What food find still haunts you - that you had once and haven't found since?

[Cinnamon]

For me it would be Cuban toast at some little shop off Alligator Alley in South Florida... long Cuban bread, halved, doused in butter and put through the sandwich-shop moving broiler till toasty, but the owner said somehow mojo criollo was involved (!), and then topped with huge portions of guava jelly and with the halves smushed face-to-face inside a little baker's-paper wrapper.

[Bacardi1]

Back in the late '80's/early '90's, a LI, NY, Japanese restaurant (long gone) that served a seafood platter that I've never seen again in any other Japanese restaurant, nor have I been able to exactly duplicate at home. And for the life of me I can't remember what it was called.

It was shrimp, sea scallops, & a flounder filet in a soft, buttery, eggy, lemony, velvety batter that remained soft after cooking. Almost like a Francese prep, but softer & different. Was served with lemon wedges & plain white rice on the side. It was ethereal.

[Bada Bing]

Sounds like a Japanese egg yolk sauce of some sort, which I know a local Japanese steak house (Hanayori, in Mishawaka, IN) does. It's a bit rich for my taste, but they make it right there in their cooking-as-theater show. Appears to be mainly oil, egg yolks, and some flavorings like miso paste and lemon. Probably pretty standard at Japanese steak houses but not at sushi places, I'm sure.

[Bacardi1]

Actually, the restaurant I had it at was definitely not a Japanese "steakhouse"; was pretty much strictly sushi, with just a smattering of cooked dishes - nothing grilled.

Tiny little place, all blonde wood & bamboo. Came into being back when sushi was just beginning to become "the thing". It lasted for several years, but then when everyone & his brother was opening up a sushi place or steakhouse, & even Chinese restaurants starting adding it to menus, it couldn't keep up & closed down.

[lyagushka]

Some hot-smoked salmon in western Scotland. I found out the smoking material was broken up retired whisky barrels. The tiny little store selling it controlled the entire production, catching their own fish, smoking it, packaging and selling direct to the public and a very few local restaurants. Very small scale. The stuff was so good I ate it like candy. Could. Not. Stop. Eating. It. It was difficult even to believe how delicious my mouth was telling me it was. Undoubtedly this was the best fish I've ever eaten in my life.

[Violatp]

Thread resurrection but if anything ever gives me a chance to taste this again, I take it.

When I was a kid, growing up on the NW side of Chicago, there was a take-out fish joint at Six Corners. There are a few Six Corners in the city, but this one is Irving Park/Cicero/Milwaukee.

Anyway, this place was called Boston Fish Company or Boston Seafood - something like that.

They made the most amazing fried fish I have ever had in my life and have never had anywhere else in the ensuing almost 30 years.

There was this thick, almost orange-y, dark brown breading. Definitely breaded and not battered. And they used some kind of spice or spice mixture with a bit of heat to it- no idea what it was. None. My entire family still mourns the loss of this fish.

They closed up shop long before the advent of the internet and it never occurred to me then that it would one day just be gone and I wouldn't be able to find out what happened.

[BuildingMyBento]

Rainforest Crunch Bars. I may have eaten them three times, and they were delicious, but that was at least fifteen years back. If they are still being made, it would be great to know...

[e0023]

There was a bakery in paris by my apartment that made the most perfect croissants . They were always straight out of the oven and perfectly crispy, flaky, soft and buttery. The closest I've found was at a bakery in Toronto on the danforth ..I think it's called "Dough" , just east of broadview. No croissants have compared to either of these.

[e0023]

I was working on the water in Naples a few years ago. We had our lunch break at this little restaurant that caught their fish right on site and handmade fresh pasta. I remember the taste of this tomato strozzapreti I think its called... melted in your mouth!

[tseptember]

Several years ago, we visited Calgary, Alberta Canada for the Calgary Stampede. While we were at the fair, we ran into a small stand that served fresh mini doughnuts with cinnamon and sugar. The person managing the stand and I quickly became friends since I kept returning to order more doughnuts almost every hour for either myself or my family. I've since looked on the internet for a mini doughnut maker and was luck enough to find one, but my wife won't allow me to purchase one..... for health reasons.

[Sam Salmon]

Goldenrod Honey bought @ a Fraser Valley farmer's market-have never seen the vendor before or since but she was a local woman who didn't sell much.

[equinoise]

This is a remarkable thread.

About two decades ago, there was an Italian restaurant in a strip mall in the Totem Lake area of Kirkland, WA. I can’t remember the name of the place but it closed long ago; it was a consistent overachiever for its digs. It served a dish referred to as “alla ciaciarra” (sp?) with sautéed veal scallops rolled and stuffed with a slightly sour white cheese, probably a marscapone blend, finished with a white wine and lemon sauce.

In 1999, I had dinner with my cousin’s friend at a seafood place on the outskirts of Manaus, Brasil. We were served a big pot of soup that featured the massive ribs of the pirarucu (paiche) and an untold cacophony of other jungle delights. I have returned to Manaus since but could not locate this dish again.

In Zanzibar in 2007, vendors sold a version of fried potato bhaji that had a hint of turmeric and perhaps cilantro. They cost less than a doller for a good amount served wrapped in newspaper. I ate many.

In 2003, probably at certain butcher in Norcia but perhaps it was in Tuscany instead, I got a type of boar salami that fomented a sort of wild obsession that I can’t really explain—we continued to seek out boar on this trip throughout Italy. I bought a different type of boar salami at the Rome airport before leaving, and the TSA confiscated it upon entry to the U.S.

In 2008 or so, I had dinner with a friend at Lark in Seattle, and they served a date cake that was so good we ordered a second; I had never done that before with a dessert item. I have called Lark many times since but have not been able to sample it again.

My brother has a friend that was a professional baker in NYC who prepared the cake for his wedding. It had the physical appearance of a common cake, with a berry-flavored filling, but it was just ridiculously tasty (I think she utilized some Momofuku/Milk Bar-style tricks in making it). The leftovers found their way to the place where I stayed after the wedding, and I probably ate 6 or more slices of it.

[lyagushka]

The boar was probably in Norcia, which specializes in cinghiale, as you probably know. My heart weeps for your confiscated boar salame. If I hadn't been back to Umbria for the boar so many times, I'd definitely have to write it up as part of this thread. Paired with the thick and chewy strangozzi pasta of the region, it's just about heaven on earth.

[alkapal]

intrigued by your date cake memories and my love for dates, i sought out lark's date cake. it is no longer on the restaurant's menu, so then i did a recipe search, and for some reason (perhaps the word "lark" contained within the 60 comments raving about this awesome ina garten recipe?), i found this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sticky-toffee-date-cake-recipe/index.html

