Use this time to discuss the best meal you’ve ever had. No election talk, please.
Livingston is a town of around 5,000 people in East Texas. It’s about an hour north of Houston. There is a tiny restaurant, off the farm road that bisects the state highway that serves ribs, brisket, fried catfish — basically your quintessential Texas cuisine. Florida’s Kitchen uses recipes that were created by the wife of a colored farm worker in the segregated south — she cooked for her husband and his crew when they returned home. Eventually, she began selling meals out of the family’s shack. The family still runs the place, and smokes its meat in 14 foot long smokers that are grounded within a few feet of the door. It’s an eye-watering, but savory preview of the meal within.
It’s been expanded a few times, but is still far too small to handle huge rushes. I’ve been on a Sunday morning and waited hours to be seated — it was worth it, by the way. Part of this is simply the place’s capabilities. It’s basically a three room house converted into a restaurant. I think a large part of it is the small town mindset. People just move slower and take their time doing things. Drivers go 15 under the speed limit. Fast food takes 20 minutes in a drive thru. You learn to accept it.
I first ate at Florida’s when I was around 12 years old. I’ve eaten at Florida’s dozens of times. My father owned a lakehouse in Onalaska, TX (pop 700) that he purchased in the early 1990’s. He was forced to sell it after Enron when his retirement fund was cleaved approximately in half. I have driven more than 2 hours out of my way to eat there since then. The food has never disappointed, and it is the perfect introduction to small town Texas on Sundays. If any Texan here is driving from Houston up 59, take the time to stop by. It’s only about 5 minutes off the highway. It is a little under an hour from I-45 if you’re going from Houston to Dallas, and the drive there along with the food make the detour well worth it in either case.
double-plus-ungood
Huh. I just posted on this topic at a different blog.
Best meal ever was a 5$ meal at a Montreal Polish restaurant after a week with little food due to no money. Good homemade rye bread, soup, and blintzes. Went from weak, staggery, and a vicious migraine to brimming with life and energy.
Not many meals I have eaten have done that.
smiley
At the manager’s table (with the manager) at Mama Leoni’s in NYC when I was 14. It was my first multi-course Italian meal and it was awesome. Of course, as a 14 year old from the rural south, what did I know.
andante
Mmmm…just thinking of Hillbilly Hideaway in Walnut Cove, NC makes my mouth water.
Indescribably delicious fried chicken, country ham, BBQ ribs and more plus a host of country-style veggies and gorgeous biscuits or cornbread. Big bowls & platters brought to your table – holler when they’re empty and they’ll be replaced with more for $13.50 ($16.00 if you want a homemade dessert). Music free afterwards.
Incertus
A rainy night in New Orleans, middle of August, on our way back to Florida after hiking in the Utah desert, we ate at Tujague’s, just because it was open and we wouldn’t get absolutely soaked getting in. Incredible meal–do the prix fixe if you’re ever there.
Best unexpectedly good meal was at a little hole in the wall in Sulfur, LA called The Boiling Pot. Fresh boudin, gumbo, and a soft-shell crab po-boy that hurt, it was so good.
The Grand Panjandrum
It was 1971 and I was at Pattaya Beach, Thailand. We rented a boat that took us to an island just offshore to enjoy the snorkeling and the pristine beaches. A family had set up a little open-air restaurant and served the catch of the day right on the beach that faced back toward Pattaya. We ate fresh prawns, crab and snapper. It was served with steamed and fried rice, assorted vegetables, and enough Singha beer to float an aircraft carrier on.
Their was four of us, and it cost less than ten bucks total for the meal. Of course, Thai stick was five bucks for a “brick” (20 sticks) back then. That might have had a little to do with how much we ate and why I remember it as being the best. meal. evah.
David
Not the “best” meal I’ve had, but the one I enjoyed most: Freshly grilled rare steak after about two years without.
Hillary
McDonalds outside of Charleston, WV. Fries were outstanding.
Lavocat
Mama Theresa’s in Garden City Park, Long Island, for to-die-for eggplant rolls.
I’ve driven three hours EACH way just to have a meal there. And their mussels marinara is amazing as well.
Never had a bad meal there in over thirteen years.
There’s also a hole-in-the-wall place on a side street in Mineola that makes the best damned veal sorrentino on the planet.
Tim
August 3rd, 2003 Outside a little town called Feuchtwagen in Bavaria Germany. A wedding feast that included every kind of meat, potato, and vegatable dish under the sun. Venison, Pork, Wurst, even picked octopus.
And then there was the beer……
capelza
Lord, where to begin? Every time I think I’ve had the best meal, another memory pops up…
The only one where I ever embarrassed myself by burying my head in the platter as all the others around were chatting was a linguine and clam sauce dish made by a Norwegian lady…perfect. Light, but fragrant, just the perfect amount of oil, clams, garlic, everything…
Though this was this place in the early 70’s the Manora Thai restaurant in Eureka, CA that served the best Chicken Coconut Curry I’ve ever had. Whole chicken pieces..heaven. I’ve never found any better in 35 years and I keep looking.
Or maybe boiling fresh king crab on the back deck when we hit port and all the fish plant folks came down to join us. Pans of butter and knives everywhere…a mess afterwards..all the shells, but it was fantastic. If you have never had fresh king crab, you have got to try it. There is world of difference between that and the frozen variety.
