So, what would your last meal be?

I admint I am a coward and don't want to be identified with this one. The topic of last meals and those poor sad wasted lives (victims and criminals) is not one to make light of...however...it got me thinking what I would eat if I knew I had one meal left.

In reality, I'd be in the decline to eat category. Or maybe I could get a handful of Valium.

But say you were doing something brave and heroic and it was very likely that your next meal would be your last. You laugh at fate and decide to wildly enjoy your last minutes on earth. You can have anything you want. Go to any restaurant. What would you eat?

I would have a New England clam bake. The lobster straight off the boats - sweet dripping with butter. A ear of sweet white corn, just plucked from the fields. A lovely chardonay. For desert, strawberry shortcake and champagne.

Curious to see if anyone else can talk about their last meal and overcome the grimness of people who really do have to make this choice.

Porterhouse for 2 at Peter Luger's with home fries and the most expensive bottle of red wine on the menu, with my wife as my dinner companion.

I would ask for anything made by my mom. Anything she would cook - that would be the greatest meal I can have at that moment.

12 pieces of fried chicken (thighs), plus the coleslaw they make at the Rendezvous restaurant in Memphis (or some reasonable facsimile thereof). I know this is disgusting, but I never can eat as much fried chicken as I would like. Not having to worry about indigestion or obesity, I would really go overboard. Besides, if I actually ate 12 pieces of fried chicken, I just might beat the chair.

Oysters, fois gras-- some seared, some cold. Cold cracked Dungeness Crab with mayo and lemon. Bread from D'Amato's bakery in Chicago. A gorgeous white French Burgundy. For dessert, apple crisp ala mode and a cup or two of cuban coffee.

I'd challenge Alain to produce his best meal featuring foie gras that would go well with a selection of Belgian ales. (Then have an omakase with assorted sakes from Nobu himself as backup if Alain fell through.) For desert a few pounds of perfectly ripe lychee from China, not the poor quality domestic ones. My type of comfort food.

Oh, and the person who pulls the switch has to eat one full large overripe durian first.

Fugu! Can you think of better timing?

My fiance agrees with you on this one! When I asked him the last meal question, he immediately said SUSHI. You know you're going out so why no death by fugu!

Yeah, then you could experience the liver with no fear...The ultimate chowhound demise...

Oh Man... That is sooo bad... but I agreee... I have had it a few times... including the bad fix tingles and buzz... very good drooogs.. I always wonder what the totality would be...

I imagine death from fugu would be rather unpleasant--sort of like the ultimate asthma attack. It's the paralysis of the diaphragm that kills you, while your brain is more or less aware of your impeding suffocation. /speculation

I think if it's my last meal, I would go back to my roots and ask for Taiwanese food, a bowl of beef noodle soup and maybe some spicy wontons and pearl milk tea drink.

Even more Taiwanese would be a bowl of che ha mi (thin noodles in cilantro laced chicken broth with garlic and a slice of roast pork), san bei ji (luscious braised chicken parts in soy sauce with basil), some tian bu la (result of Japanese imperialism), a sliced tu mang guo (Taiwanese small green mango), good dongding wulong (mountaintop oolong) and some fengli su (pineapple cookies). Jesus would raise Jiang Jingguo from the dead, straighten out that whore Paul McCartney and walk across the Danshui River at its filthiest point to share such a meal with me and Wendy.

haha, that is funny :)

I like all the dishes you mentioned. I don't know if beef noodle soup is really Taiwanese or not, but I just remember growing up eating them at the corner store, and now days I just dream about that perfect bowl. I'm not even sure if I go back to Taiwan it would taste the same. It could all be in my childhood memories now.

Yum. I last went to Taiwan 10 years ago when I was 12 and I've been missing the food ever since. I keep telling myself to go back just for the chance to browse the night markets and eat my way through all the food. First, I was going to go after high school, then after college. Let's see if I can make it there this summer before med school. I definitely miss the snacks, and experiences, that you just can't here: eating fish balls and Chinese sausage off skewers, ordering up a bowl of squid pottage from a cart, and walking through convoluted alleyways to find the perfect meatball (rouyuan).

This is actually an easy question for me because I've thought of it before..almost posted it to the list. Peter Luger's gets the call..with some type of seared foie gras to go with it..good red wine. I'd die a happy man.

Stick with the Pros, give me some Fried Chicken.....

Something about the thought of death doesn't make chewing seem appetizing to me...

I'd go for something I consider comfort food:

A warm bowl of Farina (not too thick) with a bit of sugar, creamy sweet butter and a touch of cinnamon.

Then a few bottles of a very good red.

(I don't want to die.)

I always get hungry when I get nervous.

Artisanal french bread, really good brie, big green grapes, black olives and a bowl of lightly salted oil-roasted cashews and almonds. Champagne cocktail: Dom Perignon, VSOP cognac, bitters and a drop of simple syrup.

Then the prawns. Lots and lots of big-ass prawns. Wash them down with Blanton's Single-Barrel Bourbon on the rocks.

Dessert: fresh-picked strawberries and a really fine nectarine. I want a paring knife so that I can slice off little pieces of the nectarine and eat them off the knife.

Lastly, a chilled Diet Pepsi from the can--just because.

A mismatched life's-best-meals buffet: Fried chicken & mashed potatoes from Strouds in Kansas City, Missouri, Med rare from Peter Lugars, venison from the Restaurant School in Philly, plate of assorted pate from Hammersleys in Boston with some pickled onions from Bread & Circus, and a lobster, boiled at home after a long day at the beach. Gluttony or indecision? YOu be the judge.

Uh... sounds quite well thought / felt out.

And I was just wondering if I should be concerned that my husband's last meal choice would be fried chicken.

Be concerned. Be very concerned.