while it may not be anything like the lark cake, it sure does sound grand!
~~~~~~~~
the lark chef, john sundstrom, has a new cookbook just out, and just reading the names of the recipes makes my mouth water. http://www.latimes.com/features/food/...

[Toreii]

A burger called a slopper, I had it at a bar some where in Pueblo. I was an open faced cheeseburger served in a basket on a sheet of wax paper. It was all covered in this Hatch Green Chile sauce that was a mouthgasm in every bite. It was back in 88 or 89. I remember it was so spicy my eyes were watering but I just kept going back for more because it was so good... I made my friend take me there 2 more times befor my vacation ended and I went back to MN. Some day I will get back there but until then I will fondly remember and drool quietly.

[Mariposa410]

Was this in Pueblo, Colorado? Sounds good! Do you remember the name of the place? I live just North of Colorado Springs and we go to Pueblo fairly routinely.

[tseptember]

When I was younger, at least once as month my family would have dinner out. We would drive through areas of Phoenix and pick a place for dinner. One of the choices was Humpty Dumpty resturant. Looking through the choices, I chose to have the Mulligan Stew as my entree. I can still taste the richness of the gravy, the soft flavorful veggies, the submissive tenderness of the beef and the sourdough bread that came with it. I would definitely give up tennis for one bowl of stew.

[nancyapoet]

A spaghetti sauce I had as a graduate student in the '70's in Cleveland Heights, Ohio haunts me so much so that my family went back only to discover the Aurora Restaurant on Cedar had closed. We were told that a deli in Beachwood still had the sauce in containers, so we treked out there and bought 13 pints! And took them all home to California on the plane. Wish I could have talked them out of the recipe....anyone have any idea what the "special ingredients" were? I have tried and tried various exotic ingredients.

[malibumike]

Nancy, I found out one really great "secret" to good spagetti sauce..finely chop up a can of anchovies and add to sauce, nobody will even suspect they are there - and of course red wine.

[nancyapoet]

Wow! Eager to try it out...

[Just Visiting]

I've lived in the DC area for 25 years. That means for 25 years I have missed: cheesecake, rye bread, pastrami...but you specified "had once." So two things - the Key Lime Milkshake at the Robert is Here fruit stand just outside the Everglades. It sounded terrible but everyone in line said to try it and they were right. It was fantastic. Second - a maple mousse cake from a restaurant in Quebec. There is a commercial bakery that still makes it, but they don't export to the U.S. I am a maple addict and this thing was maple, maple, maple...

[JoJoBlackhawk]

This is kind of recent but I know it will continue to haunt me…

On the slopes of Verbier, had an amazing dish for lunch called rosti. I died. This version had lardo, gruyere and a fried egg on top.

After I got back home I did some research, I learned that it’s an all too common meal in Switzerland that I had never heard of before. In the last few weeks I have made several, severely failed, attempts at recreating it. Starting with raw potatoes, starting with cooled cooked potatoes, never getting it right. Perhaps the wrong pan.

I am determined to eventually figure it out.

[Mariposa410]

I also recall a couple of other things that I miss from my childhood. One is the wonderful fried cod fish sandwiches my father use to buy for us on Friday nights from the nearby Catholic Church that always had Friday Night Fish Fry's. They were so huge that we use to split them and two people could share one. Plus the batter they used was so good! I did not care much for fish when I was young, but those Cod Fish Sandwiches were absolutely wonderful to the taste buds! The other was an Italian Roast Beef Sandwich from a local Bar and Grill my father use to get for us sometimes and bring home to eat. The roast beef was so great, and just melted in your mouth. I have no idea how they seasoned it, but it had a little heat to it as well and the sweet banana peppers they put on them really added to the flavors! But alas, I know the Bar and Grill is long gone, and though the Catholic Church is still there, they do not have the same Friday Night Fish Fry's anymore!

[Cremon]

I remember so many Church food functions - fish fry's, crawfish boils, crab boils, and even one with all you can eat raw oysters where I ate so many I was gorged. Now, those church eats tend to be just pot lucks where members will cook a large version of a home recipe. You don't see those odd but delicious institutionalized preparations anymore. In the past, someone with contacts would get a bunch of odd food (like large fish filets or something) from some distributor that was trying to unload some test item that didn't sell well and make a church fund raiser out of it. I haven't seen that sort of thing in a LONG time.

[NellyNel]

This is a very old and long thread, and I may have actually posted about this awhile ago - because there is one food - which I litterally had only once - years and years and years ago, I adored it, and was captivated, and have never seen anything like it ever again....

When I was a kid, about 35 years ago, my best friend's family took me to a Sicialian *club* in Brooklyn,
I remember there being a huge espresso machine, a few pastries and I guess an ice cream freezer.
My friend ordered in Italian, and what I got was a cold bun filled with lemon ice. It looked like a Chinese pork bun..
It was the strangest thing I had ever eaten, but I LOVED it!

If there is anyone out there who knows what I am talking about, please respond!
I have done google searches and have never come across anything similar.

[cheekybeauty]

In some ice-cream shops in Italy you can have your ice-cream in a bun (it is often called a brioche but it can have a different name in other parts of Italy). Search on Google for gelato con brioche. These are the photos I got when I googled it: https://www.google.com/search?q=gelat...

I hope that answers your question. I think you need to take a trip to Italy to sample ice-cream in a bun again!! hahahaha

[Mariposa410]

I remember a great Gooey Butter Cake made in a local bakery (Mrs. Siebols Bakery) in my hometown in Illinois just east of St. Louis. Missouri! This is a definite regional "coffee cake" pastry that in my travels all over the world I have never found anywhere but there! But this particular Bakery had the best with a very crusty top rather than a soft top that the powder sugar then was sprinkled on. I have never had it as good as it was at that bakery, which no longer exists!

[Morticia]

As a child, I spent a year in India, and I have never had a samosa as tasty as the ones we used to get from the tea-vendor's stall. Wrapped in a bag made from old Hindi newspapers, they needed no chutney - but required 2-3 glasses of water each since they were spicy as all hell! The pastry was crispier than anything I have ever been able to recreate, and the filling was tastier/spicier/more savory than any samosa I have ever had since then - either here in the US or even back in India...when I visit, I keep trying to find the same samosas, and while good, they are never as good as I recall...the samosas of my memories, bursting with chili, ginger, and masala! (If anyone has a tip on how to make a super-crunchy samosa wrapper, btw, I am all ears!)

[jvanderh]

Ipse recently posted on another thread that the higher the saturated fat content of the cooking fat, the crispier the result. Somehow, I had missed this basic bit of food science.

[MoxieLouise]

The chocolate sodas at the drug store soda fountain 50 years ago. I don't know how they were made or why no one makes them like that anymore...sigh.

[Veronica65]

Chocolate sodas are the same thing as chocolate phosphates, basically. it's just chocolate syrup (for the vintage flavour, use Fox's U-Bet) whipped up with club soda. If you add a little milk, it becomes an egg cream, but it's essentially the same thing. Give it a try! :-)

[MoxieLouise]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm going to give it a shot! I truly miss those things...

[Cremon]

Hey MoxieLouise. Have you ever had a Boston Egg Cream? There's no egg or cream in it - I think it's just a chocolate soda and that's what they called them in New York years ago. My father in law swears by them and misses them (you can't find them nowadays). Might be the same thing you are talking about.

[MoxieLouise]

That may be the same thing, I don't know. I've seen others writing about Egg Cremes on here and they do sound good...here in the Midwest I only knew of them as chocolate sodas. They weren't like a shake, a malt, or a float; very unique taste. If I had known they were going to disappear I would have asked for the recipe way back when!

[Veronica65]

YOu're very welcome, Louise! I hope it has the same delicious taste you remember. I'm about ten years past that loop so i didn't get to experience them first-hand, but my mother and grandmother told me plenty. P.S. The Boston egg cream is the same as the New York one; the only difference between an egg cream and a chocolate soda is about an inch of milk in the glass.

[Cremon]

Veronica - thank you for the clarification!

[Mariposa410]

This sounds similar to a bottled chocolate soda we use to be able to buy in the St. Louis area back in the early 60's. I have not seen this anywhere in years; and though I was never a fan of it, both my brothers and sister who were younger than me loved it!

[TheDewster]

They add chocolate malt syrup a rich brown grain based sugar. Still available but not used by ice cream places much it makes chocolate taste rich and more chocolatey. Brewers supply stores sell chocolate (dark) malt.

[TomChowhound]

Fresh squeezed orange juice from a deli in Fort Lauderdale.

Never had any OJ close to that before or since, in nearly three score years. But I don't live in Florida.

[robin_o]

Tom, if you ever go back to Florida, there is an orange grove store that still is in business, and their fresh OJ, as well as the oranges and grapefruits they sell, are all fantastic! In fact, whenever you go, they have free samples of the juice and all the fruit they sell. All of it far surpasses anything you can buy in a supermarket, even in Florida.

[robin_o]

It's called Termarsh Groves.

[aynrandgirl]

Too bad you can't seem to get fresh, unpasteurized juice in regular grocery stores in Florida. Publix and Walmart don't seem to carry it, for example.

[robin_o]

Aynrandgirl, we felt the same way, but I don't think it'd be as good as the orange grove stores, based on the fruit we bought there. I think they must save the very best to sell direct to the public, or else time just takes a toll on fruit (from the time they leave the grove till it's distributed to grocery stores). Even so, it'd be nice to be near a place to buy fresh OJ of any sort!

[Avalondaughter]

Years ago I traveled with my boyfriend at the time to the DC area for his annual trip to visit his father's grave in Arlington. We stayed at some seedy hotel in Vienna, VA. The morning we left, we stopped for a late breakfast at a nearby diner. The diner was advertising a cake they made that had taken the prize at a local chocolate festival.

It had a brownie crust studded with butterscotch chips. Two layers of chocolate mousse (white and dark) sat on top and the whole thing was enrobed with ganache. It was a chocolate lover's fantasy for sure! Ex BF and I had a piece for "dessert" at 10 in the morning and took another piece home with us.

I wondered for years if the restaurant would ship, but I forgot the name of it and have had no luck googling diners in Vienna VA. Ohwell. I have nice memories.

[woelkaru]

I have a friend who went to culinary school, and made grilled lemon lemonade for me once....absolutely delish. Also, he made some chocolate mousse with vanilla custard and fresh berries, and I just can't shake how good it all was...now we live half the world away!, :(

[N2Q]

Mario's Italian Restaurant in Boca Raton, Florida, made a manicotti with a cheese filling and white sauce with mushrooms. Have been craving it and searching for the recipe for 20 years.

[HungryPixie]

does anyone else remember a cereal in the 70's that was these little hollow domes of crispy stuff filled with vanilla frosting?! oh i dream of that cereal. it was totally not healthy by any means, but it was sooooooo amazing. i think there was a chocolate flavor as well, but i was a vanilla purist :) there is probably no way that cereal would ever exist today, but oh i miss you yummy sweet creamy unhealthy treat!!!

[pie22]

are you talking about the "ice cream" shaped cereals? cuase i loved them in the 80s and was sad when they disappeared from the shelves.
the new kellogs krave cereal is similar to what you are speaking of as well. i have been eating it lately.

[HungryPixie]

nope, not the ice cream cereals but i googled them and they look yum! i was determined to find the name of my beloved nostalgia cereal so i investi-googled and found it!!! it was called "Mr. Wonderfull's Surprize" and was made in 1972 briefly ... little egg shaped domes filled with chocolate or vanilla frosting ... sugar bombs! lol i think it was more like a candy than a cereal but i still remember it 40 years later so it obviously left an impression!

[MoxieLouise]

The clam chowder at Georgie's Restaurant on the Oregon Coast. I think you can get it shipped but they can't include the ocean view.

[Cremon]

Strubbs brand brine pickled green roma tomatos. Soooooooo tasty!!! A farmers market near where I live used to sell it and then Whole Foods bought them out and this delicacy disappeared from their shelves. I truly miss it.

[Meann]

I did grad school in south Florida. There were these shacks along the Tamiami Trail/Alligator Alley that sold smoked fish. Shrimp. swordfish, marlin, anything, really, and all wonderful.

[Leeza888]

.....totally got sidetracked with all the other things that I was missing to mention the one HUGE thing I'm missing in California.....what is the deal with not being able to find frozen (mini/bite sized) tart shells? They were a staple for me in Vancouver, Canada for making bite sized quiche and buttertarts, but I can't find them at all down here...

[Leeza888]

Lovin' this thread....here are a few of my missing Canadian (Greater Vancouver) things....
Campbell's Chunky Cream of Mushroom Soup, seemed to have a sophisticated flavor.
Rainbow Ice Cream available at the Ice Cream Counter at Woolco (Burnaby, CA) in the 70's, other rare tastings at ice cream vendors around Vancouver and once located a 4 gallon tub at IGA in Langley, BC....
Catelli long macaroni
Purdy's Raisin Clusters
Jello puddin' pops with spokes person Bill Cosby
Loved the frozen yogurt pops too with the layer of chocolate? on the outside, they were kinda tart if I recall...
I'm afraid that the Pearson's Salted Nut Roll may disappear in California if we don't all jump onboard and start buying it when we can... :) thanks!

[JReichert]

Coca-Cola 'on tap,' as best as I can figure. Had it in the Berlin train station and of course, haven't been back to Berlin. But holy moly, that was the absolute best Coke I've ever had . . . in fact I'd say the best soda I've had ever. I freaked out, got my husband, he freaked out, we went and found our friends, and made them come back and try it.

Man, I would do bad things for that Coke . . . . .

[N2Q]

Have you tried Mexican Coke? Has pure sugar cane, and I may have to try it.

[Sushiqueen36]

I remember french fries that came in a sort of frozen sheet that you plopped into the toaster and then broke apart the individual fries. I loved those things but they weren't around for long. Early 1980's I'm thinking...

[pippimac]

The chewy icecream in Turkey. Strange, but fantastic!

[Veronica65]

I love cooking gourmet food, but my list of bygone and haunting foods is entirely low-rent, various mementos of my 70s/80s processed-food childhood.
1. Coke and Pepsi with real sugar in glass bottles. i firmly believe that both factors are important. Luckily, Mexican Coke fills this void today.
2. Le Menu frozen dinners in the '80s. I have vague memories of wild rice pilafs, chicken in a cream gravy, etc...and you could keep the plates to re-use.
3. Banquet TV dinners twice the size of the tiny things sold today, and in tinfoil trays covered in foil. Much stronger, better and more food.
3-a. Banquet Polynesian Dinner (sweet-and-sour pineapple chicken), Western Dinner (beans 'n' franks 'n' yummy cornbread) and as I recall, Indonesian Dinner.
4. Orbit Soda with the little blobs of coloured gelatin floating in it.
5. Campbell's Frozen Soup and Sandwich. This was an item which was briefly rolled out, then quickly extinguished as sales were dismal. I loved them, darn it! There were combos like grilled cheese with tomato (natch), hot dog with vegetable soup and ham and cheese with I forget. They were so good, and they just vanished. Not that I can't make a soup and sandwich easily enough and a lot better quality, but in terms of flavors that stay with you, this really did.
I don't really want to sit around shoveling this stuff down day after day, but it sure would be nice to taste it again.

[Mariposa410]

This brought back memories I have from my Grade School Days in the late 50's and very early 60's! I remember one time I got sick at school, and my parents only had one car that my Dad had at work that day. My mother was not able to reach him, so my Paternal Grandparents ended up picking me up and brought me to their house (I think because no one knew what was wrong and I had 2 younger brothers and a baby sister at home that everyone decided I should not be around for fear it was contagious). Anyway, I recall telling my Grandmother when she asked what I wanted for lunch that I wanted a Jiffy Peanut Butter sandwich. So she made me the BEST sandwich I ever remember having with no more than Peanut Butter on Toasted Bread (which I had never had it this way before). It was so warm and the bread tasted so good with the softened peanut butter from the heat of the bread. I hardly ever had it this way again (my Mom just was so busy with the four of us). Then when I had my own sons I use to make it this way for them to enjoy! They did like it, but I do NOT think nearly as much as I did! Guess I will have to try and wait until I get some Grandkids and try it on them to see if they enjoy it as much as I did!
The other memory I have is of school lunches! I do not think back in the 50's and 60's schools thought too much about making sure kids were served the most nutritious lunches, and there was no "variety" to them. They really just rotated a menu of about 10 different lunches through the month calender. As a result, my mother usually made us our lunches and we just bought our milk to go with it. But once in a while we would get to "buy our lunch" which was a treat for us. I remember one of the times when I first had a school lunch they served grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup! I had never had either at home before and I remember how good I thought they tasted! I'm sure they were highly processed food, which we rarely had at home (my mother canned her own vegetables and fruit, made her own jelly, and we really ate mostly fresh fruits and vegetables she prepared straight from the garden or the produce section of the local market. So these really were new tastes to me. The even funny part is when my youngest son started school, I too was making school lunches for my sons. Mostly because I didn't think they would even eat the school food. They too were use to a lot of home made fresh foods versus highly processed and out of a can foods. One day the school was having Spaghetti, and he insisted he wanted to buy his lunch so he could have spaghetti, which he loved! But the spaghetti he loved was either mine or his Italian Grandmother's and both were made from scratch including the pasta noodles! I tried to warn him, this was not going to be anything like what he was use to, but he was 6 and determined he knew more than me! When he came home that afternoon after school, he came in with a very sad face and reported to me I was right and that was not "our spaghetti"! He never ate it again from the school clear through until he graduated from High School!

[chummy]

Chronollogically:

In the 60s, when I was still in high school, most days I ate delicious fish and chips for at Love's Lunch in Penticton, BC, Canada. Must have gained ten pounds that year and have never had 'em so good, anywhere since.

In 1975, I ordered red snapper Veracruz style (in Veracruz), in l976, and was just beginning to enjoy the most delicious fish I've ever eaten when the cook ran out yelling "Cruda! Cruda" and, after a struggle, got my plate away from me and rushed it back into the kitchen. She was returned it a few minutes later but NO WAY was that snapper as delicious once it had been thoroughly cooked! That was before sushi was widely popular and though I love the stuff it has never been as good as that raw fish in Veracruz.

In the 80's, I loved the zucchini sticks and dip at a fast food place in the food court at Orchard Park Mall in Kelowna, BC. Then, one day, they were gone!! No other zucchini stick has ever matched them and the few that came close didn't have that delicious dip.

In 1991, my husband bought a 200 gram can of Russian Caspian Sea beluga caviar, in Russia and brought it home to me. It cost him US $10, at the time. A few months later, on our 25th wedding anniversary, we sat at a picnic table in a park just north of Prince George, BC, surrounded by brilliant fall colors, and ate the whole can with a few water crackers and squeezes of fresh lemon. Unbelievably delicious.

In 2011, just a couple of months ago, I had a delicious pollo con mole in the Mayan town of Chamula (near San Cristóbal de las Casas, in Chiapas, Mexico). We had just visited the weird and wonderful pagan/Catholic church and our friend recommended the blue 'economica' cafe across the way. Never has mole come near the taste of this mole. I suppose I might duplicate the chicken with a good organic bird but that mole sauce already haunts me. There was no obvious taste of chocolate in it, for one thing, but it was absolutely delicious

It's interesting that I've traveled many places, including several times to China (and loved the food) but don't recall any other culinary experiences that fit this thread.

Oh, one more. The very first Cadbury Wunderbar I ever tasted, on a bus to Bella Coola, maybe 40 years ago. I've eaten quite a few since and they're still good but not one was as delicious as that first one.

[Ohjoy2000]

Guerrilla Cookies! They were made in Madison, Wi back in the 70's. The baker that made them is taking the recipe to the grave with him. Iin a generous mood, I would call him eccentric. In a less generous mood, miserly and a nut job. He has his own bizarre reasons not to share. But there are people trying hard to recreate them without much luck. There is a website dedicated to recreating the cookie. http://guerrillacooking.blogspot.com/...
Honestly, it was incredible. Oatmeal-ish but so much more.

The fresh orange juice in Mexico. NOTHING like the blah stuff I drink here in WI. Frozen concentrate. Even fresh squeezed isn't close to the flavor of the oranges they used in Mexico. Even fresh Florida oranges don't come close.

[Puffin3]