Or that one peach pie…
Katherine Harris' Plastic Surgeon
The Columbia in Ybor City, FL: Cuban pot roast, fresh bread, black beans & rice, extra plantains, sangria and cafe con leche. Holy fuck is it good.
Shygetz
Calhoun’s on the Tennessee River in Knoxville. The most tender babyback ribs and the most delicious beer cheese dip known to man, served with a local porter. Mmmmmm….
Warren Terra
No one meal … but there used to be (fifteen years ago? twenty?) this unbelievable smokehouse and BBQ shop operating out of a rundown house on a side street in Seattle’s (black, poor, especially then) Central District called Hills Brothers BBQ … it was just incredible, and the foil-wrapped packets of Wonder Bread that came with each order somehow worked perfectly as an accompanyment. Only real excuse for Wonder Bread I’ve ever known.
Andrew
Best meal ever? Too many to pick just one.
– Anytime I’ve ever had decent Carolina BBQ. If I had to pick one only food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be a $3 pulled pork sandwich.
– Fresh sea critters deep fried right on the docks in Seattle.
– A fish stuffed with crabmeat and shimp and swimming in a sea of butter in the french quarter.
– Haggis in one of Edinburgh’s super-luxury hotels.
JWeidner
There have certainly been a number of them, but one that I remember quite fondly was the Shenandoah Cafe in Long Beach, CA. Small place that focused on American cuisine, although I recall that it seemed pretty heavily influenced by the South (imagine that, with the name Shenandoah Cafe!). Hot apple fritters served as complimentary appetizers with every meal, and a hickory smoked prime rib on weekends that was simply awesome.
I know they closed shop in Long Beach and opened up again somewhere else…I may have to look them up again – it would be a long drive for me now, seeing as I live on the very southern end of Orange County, but entirely worthwhile.
Carnacki
My best meal ever.
My favorite restaurant chain:
Sonny’s BBQ. Thankfully only available in the South when I’m traveling or I’d eat there too often.
Perry Como
La Cave in CA. The menu was a rolling cart with ice and the things they were cooking. Simple, no nonsense food. The entire place felt like a throwback to a 60s steak house.
Carnacki
My best meal ever.
My favorite restaurant chain:
Sonny’s BBQ. Thankfully only available in the South when I’m traveling or I’d eat there too often.
Andrew
Also, there is no question that the pig is by far the most delicious animal. To expand upon Homer’s disbelief, pulled pork, ham, pork chops, bacon, prosciutto, charcuterie of all kinds, really, from a single creature? Thank you pig god.
Zifnab
So I was hanging out with friends at a party, and we were passing around drinks. And I disovered a box of Oreo cookies. As kinda a joke, I decided to grab by glass of straight vodka and dunk my Oreos in it.
Best. Ever.
Absolutely delicious.
Not really a meal, per say, but it was tasty.
Brachiator
Best meals:
1. Cheeseburgers from a place called Lightfoot’s in Texas. The ground beef was seasoned beforehand with black pepper and onions.
2. Steaks at The Hereford House in Kansas City. Still, the juiciest, most marbled steaks I have ever tasted.
3. A full-on gourmet meal at Citrus Restaurant in Los Angeles.
4. A simple meal at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan. Pasta sauteed in a pan with black pepper, basil and olive oil, but somehow so well-blended that it has rarely been equaled.
schlagle
I’ve had many amazing meals in my life. My birthday present every year is dinner at any restaurant I want. And I mean ANY. My favorite so far was dinner at Masa’s in San Francisco when Siegel was still head chef.
Every course was better than the last and the wine pairing was spot on. Pure genius.
Dug Jay
A personal favorite is in Bruge, Belgium with the name of De Zilveren Pauw, or The Silver Peacock. A terrific setting in a several hundred year old house and a menu that mixes French with Flemish touches. They also have a great wine cellar.
Chris
The original location of Forti’s mexican restaurant in El Paso used to be awesome in the early 90s. Fried Southern food and BBQ ain’t quintessential Texas cuisine unless you’ve been trapped on the state’s East side. And it’s a huge state, as we all like to remind everyone.
Chiles Rellenos and enchiladas with green chile sauce. Notice a theme? A side of tortillas, Spanish rice and their refried beans. The picante is hot, the margaritas cold, and the chips homemade. Awesome.
protected static
Warren Terra: More like twenty-one – their business license was closed out in 1987.
libarbarian
One time I went down on this girl………
Roket
Best – http://www.ammonoosucinn.com/
Honorable mention – http://throwedrolls.com/
Geoduck
I can’t think of any one meal I would say is the best, but one that I remember was eating breakfast in a small restaurant in Ponca, Nebraska while on a family vacation 20 years ago. The food was tasty, and the ambiance and price was like being teleported back to the 1950’s.
Another memorable meal was at a Greek restaurant in England. Again, the food was good, but the real attraction was the full-on “experience” that came with it: people dancing and singing, and hundreds of plates getting smashed.
Tom in Texas
Chris — I will never, in my life, find a bad word to say about Tex-Mex. Any kind. I probably average one meal a day that is inspired by Mexican cuisine — be it a breakfast taco or enchilada. I’m just in a BBQ frame of mind today.
FLILF_Hunter
Room service at the Mark Hopkins in S.F. A New York steak with bernaise sauce.
My god. That steak was so perfect it cut with a fork. I live in the vain hope that one day I’ll cook a steak so perfect.
