Thank you for these latest posts, margo, aidan & Roberta. Terrific reading!
(I'll be back later in the day to post more, when my brain is a little less fuzzy. A bit too early in the day right now.)
@msolga,
Oh and thanks to osso, too! (See what I mean about fuzzy-brained?)
@msolga,
I'll make you sorry for skipping me, with some travel to mid california in the seventies. Repent!
@ossobuco,
I see I lost some posts. Good grief. You may see expurgative posts on some dumb political thread..
@ossobuco,
I am
so terribly sorry, osso! Mea culpa, mea culpa!
Quote:...some travel to mid california in the seventies.
Oh yes, please! (I'm serious.)
@msolga,
It's not you, it's me. I've lost about six posts, generally. em?
I'll track it. I always assume it is my flubbups.
eh.. I tend to trust a2k. Must have been me.
Thinking about other great meals. Certainly some of the best and favorite meals I've had have been in NYC, but they don't count because this is a travel tales thread.
I've had superb meals in Boston, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Kansas City, and Denver, but the U.S. travel meal that stands out in my memory is the one I had in New Orleans. We had dinner at an old plantation and ate out on the lawn which was lit by string lights and table lamps. The weather was warm and damp, not exactly great for dining, but it worked here. We sat next to an ancient weeping willow. Now the weird part. I can't remember what I ate. I remember that it was delicious, but I can't remember what it was. I guess I'm a sucker for dining experiences and prefer those to just a magnificent, divine meal.
I had another dinner in NO. Crawdads with other sea food. Divine. Highly spiced. Got a lesson in crawdad eating. Ate beignets at an outdoor square before I left. Mighty tasty.
It's very telling that people remember the setting as much as the food itself.
I've had many memorable meals while traveling. One of those that stands out is eating on the train between Arles and Marseille, France in May of 2002 with my best friends. We do not all live in the same city, so just getting these people together at the same time in such a gorgeous place was a miracle of nearly inexpressable joy to me.
As to the food...it had been market day in Arles, and along with buying decadent (and cheap!) bouquets of flowers to take back to our hosts in Marseille, each of us volunteered to pick up something for the group to eat on the train back. One bought fresh baguettes and local wine, one bought various cheeses, one bought some delicious little dried sausages, and I bought a couple of types of olives. My favorite was the oil-cured black olives with herbs de provence (REAL herbs of Provence!)
Once on the train, we managed to get two bench seats that faced each other. We tucked the bouquets of flowers around us and spread the food across our laps. Fortunately, one of the guys had a pocket knife to cut the sausages and cheeses, which we passed around along with everything else. We all ate with our fingers and passed around a bottle of wine. The smells of the flowers, the tastes of the fresh foods, and the stories of what each of us had seen and bought at the market... We laughed until our sides were sore. It was heaven.
The worst meal I remember being served was in a Chinatown somewhere. I have no doubt intentionally repressed the memory of the exact town. I do remember that Hubby and I were extremely hungry after having walked around for hours. We finally stopped when we could go no further, collapsing into chairs in a small restaurant where the food smelled good. The menu was entirely in Chinese, and no one there spoke English. Finally we smiled, pointed at a chicken in the window and a pan on the stove, not being the least picky about which type of chicken dish they wanted to give us. We were so hungry we thought we would happily eat whatever they wanted to prepare.
We were wrong.
Each of us received half a raw chicken on a plate with a ladle of hot grease poured over it. Nothing else.
It was the most sickening plate of so-called food I've ever seen.
@ossobuco,
I exaggerated - it was really one long post about the very worst meal, and its consequences. Just as well it was a lost post, as it got a bit too descriptive.
Still enjoying the thread.
@msolga,
The best? three different meals involving oysters - all in Chincoteague, Virginia.
Oyster fritter rolls eaten outside at picnic tables. Hot, messy, wonderful.
On another trip, Oysters Rockefeller at one of the "fine dining" spots in town. Gorgeous, delicious, perfect.
On most trips, oyster "soup" for breakfast at Don's.
They know what to do with their oysters in Chincoteague.
Worst? that's kind of tricky.