Slow braised whole hind legs of caribou in 45 gallon barrels. Twelve hours VERY slow cooking then add all the other vegs. for two hours. Sitting with a few dozen friends near Hudson Hope. Dancing singing story telling. BTW no herbs/spices/strange things in bottles. Just caribou and root vegs.

[eeeses]

Chocolate-covered cranberry clusters. The cranberries were not fresh, nor were they dried. They were some kind of processed, like a cordial, but less overly-sweet/syrupy and more gelatinous. They tasted like what little bites of dark-chocolate-covered cranberry sauce would taste like. Sooooo good.

The best (worst?) part of this? My mother had been at Target, a few days after Christmas, looking to score some discounted holiday decor, and saw a ton of these generic dark-green boxes on the shelf where all the overstocked/cheapo Christmas candy goes to die (and where 75% off Lindors occasionally lurk). So she bought a box, on a whim.

I've been stalking the shelves of Target every December for the last three years and I have not found anything like it. Any ideas on what it was? or know of any chocolatiers who make something similar?

[dgrayzona]

Every year my girlfriend would make me a hazelnut tort for my birthday. Made from ground hazelnuts and covered in rich chocolate icing---- those cakes were intoxicating.

[jsecunda]

Memories (possibly faulty) of Les Foods Perdu.........
The World's Best Bacon (and sausage) made by a small, long-closed (by about 1986?) butcher shop/smoke house in Manchester, NH. Perfect balance among salt/sweet, cob smoke and "chew."
js

[RUNNERFEMME]

A breakfast burrito stuffed to the brim with amazing eggy, meaty, spicy Mexican goodness in Phoenix at some hole in the wall that I could never, ever find again. It's been about 7 years and I still think of that damn burrito.

[GraceW]

I tried Cinnacredible Meijer cinnamon buns.. because I love cinnamon buns, but they were ABSOLUTELY horrible. Never again--obviously still cinnamon buns, but never CinnaCredible.. not so (in)credible.

[cactusette]

A little japanese candy that I had a couple of times as a kid...It was square and kind of had the texture of a loukoum, I don't remember the taste clearly so it would be hard to describe...But I do remember each was wrapped in clear and very thin rice paper wrapper that you could eat. They really looked like they were wrapped in plastic but the "plastic" melted in your mouth. They came in a small box about the size of a thick box of smarties. I have searched and searched, but since I don't even know the name and barely remember the look of the box, I'm afraid I will never get to eat them again. Still haunts me though...I really wish I could find them.

[jblan54]

Botan Rice Paper Candy is still available in some imported foods stores.

[cactusette]

thank you so much! Typing that name I've found I can order it!

[jvanderh]

I think that's it, too. I had the same memory from a strange restaurant I went to once during a blizzard, and was pleased to find it again as an adult.

[pie22]

in the cruise port of mykonos they let you off in a downtown toursity area with lots of outdoor restaurants and shops - i would know the place if i saw it but can't remember the name.
my dad ordered this vegetable risotto that is the best thing i have ever tasted in my life - we all agreed on it's amazingness. cheesy, well-cooked, flavorful perfection!

[MRS]

Boxty at Bricin in Killarney, Ireland! It was so delicious, so perfect...We tried to find something close in many of the "Irish" restaurants in the " Irish" neighborhoods here in the lower NY area, but nothing. Nothing will ever be that perfect boxty from Bricin!!

[beccydinosaur]

Red Mirinda - I had it in Thailand when I visited about four years ago (it was pretty much all I drank, hahaha!) and I have been searching for it ever since to no avail. I don't think it's stocked or imported into Australia :(

[souschef]

I remember Mirinda from when I lived in Uganda (left 40 years ago), but I think the one I had was orange.

[mandycat]

There was a restaurant in Tampa in the early 1970's whose specialty was what looked like a turkey leg. In reality it was three or four very large shrimp, tail on, packed around a crab meat stuffing, dipped in a light batter and quick-fried. You paired it with a Caesar salad made at your table and a pitcher of sangria. Except that I'm a klutz at frying, I'd try it myself. It's probably better just to savor the memory.

[DaisyM]

When I was a kid, I'd sometimes go to our family business on a Saturday to "work". I was paid 1 cent for each bow that I made for holiday gift wrapping. My father would always take me out to lunch to the local diner. I remember walking hand in hand with him and being so happy. I always ordered the same thing: a hot dog, which was split down the middle and grilled and the homemade potato salad. The potato salad was freshly made everyday and served on iceberg lettuce. I can remember my father watching me devour a huge plate and say, "How is it that every time I bring you to work I actually loose money?" Happy memories of a great father.

[woelkaru]

That is beautiful, DaisyM.

[jvanderh]

Have enjoyed falling into all your memories more than I can say. A few that came to mind for me were a dessert Gewurtztraminer somewhere in the Hunter Valley on a winery tour, a smooth coconut candy in Puerto Rico that crumbled just right in my teeth, shattering into soft particles, and a fresh baked cheese roll from the grocery store (they were never that good again). The cheese formed these gooey hollow places and the dough was light and soft.

[Kamanda1953]

Bacon and horseradish dip that I think Kraft made back in the '60's. It was sold in the refrigerated dairy section and came in a shallow metal container with a pull off top. (I had to be verrrry careful fingering out the last delicious bit, all around the bottom of the can.)

[ChristinaMason]

I wonder if this is similar? http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/b...

[oldrednek]

The one food I really miss is a "Meatball on End" from Tony's Italian Restaurant in Middletown, N.Y. I've had it many more times than once, but now that I'm down South, there's nothing quite like it. It was really GREAT!

[SonyBob]

The Hickory Pit, a bbq place in Gravois Mills, MO back in the 50's and 60's had the most incredible sauce you could ever imagine. A secret Grady family recipe, it disappeared when the the place closed. Rumor has it Heinz bought it it with the agreement that it would never be marketed. I would kill to have a bottle again.
Bob

[Mariposa410]

Oh my! The memories I have of the food in the St. Louis area! I grew up across the river on the Illinois side, and there are so many foods I love from the area! There is a place in I think Madison, Illinois that sells meat to grocery stores, my Grandparents (now long deceased) owned a little neighborhood Grocery and bought all their meat from them. I think it was called Hamalos or something like that and it is still there as far as I know (last there two years ago in 2010). Anyway we use to get pre-seasoned steaks to barbeque from there and that was the best marinade (a rub) I have ever had! My Dad use to then pour beer over the steaks as he barbequed them on a smoker grill he made with his Jr. Achievement Kids (using Steel from the local steel mill most of the town worked at). Those steaks (everything from T Bone to Rib-Eye just melted in your mouth! I remember having my jaws sutured together for a week one late August after having my wisdom teeth removed, and the first thing I wanted 10 days later when they removed the sutures, was one of my Dad's Rib Eye Steaks from Hamalos that he grilled on his smoker. The Doctor had told me to have only soft food for a few days, but in my book, this qualified as soft food!!!!

[saacnmama]

Mehlka in a Tunisian hole in the wall in Cambridge, MA. Had it for dinner on a trip a couple years ago, have not seen it on menus elsewhere and can't find any recipes. It had eggplant, feta, all the classic ingredients in just the right combination.

[subal]

In the mid 70's I would travel to Portland Oregon and stay at an old central city hotel. It still had an elevator operator and big brass doors. For dinner, I always has thinly pounded abalone steaks wrapped around an Alaskan crab leg smothered with an orange cream sauce.

Before that, while in high school in western PA I worked at a local drug store. After work, I'd go to the local 'beer garden' and have a Italian hot susage on a hogie roll or on Fridays, a breaded & fried fish sandwich.
Menories..............!

[luganrn]

I guess the first thing that comes to mind is a dish I had at The Presidents (now defunct) restaurant in Chicago probably a good 30 years ago. They made a superb dish called Prawns stuffed with mustard fruit, I assume split prawns with the mustard fruit stuffed inside, and then reclosed and then breaded (or battered -- can't remember) and fried. Served with a kind of mustardy sweet and sour sauce. It was succulent and flavorful. My old BF at the time, who was quite a cook, often tried to copy the dish with fairly good success, but it was never duplicated. And now they're gone. Pre-internet days, guys. :(

[smileyko]

When I was a kid growing up in Taiwan there was a bakery across the street that served these little ham cucumber and yellow cheese sandwiches. It was on white bread and they cut off the brown edges so it's just all white bread. That yellow cheese is to die for. I don't think it was made from pasteurized milk, I think it was from raw milk in those days. It was really soft and the flavors jumps out at you. now I go back to TPE and you know what, I look for that same sandwich and yes, they have it, but the yellow cheese is just dead and so lacking in flavor. I never found that yellow cheese ever again.

[JolieLaide]

Pear ice cream! I had it in Sweden when I used to live there and have never seen it since - I still long for it!

[aldente1]

One time and one time only a very good restaurant in our town had a Julia Child's night. It was around the time that the movie "Julia" came out. All the food was prepared from Julia Child's recipes. One of the dishes on the menu was Julia's Beef Bourguignon . There was obviously a lot of car taken when this dish was made. It was the most delectable dish that I ever had.

[BobbyG]

Well, I've read this thread and I have to add mine...... I've travelled and eaten all over the world and there are three foods that absolutely haunt me.......

Jeager Schnitzel with cheese served at a small gasthaus called Mom's in Spangdahlem Germany. This is without a doubt the best meal I've ever eaten and I've had it a hundred times. It's not just the schnitzel, which is thick, and succulent, and OMG good with an incredible gravy and cheese, but the salad, the fries, the bread. It's the most amazing meal I've ever had.

Second would be the chicken kebab served at the Red Onion in Incirlik, Turkey. I've tried to reproduce this many times and just can't get it right. The bread, the veg, the chicken....all put together make a perfect storm of flavor and texture.

Third....I was in Washington D.C. on business and was staying at the Marriott Suites in Herdon, very close to Dulles. Connected to the hotel was the India Supper Club. I'm a sucker for minced lamb and the only item on their menu that had it was Badshahi Kofta Kurry. This was, hands down, the best curry lamb I've ever had. If I ever have to go back to D.C, I will get that every night. It was as good, if not better, than anything I've ever got anywhere else.

[magiesmom]

I had a yogurt in Santa Cruz, can't remember the brand but it said Russian Yogurt ( but I think made locally). It was 12 years ago and I still miss it, despite having several very good local brands here in MA and making my own.

[Mariposa410]

I remember a Chicken Kiev and Chicken Cordon Blue my husband and I shared while in Heidelberg, Germany at the Officers Club on the Army Base there back in 1978! They had German chefs and it was definitely the best I have ever had before or since!

[castironconnie]

Real honest -to-goodness hand tossed caesar salad at a little Italian place in the village (NYC) that has since closed. My whole family still talks about that salad...

[aching]

Mine was this magical thing I had once in Singapore about 12 years ago - based on internet research I think it's called a Golden Pillow (although I didn't know that name at the time) - a loaf of bread filled with curry chicken. You would rip off pieces of the bread and use it to scoop up the curry. SO GOOD. My LA Hounds do not know of anywhere here that this can be found. =(

http://www.goldenpillow933.com.sg/

[Jet]

This clearly takes a different form, but I think you will get the same taste-nirvana by trying this dish at Burma Superstar (locations in Berkeley & San Francisco, Ca.) that is a Coconut Chicken Curry Stew served alongside a special fluffy layered Burmese Bread for dipping. My favorite place lately is Mandalay Restaurant in S.F. for their most amazing, crunchy & savory Tea Leaf Salad, and I think they also have that Curry Chicken Snack as well! Best, JET

[aching]

Thanks for the tip! I will have to try this the next time I'm in SF!

[Jet]

You are so welcome, and I just remembered the name of the flakey Burmese Bread they serve with this heavenly stew, & it is called "Platha"! I'd love to hear about it when you've found a delectable facsimile!

[Pzz]

High Brow: Kobe beef at a teppanyaki restaurant in the Hotel Ana, Tokyo. The beef was beyond anything I've ever had and was actually surpassed by the appetizer, which was one huge shrimp per person, alive and jumping when it hit the grill. After finishing the body of the shrimp you were served the fried shrimp head, which was much better than I would have expected. An absolutely perfect meal.

Low Brow: Greek hamburgers from the Academy Grill (long gone) in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania. Basically a hamburger patty, browned and then stewed with tomato sauce and onions, served on a roll with a shot of Greek chili (a bit like Cincinnati style) on top with cheap yellow mustard. For some reason it was best with chocolate milk.

[JuniorBalloon]

I have had a lobster and crab bisque that I have tried to replicate at home with little success. The crab bisque was at a local Italian restaurant and the lobster was at CraftSteak in Vegas. Really. really good. These are not cheap ingredients and it takes a fair amount of prep time so I haven't tried but a handful of times. Each time it was off in some way. Too thick and not enough flavor, good flavor but thin and the crab or lobster was chewy (over cooked). I will keep trying, but for now it eludes me.

jb

[souschef]

What do you use to thicken the lobster bisque ?

[amokscience]

Josta

[TheDewster]

what is Josta?

[Wahooty]

A fairly short-lived guarana soda made by (I think) Coke. Stuff got me through a lot of late nights in college before it disappeared. :)

[TheDewster]

caffeine city I bet interesting

[Wahooty]

It was a mellow but long-lived caffeine high compared to any other soda, and pretty tasty to boot. Kind of wish it were still around, so I could find out if it still tastes good to a palate with an extra decade or so of maturity. :)

[Passadumkeg]

Sitting on the stern of a 42' scallop dragger, back in Maine, and shucking and popping in my mouth the freshest possible raw scallops.

[braisinhussy]

Two kinds of coconut spreads that I had as a kid; they were gifts to the family, but I can't recall from where or whom. The first was just dark, possibly toasted, coconut, made into a thick spread, and the second was like an orange-coconut marmalade.

A vanilla-flavored Italian ice, in a little paper cup, that had a darker, outrageously-delicious cinnamon-infused base. Purchased and devoured at Nellie Bly in Coney Island.

Amazing orange ice cream -- not orange-pineapple, just aromatic, creamy, delicious orange -- in Montreal.

The best raspberry pie ever, at a farmhouse restaurant in rural Quebec.

[braisinhussy]

More coming to mind...

A mild but incredibly savory cheese-based souffle over a langoustine/tomato sauce, made by a friend's mother while visiting them in France.

Also in France, a scoop of Roquefort gelato paired with a scoop of intense mixed-berry sorbet. Heavenly.

[Babyducks]

This brought back a nice memory of the lemon ice we had growing up in the 50's. It was a brick building on the main road from Schenectady to Albany. So smooth, lemony and creamy.

[souschef]

Where in Montreal was the orange ice cream? Havre aux Glaces ?

[limster]

Smoked salmon belly sushi at Hama-Ko, SF.

[mucho gordo]

Deep fried "Mountain Oysters" at an Italian restaurant in El Centro, CA

[Passadumkeg]

Rocky Mountain Oysters that I cut from the scrotum of the of the poor little calf; floured and fried in bacon grease on the ranch, in'75, 15 mi. from where I'm sitting now. Watermelon for dessert

[rinkatink888]

About 35 years ago, when I was server in a steakhouse in Laramie, Wyo, a customer gave me a coffee can filled with "top cream". I have never seem this kind of cream before and I thought it was curdled, but he assured me it was very "fresh" cream. Not knowing what to do with so much cream, I took it with me to my mother-in-law house where there was a family gathering. She took the cream and made the best darn vanilla ice cream i have ever tasted along with the recently picked wild blueberries. It was so rich and decadent and the taste of the fresh cream is something I have never tasted to this day.

[Toni6921]

I had zuchinni stuffed with ground lamb and tomato sauce in a restaurant called Jacqueline's in Washington D.C.. It was so wonderful, that I asked to meet the chef. That was more than thirty years ago, and the memory of that dish still haunts me. I could probably make a valiant attempt to recreate it from memory, but I would never get it right.

[buttertart]

A magic evening at Tagide, in Lisbon: the restaurant overlooks the Tagus River - we asked for a window table to enjoy the view, but the headwaiter said oh but you should sit away from the window to truly enjoy the view - he was right, we could see river, sunset, and Lisbon on two sides. A beautiful meal topped off by perfect cherries served in a bowl of ice and water - barely chilled - the best cherries of my lifetime.

[eclecticsynergy]

Once in the early 70s when I was in Paris for a week I was served a pizza I can still remember vividly-
it was a deep-dish ("knife and fork") pizza with artichoke hearts, Gruyere and a creamy white wine sauce.

[Missy2U]

This will probably sound exceedingly strange, but there are only two things that I still think about all these years later.

One was a pizza my family had in Michigan when we were on vacation to Mackinak Island. We stayed on the mainland where it was cheaper and took the ferry over to the island each day. In the evenings, we'd be back on the mainland and go into town for dinner. One night we stopped and had pizza at this tiny little place - it was thin crust - and truly the best pizza I've ever had. Then we bought fudge. :D

The second one is (and please don't laugh at me) is from a little bait shack on the lake by the beach where the boat rentals are at Buckhorn Lake State Park (the lodge) in Kentucky. My brother and I were playing by the lake, and got tired and hungry, so my dad took us over by the boat house and we got sodas and a grilled cheese sandwich. I have never frorgotten that sandwich. Odd how a grilled cheese sandwich can be memorable - but I've never been able to make one like it.

[Passadumkeg]

A Bloody Mary in the Santa Cruz, Bolivia airport made w/ fresh tomatoes.
Oh......that reminds me, the time I was detained in Bolivian customs when I returned to claim our baggage that missed the flight from Miami. Our kid's stuffed animals & toys were in Army surplus duffle bags. Fidel Castro was about to give a speech and they wouldn't let me out. I slipped the guard a $20 bill, asked him to get me 2 .75 liter bottles of Ducal beer and keep the change. I pulled up a table and chair and listened to Fidel harangue for over 2 hours as I sat there 40 feet away watching him through a plate glass window. I was smiling like a Cheshire cat, sipping my ill gotten brews. Beer has never tasted so good. god a few saltenas on the side too. Nice guard.

[Bliss149]

Two things...

1. Amazing bread I ate on a brief stop in the Azores when I was about 20.

2. The sweetest, juiciest orange I ever tasted when we finally made it to California during a wild and wooly road trip.

[souschef]

I used to work in a hospital in the late 70's, and every Friday morning the cafeteria used to bake Chelsea buns. They were wonderful straight out of the oven.

Yes, I know, this was hospital food, but it was great....and I was young !

[buttertart]

Can you imagine a hospital baking ANYTHING these days? Doubt it, Ralph. Haven't had a Chelsea bun in a month of Sundays - there was a little bakery in Thedford, ON we used to get them from on our way to the cottage. Miss that.

[alkapal]

actually, buttertart, when my mom was in hospital in fort myers, florida, i became well-acquainted with the hospital's cafeteria. the food was good and they actually DID bake things -- pies, cakes, cookies, pastries (and they were good, too).

[buttertart]

That's nice - my thankfully so far limited exposure to hospitals up north doesn't include house-baked goods. They would be a small, good thing under the circumstances.

[alkapal]

comfort anywhere it might be found -- even in a slice of blackberry pie.

[buttertart]

Yes indeed.

[MysticYoYo]

A sandwich I had in Italy: Two slices of buttered crust-less thin bread (almost like Arnold bread), sauteed mushrooms, thinly sliced hard-boiled egg and farm-fresh ham. Heaven. HEAVEN.

[italtrav]

In the mid-sixties, there was a patisserie directly across from the entrance to a building where I had a morning class at the Université de Grenoble. When I came out of class at about 11, the baker was just taking his wondrous apple-filled pastries out of the oven. There were a couple of tables out front where we could sip at a Pschitt Limon until the pastry had cooled enough to eat. There are any number of people I would kill for another taste of that pastry.

[kishoripapa]

Spanish mojama. Impossible to find outside of Spain. Also Valencian fideua, another longshot outside of Spain.

[jenniferlove]

When I was a little girl, my parents were traveling through Italy, and we stayed in Rome. We ordered a cheap meal from a street cafe on the way back from Vatican City, and I remember my Mom ordered a pasta dish with a putanesca sauce that I have yet to replicate. I've tried many recipes for putanesca, but nothing tastes quite like the memory of this one.

Another is street food in the Philippines. I'm really picky about the food I eat, and I won't eat any offal or oddities like balut, but there was a street cart vendor who would travel around with his wok, and park at a corner and fire it up. In the hot oil, he'd fry up fish balls. We paid 10 centavos per fish ball, and he'd skewer them and dip them in a sauce of your choice. My preferred sauce was always the sweet and spicy chili sauce, and to this day I crave those things. I haven't had them since I visited Manila, and I wish I knew what they were called so I could search for them at the local Asian stores here.

[sggunal]

My mind immediately goes back to three meals I had as a child travelling with my family in our native Turkey:
1) Caught-on-the-spot freshwater trout in a butter sauce. That was it. It melted away in my mouth. My sister and I ate it at this small outdoor restaurant I couldn't relocate if I tried..We looked at each other in disbelief about how heavenly good it was as the adults chatted away.
