ira

Angela wrote:
>Louis IV restaurant in the hotel de Paris in Monaco - need I say more?! <

YES, Yes, yes. What did you have, course by course? What did everyone else at the table have? What wines did you have? What brandies, cordials, ports and sherrries followed? What was on the plat de fromage? How many different kinds of bread and rolls? Was the butter flavored? Was there more than one kind of butter?

Dr_DoGood

High, high up the Vallespir in the Eastern Pyrennees, off the side of a side road, about as far south in mainland France as you can get we finally found our destination for the evening - Casa Guillamo nr. Lamanere. You have to edge nervously down an unmade hairpin path down the side of a mountain to a little flat valley below where the Casa shelters surrounded by forests of sweet chestnuts.

And there four of ate the best meal I have ever had (or, I think likely to) in a large hall all alone (only one table for guests) with a fire at one end and the owner/chef's paintings of his wife/sous chef hanging on the walls.

There is a set menu of whatever it is the chef feels like cooking that evening (you can ring ahead, indeed have to in order to book, to check the menu and explain any dietery requirements you may have)

And it was quite simply sublime... the finest anchovy tarts made in heaven, delicately marinated mussels, a duck confit and tempura vegetables to commit murder for and a remarkable lemon sorbet the taste of which lingers on my lips even now, four years on. And to finish a fruite salade of berries picked in the wood and mascerated in some enchanted liquer. With a different wine for each course and the freedom of the after- dinner liquers not to mention a Kir Royale aperatif I am embarrased to say this meal cost less than £100 - for the four of us.

However after all that booze driving back up to the road was a feat in its self.... thank god one of us was pregnant and hadn't hit the juice!

That is a meal and and evening that I will always cherish and hold dear and I'm so pleased to have been able to share that experience with my fiance and some wonderful friends.

Dr D.

venexiano

All the meals during my first trip to Paris - I was less than enthusiastic about them... my tastes are more refined now, but I STILL haven't found really good food in Paris (been back twice since). Maybe I'm biased being Italian and all

-Eating crocodile, emu and kangaroo meat in Australia. It was something really weird & cool, and they tasted nice (except for emu - ewww).

-Eating dolphin and whale in Iceland. It was a HORRIBLE feeling, and they didn't even taste nice. This is definitely a meal I will remember...so I NEVER do it again!!

-When I was an exchange student in Australia, I sometimes had to resort to Vegemite for my sandwiches for school lunch. I still wonder to this day how ANYONE could eat that!! Same for Marmite...

-I had the best filet mignon of my life in...Salt Lake City. So tender, so delicious...yum!

-Having a barbecue on a basically deserted beach in North Queensland (Australia) with my host family. Easily the best dinner of my life...

Federico - Venice

JMM

My first taste of Belgian chocolate - the best in the world

dovima

Dutch breakfast treat:
A loaf of bread with chocolate bits scattered thickly throughout, and a core of marzipan through the center, so each slice had a "bulls-eye" of marzipan. I guess it's a variation on the bread spread with butter and sprinkled with chocolate sprinkles.

Viennese killer dessert:
"Mohr im hemd"
I've had it as a cold pudding, a warm pudding, in various degrees of chocolate-ness. But the very best was at a place called Immervoll in Vienna, where it was a slice of extremely moist, warm, DARK chocolate cake with an entire plate-ful of that incomparable schlag.

Rebecka

Mischka, if I get a chance I'll post any recipes in a separate thread. I may have to get them straight from Mom.

Mathieu, Princess Cake is very tasty, isn't it? Lucky you to have someone in the family bake it for you! Your niece must be an ambitious baker as I've only enjoyed PC from various Swedish bakeries. Here in greater Boston there is an Icelandic bakery called Carberry's that sells something similar called Danish marzipan cake which is filled with sliced pears and strawberry mousseline. Also very, very good.

The Princess cakes I remember were covered in green marzipan and topped by a single pink marzipan rose and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. Very pretty!

Are we hungry yet? ;-)

Mathieu

Hungry ? I haven't had lunch yet Rebecka and you're going to put me over the edge ! I'll have to send you a piece from Toronto the next time she bakes one !

sol_veracruzano

Polenta and house wine in Rome

Gellato in Florence

Apple and pear tort in Paris

Tiramisu in the Italian side of switzerland

Thai in Amsterdam

Meztli steak (huitlacoche style corn sauce on steak) in Mexico City

Mole Tamale in Puebla, Mexico

Ah...Food!

Scarlett

Speaking of Krispy Kremes, I heard on Canadian television this am that Harrods will now be selling those little yummy donuts!

Marko

Goose liver pate with a glass of sauterne on the sidewalk at a cafe just down from the moulin rouge. Late afternoon in September, the colours were amazing as the sun set.