It's easier to identify most disappointing - and it wasn't so much meals as cupcakes. Cupcakes in New York. Tried sooo many different places over a series of trips and the best ones were mmmmmm well adequate. Very disappointing. Food in New York is often disappointing I find. I had to learn to lower my expectations. There have been some very good meals in New York, but I'm used to (aka spoiled by) a generally higher standard of cooking, even at the most basic of restaurants.
@Eva,
Quote:It's very telling that people remember the setting as much as the food itself.
Yes, I've noticed that, too, Eva.
Quote:I've had many memorable meals while traveling. One of those that stands out is eating on the train between Arles and Marseille, France in May of 2002 with my best friends.
I suspect that the
company one enjoyed that delectable meal with might have had some impact, too!
Interesting that this has become pretty much an A2K womens traveling thread, isn't it? (Not that I'm complaining, mind.
) Apart from Walter. Good ol' Walter, I say!
@Roberta,
Quote:I've had superb meals in Boston, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Kansas City, and Denver, but the U.S. travel meal that stands out in my memory is the one I had in New Orleans. We had dinner at an old plantation and ate out on the lawn which was lit by string lights and table lamps. The weather was warm and damp, not exactly great for dining, but it worked here. We sat next to an ancient weeping willow. Now the weird part. I can't remember what I ate. I remember that it was delicious, but I can't remember what it was. I guess I'm a sucker for dining experiences and prefer those to just a magnificent, divine meal.
Ha, another "setting" person, obviously.
But I just
know the food was most likely fantastic, Roberta. (If I ever get the chance) I think New Orleans food would be no 1 on my USA eating priority list. I have read so much about it, I really want some!
@ehBeth,
Quote:Very disappointing. Food in New York is often disappointing I find.
(Never having had the NYC experience) that really surprises me, Beth.
I've always imagined NYC as some sort of amazing, fantastic melting pot of world cuisines. And now you've gone & ruined my little little fantasy.
@ossobuco,
Quote:I exaggerated - it was really one long post about the very worst meal, and its consequences. Just as well it was a lost post, as it got a bit too descriptive.
Oh I so wish I'd seen it, osso!
"Descriptive" I like!
If it turns up again, by any chance ...
@margo,
Quote:
There I had my first cassoulet ever, the most wonderful dish - a real standout. I can't remember now exactly what was in it- (this was 25+ years ago) some combination of duck and pork and beans, and... but I still remember the excitement at eating something so wonderful. I've never had such a good cassoulet since, and haven't been able to reproduce it myself. I haven't yet been back to Carcassonne, but it's certainly on my list.
Pardon my ignorance, margo. (But I know next to nothing about French food.)
So a "cassoulet" is some variety of delicious French casserole?
Very unusual combination: duck, pork & beans.
@msolga,
msolga wrote:
Pardon my ignorance, margo. (But I know next to nothing about French food.)
So a "cassoulet" is some variety of delicious French casserole?
Very unusual combination: duck, pork & beans.
There's quite a good description in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassoulet
It's a specialty of that south-west area. I've tried several times, but the magic just isn't there!
(speaking of settings, as well as the food ...) I love good Indian food. Some of the very best I ever enjoyed was on a study tour, with a small Oz-based aid group, in India ... oh, around 20 years ago. We'd travel from one end of India to the other ... by train, mostly. And at each city centre there'd be a seminar, provided by locals working in the field.
We'd then travel, in small groups, to really remote areas where the aid projects actually were. Tiny, remote little villages in Gujarat, Andra Pradesh ... (we did a lot of looking down wells, visiting food plantations & things like that ..)
Anyway, just about all the food we ate was cooked on location, at the aid project sites, by local cooks. Very, very simple fare (generally eaten with the right hand, in the Indian way. The other hand is a no no ...), like chicken curry on rice, lots of delicious vegetarian fair. It was the most fantastic, healthy Indian food I've ever eaten, as I said. Mr A (our local host & guide, who was well into his 70's at this stage) informed as of the "rules" we were to follow : Eat everything on your plate. It's rude to your host not to. Eat a chilli (for Vitamin C) after or with each meal. He was adamant on this! Be extremely careful of what you eat when in the cafes of the cities. He said our "delicate" western systems did not have nearly enough exposure to germs! A real failing on our part, in his eyes. We needed exposure to more germs for resistance to disease! And so on & so on ...
I don't think I've ever felt healthier than I did on that diet on that tour. It was wonderful food. And a terrific, informative, experience, that trip.