Mmmmmmmm…. Steak.
ThymeZone
Toss up. Either a little BBQ shack over west of downtown Dallas, whose name escapes me, or a piece of swordfish I got at the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon.
The BBQ was beef and the place was scrungy looking dive of a place, and there was rolls and butter and cole slaw and some Lone Star beer, and I sure that it was the most delicious red meat I ever ate bar none.
As for the swordfish, I have eaten this delectable all over the place from coast to coast and thought I knew swordfish. Well, I was wrong. This piece of fish was the most mouth-watering piece of flesh I ever tasted. I had no idea that swordfish could be that wonderful, that juicy, that tasty. El Tovar is legendary for its food, and I have had great food there before, but this thing was in a zone of its own. Here’s the view from the dining room window.
bend
Dateline: Ketchum, ID. 1993
A restaurant called, “The Kitchen” on Main Street.
The best Corned Beef hash ever made anywhere, or ever conceived of by the minds of man.
The restaurant went of business, and I cried for weeks
bend
Dateline: Ketchum, ID. 1993
A restaurant called, “The Kitchen” on Main Street.
The best Corned Beef hash ever made anywhere, or ever conceived of by the minds of man.
The restaurant went of business, and I cried for weeks
Tlaloc
I was 12 or so and my family was driving through the wasteland known as Utah. We stopped at, I swear to god, a greasy little diner called “Mom’s” and they had absolutely the best Halibut ever.
In Utah.
Halibut is an ocean fish. No oceans next to Utah. So that means they somehow took frozen fish and prepared it better than any of the fresh fish places I’ve every been (and living in a pacific coast state I’ve been to more than a few).
Also had these great tall thin glasses that were very star trek.
Second best meal- steak eaten with fingers at a friend’s bachelor party. Another friend had a recipe for marinating the steaks overnight in Jim Beam and they come out damn good. We ate with out hands because it was a pretty machismo themed bachelor party…
ThymeZone
Anyone who has ever had to drive across it west to east or east to west doesn’t need to be reminded.
One can start to believe that the entire world has become Texas.
Tom in Texas
If you drive from Houston to San Diego, El Paso is just halfway there.
From Brownsville to Chicago, TexArkana is the midpoint.
Chris
Tom, no hard feelings. It’s more Mexican than Tex-Mex on the border, but I do so love Tex-Mex that it seriously taxes me to choose.
Oh, that reminds me. I’ve been a fool: Grigg’s Mexican restaurant on the Western outskirts of El Paso ranks high in Awesome. The red enchiladas. Mmmmmmm-m.
mattt
best ever? impossible….but what comes immediately to mind are a huge pile of deep fried seafoody goodness, with a budweiser alongside, at Neptunes in Malibu after driving my old MGB down hwy 1…a crab Louis at the Swan Oyster Depot in SF….ooo, ooo, just reminded me of the amazing roasted dungeness crab at Thanh Long in San Francisco, with a side of garlic noodles….the best BBQ chicken I ever had was at Robinsons on the north side Chicago, 15 years ago…
b. hussein canuckistani
Sushi at a place called Omi in Toronto, where the chef owner was an apprentice of Iron Chef Morimoto. I used to think that all sushi restaurants were more or less on the same level, but this really was head and shoulders above all the other meals I’ve had in my life. Thw white tuna with garlic oil nigiri is worth immigrating for.
PeterP
My favorite was at a place called Element (now closed) in Atlanta. It was run by Richard Blais, who is on Top Chef this season. They did the molecular gastronomy thing really well, and all of it was incredibly good.
Shame it closed.
Bubblegum Tate
I’m having this problem, too. I think I need to narrow it down by food.
For example, the best burger I’ve ever had was at this spot in the Bahamas, of all places. It was called “Le Shack,” which I thought was fantastic. I literally took one bite of the burger and then flagged down the waitress to order another so it would get there by the time I finished the one I already had. Man, was that good.
When I was living in Greensboro, I used to drive 45 minutes to the far side of Winston-Salem to go to Mountain Fried Chicken, which basically an overgrown toolshed with some picnic tables. But my god, the plate of food you could get there was unbelievable. Well worth the hour-and-a-half round trip.
And now that I’m a west coast guy, I really miss those summers at Bethany Beach when we’d just go to town on bushels upon bushels of blue crab.
Walker
Wilber’s BBQ in Goldsboro NC. The quintessential Eastern Carolina barbeque (called “pulled pork” by the philistines). You don’t get better white barbeque (or any pork barbeque, for that matter) than Wilber’s.
But with that said, I really like the mustard-style cole slaw at Parker’s in Wilson better than Wilber’s slaw.
Rex
Philly Chicken Cheesesteak at the Silver Diner in Fairfax, VA after having spent a month in India and Nepal.
Delia
A couple of years ago in Seoul I ate at a little hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant that was unbelievably good. The pad Thai was exquisite, unlike anything I’ve ever had called pad Thai.
Other than that, I know a really good fish restaurant in SoCal. It’s called The Fish Company and it’s in Los Alamitos, in deepest suburbia, at the intersection of Los Alamitos and Katella Blvds. Stop in if you’re ever passing through.
JL
New England fish n chips or fried clams on Cape Cod. For barbecue you can’t beat The Swallow and the Hollow located in Roswell, GA and recommended by Alton Brown from foodtv.
demkat620
Too many years ago to count, the husband and I ate at a Nola restaurant that somebody at the hotel reccommended. I had filet with homemade worcestershire sauce and my husband had a fish called escolar. It was fantastic.