LindaW

My first trip to Europe we went on the cheap and ate bread/cheese for lunch most days. In Munich we went to a restaurant and had an incredible meal of skewered meat with rice and a creamy rich sauce. Because we weren't used to the richness, we both got sick; but, it was so good, we had it again the next night.
That same trip was my first gelato experience at Vivoli's in Florence.
Another trip the mother of my friend in Dresden made us the best German meal with the wonderful potato dumplings.
Stateside, it had to be at Clary's in Galveston with their off the menu grilled seafood. Or Chan Thai in Dallas with the best summer rolls.

dln

A meal in a Left Bank restaurant in Paris. We were on a very tight budget and we walked for what seemed like hours (probably only minutes but we were very hungry!). We went from restaurant to restaurant reading all the menus outside in hopes of finding one cheap enough that didn't look like a dive. Finally did, and we had beef bourgenon (mangled that spelling but you all know what I mean) and it was the most delicious meal I've ever had! And I know it wasn't just because we were hungry. I was disappointed because we couldn't find the restaurant again.

Betsy

Thought I'd post this before I head to the kitchen to rip the hinges off the fridge. It's a recipe for Princess Cake from Food TV:
http://www.foodtv.com/food/recipes/r..._14560,00.html

Bon appetit!

jsmith

My most memorable food experience was a meal in Paris that I couldn"t eat.

Many moons ago, shortly after I had graduated from college and taken a few compulsory French courses, I went to Paris to visit a young lady I knew who was living and working there.

Most nights we would find a small, inexpensive restaurant for dinner in the Av. Victor Hugo-Rue de Longchanp area. I thought I had become adept at ordering and had become very partial
to the variety of veal and more often than not it was my choice.

This particular evening one item on the menu was tete de veau and I impulsively and confidently ordered it. My friend suggested that I might want to chose something else.

"Oh no". said I "You know I love veal."

"But -", said she before I stopped her. I should have paid more attention to the smirk that surfaced.

After the first course, the waitress (and owner) brought a bowl of consomme and placed it to my left. I promptly moved it directly in front of me to sample. The waitress just as promptly moved it back to my left with a little admonition (which I didn't understand) and returned to the kitchen. My friend's smirk grew more knowing (she did understand).

I sat perplexed until the waitress deposited my choice directly in front of me. Belatedly, my meager French kicked in and I realized that "tete" is head. In front of me was a platter with
the contents of the poor beast's head.

I tried but my eyes told my stomach that what it was seeing was something inedible.

So that's my most memorable food experience.

Now, whenever I get all knowing, that young lady (my wife) only has to say "tete de veau".

erinb

hi everyone,

You are making too complicated for me!

Most memorable was in paris...also most appreciated each time:

hot dogs stuffed inside toasted cheese & baguettes w/hot mustard!

I look forward to this each and every time I go to Paris. They just don't taste the same here in the states, although I have tried!

Rebecka

Betsy,

LOL! Thanks for that recipe; I may just try it some day when I decide to host a special party for a group of friends. I had to laugh, however, when the recipe says to "discard any remaining green marzipan". My goodness, what ARE they thinking?!

Mathieu, maybe PC can be shipped after it's frozen? Don't know if it freezes well.

Oh well, at least I do have that warm loaf of banana bread awaiting me in the kitchen-

Annella

Sea snails in Venice. I had a seafood platter and these were included. Yum! Saw them in the shells in the market and they're cute too. My partner ordered 'tete de veau' in a tiny workingman's bistro in Paris and the waitress was shocked that anyone would want to eat it - basically jellied calves head. Not my choice..

cigalechanta

Years ago in the Fontaine de Vaucluce overlooking the falls at Chez philip, my first famous Cavaillon mellon with Beaume de Venise.

klondike

LOL jssmith! Maybe we should start a thread for the most memorable meal you DIDN'T have!
I, too, did that as a young guest of a French couple in a very elite Seafood Restaurant in Brittany. I ordered steak a la moutarde, which they promptly counseled against, urging me to have a plat fruit de mers. But I held firm and stuck with my mustard.

Not every having eaten a Dijon-style mustard before, I cut myself a big hunk of steak and with relish closed my mouth around the fork...next thing I knew I was breathing fire through my nose and gasping for air as tears rolled down my cheeks! I tried to continue eating by scraping the sauce off, but it was literally smothered in the stuff. I felt really bad for not listening to my experienced (and paying) hosts. Later, when I had actually indulged in a plat fruit de mer, then I realized even more how foolish I'd been!

nukesafe

What a lovely and caloric thread! I have enjoyed it very much, but I am puzzled by the repeated positive reference to "Krispy Creme". I had heard of these donuts from friends from the South, but had never had the pleasure of biting one until last year when, with much fanfare, one opened up in a nearby town. (In Washington State)

My wife and I eagerly went there and waited in the line of hungry folks. It was fascinating to watch the process of them being made through the glass windows, and we were practically jumping for joy as the employees brought a free sample for each person in line. These, we were told, were the "best of the best", i.e., still warm from the cooker and covered with a glaze.

We bit into them -- and were bitterly dissapointed! They were just an overly soft fluffy donut drenched in pure sugar. No texture, no flavor except cloying sweetness, no character.

Yuck!

We were now at the head of the line, so we bought a dozen. Tried another on the way home, just in case we had been served a couple of bad ones, but threw out the rest.

Guess you had to be raised with them in the South. Sort of like grits.