2) The Alinazik kebab we had in Gazientip while travelling in the north of Turkey. We asked the locals to point us to the best restaurant in town and they did not let us down. It was succulent pieces of minced lamb kebabs that broke apart gently in your mouth served over this cloud of sweet eggplant puree , all topped with melted butter and paprika. We thought we had died and went to heaven. I have had this kebap outside of Gazientip but never the way it tasted in that tiny restarant.
3) Stuffed eggplant (dolma) that I had a distant relative's little house in the mountains . We were visiting and she insisted on feeding us. I have dolma all the time but have never had it like that again. It was cooked by a woman who had never left her village and she had been cooking it for so long it had just achieved absolute perfection! That, and she was the butcher's wife so she had first pick of all the fattiest tastiest cuts of meat. The dolma was made from delicate eggplants, tomato, rice, parsley and coarsely hand-minced lamb. The flavour was amazing! I couldn't really tell you what made it so perfect... something about the ratios, the fresh ingredients, her experience, but I still drool just thinking about it...

[cosmogrrl]

You're really making me drool! I've had similar experiences when visiting Turkey. I've found that Turkish food here doesn't compare to what I get in Turkey. Something about the produce here makes it a bit "off"; the produce just tastes different. Eating is one of my top things to do when visiting family in Turkey, and the Halas (aunts) oblige!

[BobB]

I was only in Turkey once, and my most indelible taste memory from that trip is of marinated anchovies. That's one of my absolute favorite foods, and those were among the best I've ever had anywhere, right up there with the ones in Sicily.

[sggunal]

I've never had marinated anchovies in Turkey before.. it sounds delicious. Were you in the Black Sea region? Their love for anchovies is a bit of an ongoing national joke.

[BobB]

Istanbul.

[sggunal]

Yes it's true. It just tastes different in Turkey. Even without cooking, the fruits and vegetables always taste amazing to me... I'm flying out in a week's time and CANNOT WAIT (to eat heh). I just talked about the restaurants and distant relatives because those are the ones that :"haunt" me, but my immediate family, mostly the teyzes in my family, feed me extremely well while I'm there too.

[swampwitch]

Got several though this whole thread is making my mout water.
1. Wolfies resturant in Ft. Lauderdale FL back in the mid 60s made a great cake called Victory Cake. was 4 thin layers of dark chocolate cake that wasn't devilsfood but wasn't very sweet but in between and on top was vanilla frosting that was sweet but not sugary. Never before or since haveI had a cake like that. wen't there as often as I could to eat more. Moved to Oregon for 4 years and when I got home Wolfies was no more. I still dream about that cake.
2. Psole cooked in an Iron pot over an open fire at a solstice party in the sangre de cristo mts in New Mexico. I can make good psole but this was just wow. Hominy, jalepenos(just enough for a zing not hot),fresh killed kid goat, garlic,cumin and who knows what else. I ate so much I had to nap and missed a lot of a great party. (The tequila I drank with lunch might have had to do with the nap too:)
3. Rose D"Urso's pasta. growing up across the stree from an old country Italian was great. Even tho she taught me to make tomato "gravy" mine just isn't the same.

[lilmomma]

Someone just gave me what I think is a sweet pickled red cherry pepper that she got in the deli section at Jewel. It was delicious. I went to Jewel to get some yesterday and my Jewel doesn't carry them. I am off on a search to find them. There was something that I bought off the shelf that sort of looked the same but did not taste the same at all. It started out sweet when you chewed then gave off some heat at the end. Yummy!

[robin_o]

I have very fond memories of the Wolfie's (actually was below Ft. Lauderdale, at (I think, 173rd St. in Golden Beach) and also the one on 21st st. in Miami Beach. What those restaurants had that I have never had at any other restaurant was a breakfast more delicious than I can express...endless baskets of fresh baked (still warm) rolls and danish pastries. Yum! We used to get them with an order of lox and cream cheese...YUM!
We also got very delicious kaiser rolls, just baked in a Jewish bakery in Bradley Beach, which was a big summer town for people from North Jersey and Brooklyn! No more!
Lastly, I wish I could get iced cream made like what was made by a small chain on the Jersey shore, called Kohrs. They were in Asbury Park, and I think Seaside Heights. Kohrs still exists, but they sold to someone else who changed the formula. It was light as a feather...whipped, I guess, and they had flavors like vanilla/blueberry with tons of real blueberries swirling around. Makes me sad that nobody makes this stuff anymore.

[robin_o]

actually, just remembered that the restaurant on 173rd st. was called Rascal House, not Wolfie's. Wolfie's was the correct name for the one on 21st St. and Collins Ave.

[mutti]

Rascal house is no more,they tore it down,rascal house was on the beach and Wolfies was at 163rd st across from the Mall which also is no more.

[robin_o]

Thanks for clearing that up. Wish we could still get those fabulous, still warm from the oven pastries, though.

[swampwitch]

Cinnamon: been there, done that and you are so right. It's YUMMY! tThe mojo sauce is brushed on lightly after the butter and before the Guava jelly. We used to stop there often after fishing the Glades. Was always what I got with cuban cafe con leche.

[Sonic Monkey]

Kyivsky torte. It is made only in Kyiv, Ukraine. I first had it in the 1980's. It is a layered cake, with rich buttercream, hazelnuts, and meringue layers. Its texture is what makes it so unique.

Apparently, the recipe was "discovered" at a cake factory when one of the workers made a mistake in the ingredient mix. Other cities have tried to duplicate the recipe, which is "top secret", but the original is still the best.

[aventinus]

Durian cendol at a particular place in Singapore. You can buy cendol at a few places in the US, and you can probably buy durian cendol, but the place I'm thinking about was my favorite in Singapore and it's never going to be duplicated here.

[jblan54]

Bruges Belgium, age 18, first night on first trip to Europe. Late dinner. Oversized antique silverware. The first course was a bouchee aux champignons (aka vol-au-vent). The best thing I had ever tasted. Flaky puff pastry standing tall with a hole down the middle, overflowing with a creamy white wine mushroom sauce. I will never forget weilding the heavy silver knife and fork to cut this delicacy. Delicious!

[TheDewster]

I think I had that dish in Saint Pierre et Miquelon a French island off Newfoundland back in 1985. I was on a trip with my parents, after the bouchee we had steak au poivre, asparagus with hollandaise. For dessert there was a peach covered with sugar but when you picked it up it was a CAKE Donut with a square void inside filled with peach flavoured cream! That peach cake thing has stuck in my mind for decades everything we ate back in Newfoundland tasted awful after that meal in St Pierre. When I die I'm asking for that peach thing from the nearest angel.

[boyzoma]

I have two things. The first is a bruschetta I had at - of all places - Pizza Hut in Kifissia, Greece. It was warm with I believe olive tampanade, creamy fetta and garlic. I've tried to replicate it but have not been able to do it. We used to go there after work and have these with some good beer! If anyone has the recipe, please feel free to forward. ;-)

The second is a type of mushroom fettuccine from a little side cafe near the Le Meridian Etoile Hotel in Paris. It got to where they didn't even need to ask what I wanted for dinner. I searched on Google Earth and it may of been at the Le Ballon des Ternes, but I would sure like to have the recipe!!

Yeah, I know I had each of these more than once, but since I have never been back to Greece or France, those 2 items still haunt me.

[alkapal]

boyzoma, the french place is so pretty! http://www.bestrestaurantsparis.com/r...

[thatswhatshemade]

My father went to his grave still attempting, never succeeding, to make a coconut cream pie with a crispy, not soft meringue top that we experienced once in a little Texas cafe in the middle of no where. I think I have the secret (bake it separately), but it isn't nearly as good as that perfect pie was.

[JerryMe]

ok - one more (I just started reading this thread). In my home town was a drive up burger joint called Frosty's. It was only open in the summer (this is in Northern Montana) and had the absolutely best burgers, crinkle cut fires (maybe they fried them w/ bacon?) and shakes. I rarely get home anymore, but the last time I was there the place was still open and the the food was still as excellent. I only go home in the summer as the winter is just too brutal.

[JerryMe]

Many, many years ago I had sturgeon for the first (and only) time in Khazikstan. LOVED it. Alas I live in the desert and any fresh fish can be a challenge to find much less sturgeon.

The sturgeon was grilled on veggie leaves, it was during the summer and I remember glancing fondly at the leftovers until someone at the dinner party took pity on me and passed the plate. They have it regularly over there so I was told.

[Passadumkeg]

Look above; I miss the sturgeon too. The shashliki as well.

[EliEats]

Lobster with brussel sprouts at Mesa Grill. The sprouts were INFUSED with lobster flavor in a way I have never tasted them infused with anything. And they were perfectly crunchy. I"m still baffled at how perfectly they pulled off the infusion. If I could cook brussel sprouts this good, I'd cook them everyday.

[shaogo]

Two ends of the spectrum to add my $0.02 to this fabulous post...

Flushing, New York, 1967: On Union Street there was a Daitch Shopwell supermarket. Next door was a little Chinese take-out joint. They put good hot-dogs inside of egg rolls, and served them with the nice, hot mustard. As a ten year old child, I was thrilled by the combination of my then-two-favorite-foods; egg rolls and hot dogs! (Little did I know that now, for the past 18 years, I've *owned* Chinese restaurants, have tried to re-create that experience, and haven't been able to do it...) (P.S., that being said, for kattyeyes and JungMann, it's going to be a little while before I develop the "Reuben-Filled Egg Rolls" we've been talking about.)

On the other side (the de-luxe side) of the spectrum, the Confit de Canard at the long-gone Le Coq Hardi restaurant in Ridgefield Connecticut was one of the most complex flavors I'd ever tasted. I've tried to contact the chef years later but to no avail -- and he was a young man at that time. Perhaps another 'hound knows where Carl Wright went?

[roxlet]

Do you mean Union Turnpike?

[Mag454]

When I was in Japan, my friends used to take me to an Okinawan-themed bar. Every time, we ordered umi budo, which translates to sea grapes. I have never been able to find them anywhere else. In fact, they were hard to find in Tokyo! Anyway, umi budo is maybe a type of sea weed and it has these little bubble type things at the end (the grapes) that kind of burst in your mouth. It was kind of like a seaweed tobikko or something. I live in Hawaii now and told my Japanese friends about them (they hadn't heard of them either) but they tried to pick some seaweed that they thought was what I had meant. WAY OFF. I miss it!

[alkapal]

like this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oval_sea_grapes,_Caulerpa_racemosa_var_clavifera,_at_5_meters_depth.jpg

http://www.alibaba.com/product/ph1014...

[almaluna]

walking around South Beach in Miami, probably a couple of blocks off the beach, hungry wandered into a "bodega", small convenience store with prepared foods and a makeshift lunch counter, and i ordered the Sopa de Jaiba / Crab Soup. I think it was pumpkin and crab, but what I know for sure is it was bright orange and kind of creamy (but not from cream?) and was full of clumps of shell on crab legs, it was amazing and I went back a couple times before i left but I guess it was a daily special....It was truly one of the most delicious things I ever tasted.

[buttertart]

It was possibly orange and creamy from the crab fat from the main shell. Has a a slightly pumpkiny taste.

[lilmomma]

There used to be a pizza truck at MIT in Cambridge in the 80's near building 10. they had the best pizza. The cheese was tangy and the crust chewy. It was amazing! I can almost still taste it.

[grateful eater]

Simple as it gets - I had an ear of corn at a country fair in Canada many years ago which on reflection was perhaps the best thing I have ever tasted. The variables are so few - corn, boiling water, salt, butter, a sunny day - and yet I've never experienced it in quite the same way again.

[ChristinaMason]

They put sugar in the water in Iowa---supposed to keep the sugar in the corn IN the kernels.

[boyzoma]

I always add sugar for my corn. Just a touch and it makes all the difference in the world. Just delicious sweet corn.

[1sweetpea]

We eat that corn every August at our cottage, 6 hours northeast of my home. The rest of the year, I live in the southernmost part of Ontario, which is also known for sweet peaches and cream corn. My mother always put a splash of milk, a dash of salt and a dash of sugar in the pot with the water and corn, brought it all to a boil from cold, then turned off the water and let the corn sit until we were ready for it. Most people slather it with butter and salt, but I find it tastes so good that a little salt is more than enough. If the corn isn't very tasty, some lime juice and some chaat masala really kicks it up, Indian style. When perfectly in season, just picked and still warm from the sun, there's nothing like that corn. It's a mix of vegetable, starch and candy. Mmmm.

[FrankD]

We had a cottage in Quebec. When Dad and I would go out to buy the corn, Mom would put the water on. We'd have a table spread with newspaper waiting. We'd get the corn fresh picked (as in, the kid selling it would run into the field, and come back with 13 ears), Dad would hightail it back to the cottage, and we'd all shuck it like crazy. Then into the pot - with just a splash of milk - and serve with just a bit of salted butter. Crazy good!

[alkapal]

the milk thing we did too.

[buttertart]

Us three. Or a bit of sugar. Alka dear, remember when corn was cornier and less sweet? Wish someone would grow an older varietal (real butter and sugar, maybe).

[grayelf]

I have read elsewhere that corn is now being bred more and more for sweetness (at first I thought it was my tastebuds failing). I really miss the "old" corn taste too, so I guess that qualifies as a food that haunts me. I keep trying to find varieties that still have that something something, but we have such a limited selection available in Vancouver proper...

[buttertart]

It would be nice, wouldn't it? By the way I remember having some fantastic raspberries in a motel just outside of Victoria when I was a kid - the place came with a kitchen and my dad and mom cooked dinner for the first time in a couple of weeks (we had driven from London to LA and then up the coast, went back by way of the Rockies and as far as Saskatoon, then through the northern US). Steak, bread, and berries never tasted better.

[grayelf]

You've just reminded me that I had another "haunt" last night -- raspberries the SO brought back from him mum's garden on Vancouver Island that hadn't been washed or refrigerated. Reminded me so much of going next door to the neighbour's when I was a kid and eating raspberries right off the cane. Darn near as good...

[buttertart]

I remember these as being big and dark dark red. Most of my good memories have food in there somewhere! (It was also wonderful to be in the coolness and back in our home and native land after being through the desert and up from LA - in July - in an unconditioned car!)

[Passadumkeg]

Deep fried chunks of sturgeon w/ icy shots of vodka; back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSR!
A rapu fest (crawfish party), by the midnight sun, w/ icy Korskinkorva vodka, back in Helsinki.

[BobB]

I see a theme developing here...

[Passadumkeg]

A Bolivian churasco w/ pisco sours. I miss going into a Bolivian supermarket, drinking a cold beer while I shop and coming out w/ a six pack of .5 l. bottles of rum. I miss taking my own bowl and utensils to the open air market and eating fish stew for breakfast at 6 am to beat the heat of the day.

[Passadumkeg]

Damn bob, now you got me thinking. I really miss the open air markets. The fresh North Atlantic shrimp (just like Maine shrimp), monk fish, cod , crabs, herring and whale meat at the open air market in Stavanger, Norway. The market in down town Helsinki, where one could buy false morels (poisonous, if not boiled or dried), chanterelles, crayfish and pirraka.
Especially the huge open air markets in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The strong smell of the meat market where we'd buy huge, whole, beef tenderloins for 5 bucks, chickens that tasted like chicken (with the feet still attached), myriads of kinds of potatoes, tropical fruits and fish from the Amazon. Damn I can't wait for II Little Keg to get a job in South America, so I can retire down there.

[hillsbilly]

I love this thread so much. I have cried I am so happy at some of your loving memories!

here are mine:

1. Fethiye, Turkey, 2000. There was pide shop called Pizza 54 or 57 or something, some number. They had a vegetable salad that was something bright red and finely chopped. I have no idea what it was!!! It was too firm to be tomatoes and not crunchy like capsicum or chillies, there was onion and it was dressed in oil and there was some chilli but the main ingredient is a mystery. We called it The Red Stuff. It was bright red, it was intense and spicy and sweet and just delicious. It was so good, we had it every day we were there. On our last day we bought a plastic container and asked them to fill it. We ate some on the beach at Oludinez and ate the rest with beautiful fresh bread on route to our next stop. After we came home, we lived in the Turkish part of Sydney for years but never saw anything like it again. The shop was very popular with travelers so if you were there and have any ideas, please let me know.

2. Somewhere near The Pantheon in Roma is a little restaurant with a crappy wooden veranda out the front. Inside it is much fancier and I had the most amazing spaghetti marinara, as in seafood. Razor clams, little fat mussels, beautiful fish and prawns in a sauce like no other. Italians do have the best food in the whole universe don;t they? Well, I think so (until I get to France, Hong Kong, Britain - joking!) If you think you know this restaurant too, let me know. I think maybe they specialised in seafood because we had swordfish carpaccio, my husband had a seafood lasagne and I had my extraordinary marinara. I have to add that I order spaghetti or fettucine marinara almost every time I eat Italian. And definitely when I go somewhere new, it's how I measure them, so i have eaten a lot of them. I also grew up in Sydney's little Italy and nothing has ever come close. It really does haunt me.

hb

[Caroline1]

Gee, only what? Five or six weeks late with an answer? I suspect the salad you had in Turkey (#1 memory) is for a traditional Turkish red onion salad. Here's a pretty good recipe at this website:
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Turkish-Onion-Salad-241940
If you want it to come closest to what you had in Turkey, be sure to use sumac and not lemon juice. I get mine from World Spice (worldpsice.com)
http://www.worldspice.com/spices/0171...
Lemon juice sort of approximates sumac, but no cigar in my book. Plus, the sumac will intensify the color of the red onions. Be very careful what kind of knife you slice the onions with. Do NOT use a carbon steel blade (stainless or ceramic are best), and for the most uniform results use a mandoline if you have one. You want the onions sliced really thin. Fresh new red onions that haven't been on the shelf for a long time will deliver the best flavor. Aging the salad for a while before serving is critical. My chef-housekeeper (when I lived in Turkey) used to "sweat" the onions in a lot of salt to draw off any bitterness and to soften them, then rinse them and proceed pretty much as the recipe directs. And occasionally she would serve it with a "collar" of orange supremes.

I hope this is what you remember. Sure sounds like it to me. If it is, enjoy!

[sggunal]

It might also be "ezme" which is a common meze in Turkish restaurants. It's raw and involves tomatoes, and is usually bright red and really spicy. Have a look:

http://www.turkishcookbook.com/2006/0...

[Caroline1]

I thought about that but dismissed it because the OP says the dish did not taste like it had any tomatoes in it and that it was too firm to be tomatoes and not crunchy enough to be red bell peppers or chiles. Since the onions in this dish lose most of their crunch from being marinated in salt, I figured this would probably be the thing, though normally the onions are not minced fine. But it's not impossible. Who knows? '-).

[Bada Bing]

My first thought for this thread is halvah, a nut-butter based confection that I had a few times as a young child in Ankara, Turkey (my USA family was there due to my father's Air Force career). My parents didn't get us this. Instead, my little sister and I (each pre-schoolers) were given some by a generous Turkish construction guy who gave us his halvah from his lunch. If you've had it, you know that the texture is very distinctive, moist but crumbly at the same time, and very sweet.

So for decades after that occasion, I had no idea what that stuff was. I didn't know how to name it, could barely find words to describe it, no one could figure out what I was describing when it would come up every so often. And then, after 25 years, I was at a New Year's party during my study abroad year in Germany, and it was like a revelation to find this stuff there. I had almost persuaded myself that I was misremembering something.

[souschef]

You brought back great memories with your post on halva. I was born in East Africa and it was a great treat to get halva, which was made on the Kenya coast by Arabs. It was studded with almonds and was really yummy. I have only had pale imitations here in Canada.

Also on the Kenya coast - tender coconuts. The street vendor would knock off the top with a machete and you would drink the juice, then eat the flesh with a spoon that he fashioned out of the top that he had knocked off.

[Bada Bing]

Thanks for your great stories in return. I left Turkey when I was about 5 or 6 years old, so the memories retain a kind of magical and very intense quality. I can hardly imagine what Kenya must be to you.

[souschef]

I actually lived in Uganda. Another supposed halva story: family friends in Uganda owned an Indian restaurant, and they used to make a sweetmeat that was a thin white disk that was really delicious. Another Indian friend tells me that it was a type of halva, though I tend to doubt it as the texture was totally different from the halva I was used to. I have never been able to find it again. I asked a few Indian restaurants, but they did not have a clue about it.

[buttertart]

Sundesh maybe? A Bengali halva-ish milk sweet?

[souschef]

