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Inspired by the port thread- what is the best food or drink you have ever had?
Why- I'm hungry 😉
Was it as nice the next time you had it?
Closest I’ve got to angels crying on my tongue was a custard cream. Just a standard one. Here’s my recipe:
– no food for 48h
– drip in arm
– general anaesthetic for minor operation
– some sort of drugs, no idea what they were
– one totally standard NHS custard cream.
It was, genuinely, the best food I’ve ever had. Unbelievable. When I said this to the nurse and asked for a second, she gave me a proper -are you on drugs look.
The second one tasted…. Like a normal custard cream. I was very, very disappointed then passed out for an unspecified number of hours
I can't remember exactly what it was called but it was a side dish in a very upmarket Indian restaurant - Tamarind in Mayfair (Michelin star, first Indian restaurant to achieve that) The description was 'lentils in gravy' but how that was elevated way beyond was astonishing.
Close second and totally different was a pit bbq place in Texas City near Houston, we had a plant there and everyone from workers thru' to management would go there. Kind of like a redneck Toby Carvery, ribs, brisket, pulled pork in big portions on disposable plates, go back as much as you wanted. Coleslaw, corn bread, as sides..... utterly brilliant too.
Lasagne
A scotch whisky that an Irish publican recommended, I forgot the name of it, but it was spectacularly good.
Soufflé Suissesse at Le Gavroche.
Like eating really cheesy cloud, that’s floating on a creamy, cheesy sauce.
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/souffle-suissesse-recipe
There's a Mexican street food place in Ambleside that I had the best tasting food ever...a veggie burrito, extra hot. It is incredible.
After 3 weeks in Crimea and the black sea on a diet of borsch , black eggs and bulgar
The golden arches as I stepped off the train in Kiev hit just slightly differently.
Waking up with an absolutely biblical hangover, after ‘nipping out for a couple of pints’ ended up getting completely out of hand, and I had a pretty important meeting in an hours time.
I was introduced for the first time to the miraculous revitalising power of a double sausage and egg McMuffin and a hash brown, washed down with a pint of full fat coke
One of those time and place moments where nothing else is going to cut it and it’s exactly what you want and need 😃
Like thols2 also Lasagne. But not necessarily because of the taste, more the volume, (although it was delicious too). At a a semi-fast food place in the suburbs of Dubrovnik. Honestly when it arrived it would have fed a family of 4. This was lunch time too.
Heh, I can still pinpoint the place on Google maps even though it was 12 years ago. 😁
North Bangkok, 2001ish, just moved there for a teaching job, walked out if my new apt building and sat down at a street food market stall...
Yum woon sen (spicy glass noodle salad)
Som tam (green papaya salad)
Grilled pork + spicy fish sauce dip
Singha Beer.
Absolute food of the gods.
I'm salivating copiously at the memory 😋
some simple bread and cheese and a bottle chianti, it had been sitting in a warm cabin of the broads yacht rental for a day as we sailed to horsey mere, eaten with the sun going down in a cloud less sky over the mere.
Ynyshir - a restaurant near Dyfi Bike Park.
30 courses, all protein and fat led. My Wife & I decided to go as we’d not had a honeymoon and spent some of the money here. It’s not something we’d ever again but it was totally worth it.
3rd best night of my life.
I was introduced for the first time to the miraculous revitalising power of a double sausage and egg McMuffin and a hash brown, washed down with a pint of full fat coke
I want to change my answer to fried salt. Not something you want to eat every day, but when you need it, you need it.
Sometimes a double espresso, sometimes, after a bike ride a fancy iced coffee, sometimes a glass of ice cold water.
Waa the answer I gave to the anaesthetist when she asked what I thought was an innocent question "what's your favourite drink" after I'd been 18 hours nil by mouth.
Then I twigged she'd read my honest answer to "how much a week do you drink" and was just checking that I'd make it through the op.
I had a deep fried Mars bar from the chippy that invented them. Sweet mother of god; so, so, appalling, terribly, amazingly delicious.
Their fish supper was the best fish and chips I've ever had too
https://www.carronfishbar.com/
Very jealous of those who say Ynyshir, that’s in my list for next year perhaps.
This year it was the sweetbreads at the 2 Michelin starred Alex Dilling in London. No idea how they were cooked or what was in the sauce but it was incredible.
Close was a turbot dish at Folium in Birmingham. A tiny gem of a restaurant which should already have a Michelin star.
Less grand was a cheese crumpet at a wine bar called Arch13, also in Birmingham. They make their own crumpets, cover them with some amazing cheeses and homemade chilli jam and serve them to you after you’ve polished off a couple of glasses of wine. I could eat them until they come out of my ears!
Spaghetti and tomato sauce at a small family restaurant in Florence. So simple, it probably only had about 5 ingredients, but they were all grown in the dirt and fresh off the stalk.
Also fig rolls covered in condensed milk from a tube sitting just below the peak of Mont Blanc.
... also Hoi Lai from a street food stall in Bangkok
Kobeda Kebab. Rusholme chippy.
Spaghetti and tomato sauce at a small family restaurant in Florence. So simple, it probably only had about 5 ingredients, but they were all grown in the dirt and fresh off the stalk.
You are Stanley Tucci and I claim my five pounds
Slow cooked wild boar by aunt. Woudn't be surprised if it was shot by someone in the village not long before it ended up on my plate!
Fresh seafood on Orkney particularly the scallops. I went to collect it and was told I couldn't have it yet as it was all swimming around in the ponds still. Scallops, lobster, Crab, langustines etc etc
A TexMex in Texas with Mexican Americans. I could feel the fats saturating.
