Best meal of your life...where was it???- here's mine.......

mmm - i can remember the lobster salad we ate in what was then Yugoslavia on our honeymoon, the dinner at a posh London hotel that we won in a raffle, the wonderful bistecca alla fiorentina we ate in....well, Florence, naturally.

but the BEST meal? - definitely lunch at le cinq on our visit to Paris last year. fantastic from start to finish.

hmmm- off to check in out- maybe that can be me my challenge to get to next time in Paris.......

Pasta carbonara in a little neighborhood restaurant in Rome. We were the only English speakers there. I dream of it.

The first time I had proper goulash in Hungary - it was *yum*!

oh wow, the tripadvisor pics for le cinq look amazing....not normally a "foam" fan but i may just have to ignore this- the food looks so well presented!!

mcheryl..i long for good carbonara-- us brits get it so wrong so easily

Note to self- try proper goulash, tried making it several times and this was our back-packing dish of choice that we have barely had it since, love to try the real thing though

oh wow, the tripadvisor pics for le cinq look amazing....not normally a "foam" fan but i may just have to ignore this- the food looks so well presented!!>>

though not mentioned on the website, you can have a 3 course lunch on a sunday for about €85 pp. for this you get about 6 courses in all, what with the amuses, palate cleansing sorbets, the sweet trolley...

however, the wine is pretty pricey. Best value is the house wine at €50 a bottle. if you have a glass of champers to start, expect the bill to increase quite steeply.

The food was truly outstanding and the service impeccable. They have 2 stars already and I have no idea what they have to do to get a third.

ooh this would definitely have to be a treat!!!maybe i need to re-introduce Paris into my search for a French location to celebrate my 30th.........

the pictures did look really great, and not too small portions which is good for fancy restaurants....

i just don't get why wine has to be so expensive, i mean that don't do anything but serve it, surely those 50 euro wines cant cost them more than 20 to source!!

occasionally (just occasionally!) i wish i were tee-total!!

Thanks ann!

Any meal at "reinstoff" berlin

www.reinstoff.eu

heaven!

Phil

There have been some amazing ones...Christmas at Le Cinq last year was spectacular. 9 courses of perfection and I have never been so full! The service was so attentive and perfect in every way. Risotto with scallops and ginger and Breton lobster as minestrone with parmesan were the stars of the show. The thinly sliced root vegetables with truffles (course #2) were sublime!

Ah, but the single dish I still talk about is the gazpacho with mustard sorbet at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon a few summers ago! It was the first dish of a degustation menu that was all really wonderful. It included a seared foie gras with stewed cherries and a soft shell crab course that were also terrific. We had wonderful service and the best champagne (Bruno Paillard).

For Chaz it is the beef cheeks at Le Comptoir, also in Paris. He made sure we went back there on the last trip there to get that again!

BUT, if it is a local thing....well then I would die for the crab fritter appetizer (with blood orange and thai chili essence) at Bacchanalia in Atlanta. Crispy and in no way heavy. It is perfection.

I can never narrow it down to just one thing or dinner!

I've had so many great meals in so many different places it's hard to think of one that stands head and shoulders above the rest.

The ones that come to mind are roasted wild boar with sour cherry sauce in the Harz Mountains; a simple linguine alle vongole in Anzio; the tasting menu at Jean-Luc Rabanel's former restaurant in the Camargue; roasted eel and crème de potiron at Les Tellines, also in the Camargue; the first bowl of tellines I ever ate in Arles many years ago; a crab curry in Delhi; a truite amandine in a restaurant on the Meuse River; a rabbit tagine in Agadir....OK, enough. I've definitely eaten my share of great food!

wow, those dishes certainly look unique...i may need to start a list!!

denesia...another vote for cinq...this may be a birthday contender!!, crab fritter sounds yummy too. I am so keen so try seafood in the US, i hear such good things!!

StCirq...you sure have!- despite just eating dinner...i am now hungry beyond belief nothing beat a vongole....i had an amazing one in a little square of the main street in amalfi...another "hmmm....arhhh" dish!!

For us, the benchmark meal on so many levels was dinner at Ristrante Omero in Firenze in mid-June. Weather perfect, food as much as could be asked for in such perfect surroundings and company a perfect compliment to the aforementioned.

It will be a challenge to best

u

Thanks for sharing Utour.....i'm guessing a lot my be based in Italy....no matter what food i try, italian and spanish are my absolute favs, if only there was a train direct to tuscany from london which only took an hour.....

The gnocchi at Meloncello in Bologna were like little clouds. So light and delicious, and yes, just the right amount of sauce, not drowned in it as so many US restaurants would do it.

Wild boar braised with red wine at Feriolo in the hills above Firenze, the first boar I ever had.