Dunno, but thanks for the suggested name. I should look for it when next I am in Toronto (large Indian community there); will be there at the end of June.

[buttertart]

No Indian sweetshops in the Capital of our great land, the true north strong and free?

[souschef]

There are quite a few, but I have not been able to find the stuff. I actually gave up some years ago. This thread resuscitated the memory and the desire to tittilate my tastebuds once again.

[buttertart]

Our sis-in-law is from Kolkata, I'll ask her for a recipe. It takes a half gallon of milk as I recall. The best sesame halva I've had recently was imported from Turkey - they also have something called pismaniye, which is like sesame candy floss in little chunks, pulls apart into sheets, sort of like eating sesame fibreglass insulation - a strange and wonderful eating sensation.

[sggunal]

I wonder if it isn't semolina halvah (irmik helvasi), from your description of it being crumbly and moist. The problem may be that everyone makes their irmik helvasi a little different so it may be hard to recreate. Here's a recipe though:
http://www.giverecipe.com/semolina-ha...

[jumpingmonk]

Another faint possibility, given this happened in Africa (and regrettably, one that diminishes the chances of finding the sweet outside of the area); I undersand that there is a havlah like confection common in parts of africa that is made from the seeds the watermelon and similar plants (the same sort of seeds used to make egusi (melon seed) soup) Maybe it was that.

[thew]

an (hopefully) amusing anecdote:

was with 2 buddies (one a NYer the other Israeli)in Fez, Morocco. We decided we wanted a sweet something after dinner, it was our 1st few days of a month in morocco, so we thought halwah would be a perfect choice. We rounded up the 2 boys who decided they were going got be our runners, and told them we wanted halwah. off the ran, beckoning us to follow. We get to a bakery. there are cakes and cookies but not what we are looking for. We tell them "no- we want halwah, halwah" they shrug and run to anotehr shop with confections and cakes. "NO - HALWAH, we want HALWAH" we say. another shop, same story, they getting more confused and us more frustrated.

what did i learn that day? - Halwah is the arabic word for "sweet" (and they don't have the sesame dessert in morocco)

[souschef]

Along the same lines, if, while I was living in East Africa (and spoke Swahili) you asked me for "chai tea", I would have given you plain tea. "Chai" is Swahili for tea.

[thew]

chai is hindi for tea - and probably was sanskrit too.

"tea" comes from the chinese word - also exported around the world w/ the producy.

i assume, but have not researched, that tea and chai share the same root word, and there was a simple linguistic shift from the one to the other

[BobbyG]

Chai is turkish for tea as well. I ordered a chai here and got this milky spicy stuff and wondered why I didn't get tea.

[roxlet]

Although I have had many fantastic and memorable meals in my life, there are two childhood memories that I think about every time I see this post.

The first is Kaiser rolls. When I was a child growing up in East New York Brooklyn in the 1950s, my father would take my sister and me to the Jewish bakery on Sunday mornings after church. We would go inside to where the ovens were and we would get a large brown grocery bag filled with piping hot Kaiser rolls, which had just come out of the oven and were handled gingerly by the baker as he put them in the bag. This was in the winter, and the car was freezing cold, and I would get to hug the bag of hot rolls all the way home, smelling their yeasty, just-baked aroma. And they were delicious, split and buttered with crackling crust and billowy interior. I now bake my own Kaiser rolls since anything you can buy is a pale imitation with a flaccid crust and gummy interior. Though the rolls I make are delicious, they just can't compare with the ones I remember.

The other taste memory I have is barley sugar lollipops. Although I have seen them around from time to time, they are all flavored. The barley pops I remember had a very simple, pure taste, which I assume was just the taste of the caramelized barley sugar. I don't know much about candy-making, so I am not sure if, in fact, that is how you would make a barley sugar lollipop, but I would know the taste if I ever had it again!

[BobB]

That brings back memories - my father would also take me to the local Jewish bakery (Green & Freedman's) on weekends here in Boston to get fresh rye bread and bulkie rolls. I can still remember the heavenly, yeasty smell of the place...

[pumpyjones]

I spent a summer living in Hong Kong in 1992 --in Shen Zhen in the New Territories and every night I would walk out to the local food stalls on the street and get this crepe thing. I have no idea what the name was in Chinese, but it was essentially a thicker spongy/moist crepe and wen it was hot they would smear it with salty butter, then filled it with coarse sugar, sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter and rolled it up. It was INSANE and I could not get enough of these things. I tried to make it at home, but I could never get the crepes right (either too pancakey or too thin and crispy). The crepes were so moist and had an almost mochi-like sponginess. Sigh.

[buttertart]

Maybe they were made with rice flour? Have you tried that? They sound wonderful.

[wekick]

a buttermilk pie made in someone's home but served in a little small town restaurant- It was not flat like most recipes, but had quite a few egg whites and was high. It did have sort of a more solid bottom layer, but it was still all one and not defined in two layers. It was so good.

also my grandmother made olive oil pickles-starting with big dill pickles and slicing them. It had whole allspice in it.

[jane_in_va]

Guess I'm a late comer but I can think of a few things -
1) when I was a child my aunt would make a cake for every birthday and holiday - it was always the same cake, a Daffodil Cake - tall, light sponge cake dusted with powdered sugar - sometimes made in a 13x9 type pan, split horizontally and filled with homemade lemon filling. I always wished for a store bought cake (often as kids we don't appreciate good things -what I wouldn't give to have her walk through a door today with one of those cakes - I can still taste it.
2) Hot Dogs from Coney Island in New Castle, PA - I get 2 "with everything" and fries with everything every time I go back home. The restaurant is still in business - I remember going there as a child with my mother - that's at least 55 years ago. What makes it is the chili sauce which isn't typical chili. I think it's ground meat, chili powder, paprika and something to add body and I swear (don't laugh) it's coffee grounds. I've tried to reproduce it and I can get close - but no cigar! I love those dogs!
3) Again, a childhood memory. My mom used to take me to town shopping for back to school cloths and Christmas shopping (twice a year trip to shop). On those special occasions we'd go to The Italian Spaghetti House on Washington Street in New Castle. We never ate spaghetti (we were Italian) but we had the best hot roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy I have ever eaten. I've never had one as good as they were and I have fond memories of them to this day. The place closed years and years ago but the memory lingers!

There are other things but these are from my childhood and my hometown and so they are special.

[Bill Hunt]

Upon reflection, I must add a dish that I had many times, but have not had since.

In Gulfport, MS, there was a tiny restaurant on Pass Road, not too far from Hewes Ave., named Magnusen's House of Seafood. It was tiny and had a hole in the roof. Their fried shrimp are the paradigm, by which all fried shrimp shall ever be judged. For a shanty, and it was such, the food was not inexpensive. The "shrimp plate" with fries and some toast points was about $8.00, and this was in the '60s. Still, those shrimp were the absolute best, with none others really coming close.

I graduated from high school with the cook/owner's nephew, and at a reunion begged him for his uncle's recipe. He did his best, but even my chef-wife could not recreate the magic, though she came close. Even the top chefs in the Deep South have yet to get close.

Two other dishes, though the same, but different, were the pancakes on the L&N RR, back in the '50s. We did a long rail journey, and had the pancakes in the dining car. Wonderful, just wonderful. Many years later, in the early '60s, we stopped at a tiny breakfast restaurant/beach shack in Port St. Joe, FL. Their pancakes still haunt me, like those on the L&N.

Cannot recall what I chose 399 posts back, but will check. Hope that these are not repeats of then.

Hunt

[Edit] OK, looked back up-thread and Magnusen's was mentioned. Sorry to beat a dead horse.

[ccmccall]

And just One more (not bad for a lifetime of eating), please: Four years ago my husband and I took the "trip of a lifetime" on a chartered yacht to Greece and Turkey. One day we were in port at a medium-sized Turkish port city and the crew bought groceries and served us a buffet lunch on board. It was all gorgeous and splendid and delicious, of course. But the baked potato....... will you believe me if i tell you that this baked potato was from the gods? It looked exactly like the baked potato you would get anywhere, here in the States. It was medium-sized, looked like a Russet. Just baked in oven -- no seasonings. I spent days grilling the multi-international crew about the potato. Everyone had the same story -- it was just a local potato, baked and served. When I can afford it, I will go back to Turkey (wonderfully fascinating country and people) and find that variety of potato. I will become an exporter, or a grower, or whatever it takes. I will live on the Turkish potato, baked.

My husband agrees it was an incomparable potato, but after 4 years has begged me not to talk about it anymore...

[shoo bee doo]

I, too, think about one baked potato I ate about 10 years ago.

It was at some mall eating area in Edinborough, Scotland. The skin had the right crunch, the potato had the most potato-ey flavor I ever tasted, the butter was fresh, and the cheddar cheese was just a wonderful cheddar.

When I talk about this wonderful potato that I had 10 years ago, people's eyes glaze over. It's so nice to feel understood here on Chowhound.com

[buttertart]

I mentioned a cherished potato incident (best boiled potato ever) I shared with my mother when I spoke at her funeral and was shunned by some of her friends who apparently didn't find it serious or dignified enough for the occasion. It most certainly was, if you knew my mother. The immediate family loved it.

[linguafood]

As if it was about her 'friends', and not your memories of her. I am sure your mom would've loved the story.

[buttertart]

My sister-in-law said I captured her to a "T". That was nice. The "friends" were horrible anyway.

[ccmccall]

In the mid-60's, the Baskin Robbins 31 flavors in Southern California would feature Licorice ice cream as the flavor of the month during October. It was "black", hence a Halloween connection. Actually it was kind of charcoal grey And I am not a particular fan of BR ice cream, then or now. But the Licorice flavor was from heaven. I lived for the stuff, mourned the trailing off of availability as November deepened. I don't know when they discontinued it. I would love to find out any info that would allow me to replicate -- recipes, sources, alternatives. It was unforgettable.

[jackiecat]

My Baskin Robbins addiction was the Mandarin Chocolate Sherbet. That was so gooood! I can't imagine why they discontinued it.

[shaogo]

Lime Daiquiri sherbet from Baskin-Robbins. In the '70s it actually had bits of lime zest in it, and I think a little rum, too!

[alkapal]

oh yeah, lime daquiri sherbet -- count me in!

and make me a shake with coconut milk.

[cookingwithlove]

My Italian Mother-In-Law used to make a dish we called "scallion pie". She has been gone for many years now,and we have all tried to duplicate it but no one ever wrote down the recipe. We haven't been able to recreate it. It did not have a crust. We know she used scallions(just the white tips). They were not browned. There appeared to be egg in it,but probably not alot because the "pie" was not yellow in color. I know she blended whatever it was and then put it in a deep wok pan with olive oil. The last part was the trickiest because she would put a plate under it and then flip it over. We sliced big wedges and put tons of salt on it. She also made a zucchini version. It was quite thick,maybe 3 -4" tall,and was not browned. Anyone have any idea what this was. Our younger family members have never been able to enjoy it. Would LOVE it if someone had suggestions to what this was. I think I remember grated parm being in it.it was very light in texture.

[jane_in_va]

Sounds a lot like the Fritatta my grandmother used to make. She came from Italy as a bride and never did speak much English but, boy, could she cook. She always made this with Zucchini and Onions and lots of eggs. (I know, you said you thought it didn't have much egg in it but it still sounds like a Fritatta). Grandma's was made in an iron skillet where she saute'd the veggies in olive oil (zucchini, onion and sometimes green or sweet red peppers - whatever was on hand) then she scrambled the appropriate number of eggs - depending on the size of your skillet - added milk and scrambled again and poured this over the veggies. Cook till set then invert the pan onto a plate, slide the whole thing back into the pan so the top can cook and add som grated pecorino romano and serve in pie shaped slices along with a crisp green salad. Heaven!

[shaogo]

Sounds like an onion/ricotta pie to me. But there're so many variations... sadly for you, my recipes involve browning, not the saute technique you describe.

[Mariposa410]

Like another reply, this has to be Fritatta! My Mother-in-law and Father-in-law both were adult Italian immigrants to the US and made this, each their own way (basically different vegetables), and we lived in Italy for three years, and the cousins that still lived there also made this. It does have more eggs than you think to hold everything together, but is basically prepared as you described. My father-in-law use to use the flower of the zucchini in his, and it was wonderful! My sister-in-law who is 71, still makes it and uses potatoes, zucchini.red roasted peppers, onions, and sometimes adds pancetta she has fried into it. They did NOT pre-scramble the eggs. They mixed the eggs with a small amount of milk and after sauteing all the vegetables in olive oil, garlic, and the onion, they poured the egg and milk over everything and baked it. Then once the eggs had set and the sides were brown, took it out, turned it onto a plate, then slide it back into the cast iron skillet they were using for everything, and baked again until the top was browned. They also added cheese to the vegetables before putting the egg mixture over it to bake. It was a meal all of it's own for sure! As a large Italian Family, we all still make different versions of this! I like to make mine with steamed asparagus, sauteed mushrooms with the onion, garlic and olive oil, and I usually put almonds in mine and mild cheddar and sharp cheddar blended! My family loves this combination!

[cosmogrrl]

The Princess Cake from the Co-op supermarket in Berkeley, CA. It was covered in a light buttercream, with white chocolate flakes and pink flakes. It also had ballerina candle holders on it. It was a yellow cake with a heavenly filling. Very light and not too sweet. I think they were made by a Bakery on Solano Ave.

The colors appealed to me as a little girl, but the taste appealed to my parents, so much so that it was my Dad's favorite cake for his birthday.

This was before the gourmet revolution of that area; Co-op was across the street from where Chez Panisse is. But it was a truly delectable cake.

That and Blum's lemon goddess pie on Union Square.

[buttertart]

That was my supermarket when we lived in Berkeley. I loved it and can still go through it in my mind's eye! The gourmet revolution was just getting going at that time, a great time to have been there.

[Jet]

Me, another Bay Area Exile who always longs for her TRUE home1: The Berkeley Cheese Board had an AMAZING warm cheddar/jalapeno bread that was to die for..All of Alice Medrich's treats from Cocolat, the short-lived , but amazing, gelato place at Walnut Square,Lunch at Chez Panisse, where we have to try/share a bit of alll of the appetizers & desserts, Warszawa Restaurant (now defunct) that had the most amazing Borscht, and so much more. I always miss the City & Bezerkly!! Oh, I forgot going to G.B. Rattos in East Oakland, & plunking down with a fresh sourdough roll with a strong imported cheese & Italian Salumi..................................................... -JET

[buttertart]

Wow! I got chills of recognition reading your post. We must have been there at exactly the same time. Loved ALL those places. Warzawa had that chlodnik - pink borscht with sour cream and baby shrimp...Vivoli's gelato was terrific - we had a darling cat who was mad for their canteloupe gelato. We used to go to Ratto's on Saturdays and load up on stuff. Those...were..the...days....

[buttertart]

And before Warzawa, it was Il Pavone, a very very good Italian restaurant run by some Cornell restaurant school grads. Great Italian wines. All of this (except Ratto's) within walking distance of our Berkeley Way apt...

[Average Al]

There used to be a butter that you could buy in Australia when I was a kid - it had a duck on the top of the container - I remember it being so good that I was eating it non stop on everything. Then, for some reason, it dissapeared from the supermarkets. I hunted and hunted - I still keep an eye out now, life has never been the same.

[souschef]

I grew up in East Africa, and cassava was a staple there (we called it "mogo" in Swahili). On the way home from shool we used to stop at a little restaurant that served fried mogo with a yellow sauce that looked very unappealing. The first time I saw the sauce I refused to eat it, saying that it looked like upchuck, but a friend of mine urged me to try it. WIth much trepidation I did, and found it delicious.

[Vexorg]

If I had to name one thing that I've had once and never again, it would have to be the fries from a beachside stand at Scheveniengen in The Hague, Netherlands. I was there once in 1993 with my Dutch grandparents who grew up in The Hague, and those fries were by far the best ones I've ever had.

[Passadumkeg]

Smoked eel and new herring at Scheveniengen!

[ajs228]

There's a restaurant chain in Tucson called Eegees, and they specialize in a frozen fruit drink, also called an eegee, that's similar to italian ice. Every month they have a different "flavor of the month", and once they had black raspberry. It had big, fat chunks of fruit in it, and the perfect balance of sweet and tart. I'm told they repeat the flavor occasionally, but I'm never in Tucson to see it.

Another one, on my first trip to San Francisco when I was a kid, we were just walking around Fisherman's Wharf, looking for lunch and stopped in a non-descript restaurant. I ordered crab legs and they brought out this massive pile of the freshest, sweetest crab I've ever tasted. Could never find that place again.

[NellyNel]

Wow - I have so many haunting food memories....

A home-made chocolate ice cream that we used to make - it had such a distinct flavor and texture....I could never replicate it...

Libby's Fruit Float......probably it was disgusting - (Fruit flavored....pudding type dessert - in a can) but as a kid - I Loved it and would love to have it one more time...

A ice pop from a Mexican grocery store in Brooklyn - it was a horrible brown/green shade - and not very nice looking at all - but it was cucumber chille - and it was AMAZING
it was hot and yet refreshing at the same time...I ate them for a summer - nearly every day and then boom the shop closed and they wre gone forever...(I still seek them out but I believe these were home-made)

Home made cheddar cheese pretzels my 8th grade class made together .(I've made these but they never taste as good as those did)

Any beer that I have has in Belgium

Any chocolate that I had in Brugge

A pecan pastry that I had in Amsterdams train station.

Baked Feta cheese in Kos

Any meal I had in Bodrum....

Well sorry - I could go on and on......Lots of travel related memories which never will be duplicated.....but hopefully there will be more to come!~

[buttertart]

You reminded me. Leonidas ("only" Leonidas...) in Bruges: a seasonal special: dark chocolate canteloupe cream. Unbelievable.

[NellyNel]

Sounds wonderful...
The name sounds so familiar but not the description...

I think Belgium is one of my all time fav food places... most of the food I ate there - was simply divine.....

[buttertart]

It is wonderful, you're right (but top of my all-time list is Taiwan rather than Belgium). The Leonidas chocs you can get here in the States are not nearly as good. And they are so cheap, relatively speaking, in Belgium! (Most of my unforgettable food memories are also tied up with travel.)

[souschef]

Speaking of chocs, I once bought a couple of Laderach raspberry truffles from Dean and DeLuca in Georgetown, and they were out of this world. They were reddish on the OUTSIDE, and when you put them into your mouth you tasted raspberry immediately. On biting them you then got an explosion of raspberry and chocolate. On return visits to the store and to the branch in Napa I did not have any luck locating more. I will be returning to the Napa store in a week, so hopefully then....

[Discerning1]

1965. South of France. A simple omelette with truffles followed by a green salad. Exploding with flavors, yet simple, fresh and delicious.

[degustateur]

Years ago (1970’s - 80’s), in Los Angeles, there used to be a breakfast joint called Ray’s Redwood Kitchen on 39th & Western Ave. that served up the most amazingly delicious Calf’s Brains & Eggs Omelet you can imagine. Worthy of a last meal. Heretofore, utterly irreplaceable. Alas, gone forever.

… Haunting pangs …

[sillygoosedown]

There's a cute cafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts called LA Burdick which makes the best hot chocolate I've ever had, by far, along with beautiful little pastries.

[woodleyparkhound]

Ah, BURDICK'S! I used to live near the "mothership" in (of all places) Walpole, NH. LOVE the place! They moved from their original location to a new, much bigger place across the street a few years back where they started doing a full-service restaurant (which I loved BTW), but before they moved, they were in this weird, funky little space with pillows and tablecloths -- with wonderful chocolates (love their chocolate mice!) and THAT HOT CHOCOLATE! It's divine. I was delighted to see that they were doing well enough to open a branch in Cambridge.

[sillygoosedown]

The location in Harvard Square was SO TINY. Even though it was crazy popular. Honestly, it was impossible to get a table there sometimes...there was always a line to the door. The only reason the line didn't go *OUT* the door is because it's always ***SO COLD*** outside!! And also people knew it would be crazy hard to get a table so they didn't wait in line. I used to go on dates there. I wish I could have a demitasse of hot chocolate and a linzer torte. U R so right about their adorable little chocolate mice too :).