Kona encrusted steak in a steakhouse in Philly. Might have been The Capital Grille. Coffee rubbed in, then cooked. OMG. About $65 plus the trimmings. Someone else was paying which I think always makes food taste better 😁
Affogato. Ten years ago maybe, in a restaurant in boat of garden. I'd never heard of it before, sounded good so I ordered it. It arrived: espresso, a decent whisky and a ball of vanilla ice cream. Assembled it, ate it, it was fantastic, I couldn't stop talking about it for days. Strangely I've not had it again since, I'm afraid it won't live up to my memory of it.
Sturgeon carpaccio with a squeeze of lime in a small, family-run restaurant about 2 hours north of Milan.
As TJ says ^^^ any fish or shellfish straight off the boat and into the chef's kitchen.
Wild turkey cooked overnight in the ground under a pig in deepest Massecheusetts.
When I was little we went on holiday to a cottage near St Ives. The owners lived next door and the chap used to take folk out fishing. He would always drag mackerel lines behind and come home with an impressive catch which he then smoked in the back garden. Absolutely fresh warm smoked mackerel is wonderful.
Or any of the fabulous produce from my German grandma's garden though the white asparagus was a particular favourite.
Oh and the dhal gosht at This and That.
Drink, not sure, I can't remember.
I did the Atkins diet for around 10 months and in all that time I'd eaten nothing but meat, eggs and green vegetables. After 10 months I picked and ate a perfectly ripe strawberry, it was exquisite
As much time and place as food but it all counts. Before we had the boys, Mrs F and I visited Worcester, my home town. We went to a restaurant called the King Charles II, I think it is a pub now. First time I'd tried whitebait - lush; first time I had paté of any sort - this just happened to be part of the Beef Wellington I had - lush. First time I tried red wine - so lush I've drunk enough to float a battleship since. 😂 They even had Bushmills to go with my coffee. An amazing evening with Mrs F. Close 2nd would be the starter we had in Rome that the best courgettes I've ever eaten. I'd love to know how they cooked but simply amazing.
The best alcoholic drink that I have ever had was a very generous Springbank 30yr old whiskey given to me by an old friend of my partner the first time I was taken to met him. I looked it up afterward and realised that, at current prices, it was about £60 worth and that I would never taste it again.
Refried lasagne at this place in Paris.
http://www.legrandbainparis.com/en/
Or chowder, oysters and a pint of IPA sat at the bar at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central, NYC. As much the location as the food though.
My first bowl of Pho Bo I ever had, at a back street Vietnamese food seller in Saigon
Many years ago I was in Miami meeting a client. It was a weekend so we had a couple of days downtime (smart planning by the boss as it was February and the next stop was NYC). Asked for a tip of where to eat, the client directed us to a steakhouse in Coconut Grove, where I had the most delicious piece of meat ever - the memory was so good I spurned the option of ordering steak for a number of years afterwards as I knew I would be underwhelmed.
Abanico Iberico de Bellota with Manchego Truffle Fries from The Spanish Butcher in Glasgow
It's basically meat from pigs that have been fed on acorns. I'm salivating just thinking about it
Roast potatoes with goat cheese and little bits of grilled steak, at some random mountain restaurant place in france. Simple but just absolutely perfect. Second prize to some crispy ring doughnuts made by a massive stoned rasta guy in Dawlish.
(but then again, the best drink I've ever had was a pint of carlsberg... Sat on the edge of milton keynes bowl, absolutely shattered, sunburned to **** and covered in bruises, watching Metallica. So what do I know?)
I had to look up who Stanley Tucci was. Now I want my won series where I travel around Italy eating.
Slow cooked lamb shank massaman curry, rice and roti, Chiang Mai, 2009. Sublime.
Interesting thread. I really love food and drink. That's possibly why I'm such a fat git 😂
So thought that this thread would be really easy to contribute to. I can't honestly say that I've had a single meal that was standout over and above any other meal. Which I find a bit concerning.
If it had a gun held to my head and had to choose I'd say a nice Turkish place in Edinburgh, discovered about 20 New Year's ago. Hadn't booked anything and randomly found it, and the food was awesome, service great and friendly without being OTT.
Unfortunately it closed a few years back. Was called Nargile and was on Hanover street. Still got the number in my phone.
Fresh BBQ'd sardines on a quayside in Portugal probably around 1998.
Curry in a big open air hall in the middle of Singapore served out of buckets onto Banana leaves by roving waiters.
Grilled fish in some random beach restaurant behind a bush the other side of the railway tracks in Columbo taken there by a local (thought I was going to get murdered)
Food.. Charcoal grilled fresh fish in Kefalonia from a beach side restaurant.
Drink.. Chateau Margaux tasted at the house of a millionaire I used to know back in 1990..Truly outstanding.
I spent my 20 and 30s in the wine and champagne trade and was lucky enough to eat some really good food, in some really nice places.
I remember being half way through a tasting menu with a couple of well known chefs, and we all agreed we really just wanted a plate of salty chips and a beer.
Not necessarily the best I’ve ever tasted but a few weeks ago on a particularly wet and grey Manchester day we rode to Wythenshawe Park cafe on the promise of beans and chips soaked in vinegar, huge portion washed down with a big mug of tea, very satisfying, however the next hour as we rode home there was a bizarre rising sense of euphoria spreading through my body as the salt and sugar and fat started flowing through my veins, by the time I got home I was elated and slightly tripping…
We went back last week for more but the moment had gone 😂😂😂
At either extreme there were fish and chips in Aviemore at 9:30pm after an adventure on Lurchers Crag in the snow and a storm.
Then there was foi gras stuffed mini figs in Black Perigord accompanied by a sweet wine.