the best thing you've ever eaten

[miss djax]

UGH i hate the grammar and syntax on that stupid foodtv show 'the best thing i ever ate'

anywhoo, this version should be much better ;) whats the best think you've ever eaten?

mine's from a restaurant in a tiny stone cottage in the loire valley - sandre avec beurre blanc - a local white fish (reminds me of monkfish meets sea bass) drenched in a beurre blanc sauce (butter, shallots, butter, butter, salt, butter, you get the idea)

its my most favorite meal of my life. i've been back on separate trips, and its still there, and still fabulous.

anyone else??

[Free in Freeport]

I'm sure that would rank real high on my list of favs if I were able to sample. Never get that fancy here. I have oral-gastric orgasms easily. A good prime rib will do it, or scampi, or almost anything reeking of garlic.

[miss djax]

that's good stuff too, fb :)

my number 2? mom's chocolate brownies right out of the oven. *swoon* its almost a religious experience :D

[LoneWolf]

That’s tough. I guess what meals we remember throughout our lives we remember because they were either incredibly good or incredibly bad…or something else special happened at the meal. Almost everything I ate when I visited Italy was insanely good and the atmosphere was wonderful. I guess if I had to pick one it would be some manicotti I had in Venice.

[His Noodly Appendage]

Something that doesn't belong in this subforum :D

[Tangiellis]

This steak & cheese sub in a little Italian restaurant. It was down in Albany, GA. I have never, ever had better.

[Valheru]

Cantonese steak 'n onions.

[hecaterin]

This chocolate gelato in a back street somewhere in Venice twenty years ago...

Best this year: it's a tie between the truffled chicken with perigeaux sauce at Christophe's in Bungendore, and the tuna tataki at Orient Express in Byron Bay.

[Faerie]

You can bribe me with an oxtail potjie any day. Nothing as rich and delicious as oxtail

[Free in Freeport]

Something that doesn't belong in this subforum :D

LOL!! I must say, this changes my image of you a bit.

[Notta]

In Epcot Center in Disney World I had a sandwich in the Norwegian pavilion that was hard boiled egg, salmon, and some kind of dense bread. I've tried to re-create it to no avail. Whatever it was, it was the best sandwich I ever ate!

[muidiri]

Oh goodness. Trying to choose the single best is a tough call. I can give you a few of them though... my single favorite would vary depending on my mood.

Mushroom Ravioli from Donatello's (http://donatellorestaurant.com/) in Tampa, FL. The raviolis were stuffed with chanterelles and portabellas, the sauce was a fontina cheese based alfredo with porcinis and morel mushrooms. The chef had family in Italy, and he had them send him frozen porcinis every now and then. Ahh... I get moist just thinking about it.

Seafood canneloni from the same restaurant. The canneloni were stuffed with scallops, shrimp, lobster, and king crab meat, all finely diced... and with just the right amount of nutmeg. The sauce was nice and creamy, with a hint of garlic, tarragon, and gorgonzola

Donatello's specials change pretty regularly, though, if memory serves. I only managed to get each of those once. And I've been pining for them ever since.

The sea bass at The Mystic Fish (http://www.3bestchefs.com/mystic/), in Palm Harbor, FL near Tampa. Just perfectly cooked. Everything on their menu is excellent, and the service is exceptional. We ate their several times, and everything we ever had was fantastic. But the sea bass was outstanding.

Egads! I can think of so many others though. I'm not a particularly good cook, although I do a couple of things very well. So we've historically eaten out a lot. And I really love food. So I could go on for hours about fantastic sushi, excellent salads with just the right blend of flavors, deserts and drinks, ahh... Iw ould either bore you or make you all hungry. :p

[Berthold]

The chef had family in Italy, and he had them send him frozen porcinis every now and then. Ahh... I get moist just thinking about it.
He could save the postage and get them fresh. They (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis) should be quite common in your corner of the world, where mushroom gathering is much less of a folk hobby than in Europe (although I've heard it's catching on).

As for the question, I have lots of favorites, from quite different cultures. Right now I can't think of one "champion dish". :D

[muidiri]

The chef had family in Italy, and he had them send him frozen porcinis every now and then. Ahh... I get moist just thinking about it.
He could save the postage and get them fresh. They (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis) should be quite common in your corner of the world, where mushroom gathering is much less of a folk hobby than in Europe (although I've heard it's catching on).

I had previously heard that they don't grow well in the US. I've seen a few fresh here in WA, but I never saw any in FL. The ones up here are extremely expensive though... it's far cheaper for me to get imported ones dried. For the chef though... I only know what he told me :)

[Berthold]

Well, Florida is subtropical. I looked at your location, and immediately recalled what an Austrian hobby mycologist once had written about the American Northwest: That it's a paradise for mushroom gatherers. :wave:

ETA: Oh, I had overlooked that your good Italian padrone lives in Florida!

[Garnet]

Beef Burgundy with asparagus and new potatoes served in the Blue Bayou at Disneyland.

[Monad]

The sea bass at The Mystic Fish (http://www.3bestchefs.com/mystic/), in Palm Harbor, FL near Tampa. Just perfectly cooked. Everything on their menu is excellent, and the service is exceptional. We ate their several times, and everything we ever had was fantastic. But the sea bass was outstanding.

I just cooked my own for tea :) Sea Bass is yummy but no need to pay through the nose at a fancy restaurant imho as it's best cooked simply (I just quickly baked it with some seasalt, black pepper, lemon slices and parsley and served with Asparagus and New potatoes with lots of butter)

[BigEvil]

Two things stand out for me.

1) My mother-in-law's shrimp dip. Its incredible. Suppose to be an appetizer, but I could eat it till my stomach explodes. Put it on a cracker, take a bite, then you enter this internal mental fight where you try to get as much of it as you can without appearing to be a glutton.