Two years later we saw the owner on the TV, Emeril.
Jake
Not to get all mushy but the best meals I ever had were the Thanksgiving dinners before my gran completed her long journey to Nutsville and could no longer cook. I’d strangle a bus load of nuns for one of that woman’s rolls.
Try it with the darkest, bitterest beer you can stomach. Whoa mama!
SteveinSC
I’m from a pure pork barbeque region (I guess we’re just too slow or ignorant to know any better) but I, and my family, spent a year in Houston at Clear Lake. Pete’s (pronounced Pee Tee’s) has the best goddamn coon-ass Cajun beef barbeque I ever ate. Long neck beer (used to be Lone Star) jambalaya or shrimp and oyster gumbo (with a real roux) thick white loaf bread and Zydeco music. Only thing missing at that place was a big live oak and a few tables to sit out side and sweat under.
Kirk Spencer
Best meal ever?
A group of 12 of us, of which I was the worst cook. (I was going to be a chef till I learned how hard it REALLY was – this was while I was still learning that lesson.) We decided to have a simple … call it a potluck, though that’s not the best term. Everyone would make what they felt was their best, with the service time to start at 6 pm (time ‘your’ dish appropriately for where it sits a 12 course meal. We had use of restaurant-style kitchen (that is, there was no lack for oven/grill/broiler/pots/utensils/ you get the idea).
Excellent friends, sharing a passion for preparing and presenting food, all doing it “right” not for competition, because one of us was dying and had requested this as her farewell present.
The quality of the food alone was enough to place it high on the list of great meals. The circumstances, though, are the reason for placing it as “best meal ever”.
Keith
Best meal? There’s been so many for so long. That I can remember, there was a feast I had at Kubo’s Sushi Restaurant (in Houston) during Kobe Beef Month…maguro, toro, 3 different preparations of beef, uni, aji (there’s is the best I’ve had), 3 kinds of salmon (king, Atlantic, sockeye), hamachi (best I’ve ever had). My first meal at Fogo de Chao (all-you-can eat gaucho-style grilled meats of the finest quality) was memorable…terrific meats, the best salad bar I’ve ever seen, unbelievable rolls.
No, wait, the best meal ever was a Christmas Day brunch buffet at some hotel in the Galleria area years ago that was probably a couple of hundred feet long with just about every kind of food I can think of, topped off by a station where they made fresh Bananas Foster to order.
SteveinSC
Oh, don’t forget the redbeans and rice.
JL
A restaurant in town (Roswell GA) named RELISH serves Pimento Cheese Fritters that are so tasty. Gourmet Magazine is going to feature the recipe in May or June’s edition. I’m not sure which one.
Tsulagi
Have had a few great meals, but the best total experience was on the French side of St. Martin, Orient Bay, in an open air French restaurant right on the beach with the sand as the floor. Walk in and pick your live lobster in a tank. Best lobster I’ve ever had with a garlic/lemon/butter sauce that was outstanding.
Made all the better by the show around the table. Orient Beach being clothing optional, an option not many of the French or others took. Hmmm, nothing quite like relaxing sipping some wine after an excellent meal while watching the many shapes, sizes, forms, and nuances of the female breast walking close by for dessert.
DarkSyde
Austin Texas, a friend who worked at a local eatery called Castle Hill Cafe using the ‘secret recipes’ of a chef there made some kind of spicy lamb tenderloin, with fried brie cheese, and a creamed corn side dish that was sublime — and I don’t normally even like creamed corn. There was a greenish sauce she got from Llano she said that went with the meat like nothing I’ve ever found since. Desert was a home made chocolate tort with raspberry sauce.
The Other Steve
If you want spicy…
http://www.bigdaddysbbq.net/
AnnPW
October, 1982, a little restaurant called Schrenkeisen’s in Rockport, on the Texas Gulf coast.
The Other Steve
United Kingdom has some of the best food, and much of the worst.
Best meals ever were found in Windsor, England. Down along King’s street there is fantastic Thai, Chinese, Indian and so forth. There’s this Chinese place there, where you pay per person and they bring out like seven different dishes. The dishes vary, but they always started with crispy duck and it’s delicious.
For the worst, I highly recommend the Hungry Horse, it’s a chain…
HeartlandLiberal
In about 1979 I was back in Germany for a few weeks after having lived there 1970-71 for a year. Spent the night camping on an island in a campground in a tent on the Mosel at Bernkatel-Kues. Got up and wandered into town to scrounge up some breakfast. Bought a simple wurst and a white broetchen at a Metzgerei (butcher’s shop). The first bite of the wurst was the most powerful food sensory experience imaginable. It was so because the meat products, the bread, the food in general, in Germany, is simply so much better than the mass consumer crap Americans eat. I had learned how good it was while living there. Forgotten how good it was living through the 70’s in America. And that bite, the sheer, overwhelming delicious explosion, was one of the most memorable single bites of food ever.
Funny how the mind remembers moments, but studies have shown that events like that that involve multiple senses burn themselves the most indelibly into ones memory.
