Ceviche de cojinova, La Canta Rana, Barranco.
A few great meals in girona.
Pentonbridge inn (recently got it's Michelin star) great tasting menu.
Currywurst at tempest brewery tap room.
Durian
Two different steaks and 2 different settings. <br /><br />1st in Paris St German quarter of Paris. What looked like a local restaurant complete with dogs under tables and very little English spoken. <br /><br />
2nd along with some fantastic Malbec at a steak restaurant in Mendoza Argentina. <br /><br />
I walk into La Canta Rana, knowing this was going to be my last ever ceviche - my flight home was tomorrow ( tomorrow was 30 years ago but it may as well be today) -the cojinova is fresh out of the boat.
When i walked in to Peru, nine months prior, i didn't think i even liked fish - fish, that's like tinned tuna or tinned salmon, that's fish, right? - we never even had chip shop fish when i was growing up.
So my first weekend we went to the beach and the boats hauled themselves out of the water and cooked those fish they'd caught on coals right there on fires on the beach and it was like, this is manna from heaven.
The next nine months were spent eating all and everything - i'm going to tell you now that ceviche de pulpo is edible, but not advisable.
And now we're back at La Canta Rana, my last really good ceviche. My last any ceviche - what would you do?
Well, obviously, you order another...
I remember getting back to the car after a multi day trek in NZ (about 25+ years ago) had gone a bit Pete Tong and had run out of food, found a Bolognese sauce jar, tin of corned beef and some pasta, 20mins of trangering later and I was in culinary heaven!! I will never forget that meal.
Much as I love complicated cookery and good restaurants, the food that stands out in my mind tends to be simple.
Belly pork tacos from Ember in Wellingborough. Great place that cooks everything brilliantly over open flames, but the slow roast belly pork tacos are astonishing.
Simple, fresh oysters from the seafood shack in Oban.
Properly old-fashioned lobster, crab and other seafood salad from Cookies in Salthouse.
I’ve been thinking about this since the thread first started, and I finally came up with something.
In 1997, I had to do a course in Mexico City, when we spent time in the countryside with some farmers. The village were expecting us, and to celebrate, they pulled out all the stops and held a feast.
They dug a few holes and filled them with burning coals, then wrapped the meat (pork and chicken), put it in the ground, buried it, and let it cook all day while we played football with the local kids.
Later, the meat was dug up, and we ate it with rice, corn, and molé (a sauce of cocoa and chilli). I don’t think I have ever had a nicer experience of food - before or since.
I had eaten in Mexico a lot, as we had a place in the Rio Grande Valley, but the stuff I ate that day was unlike anything else.
Pint of straight from the cask Moonlite and a slice of their own cheese pie at the Square and Compass, Worth Matravers, sat outside on a sunny May Saturday. Bliss.
Street food Spring roll. Night market in Luang Prabang, Laos, with my 2.5 year old son.
flintstones
Free Member
Street food Spring roll. Night market in Luang Prabang, Laos, with my 2.5 year old son.
Not a takeaway dinosaur rib?
Not a takeaway dinosaur rib?
Took me a moment!
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.
Hanedan, West Preston Street?
I see a mention of razor clams on the previous page.
Those cooked on la plancha at a seafood place in Nerja is the one single taste that stands out to me. With a glass of fino obvs.
Ate some amazing gourmet meals in Andalucia as well, I remember a lovely seafood stew kind of thing served from a teapot at one of the cliff edge restuarants in Ronda.
And a chocolate & mango dessert in El Puerto de Santa Maria.
Roadside cafe, SW corner of Viti Levu, Fiji - the best chicken curry, dhal and rice ever.
2nd place curry was a restaurant in Moscow, but I reckon it’s gone now.
Other standouts:<br />Ploughman’s from the Seymour Arms, Whitham Friary circa 1993<br />Meats from a kiwi Hangi<br />The Waterside Inn at Bray
On holiday in Corfu. In the Flying Fox restaurant on the road above Paleokastritsa I had the best moussaka I’ve ever eaten.
In the 80’s was in Milan for F1 GP. Had some Spaghetti with a plain tomato sauce in a small back street cafe. Still not had one as good since.
Both simple home cooked but perfect dishes.
The standout for me from various tasting menus over the years was Kenny Atkinson's mackerel dish that he got to the banquet on Great British Menu. The fish was cooked in a crispy tube made from some rolled out bread, served with several gooseberry elements. Just a superbly tasty and balanced dish.
Drinks wise, a couple of wines stand out, an awesome Barolo at the Raby Hunt and an Amarone enjoyed with roast lamb in Verona.
Chicken kebab meat and chips with cabbage salad, chilli sauce, lime and garlic mayonnaise. I don't eat it very often but when I do, it's normally after a big ride where I'm still dirty and tired. All washed down with a can of Vimto.
Braised beef with spring onion mash, covered in incredibly beefy gravy with a side of green beans and deep fried cheddar cheese. Washed down with a glass of Merlot.
Indian starters/sides are hard to beat, I love poppadoms with mixed pickles and mint yoghurt.
My mother in-law's Christmas lunch is incredible too. Only just pipping the boxing day leftover Turkey and ham pie. Her fruit meringue is like eating a sugary cloud. Bliss!
The bratwurst from a pub in Chop Gate on the North Yorkshire Downs was very, very good. It came with sauerkraut and pickles. I found the place after an impromptu evening ride. The german beer was also superb.
Standing outside Hendon Bagel just as they opened at 7.00am back in the 90's eating fresh bagels after some all-nighter
The Pierhouse Hotel in Appin, OK, I had some veggie cobble-together, but my wife loves seafood, and it was a great moment when she asked the waiter where the langoustine was caught, and he pointed out the window to Loch Linnhe and said "There."
The wee place in Fayance that allowed my son (aged 6) to try andouiette after he was insistent in the way that only small people can be, the cook watching him from the kitchen door nodding appreciatively and the waiter bringing him some chips after my son, after a couple of mouthfuls, realised what he'd let himself in for.
