To ask what the best meal you've ever eaten is?

[ByNavyOtter]

I know I'm not being unreasonable I just want traffic lol. I got home fro. The hospital after an operation which had gone wonderfully well. I felt cosy and warm and my husband tucked me in bed then ordered me fish and chips. I don't know if it was being sleepy post anaesthetic, feeling relaxed because the op was over, that I'd been fasting before the op ( although the nurse was so lovely and gave me loads and loads of biscuits and tea before I came home ) or that for once I knew I could justify eating a takeaway in bed which I'd usually never do and didn't have to move ( husband had also cleaned our flat we were in at the time and lit some candles etc ) but it was truly one of the best meals I've ever had. I wolfed it down. I remember finishing my chips and shutting my eyes with Sex In The City on and realising how simple life's pleasures are lol.

What's the best meal you've ever had?

Tea and toast after my first labour. Honestly the best meal I had ever had

Crab thermidor in Cornwall with skinny, salty fries and a lovely dressed salad.

There's a few.
Butter paneer masala sat the local indian place. I think because my expectations weren't high.
Restaurant at the holiday park when dh and I were on a wellness weekend. 5 courses. Melt in your mouth.
The fish from the night market in Zanzibar.
The white chocolate cheesecake at simply french Lancaster.

Post Covid lockdown I treated myself to a late 50th birthday meal in our nearest big town - fancy place that did fancy food - I had a mushroom tart with truffle foam and a poached egg in the middle - I was in heaven - it was delicious as was the pudding of strawberries 4 ways!

Other than that I'd rank tea and toast post birth at number 3 and number two (no pun intended) was post colonoscopy - due to delays I hadn't eaten for 26 hours - I got a quarter pounder meal on the way home and it was amazing!

Mums beef stew after being stuck in the hospital for two weeks after ds was born, eating nothing but low fat yogurts and mns food.

Or

Dad's home made pirogi

Steak and chips 25years ago on the Indian Pacific railway. It took three and a half days to cross Australia and my word it was gorgeous.
Worst meal was a bacon sandwich at the Broken Hill stop in the outback, bloody foul. The Aussies just couldn't do decent bacon or bread in those days.

Sausage and mash with a jugful of gravy at a National Trust restaurant with friends. I was pregnant at the time and horrendously nauseous and hadn't been able to eat a proper meal in weeks. I was kind of dreading going as I felt so awful but I was craving meat so much I ordered the first meat dish I read. It came and I ate every morsel and for about 20 minutes in the last 10 weeks I didn't feel sick.

What’s coming to mind first is a lovely chateaubriand meal (chips and two sauces) at Alston Bar and Beef in Glasgow! Lush

Ah @GoingOutShoes - that just made me shed a tear.😢

For me - lamb tartare at a restaurant called Six Head overlooking the Sydney Opera House in September 2019. I could eat that at every meal for the rest of my life.

A honey and mustard potato and chicken salad from m and s in my hospital bed after DS was born - had only eaten bland food whilst pregnant and had been ill and not eaten for a few days after birth. I can still taste it now.

I had hyperemisis in my second pregnancy and lived off very little other than water and ritz crackers. I was dying for proper food. I came home from the hospital and had a wee mini cheeseboard from m and s, nice olives, sundried tomatoes, chicken liver pâté, a ciabatta and chilli jam. Best meal ever.

I had put it in the fridge in anticipation. I had a section and hemorrhaged the following morning. All I could think of all day (other than my gorgeous squishy baby!) Was getting home to that meal. They nearly kept me in a second night, though I had told dh that he was going to have to pick it up and bring it to me if they were keeping me!

Probably fettunta in Tuscany - amazing bread (Tuscan bread normally has no salt and so I'm not a fan, but this was a different kind of bread) with the new season olive oil and salt. So simple, but exquisite. I've never forgotten the taste.

Also fresh burrata in Florence with local tomatoes. To die for.

Oysters followed by chargrilled octopus in Edinburgh. So full of flavour.

A creamy blue cheese mousse that tasted like clouds in the Hunter Valley.

Tomahawk steak overlooking Porthminster beach in Cornwall.

Also, piping hot, crispy battered fish on Porthmeor Beach.

Basil sorbet with balsamic strawberries overlooking the harbour.

Egg and bacon naan from the Permit Room.

I really like delicious food!

Nearly 40 years ago we went for a walk on a beach in the Algarve. We stopped at a little restaurant that was really just a shed by the sand dunes. The staff spoke as much English as we did Portuguese (no please, thank you, hello, goodbye) and there was no written menu and no choices. They just bought the grilled fish of the day with salad and chips. Drinks choices were the most delicious chilled white wine that flowed very freely, beer, coke or water and the total bill was about £12.

It was all very simple but every element was perfect and I've never had such a wonderful meal again.

Arbroath Smokies in a little country pub many years ago.
A roast beef Sunday lunch in the one posh hotel in our town, booked by my DH as a last treat before baby number 2 arrived. I had her later that day 34 years ago. Recently I had a prawn cocktail, steak and fries with Stilton cauliflower and a queen of puddings. I'd not eaten any of those things for a very long time, it was all good but that queen of puddings was to die for, just the right texture to the base, then the jam and the most heavenly meringue on top, served just hot enough to need a little blow, with a jug of cream on the side. It was a huge portion and I struggled to finish it but no way could I have left it. I could eat it again right now

Steak in Chile when we lived there, with creamed spinach and delicious potatoes cut amost as thin as crisps but cooked freshly with garlic.

I’m glad you enjoyed your fish and chips OP and that the operation went so well.

Ham and salad barm made by my gran after I'd been in hospital with hyperemesis.

Roast beef Sunday dinner at a local pub when I was severely hungover. It was perfection.

Lowering the tone a bit - but the first time I ever had Taco Bell. It was my birthday, I was hungover and broke, and Taco Bell was new to the UK at the time. I actually went back again the next day.

Other than that, the food at Call It What You Want in Cowes was probably the best restaurant meal I’ve ever had, plus any kind of street food on holiday tbh.

Like you OP it was fish and chips. I'd was buying my ex out of our flat, lots of stress as he kept threatening to kick me out and put the flat on the open market. The day I completed I sat down on my sofa in my own flat and had fish and chips and champagne. It was the best meal ever.

Lamb kleftikos in a hillside restaurant in Rhodes

churros from a van in Barcelona

Ah...food...my favourite thing to fantasise about...

Oysters on the wharf in Sēte, SW France. Sitting on packing crates. Had been taken on a quick shallow boat trip to see the oyster beds which were laid down in Roman times. With a very, very cold Vin de Sable. If I go to heaven it will be there.
Also, when I crave Indian food (quite often !) I can't think of any I have had that betters Ganapati Kitchen in Peckham (Keralan)
Drooling at everyone's suggestions / memories...even things I couldn't eat...because the delight is in the moment and the memory.
Sunshine, the slap of the sea and love in the air for me !