The other similar taste experience I still recall was a bottle of a Johannisberg Riesling Spaetlese wine from the Johannisberg vineyard on the Rhein north of Frankfurt. I got to visit the winery at one point while living there, wanted to based on the wine I had tasted. It was the epitome of the best of German wines. Clean, clear, an aroma and fragrance you never forget, crisp, fruity, bright, golden nectar of the Gods. I love German Rhein and Mosel wines to this day.
Salvo
Victoria and Albert’s, Walt Disney World. Full 6 course meal, plus unlimited wine pairings for each course. 2 personal waiters. Personalized menus. String quartet over in the corner. I seem to recall a buffalo saviche that was to die for. Chocolate mousse pyramid that was topped with gold foil. Sure the meal was over 500 dollars for 2 people, but it was worth…every…penny. Of course, at the end of the meal, I think I was too drunk to care.
Dennis - SGMM
Going to El Tepeyac in Los Angeles’ Lincoln Heights (The gangbangers on the way are part of the adventure) good and stoned and hungry like a wolf after a concert is as close to enlightenment as I will ever get.
JL
Thanks Tom!
SenderC
Back in college, my dorm cafeteria had a German night. There were about 12 different types of sausage with sides of spaetzle, red cabbage sauerkraut and potatoes. All of it was cooked expertly, not in your usual dorm cafteria style (maybe they had visiting cooks from Munich). Very few of my fellow students wanted any part of it, so I sat there for a couple of hours and ate as much as I wanted.
Dinner at Gramercy Tavern in New York in late 2002. My wife and I were there for well over 3 hours. First time I ever understood the appeal of fine dining.
JWeidner
I’ll also call out a place named Doyle’s Seafood. It’s in a small town called Dingle on the southwestern tip of Ireland. Ate there a number of years back and had wild Atlantic Salmon that had been caught that day. Best piece of salmon (or any fish for that matter) I’ve ever had, period.
SteveinSC
I learned to love German wines (French as well) in the 70’s. Frank Schoonmaker’s Book did it for me. What a wonderful guide to the great German Lagen! Unfortunately, I can’t make any sense of the new naming conventions insofar as they relate to the old vineyards. Maybe they just don’t import them any more, too expensive.
protected static
Best high-brow meals would have to include Nora’s in DC (during the mid-90s) & The Herbfarm in Woodinville, WA (last year).
Less pretentious ‘bests’ would have to include numerous BBQ/catfish/soul food joints on either side of the Mississippi in and around St. Louis; various noodle & dim sum houses in Boston, DC & Seattle; clam and lobster shacks up & down the New England coast…
Mmmmm… Food… /drool
HyperIon
re Sonny’s BBQ, it was originally called Fatboy’s and the first one opened in gainesville, fla in 1968. i’m a gator (BS Chem 1973) and enjoyed many fat-filled meals there as an undergrad. but it’s not my idea of GREAT food or even of a GREAT restaurant. on a recent visit to fla i noticed that it is a franchise now. oh, well.
some of my favs (yes, i LIKE cheese):
fondue in Gruyere, France
raclette in rural Switzerland
HumboldtBlue
Best meal I ever ate was fresh coleslaw, grilled corn salsa, fresh tortillas and without a doubt, the best piece of fish I ever ate.
In part, because the tuna steaks my Puerto Rican friend grilled for us came from a 65-pound yellow fin tuna I pulled from the Pacific.
I absolutely loathe canned tuna, and was skeptical about what my buddy would do, but to this day, I have never had a better piece of fish. He whipped up a soyu, mayo, fresh herb dressing, lightly coated the fish and barely seared it on each side. Delectable.
And from my time as firefighter in Hawaii, Gulick’s deli. It was a custom for our department on Johnston Island, that whenever you flew back in from Honolulu, you had to bring back four, huge trays of just about everything the deli served.
Sloegin
Grill fried Yakisoba, soba noodles dark brown from the frying, a steaming hot giant mound of Japanese style delicious, and hard as hell to find in a town (Seattle) where you otherwise can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a teriyaki joint.
Most of the teriyaki joints are great, and usually run by the latest ethnic group du jour, but they couldn’t compare to the noodles put out by a shop in the U. District of Seattle called Kiku’s.
Sadly, Kiku’s has changed ownership, and their noodles have gone the way of all the others, now merely good, where they used to be sublime.
And don’t get me started about good their hombow and croquettes used to be. *sob*
HyperIon
yum!
and La Miche in Bethesda.
aghast
Neely’s Brown Pig in Marshall Texas.
protected static
Hmmm… La Miche does look good. There’s no way we would have eaten there when we lived in DC, though. Nora’s was a huge budgetary stretch for us then. Our idea of a splurge was the late, lamented Siddhartha’s at the corner of Thayer & Georgia Av in Silver Spring – it was an all-you-can-eat South Indian vegetarian buffet for $5 or so…
There was a similarly-priced sit-down place over in the PG County side of Tacoma Park; they had a constant stream of Indian customers coming in with gallon jugs to get dal or sambar to go.
Come to think of it, those were some pretty damn good meals, too.
protected static
As I think about it, there was another reason La Miche would have been a no-go zone… We were a lot more, er, riff-raffish back then, and Bethesda was (probably still is) a lot more uptight than Dupont Circle.
If we were going to eat in Bethesda, Tako Grill would have been our first choice – and it often was, as our paychecks got bigger.