2) A delmonico steak cooked in a special mushroom sauce that you get at this small non-descript restaurant near me. I could drink the sauce from a goblet. The chef has apparrently found a way to inject the sauce directly into every cell of the steak, or at least it seems that way. After eating it, you just sit in a state of euphoria for about an hour.

[crazyfingers]

The best meal I ever had was a lobster dinner at my cousin-in-law's place in Maine. He gets lobster at boat prices in trade for bottled gas and I had 7 lobsters that night! Lobster w/butter, potato salad and corn. Basic but the best.

Very strangely, my second best dinner was in a hotel in Luton, England. Venison (deer meat). It had the most wonderful sauce and the salad was great.

My third best was chicken that had been marinading for 2 days and cooked over an open fire on a canoe trip.

[Rilx]

Veal and ham rolls, Saltimbocca alla Romana. I found it in Italy and later perfected my own version. Here's a good basic recipe:

http://www.italianmade.com/recipes/recipe314.cfm

I cover veal slice fully with sage leaves, then ham slice on top and roll. It's easy to prepare and practically never fails. :D Really delicious, salt-im-bocca = jump-into-mouth.

[Worldtraveller]

My wife's made from scratch lasanga.

And one of the last meals I had when visitng Munich with my wife and my mom was something I'm normally not a big fan of: Hungarian Goulash. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten, and I'd probably be willing to fly back there just for that! (Incidentally, that was also the the place where I had the absolute best tirramisu that I have ever had. Mmmmm)

[Ray Moscow]

Just about anything eaten at the top of a mountain that I've just walked up

Setting is everything.

[Faerie]

My wife's made from scratch lasanga.



She is? :evil:

The devil in punctuation. :D

[Goldie]

Pan Fried Oysters at Anthony's in Seattle...

Aha tuna steak from "Nectar" a small place here in my town.

Salmon over lentels w / wild mushrooms again at Nectar

A butternut squash, carmalized onion and goat cheeze pizza....again...Nectar

Baklava fron Niko's in Spokane

Sorry..I can't pick just one.

Oh! A lazagna pastry with stuffed mushrooms from "Strings" in Mt Shasta, CA

[muidiri]

Pan Fried Oysters at Anthony's in Seattle...

Aha tuna steak from "Nectar" a small place here in my town.

Salmon over lentels w / wild mushrooms again at Nectar

A butternut squash, carmalized onion and goat cheeze pizza....again...Nectar

Baklava fron Niko's in Spokane

Sorry..I can't pick just one.

Oh! A lazagna pastry with stuffed mushrooms from "Strings" in Mt Shasta, CA

If you like sushi, I can recommend a few places in our neck of the woods. I've never been to Nectar... I might have to look that up - sounds yummy.

Add to your list: Any pizza from Sparta's (http://www.spartaspizza.com/). The best pizza in the universe - just ask them, they'll tell you.

[Goldie]

Nectar is in Moscow, ID.
Where are from? You can PM me.

I am a fine food nut but I am freaked by the idea of getting parasites from sushi. :(

[muidiri]

Nectar is in Moscow, ID.
Where are from? You can PM me.

I am a fine food nut but I am freaked by the idea of getting parasites from sushi. :(

No need to PM. I'm in a suburb of Seattle. You're reference to Anthony's (great place btw) had me jumping to conclusions.

[Berthold]

I am a fine food nut but I am freaked by the idea of getting parasites from sushi. :(
How come there's no epidemic of exotic* parasites in Vienna**? :D

*I mean, atypical for an inland country.

**Of Viennese restaurants with foreign cuisine, the Japanese have overtaken the Chinese since some years ago, and are now second only to the Italians. Well, Italy isn't really exotic, it's a neighbor and a favorite place for vacations.

[Goldie]

I am a fine food nut but I am freaked by the idea of getting parasites from sushi. :(
How come there's no epidemic of exotic* parasites in Vienna**? :D

*I mean, atypical for an inland country.

**Of Viennese restaurants with foreign cuisine, the Japanese have overtaken the Chinese since some years ago, and are now second only to the Italians. Well, Italy isn't really exotic, it's a neighbor and a favorite place for vacations.

:D
Too much Discovery channel???:dunno::p
ETA: I expect someday I'll try it. I've eaten some things that others simply refuse to even think about. (example: rocky mountain oysters)

[Lugubert]

Years before encountering "surf and turf" in Florida (delicious, but not a byallmeansgetmetherecipe thing), I stumbled upon a Riz Cazimir in Switzerland. At least two kinds of meat (say, pork, and chicken or turkey), fillet of flat-fish, all lightly but sufficiently fried, a smooth curry sauce, some carefully fried pieces of banana, pineapple and cocktail cherries, and whatever. Can't find an exact recipe on the Internet, but it's great fun improvising, if you've got enough hotspots on your stove and lots of pans to keep the flavours separate until serving.

And there's the Riz Colonial, very similar but without the fish. Almost as exciting.

[Khatru]

I love the variety and tastes of Chinese and Indian cuisine but I guess my favourite meal is pretty simple - a nice ribeye steak.

Also worth a merit is cheese fondue with Gruyere, Emmenthal, Appenzeler and Vacherin mont d'Or

Oh, and bundnerfleisch

[Anne]

Last night, I had something that was heaven.

It was basically a chicken cordon blue, not breaded, and stuffed with mozzarella and capicola and served in a 'pink' mushroom sauce.

oh goodness...

Other things that come to mind:

my own salmon and fennel chowder
the bread pudding Miner's used to make, before that cook left. :(
a duck breast salad Hutch's used to make.
homemade whipped cream
Tim Horton's coffee.
A local place's brie turkey green apple sandwich...