P.S. I used to live in Woodley Park. Small world!! We used to get pizza by the slice from Vace and walk through the zoo and eat it.

[woodleyparkhound]

Hey sillygoosedown! Small world indeed! I am a huge fan of Vace pizza -- just had a slice this weekend as a matter of fact...

[mahlzeit_yumyum]

Ah yes, Burdick's was where I had my first REAL hot chocolate and thought it was the most amazing hot chocolate I'd ever had. . .that is until I tried the one at Jacques Torres in NYC. You should try it if you ever get the chance. I find the taste of the chocolate easily surpasses Burdick's. There used to only be one location in Brooklyn near the Dumbo, but now there are several locations in Manhattan including Chelsea market.

[woodleyparkhound]

I've had it at the one near Dumbo. You're right - it's great stuff.

[MsDiPesto]

Trader Joe's had Ginger Jo-Jo cookies a couple of years ago. Haven't seen them since. They were fantastic!

[goodhealthgourmet]

i've seen other suggestions here on CH to try Newman's Own Ginger O's or Carr's Ginger Creams as a replacement. might be worth a shot...

[junescook]

Hot dogs from a Greek place in New Haven back in the 50's called Coney Island Hot Dogs. I don't even know what neighborhood it was in. They had this amamzing sauce on them -- I recall it was brown, greasy and had onions. I remember eating more than two (I was a very small kid) before my father cut me off. Whenever I try to google recipes for coneys all I find are chili recipes and I really don't think that's what it was.

[just_M]

Back in the early 90's there was a hot dog cart outside where I worked in Chatsworth, CA. The guy had an onion sauce like this. It was so good I would polish off one of those huge kosher dogs and I am a light eater, but the sauce is too good.

Maybe try this http://www.recipezaar.com/New-York-Ho... If you could brown the tomato sauce or sub browned tomato paste.

[junescook]

Thanks M. I'm definitely going to try it.

H

[absolince]

Rhode Island still has Coney's! Old School Coney's!

[Jeff_the_Kid]

Regal Crown Sour Cherry candies...Individually wrapped and packed like LifeSavers!

[jackiecat]

Lobster, sweetbreads and mushrooms in a brandy cream sauce. The restaurant has been closed for decades, but it was always my birthday dinner!

[J.e.m.]

Poppyseed roll made by my grandmother and aunt. Cold birch-beer, and fried cheese on a stick with mustard at the Geauga County Fair. Shaken lemonade. Cabernet snow-cones. Chocolate zuchini bread. Fire-roasted corn-on-the-cob and potatoes at Yankee Peddler. Funnel cakes. Malted milk powder on vanilla ice cream. Lamb patties with A-1 sauce, au gratin potatoes, peas. Cinnamon saltwater taffy. Sponge candy. Anise biscotti.

[decolady]

1. A smoked Stilton from the cheese counter of a little food shop in Grassmere, England. I have tried and tried to find something like it in the US, but to no avail. I keep thinking that one of these days I will try smoking a Stilton myself, but I have no idea what that will produce.
2. Pasta with squash blossoms at a restaurant outside Florence. This is the best pasta I ever ate. They did give me the recipe, but I haven't been able to make it taste as good as it did in Italy.
3. My great-grandmother's bread. I've got the recipe for that, too, but mine just doesn't taste like hers.
4. Roasted sea bass at a restaurant in Venice. We started out sitting outside by the canal, but it started raining and they brought us inside. There were only six or eight tables in the restaurant. We sat by the window, watching the rain and this beautiful fish was presented to us. Then they went off and cooked it with tomatoes, olives and I'm not sure what else. Brought back to the table and presented whole. Then the owner served us individual portions. The flavour was sublime.
5. Fresh caught salmon, grilled over alderwood in Alaska.
6. Oysters on the half shell from Uncle Earl's in Baton Rouge back in the 70s. During happy hour oysters were a nickle apiece. A pitcher of beer was $2.00. I was a poor graduate student and those oysters, along with saltines and cocktail sauce were often supper for my best friend and me. Maybe it was the times, but the taste of those oysters just hasn't been replicated.
7. Creole cheese - it came in a tub. Kind of like cream cheese with a layer of thick cream on top. I've never seen it outside of Louisiana and I don't think any of the dairies there make it anymore.

[tiffeecanoe]

chocolate cream of wheat.

:( I'll never recover from this being pulled from the shelves when I was a child. I've emailed the company... no intentions of bringing it back.

[goodhealthgourmet]

well, i *was* going to suggest just doctoring up the regular stuff with cocoa powder & sweetener. but if you don't mind that your breakfast comes from a box with pictures of Spongebob on the front, you're in luck!

http://www.startsampling.com/sm/101055/?lp=sp&source=CoWHomeSBParents
http://www.buythecase.net/product/271...

[tiffeecanoe]

Thank you! I will definitely try this version! A few years ago they came out with a special Polar Express, Hot Cocoa edition of the cereal and it wasn't quite the same, but it did provide a bit of comfort. I may be ordering a case and sharing it with my siblings... it's my turn... it was my sister that bought a case of the Polar Express edition, ha! :)

[goodhealthgourmet]

i hope it turns out to be a good substitute for the one you miss!

[NellyNel]

Gee GHG - you really push that cocoa don't you!
;)

[a213b]

Just wanted you to know I am from LA and you can definitely still get Creole Cream Cheese.

http://www.jfolse.com/bittersweet_dai...

[BeefeaterRocks]

Or you can make it yourself http://www.nolacuisine.com/2005/07/29...

[decolady]

Thanks! I don't live in Louisiana anymore, so will try making it myself.

[thew]

honeyed banana at this chinese restaurant we went to when i was a kid. had it more than once. they would bring out a bowl of ice water. then bananas coated in hot honey and a few sesame seeds i believe. they would dump them in the ice water, and when it worked there would be a loud cracking sound, and the bananas would be hot inside and sheathed in a crunchy crystal honey shell. sometimes it didnt work, and the honey was just gooey on the outside of the banana. still yummy, but not nearly as much so.

that was an early indicator to em that food could be something special and magic

[Francesca]

Chocolate walnut caramel torte w/unsweetened whipped cream.

[NellyNel]

I remember the honey banana!!
As soon as you mentioned the bowl of ice water - the memory came flooding back!

We used to get that at Mandarin Inn in Chinatown (I think!)
I can now remember it so clearly...the silver bowl...the crunchy sweet slightly greasy

The Mandarin Inn is gone now - But surley we could still find this dessert somewhere in Chinatown (?!)

[flueln]

I remember this being made with apples instead of bananas. I don't think any restaurant in the US will serve this anymore because the big bowl of fruit in boiling hot syrup is a lawsuit waiting to happen. You can get it in Hong Kong, I remember.

Also I miss Howard Johnson's Wild Mountain Blackberry Ice Cream, which they only made during the season. Alas!

[Emme]

Ten years ago, we were in Hawaii, and my then boyfriend ordered a Crab-Stuffed Opah at the Mauna Kea... it was incredible. I wouldn't even know how to go about replicating it, as I didn't pay enough attention while eating to discern the various components. I just remember it was delectable.

A few years ago, I had seared scallops over toasted beluga lentils with an orange reduction (usually don't like orange-anything) and parsley oil. I've recreated something *similar* at home, but never quite as good.

My mom's wedding cake from her second husband... I *think* it was made by the Four Seasons... it was a white chocolate cake with a raspberry and buttercream filling with a white chocolate fondant... OMG... still... yum...

[buttertart]

That is remarkable, a wedding cake being a standout food memory. I have no fond memories of anyone's except my own (I'm Canadian so it was made of my mother's fruitcake professionally decorated).

[souschef]

"My mom's wedding cake from her second husband... I *think* it was made by the Four Seasons... it was a white chocolate cake with a raspberry and buttercream filling with a white chocolate fondant... OMG... still... yum..."

I have an issue of Chocolatier that has a similar cake, I think.

[Emme]

i'd LOVE to see it, if you feel like and have time to post!

[souschef]

I guess my memory is failing me. It is actually two different cakes I am thinking about. I made both; succeeded with the first and failed with the second.

The first cake had white chocolate in the batter, was filled with raspberry buttercream, and was covered with white fondant, not white chocolate fondant. See the picture.

The second consisted of pound cake that was filled with cherry preserves, covered with buttercream, then covered with marzipan and then white chocolate plastic (I don't know what is in white chocolate fondant). I got as far as the marzipan, then crashed and burned with the white chocolate plastic. You are supposed to mix white chocolate and corn syrup, and I think it is supposed to have the texture of fondant as you are supposed to roll it and cover the cake. What I had instead was a sticky mess. I consulted a baker here and he told me that you have to knead it till you get all of the cocoa butter out. I tried that out, but it did not work. I ended up throwing out the mess. The cake covered with marzipan was delicious, though.

I can post the recipes, but be warned, it is a lot of work. Let me know.

[RLTRLDY]

Chicken Tesh at Josephina's in LoDo. Are they still there? I haven't been back to Colorado in years, but that was amazing!

[librarianjen]

AWESOME post!

I have a few.

There was (is?) a great restaurant somewhere along Malibu Beach - it was pretty much right on the beach, with huge windows to see outside. I think it had 'Lion' in the title, but I'm not sure. I had my first ever seafood omelette there, and it was *amazing.* I was 12, and thought I'd never tasted anything so grand!

The most haunting for me, though, is a little restaurant somewhere near Tupelo, MS that was called Country Squire Jr. We'd go once a week in the early '80's, and get their all you could eat fried catfish. I've never had catfish like this since - it was the whole fish, fried, but before they fried it they cut and sectioned it in such a way that you just took your fork and lifted off piece by piece of succulent, perfectly corn meal-fried fish. You cleaned one side of it, then flipped it over and did the same. I kid you not - when you were done with it, it looked like the fish skeleton in a cartoon that the cat pulls out of his mouth! lol And if that's not good enough, it came with a bowl of lemon pieces, and a plate of raw onions. O.M.G. Just thinking about it brings tears of joy! :)

Another great food item - we used to regularly go to a Bird Sanctuary somewhere in CA - it was owned by Anheuser Busch because you could tour the factory, right next to the bird sanctuary. Anyway, they had vendor carts throughout that sold the most amazing churros ever - they were long, skinny, and cane-shaped. To die for.

[just_M]

<<a Bird Sanctuary somewhere in CA>>

That was Busch Gardens in Van Nuys, CA its not there anymore of course but those perfect churros along with the flamingos will live in my mind forever. Thanks for the memory.

[librarianjen]

That's it! I found that it closed in 1979. More info here: http://laist.com/2009/07/18/laistory_...

What I wouldn't give for one of those churros now! :)

[malibumike]

The one in Malibu was called the Sea Lion and the fellow that owned it lived to the right of it. Very good omlets and a bottle of wine there cost little more than buying it from a market, back in the 50's they had a tank outside with sea lions in it. It is now called Dukes.

[librarianjen]

Thanks SO much for that info! :) I loved that place! I'll have to look up Dukes - thanks again!

[budlit]

It was The Malibu Sea Lion.
oh oops didn't see above post

[woodleyparkhound]

Orange semolina cake from a restaurant called Cul de Sac in Rome, where I lived in the mid-eighties. Very moist, drenched with a profound orange flavor, a shock to the taste buds. I have never forgotten it.

[souschef]

If you do any baking I suggest that you try making the Golden Grand Marnier Cake from Rose Levy Beranbaum's "The Cake Bible", but leave out the chocolate. You may find that you come close to your Roman cake if you adjust the soaking syrup. I last made it a week or so ago and ate a piece about 15 minutes after it came out of the oven. It was sublime.

[exotec]

I fondly remember something called "citrus brittle" at the local grove stores in Florida. My memories are 40+ years old, but I can still taste the wonderful bright melt-a-way flavor of these delectable goodies. The base candy wasn't truly a "brittle", it was more like the melt-a-way mints you get now, but not so cloyingly sweet - and there were little strips and bits of candied citrus strewn through them. They came in all sorts of citrus flavors and beautiful pastel colors to match the flavor. I've searched all over and can't find anything even vaguely resembling them. I have no idea how to go about making my own, alas.

[buttertart]

It's remarkable you should mention these, I remember them from our trips down to the Keys from Canada when I was a tiny tot (my mother loved them). Haven't thought of them in absolute ages, they were divine. Also remember how amazing the oranges and kumquats tasted - so flavorful in comparison to the stuff shipped into Canada) and the incredible smell of the Donald Duck orange juice factory my dad took us on the tour of. Thanks for the memories!

[souschef]

Yes, I was amazed on a trip to Clearwater Beach how tasty the strawberries were, even though they were large. The large stuff we get here is bland.

I also had some amazing orange jellies there. Looking forward to returning there sometime just for the jellies.

[buttertart]

But when you get local strawberries in Ontario (and I imagine in Quebec, was never there in the season) they are to die for. Have had Greenmarket ones from many vendors here and nothing compares. Also peaches are a lot more iffy in NY. And tomatoes even in good years.

[souschef]

True, local strawberries are amazing, and you can now even get them till October. The large, bland, ones we get are from California.

[buttertart]

The other thing I remember from my childhood (I left Canada when I was 19 and newly married) is a Lobo apple - ripe around Labor Day, biggish, flattened in shape, red/yellow striped, crisp but somewhat loose texture, bright flavor. Do you know it? A wonderful apple - have asked for it at the Greenmarket and vendors have said they know of it but don't grow it.

[souschef]

I do know that Lobos are available here, but I have not had one. I have a brother-in-law who owns an orchard, and I think he grows them. I'll ask him when I see him on Saturday. BTW his wife keeps me supplied with apple jelly.

My favourite apple has to be the Honey Crisp.

[buttertart]

I'm a Braeburn girl in absence of a better offer.

[exotec]

You're right: our Florida strawberries are really HUGE. Too huge, IMO. The ones I love (and you can't get in stores) are the tiny little alpine strawberries I remember growing wild on roadsides up in the North Carolina mountains. They're like jewels of pure sugar - and so intensely "strawberry"! mmmm The Florida berries are okay, but they have a slightly more pithy texture that isn't all that appealing to me.

The orange blossom honey you get in grove stores is delish, too. I'm not sure if I like the flavor or the aroma ... one whiff reminds me of the days when we still had miles of groves (before the big freeze decimated everything) and you could get a "citrus buzz" just driving through them! lol

[buttertart]

Nothing but nothing beats wild strawberries, they are utterly heavenly. (Haven't had orange blossom honey in ages, remember it used to come in nice spherical jars with gold foil labels.)

[swampwitch]

I remember those! Hadn't thoughtof them in years. so good. Also from groves stores was tropical conserve in those little round jars. loved it.

[omercyme]

a fluffy white masa tamale with pineapple center in Oaxaca

[silas sparkhammer]

Jerk Chicken I had in Negril in 2007. Never had anything that came close to it.

[sadiegrrrl]

Banana Bread at the square where everyone joins to watch Sunset in Key West. (Mallory?) The guy says, "Banana Bread, banana bread". It is dense warm and aromatic. Is he still there?

[Riatta]

A cheesecake with cinnamon in the cake and dutch apple topping with whipped cream from a italian restaurant and sub sandwhiches in New Hampshire that had a topping that was called "salad" - I think it was marinated chopped pickles, olives, peppers, onions and tomatoes.

[southernitalian]

A creamy fish chowder I had at a restaurant in Cobh, ireland, overlooking the bay. I know it had mussels in it but I was young and it didn't occur to me to ask what else was in that. Also, the French onion soup at L'Auberge Gourmande (sp?) on St. Maarten.

[Auriana]

This isn't as sexy as some of the posts, but I haven't been able to find jarred hot cherry peppers in San Diego. I found them once a few years ago but not since. Every store has sweet ones but not hot. Woe betide my homemade cheesesteaks!

[goodhealthgourmet]

have you tried Cardiff Seaside Market or Bristol Farms in UTC? also check the olive bar at Whole Foods.

[absolince]

Pastene brand!

[mutti]

A little late but here is a place you might want to check out.Mezzetta in napa valley, have a jar right here,ha-haaa, go to mezzetta.com maybe they'll ship to you,I'm having a problem finding a cherry pepper plant but that's another day,good luck.

[aynrandgirl]

A sandwich shop in downtown San Jose CA. Blimpies (not the chain), now out of business. They had these Italian subs with this wonderful hard crust (thick, brown, and crunchy) sourdough bread with a meaty and robust interior. Since they closed shop without notice, I never got to ask where they bought it from, and I've never seen its like since.

[sisterfunkhaus]

I did a focus group on tomatoes one time, and there was one tomato that was so amazing. I have never tasted one with such a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity. it was juicy, but firm with no mealiness AT ALL. It was so awesome. They wouldn't tell me anything about it though.

[sadiegrrrl]

Moussaka at Mr. Souvlaki's in Brooklyn Heights. The bechemel was 2 inches thick. The spices were subtle and perfect.

[buttertart]

I liked that restaurant very much too. They also made a delicious briami (veg stew with tomatoes and okra). Nice folks there as well.

[ossauiraty]

Pine Bros Cough Drops!
I used to get them all the time when I was young- they were so chewy (maybe used gum arabic or something similar). TOO BAD they were discontinued!!!!

[BobB]

I remember those! They had less flavor than the hard-candyish Smith Brothers, but a nice jujube-like texture. I must have spent half my candy money on cough drops as a kid.

[ossauiraty]

haha, me too!
what ever happened to the old jujubes anyway? WAS it the gum arabic in them that gave them the texture? is there anything around now like that?
i know grether's pastilles are somewhat similar, but a little difficult to find....

[caiatransplant]

I have 2: When I was a little girl living in Oakland, CA, my mother and I would shop for goodies at Emil's Delicatessen - an old Italian deli with barrels of salted codfish, whole cheeses, etc., drool, drool, and we would eventually end up at Swan's Market for a celery phosphate. The celery phosphate was a drink the color of Coke, not fizzy, but really, really yummy. The stand (within Swan's) also sold Orange Julius, but I always wanted the celery phosphate. I noticed they had bottles of CP on the shelf for sale (mix with water) but my mom never bought it. Now that I'm in my mid-60s, I still remember the taste. I've tried Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray soda, and if you try real hard, you can almost taste the phosphate, but not really. I've tried net research but can't find anyplace to buy it. They're probably out of business.

The other haunt is a mexican restaurant in Benicia, CA. I think it was called Santa Fe. It was in an old brewery and they made everything from scratch. Nothing frozen or nuked. It was fabulous. I live in Iowa now, south of Dubuque and along the MS River, but I miss like hell the farmers markets where everything was super fresh and abundant, that Mexican restaurant in Benicia and celery phosphate. Trust me - it doesn't pay to get old and move away from what you love. Oh, hell, I'm not THAT old and, when I'm home (I'm a trucker), I love nothing more than chasing my husband out of the kitchen and cooking until I fall down. Iowa DOES have great pork!

[buttertart]

And muskmelon, tomatoes, and corn in season. Also lots of good cooks in Iowa! (My husband is from Clinton County, south of you.)

[malibumike]

Their was a restaurant in Santa Monica, CA on pico blvd called Pickle Bills that closed down in the early 70's that served hot roast beef sandwiches, brisket between 2 pieces of bread with mashed potatoes and lots of gravy, the gravy was to die for and we used to buy it by the quart, I have never found any that good and can't duplicate it.

[goodhealthgourmet]

just thought of one more - a dessert at George's at the Cove in La Jolla, CA (before it became George's California Modern). a deconstructed napoleon of rich peanut butter semifreddo, fantastically airy peanut wafers, and a decadent chocolate sauce.

[Querencia]

Rochester NY, 1943, Genesee Street near Arnett Blvd, a store that sold "frosted malted". This was like soft-serve that was a half-frozen creamy chocolate malted milk served in a cone---it came out of a machine. I don't know whether it was a regional specialty or what but I have been looking for it (unsuccessfully) ever since.

[goodhealthgourmet]

i've had some of these more than once, but it was once upon a time...

fried calamari from a now-defunct Italian restaurant in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta. the name of the place escapes me now, but it was a combination of their delicious marinara sauce and perfectly breaded & fried calamari that made it the BEST i've ever had.

and speaking of fried food...fried conch at some random, out-of-the-way fish shack in Key West about 15 years ago. oh. my. god.

coal-fired brick-oven pizza margherita from a little shack on the beach in Cancun, Mexico of all places! perfectly charred, blistered, almost cracker-thin crust with just the right amount of cheese and fresh tomato sauce. it was heavenly.

the other item that haunts me is the ice cream cone i used to order at our local DQ when i was a child - a sugar cone with chocolate soft serve and butterscotch shell topping.

[nomadchowwoman]

Were they conch fritters? Could the place have been called something like The Half Shell? A shack in the middle of the a large shell parking lot? We were in KW three times in the period of 15-20 years ago and ate conch fritters at such a place. Good memories.

[goodhealthgourmet]

ok, i'm just seeing this now! and yes, i meant fritters, i don't know why i didn't just say that :) it wasn't The Half Shell, i did some Googling and figured out that it was B.O.'s Fish Wagon. the place was/is seriously a SHACK...but the fritters were incredible. i seem to recall a pretty fantastic grilled grouper sandwich there too...

[FanOfJoeBiden]