Krista
My wedding supper. It was the perfect finale to a perfect day, after having done our wedding the way WE wanted it (i.e. eloping), we went to Babbo in Greenwich Village and had the Traditional Tasting Menu. Here it is (with the wine pairing in italics)
Babbo Culatello with Ramps and Pecorino — Riesling “Montiggl,” St. Michael Eppan 2005
Pappardelle with Porcini and Thyme — Barolo “Rocche dell’Annunziata,” Rocche Costamagna 2001
Duck Tortelli with “Sugo Finto” — “Rosso del Soprano,” Palari 2001
Grilled Venison with Acorn Squash Caponata and Mint Pesto — “Assurretta,” Cantina Terlina 2001
Coach Farm’s Finest with Fennel Honey (this was an amazing cheese that Mario Batali’s father-in-law makes solely for the restaurant) — Franciacorta Brut “Millesimato,” Castellino 1998
Pumpkin “Bônet” — “Arzimo,” La Cappucina 2004
Chocolate “Tartufino” — Vin Santo di Chianti Classico, La Sala 2000
Venetian Apple Cake with Cinnamon Gelato — Moscato di Noto, Planeta 2005
I’ve had good food. I’ve had damn good food. But this…this was an entirely different experience altogether. That food was awe-inspiring. The wine was perfect. The service was so good that I needed do no more than the intial clench of the butt cheeks and someone was there to pull out my chair so that I could get up.
And yes, by the time the 8th glass of wine arrived, I was loudly announcing to all within earshot that we’d gotten married that day. Thank heavens that Italian restaurants are warm and rowdy enough that an announcement of this nature is welcomed warmly, and not with a discreet escort to the door.
Tlaloc
“One can start to believe that the entire world has become Texas.”
So you are saying that it *is* possible to sample hell…
redterror
Osteen’s in San Augustine. You will find no place that does seafood better. Worth the wait every time. Next time you have to deliver the kiddies to Orlando, make the detour. You won’t be disappointed.
skippy
what color?
JR
My then-fiancee and I were in Dahlonega, Georgia a few years back. We stayed at a little vegetarian-friendly bed and breakfast called the Cedar House Inn–certainly worth checking out next time you’re in North Georgia (hint, hint, Michael). Anyhow, the owners suggested we try an Italian place in town called Piazza, and we checked it out our second night there.
We had gone up for a little wine tasting and some hiking, and as we were enjoying an incredible eggplant parmesan and bruschetta with chianti, we decided that we wanted to hold our wedding at a nearby waterfall and have our reception at the restaurant.
And about ten months later, that’s exactly what we did. And it was wonderful. :)
grumpy realist
So many restaurants, so little time….
Actually, one of the most memorable meals I had was in Sapporo, Japan. A fellow co-worker and I were attending some conference and we waltzed down to the hotel lobby to see what the concierge would recommend for food places nearby. What did we want? Sapporo ramen. We were given a few “nice restaurant” locations, then the hotel guy hesitated and asked us whether we really cared about the ambiance. No, not really. Aha, I have a wonderful place for you…..(gave directions.)
The place was one of those standard cafeteria-type places where you buy a food ticket at the door and the lighting is fluorescent. The noodles? Absolute perfection. Made on the premises, fresh that day. The vegetables? Wide variety, perfectly ripe and perfectly cooked. The slices of roast pork on top? Huge, meaty slices cooked to subliminity. And the broth….? Oh, that broth. Nectar of the gods….
Gemina13
Oh, God, there were at least several. I’ll have to list them chronologically.
1) The Cat & Custard Cup, an upscale restaurant in La Habra, California. For my birthday, my ex treated me to a fantastic meal, dessert, and a really bad glass of Cab. I had medallions of venison in a lingonberry sauce with roasted potatoes; he had (IIRC) parmesan-crusted pork tenderloin. We both had the French silk pie with a hazelnut-chocolate crust.
2) DeLuca’s, Whittier, CA. It’s a great little family, red-sauce Italian place that serves excellent entrees. I’ve had so many of their dishes I can’t recall them all, but the sausage & peppers tray was a Christmas staple in my house for years–and the shrimp fra diavolo really made me think I was in hell. :D Ahhh, good times.
3) Picanha, Burbank, CA. It’s an Argentinian barbecue place, where the meat is brought out on skewers, and you stuff yourself until you pass out. They start with these utterly delicious little sausages, perfectly seasoned, and bring on meltingly tender chicken, pork, smoked sausage, hunks of filet and other luscious cuts of beef, and will feed you until you explode. Seriously–I went there with two carnivorous friends, and we thought we were going to pull a triple Mr. Creosote.
Zuzu
No single best meal, but a local cafe makes the best chile rellenos ever.
Huge green chile peppers rolled in a crispy crumb crust – NOT battered – and stuffed with currants, Monterey jack, pine nuts, and cilantro. A little pico de gallo and sour cream on top.
If they’ve made their fresh-from-scratch coconut cake, you could choose that over dinner.
And their french toast – french bread soaked overnight in custard – was written up in the New York Times.
http://www.towercafe.com/images/BrunchFrenchToast.jpg
kwAwk
‘recipes that were created by the wife of a colored farm worker in the segregated south’
Sorry to interrupt all the food talk, but who in the year 2008 still uses the word colored?
