency. Like, you know, an amputation or immediate brain surgery.

Then they brought out espresso and some sort of brandy. I was so drunk by this time I could barely sit up straight, but I remember it all being wonderful.

Then the bill came.

It was $40.

We both burst out laughing in relief and left the $80 cash. Then we went and made out in the hallway outside our room because we were too drunk to unlock the door.

And then we got to spend 5 more days there, buying rosemary-stuffed chickens spit-roasted over a wood fire from the deli, fresh peaches, cheap wine and eating on the beach of a crystal-clear glacier-fed lake.

I still believe it was worth missing Switzerland.

http://www.lagodigarda.com/immagini/ristoranti/restaurant_sirmione_l_orangerie.jpg

 
A couple of things I remember:

Recently, I found a local ethnic market that was advertising "Wagyu Beef". Bought some thick NY strip steaks that were beautifully marbled--they were just as good or better marbled as Prime strips I have seen, much more marbled than the Choice cuts seen in local chain groceries (and delightfully inexpensive at 5.99/lb). I threw them in the freezer to try on a special night. Next time comes up and the place is advertising Culotte of beef, Wagyu Culotte of beef. This is a cut I had heard of but never seen in a grocery store. I bought it and cooked it that night. Thought it was a steak, so started to grill it and it started to round up and I realized it was a complete muscle, not a steak. Ran it to get my instant-read thermometer and cooked to about 115º, let it rest for 15 minutes. Sliced on the bias across the grain. This cut was absolutely gorgeously, heavily, evenly and finely marbled with fat and OH MY GAWD, it was the best beef I had ever tasted. It had a flavor that was rich and full and the fat stayed soft even after cooling off. The fat was full of flavor, and not greasy at all. I really could not stop eating it. Poor husband wanted some leftovers the next day, but I eaten them all and I could have eaten what he ate too! Needless to say, the steaks were cooked pretty soon after, and had that flavor as well, and even though I slightly over cooked them, they did not go sourish like those choice steaks. Best beef I have EVER had.

The meat manager at the store told me that he was cutting back on the Wagyu to sell because people were telling him that it looked too fatty and they wouldn't buy it! In this case, the fat really *was* flavor. The manager knows me by sight and now I can ask him when he is next going to make a Wagyu order. The last Wagyu I bought, well, my sister and I bought the whole NY strip he had, sliced into 1 lb steaks! He didn't have to worry about selling that.

The price of the Wagyu has gone up, but it is still quite a bit less than full-priced choice steaks from local grocery chains. I have more steaks now in the freezer, along with some small Wagyu tri-tips and another Wagyu Culotte.

Lastly: Years ago, we used to rent a cabin in Tahoe the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. The last year we were there, we got a taxi to the Ceasar's Palace casino there and really did dinner at their steakhouse. We had appetizers and drinks before dinner. We had salad, we had dinner, delicious dinner of steaks, rack of lamb, prepared fantastically, with appropriate wine to go with; I cannot remember the sides we had with but it was all great. We had after dinner drinks and coffee (Irish Coffee, I love it) with our desserts. The coffee was fresh, and to doctor it we were given fresh whipped cream flavored with good vanilla/chocolate liqueur and another with hazelnuts. Every thing from the food to the setting to the company to the service was absolutely wonderful.

We needed to go back to the cabin, but the taxis were all busy and to get one it was going to take a while. My brother saw an empty limo and talked to the driver--Bingo! We had a ride home (brother slipped him some money, a very reasonable amount). The driver was going back to Reno and said he would drop us off across the street from the drive to where the cabin was--just don't tell anyone he did so. He dropped us off and got some bucks for it and we did not have to wait around for a taxi.

Good food memories seem to be deeply connected with the surroundings and circumstances you made them with.

Dang--I want some Wagyu--maybe next week when we visit my brother. . .

 
That is such a beautiful area...

My orchestra made a pass through the Dolomites on tour in 1986. We played at the Mahler Festival in Toblach (Broadcast LIVE on the RAI!!!) and other concerts in Bolzen, Cortina, etc. I just remember those beautiful glacial fed lakes surrounded by the craggy peaks of the Dolimite Alps, that brilliant blue water, and that I was in Italy and could speak German anywhere I went. Fond memories.

I was also through this area in 1983 although I didn't make any stops. I travelled frequently between Graz-Venice and also did a trek from Venice to Monte Carlo, passing the southern edge of Lake Garda and Sirmione on the way to Milan. When were you in Venice and Sirmione? It would be hoot if we were in Venice at the same time in 1983 (and yes Central Europe was HOT! in the summer of 1983.): Graz-Venice 3rd week of August, Venice to Milan 4th week of August, Venice-2nd week of September, Firenze and Roma, 3rd & 4th week of September,

That sounds like an amazing week!

 
Off the top of my head...

Some of mine are simple:

When I was little, standing in my grandmother's kitchen with my mom's younger brother, who was probably a teen at the time. He would feed me stuff that my mom wasn't crazy about and that we never had in our house, such as bleu cheese and canned smoked oysters. I loved all of it, even when I was five or so.

The first time I ate Ethiopian food at a really good restaurant. We had the whole shebang - hand washing ceremony and all. it was all really fabulous and pretty and so different.

 
I'd have to work backwards....