Aww, man, I grew up in Southern California, and remember that the little liquor stores used to sell these Lucas lime and salt bottles - the one with a purple duck in front of it. Friends and I would just sprinkle these on our palms, during recess and eat it.

I am not sure it it was meant to be eaten as such, but it was good.

Same idea - the other thing is a candy that was on a stick, and flat, sprinkled with this salt. I loved that, too.

[gwlker135]

Olive Garden's Creme Brulee...loved it and it's no more.

[AngelSanctuary]

There's this mashed potatoes when I was in HK, and it sounds so absurd to remember something like mashed potatoes when it was just a side to some lamb dish but those potatoes were my first mouth orgasm I ever had! Like my eyes rolled back and I almost moaned (I had SOME etiquette left).

Unfortunately next time I went back the place closed and in place was another restaurant that was kinda identical BUT NO MASHED POTATOES!!!!!

[Rmis32]

At a Flatiron area (NY) restaurant, whose name I can't recall -
strawberry consomme w/ ginger & mascarpone

[thew]

i just remembered there used to be a place in chinatown, on doyers street called BoBo that had the best sesame noodles, but the dish that haunts me was their duck. somehow it was infused this deep, yet not overpowering, garlic flavor that i have never found anywhere else. it was SO good. they closed at least 20 years ago :(

they also had an item on the menu called "hot intestines and things" - i always wondered what the things could possibly be, that the hot intestines were the least nasty one that they could name.....

[buttertart]

Was it spicy? There's a Sichuan dish 腸 王 (Mandarin in Pinyin: chang wang) that is intestines and solidified duck or chicken blood in a hot and spicy sauce, served over a heat source. Quite tasty considering you are literally eating blood and guts!

[thew]

while around quite chowish 20 years ago i wasn;t yet quite adventurous enough to try it, as i would be today. so i have no real details of the dish at all, only my lasting amusement at the name.

[buttertart]

I wouldn't have tried it on my own tick either, but it was a favorite dish of two cousins I taught English to in Taipei and they ordered it up for our farewell banquet. Couldn't say no. Love the dish name too.

[Ritcheyd]

Macy's Cellar in San Francisco had a nice deli about 20 years ago. In their cold case they offered something called Stephano's Supremo (or something similar).It was loaf shaped with a filling of layers of cheeses, salami and red peppers and wrapped in a thin flaky crust. I would usually order several slices but finish it off on the way home and wish I had ordered more!! It was probably mass produced in a factory somewhere but I can still remember exactly what it tasted like and it was wonderful. Macy 's closed their deli some years ago but I'm hoping someone will know what I'm talking about and can tell me where I can find it again.

Another memory: Back in the eighties, there was a mediocre neighborhood bakery not far from where we lived here in Modesto. But they served something called "gypsy sticks". They were long and looked like a baguette sprinkled with poppy seeds and the filling was a seasoned very finely ground beef mixture. I loved them and ordered them a lot but the bakery has since closed and when I mention them to other people they look at me like I'm crazy. Has anyone ever heard of gypsy sticks besides me?

[buttertart]

The Macy's thing sounds a bit like the cold cut pies that my married to an Italian Polish friend used to make for her husband at Easter (and that are available in Italian bakeries sometimes, have also seen recipes for them in Nick Malgieri and Carol Field's books on Italian baking. Might be worth being on the lookout for. The other sounds great as well, perhaps a Bosnian or other bakery specializing in that kind of thing would have something similar? Have not seen a recipe for just such a thing, but the bierocks discussed on Home Cooking sound somewhat similar.

[tkp0906]

My mom was given "Washington Dip" as a gift when we were younger. Neither of us has been able to find it since. I think it was a dip mix that came in a red envelope. Any ideas on where to get it now?

[Ronald_A_Green]

Peach Pandowdy!!! That was in 1961 and I still remember it as though it were yesterday. My mother-in-law offered to make me a pie of my choice and that was it. But she's gone now and I never got the recipe. Bummer.

[Googs]

My mom made apple pan dowdy. I'll poke around her recipe books and see if I can find her delightful version for you. I remember peeling the apples off the top so I could eat those first. In the meantime,
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/a...

[BigSal]

Before leaving Japan to go back to the US in my early teeens, we had purchased certain foods we knew we would not easily find in the States. One of those items that I remember distinctly was Shiroi Koibito (white chocolate sandwiched between thin buttery cookies). We are now well past our teens, but my brother and I still remember the taste of that cookie.

[soeselene]

cafe provence, brandon vt, about eight years ago. it was an appetizer: extremely good ratatouille, topped with sweet, mouth watering carmelized onion, and then drizzled copiously in an incredible butter sauce. i shall never forget it :(

[boogiebaby]

The best wantan mee ever, in Singapore.

Years ago, I was in Singapore with my mom and we had to go to the Visa Office to extend our visas (have family there so we'd go for 2-3 months at a time). The office had a small cafeteria on the first floor, so we decided to grab something to eat before we headed out to go shopping. You would think a government office's cafeteria would have mediocre food, but this was delicious -- lots of char siu, wantans, spicy chillis, and perfectly cooked noodles. This was my first introduction to wantan mee, and it's the standard I hold all wantan mee to. I've tried many different ones from many different restaurants and stalls in Singapore, but none match up to that one from the visa office!

[Beckyleach]

It was nearly 30 years ago. We stopped for the market day in a very tiny village somewhere in Oxaca state...I can't even remember the name of the town so we never can return. Mexican markets almost always are wonderful, and at this one, it seemed every person on the mountain had turned out: the streets were lined with vendors selling baskets and parrots and pottery and jewelery and shawls, beautiful embroidery and food, food food: everywhere you looked there were piles of gorgeous peppers, fruits, grains.

We were wandering--a bit stunned (the night before had been hairy, lost on twisty mountain roads in the fog, playing "Dual" with giant diesal trucks with no headlights)--through the masses when a beautiful, smiling woman walked up to us, uncovered a tin bucket she'd protected with a napkin, and inquired "tamale?"

My husband nodded and held up just two fingers, so she quickly handed us two, banana-leaf wrapped bundles, we handed her the few pesos they cost, and she melted right back into the crowd. THEN we unwrapped and took bits of the SINGLE MOST DELICIOUS mole tamales on the face of the earth!

My husband, in particular, was overwhelmed. He dove into the crowds and tried for at least half an hour to find her, but she had vanished like the fog...Maybe we imagined her? ;-)

He still sighs and shakes his head, regretfully, when remembering the tamales that got away....

[banjoman2375]

When I was about 12 years old, our family went to Germany. My dad is a Lutheran pastor, and was asked to do a wedding there, and used the opportunity to bring the rest of the family. Because of jet lag, and being busy in general, we rarely ate supper before about 10 at night, so we usually resorted to a place across the street from our apartment. It was an "Imbus" place which sold a variety of things, but what I remember most was a thing called a Donar. It wasn't anything like the "donairs" that you can get in North America. It was turkish, and closest to what you might get at a Shwarma restaurant here, but it still wasn't the same. It was a meat of some kind (i'm about 80% sure it was chicken) with lettuce, tomato and cucumber, wrapped up in the most heavenly bread I've ever had. It was like a pita, except thick, and with a crisp, wavy brown crust on the outside. And it was all doused in tzatziki sauce. They were available everywhere in Berlin, but I haven't been able to find anything like it in North america. It was then when I was also introduced to the sheer bliss of french fries and mayonaise....

[BobB]

That's a doner kebab - very common wherever Turks are found. Can be made with any of several meats, typically lamb or chicken. Very similar to Greek gyros.

And where you ate it was an Imbiss (or Imbiß), a classic German fast food emporium. My favorite Imbiss item when I lived there was currywurst.

[Passadumkeg]

Real shashlii, like in the Cacausus or in Russia.

[banjoman2375]

OH yes! The currywurst was also incredible! My dad had made if for years at home and I wasn't a huge fan of it, because he made it more like a real curry, with canned tomatoes and stuff, but when I had it in Germany it was so different, and so much better!

[woelkaru]

Yeah, currywurst!! I have not had anything like that since I left Germany! It was so good!

[Bada Bing]

I spent a summer in Berlin in 1986. There is no food that I have pined for since then more than these Döner Kebabs. I have looked they are all but impossible to find in the USA, where everyone thinks you're asking for a gyro sandwich. I've heard of one place in Virginia and another in CA that tries to make the German-Turkish version. Alas, I'm hundreds or even thousands of miles from both.

[linguafood]

State College, PA just got their first true döner place. Turks who moved there from Freiburg opened it up a few months ago. They bake their own pide for their lahmaçun.

Happy Valley is moving closer to becoming less of a culinary desert.

[Bada Bing]

What's the name of the place, please?

[linguafood]

Sorry, this is a bit late... but the place is still there :-)

It's called Penn Kebab and is in the building complex that houses Big Bowl Noodle House.

[Bada Bing]

Next time I drive to NY State, I'm hitting Penn State! Thanks!!!

Interestingly, I spent a year in Freiburg as well as my time in Berlin. To be honest, I found my Freiburg Döners to be more pricey and not even quite so good as the Berlin ones, but still, worth any reasonable detour with the slim pickings here in the USA. The Freiburgers seemed more averse to spiciness than the Berliners. Germans in general are pretty limited in their taste for spicy foods, a few speciality sausages excepted.

[linguafood]

Yes, they're not too keen on spices. It took a Thai girlfriend for me to finally see the light :-)

I've never been to Freiburg, tho I hear it's pretty. I would likely OD on the local specialties including Käsespätzle.

Oh, and holla when you come through Happy Valley -- we got some decent eats here, besides döner!!

[OkayTea]

Iced peppered strawberry soup at a hotel in the Lakes District of England over 10 years ago. Perfect consistency, and the concept of sweet and spicy was a revelation to me-- I must have been 11 or 12 at the time and I think that was the moment that transformed me from a passive eater to a foodie. I dream of that soup--the sweet tart strawberry puree with the bite of cracked pepper.....

I also remember a frozen lemon mousse at a museum cafe in Washington, DC. Just the perfect texture....delightful.

[Beckyleach]

Oh, golly! You reminded me: a proper English cream tea, with the scones still piping hot, the clotted cream piled in a bowl, and the strawberry jam tasting of sunshine, in an properly ancient Tea Shop in Devon. The building was built entirely of grey stones, on a winding little street , the curtains were lace and the hostess was jolly. It was a perfect part of a perfect college field trip. We also went to Stonehenge near sunset (and in those days you could wander amongst the pillars), we peeked into the tomb of the D'Urbervilles, and we ended up on "Wessex" Moor as the bonfires for Guy Fawke's Eve sprang to life all over the darkened plains stretching before us....

[woelkaru]

Yeah! That reminds me of the first time I tried double cream! It's not a haunt , since I've had it since. But it was in Australia, with lemonade scones. I also like the vanilla slice dessert.

[Cookiefiend]

My Great-Grandmother's chocolate chip cookies.

They weren't the sort on the back of the Toll House bag, I have tried to figure out what she did to no avail. When my oldest sons were in Pre-school, after a school play, there were refreshments baked by the parents... someone there had cookies like those.

I burst into tears.

[horseshoe]

An awesome sweet and sour sauce, orange in color as opposed to the red stuff. China town, L.A. circa, 1972

[mickie44]

Miami Beach, 79th Street. It's probably the home of a huge hotel/condo complex now but in 1965, there was an outdoor jukebox and concrete pad for dancing or whatever and next door was a place that made the best hoagies -- maybe Philly cheesesteaks but what did I know in those days? They were delicious and I was hungry.

[malibumike]

Here in southern callifornia back in about 1960 you used to be able to get Real Churrned Buttermilk, hasn't been here for years, I understand they only have it back east and down south, they also have fat free buttermilk, but not here.

[BobB]

Kate's of Maine just introduced it to their line, can you get her products where you are? They're sold at Whole Foods, among others.

http://www.kateshomemadebutter.com/Ka...

[malibumike]

Thanks Bob but I just checked and they dont have any of Kate;s products at the two Whole Foods I was at.

[BobB]

They do here in MA - probably only the East Coast outlets carry it. But maybe yours could special order it for you?

[Passadumkeg]

Shaw's Grocery stores carries Kates too and it is cheaper that the ersatz stuff.

[Jet]

If you happen to be in the S.F. Bay Area, trek to the Rouge et Noir Cheese Factory in an area in Marin County known as Nicassio. There they give tours, samples, & they have just the delicious Buttermilk you have described! -JET

[gritsngravy]

Cruze Dairy Farm in Knoxville, TN is the only producer of churned buttermilk I've come across, and I did a tour in America's dairyland (Wisconsin and Minnesota, where it's true, by the way, that each state's motto better describes the other; WI has more lakes than MN, and MN produces more dairy).

[per me]

On a recent trip to Italy, visiting my Italian cousins, I ate peacock (pavone) at their friends house in Treviso. Treviso, a city of canals, is near Venice and Venetian opulence seems to have made it's presence known at that meal. The eating of various birds in Italy is not so unusual. Italian's frequently cook all types of poultry; chicken (pollo), guinea fowl which they call faraona, duck (anatra), spit roasted pigeons (piccioni allo spiedo), goose (oca) and pheasant (fagiano) but I had never eaten peacock. Our meal began with a broth (brodo) made of peacock with nidi d'amore (love nests), a type of pasta filled with ground veal. The pavone (peacock) meat was jointed, braised and served on the bone presented on a giant platter. The peacock legs were carved because they were quite large; much larger than a turkey. The meat was dark but very flavorful and didn't taste gamey at all. We were also served a goose prepared in a similar manner and an Italian meatloaf. When we drove up to the farm (fattoria) there were peacocks roaming the grounds. Little did I know they would be part of the afternoon meal.

[DishDelish]

Sounds interesting. I would love to try it someday!

[jnk]

There was a takeout Italian restaurant where I grew up called Cirolli's and they had a great "baked lasagna" where they would put the pasta on edge around the container, They also made a great veal parm sandwich. By the way, this is going back 40 years.

[schrutefarms]

I like this thread!! There are so many things I could say, but the taste I remember and miss the most is a cheese naan (naan avec fromage) from an Indian place in Montmarte I ate at a decade ago. It stayed gooey and drippy and buttery half an hour afer we ordered it. There is a chance it's still there, I just haven't been :(

[curiousgeo]

A bowl of pork soup with noodles at a street stall in Georgetown, Penang. The soup was rich and thick with tender pork slices, bean sprouts, green onions and chewy, yellow noodles. With a bit of chili pepper sprinkled on top, it was a magnificent lunch that I still remember after 30 years. I recall sitting down next to the hawker stall, slurping my food in the summer heat with sweat running down my face, and saying delicious, delicious!

[Humbucker]

Something called Louisiana Butter Cake at Gary Danko in San Francisco. Made out of leftover croissants, it was crunchy on the outside and soft and dense on the inside. I've searched for a recipe, but it looks like it's something that was made up at the restaurant.

[veggiemelt]

Warm cherry tomatoes, straight off the vine, sitting in the garden in my grandmother's back yard. Must have been around 1976. Wow, I ate them until I was sick. Best tomatoes of my life.

[DanaB]

I have a grape tomato plant that I've saved seeds from for about ten years. The tomatoes it produces are the perfect size to pick from the plant and eat. The plant itself that the seeds produce is fantastic in its own right, as it usually lives two years in Los Angeles (essentially overwintering), and thus I have ripe tomatoes as early as April sometimes, but definitely by May. I had friends visiting from the east coast one Memorial Day weekend a few years back, and their three year old, once he tried one tomato from the vine, sat there and ate every single one that was red. If anyone else on the planet had shown up and eaten all my ripe tomatoes in one fell swoop, I would've been angry, but the kid was just so amazed at how good they were right from the vine that it made it all okay ;-)

[jvanderh]

Oh can I pretty please have some seeds?

[jecolicious]

For me it was a soup I had when I was 22. After 12 hours of traveling from 3 airports with little rest and less decent food we landed on a drizzly cold night in Cancun. Even if everything was in English and the people were intensely nice the food was the standard continental fare sterilized for tourists. We opted out and took a cab ride to a restaurant overlooking the water and had what they called "Vueve la Vida" essentially a seafood soup that was the living essence of the briny sweet sea. Perfectly cooked shellfish and a good beer. I've gone over all the Bayless books and tried their versions of Sopa de Mariscos but the satisfaction of a hot comforting soup greeting you in a foreign land you're still adjusting to just can't be replicated.

Perhaps good borscht in the middle of the Russian Tundra would be next.

[buttertart]

Appropriately named, "return to life" soup.

[janetofreno]

And so named because its a famous hangover cure....:-) My husbands all-time favorite soup, btw, and not because of its curative properties :-)

[beekeroc]

My favorite and never found again was a "Orange Soup" from Moscovitch? and Moscovitch?" in Winnipeg Canada, (it was 20 yrs. I might be a bit off on the name.) Anyway , it sounded interesting so I tried it and it was so wonderful. It was a Borscht with mandrine oranges in it. Tried to make it (and I make good borscht) but failed. If anyone has a recipe let me know.

[souschef]

In the early 80's in a restaurant in Montreal (Le Fadeau), a chicken breast flattened, stuffed with chicken mousse, then rolled and cooked to perfection. Sliced and served with a wondrous sauce. It just melted in the mouth. I have never forgotten the taste, and have failed to replicate it. The chef died many years later. The replacement restaurant, though highly-rated, did nothing for me on my one visit there.

One New Year's Eve, a dinner guest brought along a bottle of 30-year old Port (Barros 1963), It was heaven. A subsequent visit to a wine shop in Montreal turned up another '63, for $600 +. My dinner guest, when told the price, said no regrets, she was with people who appreciated it. Funny, though, after dinner at her place a few months later, with a whole bunch of people, she called me into the kitchen and sneaked me a glass of the same stuff; said she was not sharing with anyone else! Then, years later, a waiter in Boston gave me the same stuff to buy my silence - to not say anything to the chef if he came around to ask how I liked his pride and joy dish, which I told the waiter was horrible.

[daisygirl]

Pizza in Lugano Switzerland, my aunt's honey fried chicken and, sadly, a Gino Giant.

[gritsngravy]

My most memorable pizza was also consumed in Switzerland, Zurich, to be exact, but it was not the pizza itself (seafood variety, so strange it seemed to me at the time to be eating a pie with whole shellfish, shrimp with heads, and squid, no cheese) that made the meal memorable.

What has stayed with me was the ease with which I managed to instigate an argument with my then girlfriend of many years, that meal being our first together after a six-month separation, and the fact that we managed to stay together for several years after that. I still wonder what that fight was about.

I left food uneaten that I would not have had the circumstances been different. There was public crying, after all..

Many of our dearest memories are our best meals, but all of our best meals are dear memories.

[buttertart]

A dish of paper-thin slices of breast of chicken and the same of fresh bamboo shoots in an intensely chickeny broth and chicken fat sauce, served in a shallow frosted glass platter, lookiing cool and refreshing, served to us at the Zhi Yuan aka Tizzy Sichuan restaurant on Zhonghan Bei Lu in Taipei in the height of hottest summer, by our usual very charming waitress who insisted we needed something cooling to counteract the allergic reaction I had from a surfeit of mangoes. Never seen again, either in the flesh or in recipe form, or known by any of the other Sichuan restaurants I've ever visited. There was a faint whiff of almond about it from the bamboo shoots. Magic.

[moh]

Wow Buttertart! Such an evocative post, you really captured a magical moment for all of us to share. That dish sounds marvelous.

[buttertart]

Thanks. It was. The food in that restaurant was wonderful.

[nomadchowwoman]

Paris, 1990, Gare de L'est: must have encountered the same attendant as Leanne did, on many trips for showers there, who kept trying to force my travelling companion and me into the same stall--and we most definitely did not want to shower a' deux! But I digress . . . I ate many sandwiches there, including tuna, and, yes, they haunt me still. And I live in a city full of great sandwiches.

But the most ordinary ingredients on the most delicious bread, in the dinginess of a train station, in Paris = Magic.

And then there are the tremazzini in Venice. There is a place right near the Accademia, with an amazing selection. Yet, each time I've contemplated trying to replicate them at home, I think--egg salad? tiny shrimp in mayo? white bread?--how can this be the stuff of dreams?