Bob Munck
The Inn at Little Washington:
First Course: Chilled Seafood Sampler: Lobster Maki, Tuna Tartare and Ceviche of New Zealand Sea Bream
Second Course: Macaroni and Cheese with Virginia Country Ham and Shaved Black Burgundy Truffle
Main Course: Pepper Crusted Tuna Pretending to be a Filet Mignon Capped with Seared Duck Foie Gras on Charred Onions with a Burgundy Butter Sauce
Dessert: A Chocolate Mint Fantasy: Our Mint Ice Cream Festooned with Chocolate Streamers
Just to give you an idea, that ice cream tasted like mint just picked from a cool mountain stream.
Wasn’t cheap. Approximately as good, and prices nowhere near as astronomical: Foti’s, Culpeper VA
RSA
I’ve discovered, as my tastes have changed, that the best meals I can remember are things that my wife or I have made at home. But when I think about meals that have been a revelation to me, they include the following:
A Rijsttafel in Amsterdam, in an Indonesian restaurant somewhere near the city center, though damned if I can remember its name.
A lamb shank with pasta (orzo or spaghetti) in a wine and tomato sauce, baked with cheese, in a Greek restaurant called Poseiden in Landshut, Germany, with grilled octopus and tzatziki for starters. (We used to live half an hour away; it was a regular stop.)
Foie gras on greens in various restaurants, most memorably probably at Bowfinger in Paris, but most recently at a place called Second Empire in Raleigh, NC.
Krista
Oh, I just thought of another amazing meal. Lamb penne at Opa! in Halifax. The lamb just melted in your mouth, and was so incredibly flavourful. I rarely order pasta in restaurants, as I usually find it to be overpriced for what you get. But that pasta…it was one of those dishes where you close your eyes in ecstasy not just with the first bite, but with every subsequent bite thereafter.
Davebo
Tom,
I hate to nitpick, but Livingston has a population of at least 30,000 not including the large population around the lake.
Onalaska, where my parents currently live, has a permanant population of around 4,000 rising to over 10,000 on holiday weekends.
These errors of yours could be forgiven, but claiming that Floridas has good food is beyond sheer ignorance.
All food reviews should be, as we say, taken with a grain of salt.
This one requires the entire shaker.
Fruitbat
The most memorable restaurant foods for me fall into three distinct categories: Breakfasts (at any time of the day), Chinese food, and hamburgers.
As far as the best MEAL ever, because of overall quality, unanticipated brilliance, and choice company, it had to be the first time I ate at Hell’s Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis. I went with a gang of friends who all were breakfast enthusiasts. Among the things we ordered and shared with the table: lemon ricotta pancakes, huevos rancheros, homemade bison sausage, rosti potatoes (ground potatoes with bacon, scallions, garlic, onions and parsley sauteed in local dairy farm sweet cream butter), wild rice and fruit porridge, and an endless basket of warm baguette bits served with homemade blackberry jam, homemade ginger orange marmalade, and homemade peanut butter. Accompanied by strong STRONG house blend coffee. We were blindsided by how good it all was.
Sadly, the bottomless baguette bowl is no more. But you can still get that incredible homemade peanut butter.
Porquin Panko
Oct 1992 in a mountain valley in Gunma prefecture,Japan. A morning with 2 friends in a hot spring, then looking for somewhere to eat, anything. Drove around for an hour. Nothing. Then we found a place specialising in “irori” cuisine, an ash pit, a metre square with a small woodfire in the middle. Succulent mountain trout skewered, stood upright next to the fire, moved occasionally by the staff until perfect.
Tempura, various pickled,marinaded mountain specialities…brought in on a lacquered table tray, washed down with Asahi Dry.
I’ve been back in the area three times since. The place has always been closed.
sglover
Question: Can anybody give me a good reason why French food hasn’t taken off the same way that Italian or Mexican or Chinese or Thai has? I’m marginally competent in the kitchen, so maybe French dishes are way more complex than I imagine. But they’re really good! So I’m puzzled why there are so few French restaurants, and why nobody (as far as I know) has set up a kind of Americanized French cooking in a franchise operation.
protected static
Surely you jest.
eileen from OH
Best restaurant? You’re going to make me cry. About 5 miles from where we live was the Best Italian Place Ever – Ristorante Gianni in, of all places, Brimfield, OH. A converted ranch-style house, with window air-conditioning units, seating for 50, max, and all the charm/ambiance of a waiting room. Limited menu. Not for those in a hurry, since everything was made to order. Salad included lettuces that had been picked that day from the garden out back. It was “our” special place for anniversaries and birthdays and special occasions and when it closed last summer my husband and I went into mourning. Have yet to find anything to replace it.
eileen from OH
JR
Ah, France, of course!
My father was giving a talk at a conference in London and brought the whole family on vacation (I think I was 16 at the time), and we took the chunnel over to France to spend a week in Paris. We did the usual sites–the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, l’Arc de Triomphe–and I did the pretentious American teen thing of wandering the streets smoking Cuban cigars and drinking whatever booze I could get my hands on.
Anyhow, my dad, being an old hippie, was susceptible to my suggestion that we visit Jim Morrison’s grave and pay homage. So we trekked over to Pere Lachaisse and wandered amid the simple beauty of the tombs and headstones, finally finding the unexpectedly serene grave site. We paid our respects, then wandered across the street from the cemetery to a little bistro for some refreshment. We ordered a bottle of muscatel and a cheese platter, and spent about an hour just sitting on a quiet street in Paris talking as father and son.
The wine was pretty good, and I remember nothing about the food. But it was still among the top meals I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying.
