HG001London

There used to be a programme here in Uk called "Eating in the Sun" where famous chefs would recall their most memorable meal, the show then went to the restaurant and got the presenter to try and re create the dish.

This i thought was a massively inspiring show and made me dream of going to such restaurants..places in Ronda Spain and Matera Italy shone out...

Anyone have any memorable meals to share???

Here's mine.......

Il Cucciolo, Via La Fabbrica 52, Anacapri, Island of Capri, Italy

Down a windy toy-car lane in Capri, where only the tiniest of cars could fit, we were dropped as this place. Recommended and arranged by our B&B who's friend it was we arrived slightly apprehensive that his friends place may not actually be the "wonderful food" venue he said it would be.....i was so so so wrong!!

Years later and i dream of this dish i chose and loved over the next couple of hours. It was simply the most amazing meali have ever had....and it was only one course!!!

Gorgonzola gnocci:

Ok so i know many of you might be thinking " what! that is easy-way to simple" but this one was special....

I ate this looking out onto the bay of naples and it was honestly difficult not to keep going "hmmmm oh my goodnes this is amazing.....hmmm oh my goodness this is sooooooo good....wow, this is amazing" in fact it was impossible from start to finish no other conversation could take place at the dinner other than me going on about how yummy it was. The gnocci were tiny and perfectly light, and the sauce was absolutely divine, it too (amazingly for a cheese sauce) was also not heavy but was screaming out in flavour. The dish was the tastiest thing i have ever encountered and i long for it again and again. The gnocci was perfectly soft and light and perfect cross between potato and pasta (more pasta like), little jelly bean size balls, steming hot and coated delightfully in a wonderful sauce...not soaked, not dry....just coated perfect. The dish was sharp yet creamy, soft yet el dente and wonderfully presented with a drivel of the strongest olive oil i have had. Even by the end of the meal the sauce had no changed one bit in consistency - it remained beautifully silky and smooth and utterly moorish. Dipping bread it this sauce was a no-go- it was far too goof to be diluted down, i ate the remains like it was the most amazing thick tasty cream ever (I was temped to order it for pudding- no joke!!).

Ironically aside from the view and this one dish the actual restaurant was a little disappointing "vibe" wise. The owner tried to push a tourist selection menu on us which we didn't want and we witnessed an argument between him and another couple complaining about the wrong fish being given to them!!

But in extensive travels this is the one dish i cant get out of my head. I am constantly trying to re-do, i've had a few goes- even made the gnocci from scratch but it will never every beat this dish....arh this is torture writing this!!!

ANYWAY.......any other fond food travel memories????

annhig

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.

HG001London

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

rncheryl

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

weatherboy

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

HG001London

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!!

HG001London

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

annhig

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.

HG001London

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!

Phil

Any meal at "reinstoff" berlin

www.reinstoff.eu

heaven!

Phil

denisea

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!

StCirq

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!

HG001London

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

HG001London

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!!

UTour

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

HG001London

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.....

charnees

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.

jscarbary

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!

carolyn

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.

LSky

"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.