But the all-time haunter, that most elusive of culinary ghosts, was a piece of white pizza in Rome--porcini pizza, to be exact. My husband and I were wandering about, sight-seeing, after a substantial Italian lunch. It was hot, and we found ourselves at the Trevi Fountain, amongst throngs of other tourists, when I got a whiff of something I could not resist, my siren call for sure, and I followed my nose to a little stand (?), a window in an ancient building (?), something on wheels (?), somewhere nearby, and I saw people being handed good-sized squares of pizza. I told DH that I must have some, eliciting a question about my sanity, as well as a reminder that we'd just eaten--amply--and that we had a dinner reservation to work up to. I bought a piece and bit into what I can only describe as the most blissful, transporting combination of earth and cheese. (I did not know then that I was eating porcinis, and much as I love them, they have never tasted so good.) I offered DH a bite; seeing my ecstasy, he bit. Which turned into an excuse to get a second piece. I do not remember anything else we ate in Rome. I will never forget that piece of pizza.

[Sam Fujisaka]

I started reading your post with a dumb blank look on my face that was gradually but then fully transformed into that of a totally grinning idiot by the Trevi.

[woelkaru]

Yep, me too. I had to read it out loud a few times, trying to will the whole lot into my existence.

[Leanne]

What a wonderful thread..

Paris 2000 Gare de l'Est train station. After a fiery argument in more than adequate French with the bathroom attendant who was not willing to take my 5 francs to use the facilities, I came upon a sandwich stand. I was going to be arriving in Luxembourg at an off meal time and knew I would need something to hold me over until dinner.

My train was leaving in 5 minutes so I grabbed a tuna sandwich on a baguette and a can of Kronenbourg 1664. That tuna sandwich still haunts me to this very day as one of the best I have ever had. I can't re-create it, it was plain, the baguette was crisp on the outside and doughy on the inside and washing it down with a cold beer on a fast moving train was purely celestial

[absolince]

leanne....this same exact senario happened to me in '84....god, i was homesick! But the sandwiches, the sandwiches!

[ChefTara]

The most heartbreaking things I used to eat as a kid that are no longer sold are the french onion dip we used to get that is no longer sold here, the hamburgers with cole slaw from a little stand near my hometown that was torn down when they widened the road, and the butterscotch marble ice cream from the ice cream parlor that was in the mall in my hometown that closed down when I was a preteen.

ALL of my favorite restaurants from my childhood are now closed. :(

[susabella]

Kings Barbeque in Eustis, Florida. Up in colored town, Opened on Saturday nights at 11pm. til whenever.

[dvsndvs]

Burnt Caramel gelato in Italy. I haven ever gotten over it, and I am not an ice cream lover.

[ElsieB]

Seafood pizza on the island of Moorea in the pacific. Local guide took us there by boat but then we had to walk about 1/4 mile thru shallow water to the beach, all the while paying attention not to step on a stone fish (painful not deadly). The pizza place was little more than a trailer in a tropical grove with a big fired pizza oven. The owner/cook was maybe italian or french. The pizza was just amazing, tons of unknown and known seafood, very little cheese and a great crispy crust. Never saw or heard of pizza like it!!!!

[Mariposa410]

Reminds me of the Best Pizza I ever had in Northern Italy in a small town near where we lived. It too was a "Seafood Pizza" that was mostly clams and mussels! There was No tomato sauce on the pizza, and I think it was just the mussels and clams that had been sauteed with olive oil and garlic. It was then spread on the dough and covered lightly with a blend of cheeses and baked in a brick wood fired oven! It was by far the Best Pizza I ever had! The Best Calzone I ever had was in another town in the mountains not far from where we lived. It was a typical Calzone with Ricotta Cheese and Mozzarella and Parmesan. It had Italian sausage and then the best part was it had an egg (raw) placed in it just before baking and when it came out the egg was almost like a poached egg inside! It was wonderful!!!! I have never had this again after we left Italy in, but have been so tempted to try and replicate this at home now that we are retired and have time to "experiment with cooking! Some other great dishes I recall from our travels while based in Europe are the Tagliatelle in Bari, the wonderful fresh made breads that tasted different in every region and almost every town throughout our travels in Europe! The schnitzels in Germany and the spaetzel throughout Germany. The wonderful pickled red cabbage, and German Beers! We also loved the Italian local wines, many never imported out of Italy! Then there was the Risotto in Northern Italy, often made with different vegetables in season! We also never found a Pasticeria we did not like! My husbands favorite thing was to stop for a local Pastry before we had a meal! He said that way he was sure to get a dessert! We also enjoyed the Gelato and had a favorite place in Pordenone, Italy - a City not to far from the small town we lived in - that served what they called Gelato Artisano! Gelato made to look like Spaghetti, Pizza, and all kinds of other "non-dessert" kinds of dishes. It has been many, many, many moons ago since we lived there, and I doubt any of the "old" spots we loved to frequent are even there now! But just thinking about them brings back the memory, the smells and the tastes!!! Such great memories!

[Jetgirly]

HOW DID I FORGET?

Almond-flavoured rice milk from Italian health food stores. I can get rice milk and almond milk here, but not almond-flavoured rice milk.

[Passadumkeg]

Try a freezer ice cream maker, cheaper too.

[Michelly]

Or almond extract or oil in rice milk?

[precia]

Milk ice cream. I spent most of a summer in Japan during high school, and had plenty ice cream flavors (green tea, red bean, ginger) that are very easy to find on this side of the world. The closest I've found to the milk flavor is sweet cream, and it is nothing like the pure taste I'm looking for.

The melon shaved ice was really good, too. We had a little tube of condensed milk to top the pile of ice with. Mmm. They did summer right over there.

[Blueayez]

Found at a "Mediterranean" deli in Colorado Springs, CO:

It was more than Mediterranean food. There were also some groceries from all over the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia. We bought a jar of pickled mango (yes I know Indian). Maybe because it was my first taste of it but it was exquisite. I used it in marinades, as a condiment and in side dishes.

I've found other pickled mangoes since then but nothing quite like those.

[synergy]

A hamburger I had on my honeymoon at Sam Lords Castle in Barbados 27 yrs ago. It was to die for.
A simple dish of home made pasta, garlic, oil and LOTS of truffles in a casual restaurant in Pienza, Italy.
The veal parm. we had at this 1 neighborhood italian restaurant in Queens, that has been gone for many, many years.
Gelato we had in a tiny place in Rome, on a side street by the Spanish Steps. God I love gelato.

[easily amused]

Reminds me of the "Grand Marnier Mousse" served at Josef's in Barbados that we would savor. In order to assure yourself of a taste...you had to reserve 2 as soon as you were seated. The restaurant is still there...but sadly I don't believe it is on the menu.I have tried to duplicate this dish at home as an elegant dinner dessert...the results have been fairly close but perhaps to have it served on the Glorious shores of Barbados is key.

[synergy]

Having anything served to you on the shores of Barbados always improves the flavor in my book :-)

[Bat Guano]

Oh. At a tiny place on a back street in Lisbon several years ago - I don't know if it even had a name. Nor a menu; the specialty was a rice dish with seafood - rice, clams, shrimp, squid, chunks of fish, all superlatively fresh and baked together in an absolutely delicious conglomeration. Not like paella, it was in a deep bowl, and no saffron; not sure what the spices were, if any. Just tasted of the sea. I went back again a couple of times while I was there, but have never found anything since that was quite as good.

[renowynn]

I am not fond of most citrus fruits, however, I did a presentation for career day at a school where my older sister taught and in the same class, a woman from UC Riverside was also doing a presentation. She brought in a 'new' fruit, called, I believe, an orangelo. I can't remember what they had crossed to make it, only that it looked like a pommelo, but tasted very sweet. I look in produce sections all the time, but I have never ever seen one.

[SissyGreen]

Whilst backpacking around the US for 3 months 4 summers ago my friend and I stumbled upon a cafe near our hostel in Charleston, South Carolina. We ordered lunch (half a sandwich and salad - so cheap compared to what we had been spending in other cities as we travelled down from NYC). It was a marinated chicken salad sandwich with tomato and it was the best sandwich I have ever tasted. I will never forget the taste of that tomato - it was like I had never tasted tomato before and that was what it was meant to be like! Without speaking I offered my friend a bite and our eyes met in total understanding and agreement. We still talk about that sandwich to this day, back in London.

[Cinnamon]

Yes, THAT is what a tomato is SUPPOSED to taste like!

Those kind of experiences make me marvel that the world still eats, say, tomatoes in their less brilliant representation. They can go on for years with bad, under-ripened, anemic tomatoes because of some distant memory or vague notion that it's a tasty food, when it's not at all ... unless it is the kind of tomato of which you speak.

[Cebca]

many foods have similar issues, constantly being eaten and assumed to taste like their out-of-season, shipped-from-miles-away, picked-unripe specimens - strawberries come to mind . . . but I think tomatoes are the worst offender in this class. It's at the point where I really won't eat tomatoes out of season (I'm in California, so I can afford to be snobby like that).

Growing up in CT, my mom would always whine about the tomatoes and I didn't get what the big deal was - to me they were just a gross vegetable. It wasn't until I had tasted some homegrowns in CT, and of course now in CA, that I learned to appreciate the raw tomato.

[Michelly]

Being so tired of tasteless tomatoes, I'm in the process of growing several different varieties from seed (NOT Big Boy, Beefsteak, or Celebrity). The seedlings are due for transplanting into the ground, so stay tuned for further details.

[ekammin]

When I was an adolescent, I had the chance to spend two years in Paris. As an impoverished student, I often ate at cheap student restaurants near the University.

One night I was eating at one with a Parisian friend. I was remarking on the prevalence of horsemeat butchers in Patris, adding that I could never bring myself to eat horsemeat, all the while eating what seemed like a very tender, juicy steak. My friend said nothing, but just pointed at my steak, and smiled.

[Veggo]

How many times I would have wished at the window that my 5 bucks would have bought a nice, lean sandwich rather than a ticket on a pony that was so slow they had to pay the jockey overtime.

[malibumike]

There was a place on Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica CAlifornia called "Pickle Bills" that was sold in the early 70's and became a McDonalds. They were around since WW2 and lots of Dogulas aircraft employees ate there, the best hot roast beef sandwiches anywhere, especially the gravy, I cannot duplicate it.

Also at University High School in West Los Angeles was the Sloppy Joes, hamburger base with a tomato based sauce served on a hamburger bun, kind of tangy with a tiny bit of sweetness, cant duplicat it either.

[KevinB]

Three, all from my honeymoon:

Fresh sardines, grilled quayside in Portimao, Portugal. Served with a simple green salad, boiled potatoes, and a glass of vinho verde. Anyone who doesn't like fish should try these - or maybe not, it might spoil you on other fish forever!

Souffle potatoes at the eponymous restaurant in Madrid - little pillows of joy! Potatoes deep fried once, left to cool slightly, and then plunged into hotter oil, which makes them puff up into the perfect cross of french fry and potato chip. Tried to make them at home a few times, always failed.

On the train from Paris to Lisbon - In Paris, we picked up some local pate, ham, cheese, and two ficelle. On the train, we had an impromptu picnic in our compartment. The texture of the ficelle was the outstanding part - crispy enough that there was some bite, but with a soft yielding crumb. The funny part was we shared our compartment with a French gentleman. As we were rolling through the vineyards of Bordeaux, I opened a bottle of wine that our stewardess on our Toronto-Paris flight had given us to celebrate our honeymoon. It was a California cab. I distinctly remember the gentleman lowering his copy of Le Monde for a moment. After he saw what I was doing, his eyes met mine for a millisecond with just the faint glimmering of contempt. He re-raised his paper, and later left without ever speaking to us.

[janetofreno]

lol....I just thought of one. In the spring of 1972 I was living in the Co-op Dorm in UC Davis...we shared meals and chores...and bought our own food...and since there were only about 70 people living there the food was much better than standard dorm stuff....

We also ran a little late-night cafe in the dorm kitchen, and would make snacks and stuff for folks living in the "big dorms" who were craving real food. Our specialty was a sandwich: basically a grilled cheese on wheat..but the cheese was good cheddar, and sliced tomatoes and grilled mushrooms went into the mix as well. They were always so good....Maybe someone who lived in Unit III in Davis in the early 70s can remember what they were called..My memory is that someone's name was attached to it.

Funny, it should be a simple treat to reproduce, but it isn't the same. Maybe you need a night of studying followed by a good case of the munchies to appreciate it....

[MrsCris]

What a great thread!
About 25 years ago, at the Flamingo in Vegas, in the main restaurant the soup of the day was a creamy chicken and avocado. Rich, savoury, mellow and complex, and absolutely
the best soup I've ever had. I've spent many a chicken carcass trying to replicate it.

[linguafood]

Just remembered another one: grapefruit & apples. This was a dish available off of the massively-loaded breakfast 'cart' at the very posh Newton Hotel in Nairn, Scotland.

My dad, my sister and I spent two weeks there in the early 80s, arriving hopelessly underdressed (the cost of the vacation should've been a dead give-away to my dad, but...)

Every morning, there were several breakfast carts with all kinds of nice stuff to choose from, a 3-5 course lunch, tea time, a 5-course dinner, and after-dinner coffee service with petit-fours, etc. Unfortunately, at that point my chow-nicity hadn't quite developed yet, so I was overwhelmed by most of it. Sigh.

But the grapefruit & apples dish, similar to a compote, was so fab I had it every morning... is it a British / Scottish thing?

[Googs]

Nothing fancy for me. Just a couple of experiences that have never been reproduced in Toronto. Toby's Good Eats burgers (any of them, but the Courage was my fave) with cheesy, chunky fries and thick Hagen Daaz milkshakes. The potato-flour-crust pizzas made at a little hole in the wall at the corner of Midland and Eglinton called Cavoto's back in the 70's. Never had a pizza that good before or since in my city.

[jeanmarieok]

I loved Toby's fries with that cheese sauce!!!!

[1sweetpea]

That cheese sauce was laced with crack. I'm sure of it. ;-) I didn't even like the wedge fries that much, but I'd have dipped wood chips in that sauce. The fries were just the vehicle for the sauce.

[annl]

In the 70's, for my last 2 years at UConn I lived in a small dorm where the chef thought our eating should be as much as part of our education as our classes. We had wonderful meals and got introduced to many different types of food. He was also very frugal and turned leftovers into delicious soups for lunch the next day. To this day I miss his Chicken a la Reina, sort of a creamy chicken soup with rice.

[topbanana]

About 15 years ago I stumbled upon an incredible vegetarian wrap simply called "cheddar curry" sold at a music festival by a local purveyor in Guelph, Ontario. It was (to my fading recollection) a chickpea based filling with a mildly spicy, creamy cheddary-curry sauce unlike anything I've ever tasted . I typically abhor wraps, yet this was divine (if such a word can even be used to describe something otherwise so pedestrian). Googling has yielded no leads on this mysterious food. Alas, I have come to accept that it was a once in a lifetime experience.

[gfr1111]

My family and I drove around Mexico in our car in 1967. I ordered chicken chalupas with a green sauce at Sanborn's "House of Tile" in Mexico City. I have had chalupas since, trying to duplicate the experience, but they were nothing like what I had there: shredded moist chicken on a corn tortilla with the edges rather cripsy, due to being run under a broiler, a garlicky and spicy green sauce underneath, some sort of white Mexican cheese on top (goat cheese?) covering cilantro and maybe chopped onion, with a large puddle of liquid Mexican cream (?) on top, which melded with the cheese.

Maybe they are still serving it at Sanborn's to this day, but I have found nothing like it in the United States and I haven't been back to Mexico since 1972.

[Passadumkeg]

You are better than I. We drove down the west coast of Mexico and back up the east. I remember a lot of delicious shrimp dishes and moles, bur maybe too much mezcal and pulque and fogged (a euphanism for dead brain cells) my memory. The trip did, however, change for ever my attitude about and desire for Mexican food forever.
Mole, mole, I want mole!

[Veggo]

gfr1111, Sanborn's is my only vote on the "What foreign chains would you like to see in the US".They are still just as good, and their bakery and desserts are even better now! They are clustered around Mexico City and are the place of choice for "power breakfasts". But they would be an instant hit in any American city.

[susancinsf]

the enchiladas suizas at Sanborn's were also justifiably famous, back in the late sixties, early seventies...haven't eaten there in about 15 or 20 years myself, so can't vouch for them currently, but I'd definitely go back to try them.

[contessa15]

I have two food experiences that i still think about:
the first comes form my mother who is a fantastic cook. i was at sleep away camp and when my parents came to visit she brought me a slice of a white chocolate cheesecake she had made the night before. it was topped with an incredibly raspberry sauce. maybe it was the prolonged exposure to camp food, but it was divine. something about the subtle white chocolate with the vibrant raspberry...just wonderful!

my second "haunting" food experience came when we traveled to southern Germany. in a tiny little converted house we stopped for dinner and along with my main course came a heaping helping of buttery, warm spaetzle with little flecks of parsley. they were the epitome of comfort food.

[kidpresentable]

I spent the first part of my childhood in Hong Kong (this was during the early 80s). There used to be a couple of street vendors in these little wheeled carts that made these crepe-like snacks. They were fresh crepes with a little bit of shaved coconut and some kind of sugar inside. I can still remember my relatives taking me out at night, where I'd see the little lit cart by the roadside, the smell of the hot pan and coconut in the air, the wrinkly old man handing me a fresh one with his grubby hands. Heaven.

Years later, they city banned street food and moved all food vendors indoors, mostly inside public markets. But I never found those crepes again, after many visits back. I also never found out the proper name for those crepes. Every now and then, when I pass by a Filipino bakery in the city, I catch a whiff of something in the air that reminds me of those crepes and it always makes me stop and do a double-take.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Filipino bakery in Vancouver or in Hong Kong?

[ButterMeUp]

There's a Filipino bakery in Vancouver called Goldilocks on Broadway and Fir. Great sweets!

[mom22tots]

The bread at Bella Donna in NYC...tiny BYO pasta place on the UES. Best bread EVER! Anyone else rememeber it?

[extrasalty]

For me it was something called Hot Patty in the Bahamas. We had it years ago while waiting for a connecting flight in the Nassau airport. It’s just some sort of soupy ground meat, possibly with a little melted cheese, encased in a non-flaky pastry disk, but it was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever had (and no I wasn’t ravenously hungry or deranged with jetlag). I spent the whole vacation talking about getting another Hot Patty on the way home. My husband, who was not under the same spell, was patient. At the end of the week I pretty much burst out of the plane in Nassau, only to see the Hot Patty stand on the wrong side of a glass security divider.

[janeh]

A crispy beef empanada at a little cafe at El Mitad del Mundo outside of Quito, Ecuador.

[swampwitch]

Having lived in S. Fla. most of my life I often ate what was called Jamacia pattys. Crispy round crust , soupy well seasoned groung meat. Yup thats them Havent had on in abot 10 years but the cajuns make a meat pie thats pretty close.

[alkapal]

south florida as in southeast florida around miami? i'm from s.w. florida, and am not familiar with those. you have jamaicans there, whereas on the gulf coast, not so much at all.

[energy]

I grew up in San Jose, CA..there was a shopping center at the corner of Williams and Winchester blvd. I think there was a Mayfair Market and El Torrito in the center. There was also this very small ice cream by the dry cleaner and dounut shop. They made the VERY BEST toasted almond ice cream. That darn ice cream started me on a Toasted Almond Ice Cream search...hard to find..now evern harder since Dryer's discontinued their flavor. I'm bummed....who make Toasted Almond Ice Cream now????????

[cosmogrrl]

Fenton's in Oakland still has Toasted Almond ice cream. IMHO it's better than Dreyer's.

[jackiecat]

Oh my! I still remember getting hot fudge sundaes with toasted almond ice cream from Fenton's 20 years ago. TO DIE FOR!

[janetofreno]

An old post but have to agree....loved the Fenton's toasted almond hot fudge sundae!

[Reignking]

Amaretto ice cream / gelato. I've actually been able to find it again, but not in a very convenient place. The first time was in 2000 at Tepoznieves, an ice cream store from Tepoztlán, Mexico, near Cuernavaca. This place had some funky flavors, including lettuce or carrot.

In 2006, during my honeymoon, I found some amaretto gelato in Paris -- not made simply with amaretti cookies, but real amaretto flavor. To this day, I think of amaretto as such as underappreciated flavor. So memorable that I just eyeballed it on a map: http://www.amorino.fr/ near Jardin du Luxembourg.

[Passadumkeg]

Burbot caviar on buckwheat blini w/ sour cream and diced onion. Hard to believe I used to split a 5 gal. bucket of burbot caviar w/ a Finnish buddy.
A Rapu fest. Easting crayfish in Finland outside by the midnight sun w/ chasers of iced
Finlandia vodka.

[cayjohan]

Nothing, nothing, nothing in the world like dill-y crayfish and rye bread after sauna at Midsummer, eikö niin? That's livin".

Cay

[Passadumkeg]

Hyvaa, hyvaa!

Grilli makara and beer after a wicked hot sauna ain't too shabby either. Don'ytforget the viita!