Belgium > 3 days
Paris > 4 days
Nice > 5 days
Florence > 8 days
Venice > 3 days (~July 14-ish)
Sirmione > 7 days (we were definitely here on July 18)
Milan > 1 day
Amsterdam > 3 days

We were so hot and miserable in Venice that I remember sitting in the plaza on some steps and telling Larry I wasn't going into another church or museum. So we headed off to the Lido.

Turns out we were sitting on the steps of Saint Mark's Basilica--and I didn't go in!!! Still kick myself over that one.

 
Wow, you reminded me of when I was a kid. . .

We had a peach tree near us growing wild. All of us kids would be on that tree when its peaches gave the first signs of being ripe--so of course they were half ripe and hard as rocks. We would drag them home and my mother always made us a pie. Green and hard and super tart those peaches were but those were the best pies ever. I guess it was all the love my mom put into the pie that made them so good along with lots of sugar!

 
Mine is not about a fancy or ethnic meal but a family happening with a red bell pepper soup I made

as a first course to Thanksgiving dinner. I was asked to bring something for a starter course while the turkey was resting and I chose this soup. It was outstanding, our two sons got up for seconds and thirds and I finally asked them to save room for my daughter in laws Thanksgiving dinner. I was so embarrassed when both sons got up and used the tomato soup as a gravy on their turkey. I did not make any points with the hostess that day. It must have been the red bell peppers because I have made the soup since and it was not the same.

 
1976. Finally decided to stop spending our vacations revisiting the parents and take a trip.

I had been to Europe several times by that point and maintained a VERY strong attraction to it, particularly France and Switzerland. I was so hoping that my new husband would understand that attraction and ultimately get hooked as well.

We had a set of special invitations to various wine houses and distilleries for private visits. We started in Hennessey, Cognac, cognac which my husband did love. Before our visit, we arranged a picnic for ourselves, lounging under a big tree across the river, where we had nothing but ham, tomatoes, baguette, cheeses and of course wine as we faced the beautiful house of Hennessey.

It was the start to our biennial returns to Europe and eventually a decision to buy in the So of France (an idea which was put on permanent hold with the events of Sept 11/01) And to the creation of lots of fabulous memories. We had bought 2 sturdy wine glasses there as well as a picnic basket. In the years that followed we would pull out those wine glasses, back at home, and reminisce

It was just a simple little picnic but it was the start to a wonderful trip with smiles all the way.

 
Restaurant meal was at The Red Lion Inn outside Boulder CO. They serve whipped cream in a gravy boat

for after dinner coffee. So simple but so elegant.
Bread, cheese, sausage and wine picnic in Napa area. Ahhh.
And Kowalski hotdogs roasted over the fire after a good day fishing is also at the top of my list.
The top of the Hancock building in Chicago was always my favorite fancy place.

 
PS: I should add that the reason we were panicking about the cost of the meal

was because we were traveling with a backpack. That's it. And we hadn't found a laundromat in 8 days and had no clean clothes.

So that Sunday when we checked in, we asked about a laundromat, but the porter told us they could do our clothes. We stupidly handed them over and two hours later, we were handed back a beautiful pile of laundered clothes...even Larry's underwear had been ironed. And his socks.

The bill?
190,000 Lira
One Hundred Ninety THOUSAND LIRA.
For ironed socks.

That converted to $60...which was 2.5 days of our budgeted funds.
I'm pretty sure our clothes didn't even add up to $60.

...which explains the panic that escalated as bottle after bottle and flambéed...everything kept appearing at our table.

 
So many to choose from but here are a few

Mom's pork roast and sauerkraut after smelling it roasting all day.

Just-out-of-the-oven baguette and an excellent triple creme cheese with a good bottle of red on the beach on Guadaloupe.

The first time I tasted Julia Child's French Onion Soup.
The second time I tasted Julia Child's French Onion Soup.
EVERY time I taste Julia Child's French Onion Soup.

Sauteed wild mushrooms and onions with red wine cooked by my ex-MIL after a mushroom-gathering hike through the woods at her cabin in Burr Oak State Park in OH. My ex-FIL was an expert mushroom forager.

A perfectly-grilled Porterhouse Steak for two at a great steakhouse. 30 years ago and still the best in my mind.

1967 House Special pizza at The House of Pizza in St. Cloud, MN. Recently revisited it and found the pizza was EXACTLY the same.

Thinly-sliced fresh white bread, ham and cheese sandwiches with the crusts cut off when I lived in London. Ate them every day for lunch at the local pub. Wrapped in tissue paper.

Just recently: the best burger I ever ate. Kobe Beef Burger at the Boon Fly Cafe on a trip through Napa. Sensational burger. Excellent sweet potato fries too. Really memorable.

So many more!

http://www.boonflycafe.com

 
Thank goodness the summer of 1983 was the summer of the ever rising dollar...

When I landed in Austria in July, there were 16 Schillings to the dollar. By the time I left in November, the exchange had gone to 26 Schillings to the dollar. And since a Krügerl'n of Puntigamer (half liter of the local beer) was around 12 Schillings, I thought I had died and gone to Austrian Bier Himmel.

 
They cut the crusts off! No way! Wow. Best pizza ever, Post Corner in Clearwater Beach FL

Plain cheese pizza to die for. I must pilgramage back one day.

 
Blue crabs

So very hard to pick one best! After sitting for a minute to see what came to me, I got blue crabs at Quarterdeck in Arlington, VA, outside of DC. Tomorrow, I'll probably have a different best smileys/wink.gif Colleen

 
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