Hey, sometimes company and atmosphere count as much as flavor and presentation.
Gemina13
I just remembered another place. Papa Luigi’s on Madison, in Chicago. The pizza there is perfection, the best sauce and cheese (and toppings) on an ethereal crust. It’s heaven in as many bites as it takes to consume the whole pie. My mother used to order the extra-large sausage, and then invite a whole bunch of people over. They’d devour the pizza and listen to her R&B records till midnight.
A place my dad used to take me to in Chicago was a little coffee shop called the Gold Coin, off Howard Street. He always got me a chocolate milkshake; for himself, he’d have the potato soup. To this day, when my stomach’s upset, I have to have a bowl of potato soup.
There are some great places in Phoenix and the surrounding areas, but one fantastic meal I had as a kid was at Monti’s La Casa Vieja. It’s the oldest restaurant in the Tempe/Phoenix region, although it’s changed hands quite a few times. My mother attended a business dinner there (she was a property manager, and the company owners wanted to fete their prize performers), and they allowed her to bring me. I was 10. She warned me to be on my best behavior and eat whatever was served.
It turned out the owners let us order anything we wanted. One of them sat across from me and said, “Here, sweetheart, why don’t you try the crab legs?” He laughed, and his wife shushed him with, “Shame on you, she’s too little.” He insisted, “Naw, she’ll do fine. Won’t you, honey? Listen, I’ll get them, and if you can’t finish yours, I’ll eat them for you.”
I agreed, and he ordered two king crab leg platters. When they brought those in, my jaw was on the floor. HUGE platters heaped with a mound of king crab legs were brought to us, with a ramekin of drawn butter and a basket of bread. I love bread, but I can’t remember what it tasted like; all I can recall is the sweetness of those crab legs. I’d never had anything like them before, and certainly never have since. And he was right! I nearly finished the whole platter, and I was barely 90 pounds at the time.
Jo Fish
Ridgewood Barbeque on a two-lane road near Bluff City, TN. The BBQ is to die for (or was, I have not been there in years) and the beans were better. When they run out for the day, they close. Always a wait to eat, and worth every minute. Sometimes you even have to wait to get a parking place (see the pictures).
grung0r
Colored? seriously? COLORED???? what the fuck? Is it some sort of strange in-joke I missed? Now, I don’t think this is a racist issue, if only because I don’t think racists use the word any more either. But Tom in Texas should know that ‘colored’ is a very archaic word, and a word, like Negro, that Harkens back to the days of Jim Crow.
The point is, don’t use it anymore, if only to keep Malkin and Treason in defense of Slavery Yankee from getting any real ammunition.
aghast
I guess grungOr is probably right, but I think “colored” should be an OK word. Black and white people used it
when I was growing up in the deep South. It indicated a distinction in a completely benign way. (“Colored folks and white folks”)
Clarence Page talks about colored folks in his columns in the Chicago Tribune; maybe it’s not so bad.
Jamey
It’s as much about mood and hunger as it is about the food or how it’s prepared.
Best meal–the one I enjoyed most: Fish tacos at the Tiki bar at Martel’s Water’s Edge, on Barnegat Bay, chased with a Corona, after a long day at the beach. Sometime last July. For some reason, it was the perfect confluence of food, setting, and circumstance.
Randy Paul
Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil, a restaurant called Oficina do Sabor (Office of Flavor). We started with profiteroles of provolone, then had as our main course lobster with passion fruit sauce, winter sauce and rice with mango. To drink, I had a cocktail made from cajá and cachaça. For dessert I had mint ice cream with cinnamon and clove liquers and my wife had passion fruit mousse. All for about US$30 and a view of Recife in the background at night.
ET
Every time I eat a fried-shrimp po-boy and drink Barq’s in a glass bottle from Domilise’s in New Orleans.
Bill H
Omitting the jambalaya, grillards and gumbo that my grandmother used to make.
4. I will echo Brachiator on steaks at the Hereford House in Kansas City. My boss used to tout the Golden Ox in the stockyards, but he was wrong; Hereford House steaks are better.
3. Bryant’s BBQ, also in KC. Grab a pulled pork sandwich and some fries and take them up to the ballpark for the game. Well, the ballpark has been moved.
2. Fried chicken at the Brookfield Hotel about halfway between Ellsworth and Salina, Kansas. I hope it’s still there, but it’s probably gone by now.
1. The carnitas at Old Town Mexican Cafe in San Diego. The tortillas that they make right there on the premises are worth the trip, all by themselves.
Q
Cafe Poca Cosa in Tucson
Bouley in NYC
Seafood shack on the beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Q
Cafe Poca Cosa in Tucson
Bouley in NYC
Seafood shack on the beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
ET
Bill H – I have a feeling that the yummies your grandmother used to make were so good your 1-3 are really 4-7 – and thank you for making me hungry.
Edo
French Laundry, Napa CA. yes, it really is as good as its touted. And yes, its really is as expensive and hard to get a reservation for as its touted. And YES! it’s worth it.
HyperIon
wow. that place is a hole in the wall.
but the shrimp and hush puppies are excellent.
and i had forgotten about the excellent but very pricey Inn at Little Washington…in a completely different class than OSteen’s.
frigg
Yesterday I was the first reader to comment regarding the use of “colored” in this foodie post. The previous 50 or 60 commentors made no mention of it.
My initial comment is now gone.
Why was my comment scrubbed?