A meal you still think about...

[JackThayer]

I had the most wonderful lamb madras years ago. The sauce was just perfect and so creamy. The lamb was scrumptious and sadly I had had too many wines to enjoy it properly. I think about this curry just to tease myself every time I'm hungry 😩

Whilst in Aberdeen, visiting to watch a Proclaimers concert, I popped into a fish and chip shop. (close to Sainsburys ) The haddock was absolutely out of this world. It was probably in the North Sea a few hours earlier. Perfect. I have never tasted nicer fish before or since.

At the risk of ruining your lovely thread my most memorable meal was on my very first night of my first foreign holiday, spaghetti bolognese in a bistro in Tenerife. I thought it tasted funny but assumed it was just 'foreign', had the most horrendous food poisoning after and didn't leave the apartment once for the whole week. Barely left the bathroom in fact. Will never forget it.

Probably not this year but I’m planning a Big Yorkshire Adventure for my 50th next year (if I haven’t actually moved up there by then) and have just been looking at dates to squeeze it into what I’ve already planned!

I went to a BBQ in Turkey with some locals many years ago. And omg it was so good. The meat, the bread, the salad. I've had many BBQs since and nothing matches it!

I had a shepherds pie at the Lone Star in Barbados. It was fantastic. My partner thought I was mad ordering a SP but I had eaten so much fish there, I fancied a change, it was honestly the best shepherds pie I have ever had. I have been lucky enough to have had many memorable meals but unfortunately my figure has suffered because of it.

Roast rack of lamb with coriander seed crust at the Woody Bay Hotel in Devon. If Martin and Colette Petchey ever see this post, thank you for the wonderful holidays there.

OMG! Snap! Isn’t it the best!!! Think I had apple pie for dessert x

A beef Massaman curry at a tiny family-owned Thai restaurant in Sydney.

Ironically, we’d just spent a month in Thailand, but none of the curries we’d had came close to that one.

Lobster bisque at a winery in Australia. I dream about the broth.

And a lamb curry with mint and coriander sauce from an Indian take away in Chesham!! Hands down best curry I've ever tasted.

Garlic veg fried rice in Koh Samui. I'd hired a jeep to go into the hills. At the top it broke down. There was a rustic wooden cafe there so we asked if they could ring the hire company (pre mobile times).

Felt obliged to buy something while we waited.

It was absolutely devine and I'm not a vegetarian. My mouth is actually watering thinking about it even though I've just eaten a cooked lunch.

Lycabettus in Santorini without a doubt. The most amazing food, ambience and drinks. But undoubtedly the most expensive meal and the most id ever spend on a meal in my life!

Lobster in garlic butter in a tiny beach shack in South Goa.

Second best was stuffed vine leaves on a trip up a mountain in a jeep but I can’t remember where!

When I was living in Italy we took the bus up to Sant'Agata one day but it began to snow (it was January). We headed back down to Sorrento and, now shivering with the cold and starving, we headed for the nearest restaurant which was a small, unpretentious locals sort of place called Al Scugnizzo.

We had ministrone soup to start which was served with garlic bread and I can honestly say I have never had minestrone soup like it. It was more of a thick vegetable stew and the garlic bread was great big slabs oozing with garlicky goodness served under slightly damp tea towels. For the second course we each had half a corn fed chicken with an assortment of local vegetables and roast potatoes.

We finished off with homemade banana and rum cake and strong Italian coffee.

That meal was the stuff of dreams.

My god mother's Jollof rice she never would give me the recipe and haven't tasted another one like it despite always ordering it whenever I see somewhere which has it.

2nd and 3rd would be a civiche in Costa Rica just froma little beach bar it was incredible!

3rd would be a seafood platter cooked on coconut rusk fire in Lombok again just at a beach bar it was so spicy but amazing no way I could replicate it.

Bbq ribs I had in Vegas my god they were delicious it was just the hotels "sports bar" I had them twice . I still think about them!

I love this thread!
My Dad’s Gammon, Cabbage and spuds in his tiny little kitchen.

Can I have two? First was a dinner in rural France many years ago. We went with friends who knew the place. Husband chef, wife front of house. No menu - we had rabbit stew with vegetables and spelt. It was delicious but it was more the setting. Sitting outside above a lovely wooded valley listening to nightingales. Absolutely magic. And the other was just last week in The Ivy in Cambridge. The best shepherds pie I have ever eaten 😋

A duck dish in a Chinese restaurant in Vegas in the early 2000's. I can't remember what it was called, or even actually remember what it was like. I just remember it was amazing and have never found a restaurant that could replicate it.

Aged 19, an ice cold beer, a freshly sliced piece of prosciutto and a hunk of fresh bread in a little hill village in Italy after 36 hours of exhausting travel. And then, every night, nonna’s spinach tagliatelle. In nearly 40 years it’s never been forgotten and I’ve never been able to recreate it.

I emailed the establishment last year to tell them about my fond memories and the grandson replied, delighted. They still make that tagliatelle. Utter heaven.

A bowling alley/club in Pinner!

It was a Christmas night out, bowling , dinner and dancing in an underground bowling alley!

I went for the veggie option because I didn't fancy a Xmas Dinner.
But equally I wasn't (at the time) a big veggie person.
The starter was a vegetable soup...I didn't like the look of it but it was bloody lovely. Tried to recreate it several times and can't.
The main was some sort of ravioli and sauce, again wasn't sure on it, but again bloody lovely.
Pudding was a melt in the middle chocolate bombe with cream.

@ginasevern reminded me of a delicious duck ravioli I had. I was studying absolutely horrid economics late one night, there had been a lot of snow, pretty much everything was shut because of it, but being young I jumped in my manual speed VW and drove downtown looking for something open. Sat in a cool resto with my textbook and had an amazing meal. Wasn't Italy, mind you...downtown/west end Vancouver.

I'd stopped eating fish aged about 11, can't remember why. I was on holiday in the Gambia with my now exH, and we went sea fishing with 3 local lads, turned out I was a better fisher than he was, heh. We got back to the beach, they built a fire and cooked a fish each for us and them, i felt like I couldn't refuse. Walking on a sandy beach with my fish, fresh from the fire, was just incredible.

I now eat a lot of fish, but that was my gateway drug and nothing has matched it.

This is a lovely thread- so evocative. I can almost taste some of the food described here!
I find it hard to choose but I often remember this amazing hot chocolate we had in France at a B&B. We had breakfast on the terrace & it was served in huge bowls with a delicious array of fresh bread & croissants. There is something about the croissants you get in some parts of France that is just unbeatable.
Also on holiday on the Amalfi coast, this fairly modest looking restaurant on the hillside town of Montepertuso. Had the most amazing blue cheese ravioli.

Langoustine cooked on a bbq on at a beach restaurant in Spain. They were the juiciest, tastiest thing I've ever eaten, swilled down with cold beer with my toes in the sand.

I'm one of those people who remembers trips by the food I ate. But three really stand out

35 years ago I went into this simple little restaurant on a square somewhere in Athens. I had spit roasted chicken and it was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted. It was covered in oregano and it was probably the first time I'd tasted fresh oregano. Or maybe any oregano!

Another time, maybe 22 years ago, I had salmon and frites at a restaurant next to the Seine. It was so simple but cooked so incredibly well, just perfect.

Oh and maybe 5 years ago there were fried stuffed courgette flowers at a taverna where locals went in Crete. Again, just fresh and delicious and the first time I had tried it.