A dinner in Sedona about 20 years ago that was so good! Can't remember what it was any more, but it was divine from start to finish, with wines chosen by the sommelier. We remember the sticker shock, too!

Several lovely seafood meals at Les Fuchsias in the port in Normandy, where the ferry comes in from southern England, Once again memory fails me.

Fois gras on artichoke heart as a starter at a restaurant in the eastern Dordogne. MMMMMM!

Roast suckling pig at Sunday dinner at Alberfo Nuovo Castello in Torre Alfina, Italy. OMG!

Fresh pears and fresh pecorino cheese, bread and wine, for lunch sitting in the grass outside the ruins of a castle near Arezzo.

Etc, etc, etc. I can't decide which was best.

While not my "OMG, best in the world", any of the pizzas that we had in Rome were AMAZING. I just can't find salami here in Michigan anything like the salami in Rome.

My best meal ever, was here in the US though. I had skate wing at Carmine's in Chicago. It melted in my mouth, wow!

My best meals have those home cooked by my sister with fresh garden vegetables. I'm not so much of a foodie, but OT to annhig: Zagat's recently published a ten best places to eat list that included my home and yours:

3. Louisville, KY
What to eat: This is Bourbon Country y’all. In Louisville, you’ll find an impressive amount of top-notch restaurants featuring both rustic and cityfied food...to pair with your brown spirits of course. Visit some distilleries (Maker’s Mark, Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace) before dining at upscale restaurant, Proof on Main, where dinner could include chickpea-ham fritters or split pea panisse and should include some housemade charcuterie. The infamous hot brown - a turkey, bacon and tomato open-faced sandwich covered in mornay sauce - can be found at the Brown Hotel, where it reportedly was created.

4. Cornwall, England
What to eat: Opt out of visiting London to say cheerio to beautiful Cornwall on your next holiday jaunt and you’ll be rewarded. Regional specialties like Cornish pasties (a filled pastry) and crab salad lightly dressed with lemon, salt and pepper are especially good here. Clotted cream is also a pride of the area whose rivalry with nearby Devon’s cream makes the product a point of contention in the region. Some restaurants to check out include Sam’s on the Beach, The Alba Restaurant, Porthminster Beach Cafe and The Gurnard’s Head.

"Montag ist Goulash Tag" That's what the sign said in the window of this little restaurant in a suburb of Dresden. The hotel clerk pointed us to the simple little place and it was heaven.

We really should write down the names of these places but we don't.

All I had to do was walk into the living room and ask, "what was the name of the little town where we had the lasange?"
It was in a little restaurant in L'Escala, Spain. My husband ordered it, I don't remember what I ordered. His was so good and he was so sweet to share it with me.

One of my top dining experiences was the tasting menu at Astrid y Gaston in Lima, Peru last April... ten courses over 3-4 hours, $50. It was sublime and so creative.

Other great memories:
-also on Capri, along my hike... a simple spaghetti a la marinara but it was the most delicious spaghetti I can recall and the sauce screamed with flavor.

-fish and chips in Boston at Olives when they first opened... the fish was cod? cheeks and the chips looked like french fries but were garbanzo beans based.

-being invited to an Italian family's home near Naples with an Italian mama's home cooking, truly amazing. I did not even recognize their buffalo mozzarella, tasted nothing like what we get here.

-yes, also a spaghetti a la vongole fan. My first was in Southern Switzerland. Also love spaghetti Carbonara and we have ordered it throughout Rome; surprisingly, a place in Salt Lake City, utah called Trios offers a version that can compete with anyone's.

-trout amandine(?) at a restaurant that is reputed to be the oldest in Paris, extremely well done.

-goat curry burrito in St. Maarten.

-Parmesan rissotto at a restaurant in Paris on the Ile st. louis called Sorza.

Mosca's across the river from New Orleans. Had a memorial dinner with my brother, now deceased. No matter how good a meal, he could recommend some improvement. But Mosca's satisfied him, and me, completely.
It is family owned, and the patriarch died last year, so it might not be the same.

Just noticed this is in the Europe forum.
From the title, I thought the OP meant anywhere in the world.
If this thread were posted in the Lounge, there certainly would be a few Asian restaurants mentioned.

wow, so many good response...mouth watering now.. Have to say the cornish crab salad if very very good...off to cornwall in a month so need to remember to have it again. Cornish pasties are also great. In Uk we have a chain called the Cornish Pasty Co so we are fortunate enough to be able to enjoy them up and down the country. In London i have to admit, i some times have a late night pasty on the train...on the the way back from a night out. They are always boiling hot and a challenge to try and wait till they cool a little as you just want to get stuck in!!

Cynthia, thanks i completely overlooked the fact i posted in Europe-opps (although have to admit i wasn't aware of the Lounge too),

but OT to annhig: Zagat's recently published a ten best places to eat list that included my home and yours>

Carolyn - all the places listed in tat article are very good, but le cinq they ain't.

off to cornwall in a month so need to remember to have it again. Cornish pasties are also great. In Uk we have a chain called the Cornish Pasty Co so we are fortunate enough to be able to enjoy them up and down the country.>>

That's great, HG. be sure to have a "proper" cornish pasty while you're here though - i think that you'll find they aren't quite the same as the ones you get in london. you might also like to try our "heava cake" and saffron loaf [which makes a terrific bread and butter pudding].

thanks ann, yeah no i know that are not quite as good (on our last trip to cornwall we spend hours driving to this tiny pub which apparently did great proper pasties, in faat i think that was all they sold- they were in deed fab"

i do think the Pasty Co does a good job thought, maybe too heavy on the crust!

thanks for the tip re heava cake...will seek it out

Stay tuned....we are confirmed at La Pergola in Rome.

The Chowhound and Trip Advisor reviews were great (mostly) so we decided to do it since we are staying in the hotel where it is located.

Is our best meal ever ahead of us? I hope so, even if it is not La Pergola, it could be in Rome. I am sure that we will have many memorable meals there.

denisea, you probably will have many memorable meals in Rome. We went to Rome on our first and last tour. I had read that "you can't get a bad meal in Italy."
The author of that little tidbit had never been on a tour in Italy.
There was great food when we broke free of the pack Enjoy

Denisea....you prompted me to try and find a place we had a wonderful meal about 4 years ago in Rome, i have looked for it before but never actually managed to find it. This time i was determined and found it!!! i didn't have a name and could only remember it was somewhere "near" campo di Fiori

Anyway here it is finally!!! (this is also for my ref as i have tried to find this places on a map so many times)

http://www.ristoranteditirambo.it/

the most amazing pasta i ahve ever had-a little pricey than the norm but not at all formal...really lovely. I think the pasta was a taglioni type (a wider form of spagetti), in a creamy sauce.

This is impossible for me to answer. We live in a " Foodie" town and have had some extraordinary meals right here. The best experiences come when the setting is unique, the service is perfect and the food interesting and delicious, and representative of the location.

We've dined on trout pulled straight out of rivers in Provence and the Dordogne; amazingly intricate and formally structured menus in Orvieto, Bellagio, and Montpellier; super fresh pasta in Rome, ostritch and kudu in a torch-lit boma in Botswana, hamburgers in Uzes, hot shepherds pie with a tall pint of stout on a dreary rainy day in Cambridge....maybe I could choose the best meal in given year, but the best in my life? Impossible.

The easy availability of wonderful recipes have made it possible to serve fantastic meals at home to friends and family, along with inspirations from the trips all over the world we've been able to take. Perhaps decades ago one could look back and say " that was the best ever..." but I don't think I could ever chose one experience as the ultimate.

Uhoh...that's a really interesting thought line...i think you are probably right...maybe what i really mean is "what is one of the most memorable meals of your life" or best meal of 2012??

I've had wonderful meals at exquisite restaurants (most memorably Le Bec Fin back in its prime, the Fountain for two) but there are a few experiences that I remember most vividly:

At The Fish Catering Complex in Leshan, in the Big Buddha area, I had the most exquisite $2 meal ever. The amazingly fresh fish and vegetables were prepared very simply on a kitchen stove that looked to be 50 years old, at least, but oh, the flavor. Amazing.

And then there was Tio Willie's in Santiago, Chile's, Mercado Centrale: a cheese and shrimp empanada with a crust like I've never had before or since, and congria--conger eel. Oh myyyyyy.

The Daover sole at Montepeliano in London, very simply prepared but perfectly fresh. Went back last year and not nearly as good as when the previous owners had the place. They also had on of our favoritw desserts, Crepes Montpeliano. A light crepe filled with mascarpone and doused in hazelnut liquor!

The Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia in the summer of 1999.

My friend and I were extras in the film "The Sixth Sense." The VERY nasty director kept yelling at us (Bruce Willis was a darling and had dinner with me and work associates a few days later) so we left and had dinner at The Fountain.

I had terrine of foie gras, saddle of lamb, and chocolate souffle. I will never forget that meal.

I never really liked Le Bec Fin that much and once sent something back (snails in champagne butter) which, of course, caused ripples throughout the social scene in Philadelphia. I heard Mr. Perrier was beside himself and apolgised (with lots of hand wringing) to Cousin Muffy's father when he dined there a few days later. This was a major mistake because Muffy's father does not like people who grovel and can't see why anyone would get upset over a plate of food and confirmed his suspicions that the French are over-emotional.

Tschuss,
Pepper

what a cool story....not sure if i'm more envious of the delicious food u describe of Bruce Willis

loooovee souffles when they work, especilly when they come out with the top bit as big as the bit in the jar.