best meal you've ever had.

That's a hard question to answer.
I have eaten so many great meals!

The answer would most likely be influenced by what I am craving on any particular day.

Today, for me. Tomorrow something else probably ...:


http://ukrainetrek.com/about-ukraine-cuisine/ukrainian-national-cuisine-origin

thats great. the world needs more people like you.

Why thank you, hamilton!

So what's the best meal you've ever eaten, then?

I have had many good meals, but one stands out in my memories.
I was about 31/2 or four years old, going someplace with my father and we stayed over in a hotel. In a nice hotel with twinbeds, not sharing a bed with my greataunt a bed all by myself. Next morning I had porriage in a fine dining room.
This breakfast is in my memory something very special and very good.
Ordering porriage in the morning when travelling still gives me a feeling of luxury - at home it is just something ordinary.

a while ago, my family all went to a resort in cabos, mexico. (i dont remember the name.)
there, they had the greatest oatmeal i have ever eaten. there was a hint of cinnamon, and some vanilla. they had lots of brown sugar and dried fruits. and the hot choclate, it was sublime. there was a small skin of it over the top, and it was just cool enough to be drank right away....

It was May 6, 2003 at Le Francais in Wheeling, IL (no longer in business) in celebration of our wedding anniversary (one day late). We arrived, were seated and were presented with menus pre-printed with our names and selections for us to choose from along with the recommendation of the chef. We chose individual entrees but then left the rest up to the chef and the sommelier. I have NEVER before or since had six different alcoholic beverages to go along with six different courses.

It was a once in a lifetime... or once every 15 years... experience. I still have the menus, signed by the chef and the sommelier.

Now... that was the best meal/experience I ever had. The best meal purely from a food standpoint? I'm going to say Brigtsens Restaurant in New Orleans where we celebrated our 20th anniversary two years ago. It was truly wonderful.

OH MY GOODNESS, I've just been checking out the menu, JPB.
That was an amazing dining experience you had!
I am so jealous!

http://www.brigtsens.com/menu.html

It was indeed, msolga. The restaurant is located in a house that has been converted to dining areas on the first floor. There were only four tables in our dining room. It was truly a wonderful experience.

this sounds very nice.

pierogis and pot stickers look so much alike yet pot stickers taste so much better to me. Sorry, Ive had my last pierogi when I was like 14

I've eaten them (home made) for most of my life, farmer.
Just wonderful, fresh from the pot, tossed with some lightly browned onions in butter.
I want some now!
Too bad they are such a messy hassle to make & I have such a tiny kitchen.

By pot stickers, you mean similar Chinese/Asian dumplings to these?


http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9373/pot+sticker+dumplings

I just checked out this recipe & think I might give these a go.
At the very least they seem a damn sight easier to make than my mother's vareniky (sp?) . What a long, drawn-out assembly line process that was!
But what a feast when they were ready!

yep, those are the poy stickers . They are so gooood. The spices in the meat mix is delicate and delicious. then there is the topping.

I forgot that varenky is the correct Ukey word , pierogy, varenky, and te jewish variety, (firget the name)

As to the pot stickers ....
Do you bake them at your place, farmer?
I think they'd be pretty good steamed
Or cooked in boiling water, like varenky.

have you ever had dim sum? its a restauraunt in toronto. we once ordered two full meals, but ate it all.

Well, here's my tale of one of the best meals -

http://able2know.org/topic/145368-3#post-4004716

There was once a double restaurant in Hanford, a small town in central California. A professor of my husband's - serious food maven - and husband and I drove up there one weekend in 1979. Before we settled in motel rooms in Visalia we drove up into the Sierras to see the big sequoia trees. I proceeded to get car sick on the way back down to the valley - so I wasn't right then looking forward to the planned dinner at Imperial Dynasty. Luckily the dinner hour was about four hours later.

I just looked it up on Wiki, and there it is --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Dynasty_restaurant

The chef was Richard Wing, who had previously been George Marshall's (US army chief of staff in WWII) chef de cuisine, and had studied at Cordon Bleu.
There was a chinese restaurant, The Chinese Pagoda, next to the Imperial Dynasty, on the main floor, and in the basement, a terrific wine cellar run by Richard's brother, Robert Wing (not sure of the Robert part).

We ended up so ecstatic about the food that we went back the next day for another prix fixe meal, of a more moderate amount of platings.

I'll copy the handwritten menus, probably with some mistakes as it is a little hard to discern some of the french words, me not knowing french. I'll use italics to give a bit of the flavor of Richard's writing. It says on the bottom of the menu that the restaurant had been operated continuously by the Wing family for three generations, since 1883. Wiki says it closed in 2006 - so Richard must have found someone in the next generation to take over, a matter he was worried about at the time, as the kids all had other interests in life, at least that day. (We all talked a lot with Richard as the meal was long and we were the only ones in the dining room that first evening.)

Ok, first day,
Saturday Sept. 8, 1979, 7:30 pm
Dr. G.
3
Gourmet Dinner. $35.00 person
Plus wine selection
Tax & Gratuity not included

Filet Mignon Steak Tartare
Escargots a la Imperial Dynasty
Consomme Riche de (Faisan?)
Petite Homardo a la Diable
(Spring Mountain Chardonnay 1972, $16.00)

Cailles a la Chinoise
Filet D'Agneau Grille Celestial
(Heitz Cabernet (didn't mark what year, '70's, $12.00)

Salad de Romaine - (a word I can't read starting with K)
Mango a la Creme
(Chateau (Induisant? Seduisant?), 1970, $11.00, 1/2 bottle)
Demitasse


Day 2
Sunday Sept 9, 1979
5:30 pm
Dr. G
3
Special Dinner $20.00 person
Plus wine selection
Tax & Gratuity not included

Scampi a la Imperial Dynasty
Potage du jour
Fruits de Mer Imperiale
(Raymond Chardonnay 1977, $14.00)

Tournedo de Boeuf Bordelaise
(Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon 1968, $25.00)
Salade
Four a la Creme de Fromage
Demitasse


Osso and Dr. G looking at menu..

mmmm....

The most recent best meal I can remember having was at the Blue Peter Pub in Polperro, Cornwall on Tuesday, May 10, 2011. I had scallops, salad, wonderful home-made granary bread with butter and beer.
It was nothing less than delightful.

that looks homely...

Yes, it is a very home-y place. They even let me bring my dog in- and the beam at the end says, 'The more people I meet, the more I love my dog' (or something like that).
Here's the inside: