terry123
Well-known Member
- Location
- Houston, Tx.
My favs too!
Best Food / Meals You Ever Ate…
- Thread starter JonSR77
- Start date
Lethe200
Senior Member
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
Long, long ago - Dover Sole (the REAL Dover sole, not the many ordinary-tasting faux named soles one gets now), flown in that morning to San Francisco, served with a cultured butter and lemon sauce, at the now-gone La Bourgogne, a bastion of haut cuisine before nouvelle cuisine came in and ruined everything. It's an exquisite, delicate fish, unlike any I've had before or since.
Also at La Bourgogne - langoustines from the Mediterranean, in garlic butter. This is what lobsters aspire to be in their next life. 'Chicken' lobsters are a pale shadow of fresh langoustines, which are incredibly sweet and tender.
The classic Japanese kaiseki dinner at Kansai/SF: the current rage is omakase, chef's choice in a multi-course meal. You tell the chef when you are full. Kaiseki is quite different; it is not limited to a certain type of cooking (as omakase is, strictly speaking), and it is a set menu with a pre-determined number of courses. It is the Japanese equivalent to a classic Chinese banquet.
Classic Chinese banquets. Remember when Nixon went to China? Chinese food was still in the chop suey days, even in San Francisco. That one visit upended Chinese American cuisine forever. Authentic food and crafts became the rage in our city during the 1980's, with stunning Mainland Chinese art exhibitions and revamped restaurant menus. The Imperial Palace in SF Chinatown replicated Nixon's banquet and Peking Duck appeared for the first time on a restaurant menu. Their regular food was mediocre, but their banquet food, by special order only, was amazing. We liked it better than Cecilia Chiang's more publicized Mandarin restaurant.
Even the smaller Chinese restaurants started to do regional dishes - the Golden Pavilion gave me a Sichuan Lamb dish that was better than anything I've had anywhere else. Sichuan food should show a variety of flavors: spicy, flowery, salty, sour, sweet, bitter, smoky. It was eye-opening to bite into a piece of tender lamb and taste all those different flavors separately, yet they melded into a harmonious whole.
Beluga caviar, Schramsberg champagne, and blini at the old Compass Rose in the St. Francisco hotel, Union Square, SF. We brought my aunt, and meant to just have appetizers and then go to dinner. But we ended up staying there for five hours - in fact we closed them down - and after a few hours they just left the serving cart next to us so we could serve ourselves!
I can't remember where it was, but the first time I had a Filet Rossini, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. A dry-aged Prime quality filet mignon, a generous seared slice of foie gras, and a properly made marrow-based Bordelaise sauce, with a couple of triangles of thin white toast, crusts trimmed off.
Lastly, the poached foie gras with spiced peach consomme at La Folie. Roland Passot is semi-retired now, and recently closed La Folie. But that dish was stunning, the best foie gras creation we've ever had. He also made an unusual Edam souffle for dessert that was amazing - combining a cheese course with dessert was brilliant!
There's a lot of great home cooking I've had, some of which I've done myself. But a great restaurant can buy better quality and do more complex dishes than I would ever bother making myself.
There is one dish I made that is a real pain but it CAN be made at home, albeit it dirties up every dish in the house, LOL. The Time-Life recipe for Rigo Jancsi, from the Viennese cookbook, is phenomenal. A cooked ganache is incredibly rich and simply luscious. I recall it took about 90 minutes, standing there stirring so the cream wouldn't burn! What a pain to make - I did it 3x and that was it; swore I'd never do it again. My spouse mourns it still
Also at La Bourgogne - langoustines from the Mediterranean, in garlic butter. This is what lobsters aspire to be in their next life. 'Chicken' lobsters are a pale shadow of fresh langoustines, which are incredibly sweet and tender.
The classic Japanese kaiseki dinner at Kansai/SF: the current rage is omakase, chef's choice in a multi-course meal. You tell the chef when you are full. Kaiseki is quite different; it is not limited to a certain type of cooking (as omakase is, strictly speaking), and it is a set menu with a pre-determined number of courses. It is the Japanese equivalent to a classic Chinese banquet.
Classic Chinese banquets. Remember when Nixon went to China? Chinese food was still in the chop suey days, even in San Francisco. That one visit upended Chinese American cuisine forever. Authentic food and crafts became the rage in our city during the 1980's, with stunning Mainland Chinese art exhibitions and revamped restaurant menus. The Imperial Palace in SF Chinatown replicated Nixon's banquet and Peking Duck appeared for the first time on a restaurant menu. Their regular food was mediocre, but their banquet food, by special order only, was amazing. We liked it better than Cecilia Chiang's more publicized Mandarin restaurant.
Even the smaller Chinese restaurants started to do regional dishes - the Golden Pavilion gave me a Sichuan Lamb dish that was better than anything I've had anywhere else. Sichuan food should show a variety of flavors: spicy, flowery, salty, sour, sweet, bitter, smoky. It was eye-opening to bite into a piece of tender lamb and taste all those different flavors separately, yet they melded into a harmonious whole.
Beluga caviar, Schramsberg champagne, and blini at the old Compass Rose in the St. Francisco hotel, Union Square, SF. We brought my aunt, and meant to just have appetizers and then go to dinner. But we ended up staying there for five hours - in fact we closed them down - and after a few hours they just left the serving cart next to us so we could serve ourselves!
I can't remember where it was, but the first time I had a Filet Rossini, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. A dry-aged Prime quality filet mignon, a generous seared slice of foie gras, and a properly made marrow-based Bordelaise sauce, with a couple of triangles of thin white toast, crusts trimmed off.
Lastly, the poached foie gras with spiced peach consomme at La Folie. Roland Passot is semi-retired now, and recently closed La Folie. But that dish was stunning, the best foie gras creation we've ever had. He also made an unusual Edam souffle for dessert that was amazing - combining a cheese course with dessert was brilliant!
There's a lot of great home cooking I've had, some of which I've done myself. But a great restaurant can buy better quality and do more complex dishes than I would ever bother making myself.
There is one dish I made that is a real pain but it CAN be made at home, albeit it dirties up every dish in the house, LOL. The Time-Life recipe for Rigo Jancsi, from the Viennese cookbook, is phenomenal. A cooked ganache is incredibly rich and simply luscious. I recall it took about 90 minutes, standing there stirring so the cream wouldn't burn! What a pain to make - I did it 3x and that was it; swore I'd never do it again. My spouse mourns it still
JonSR77
Senior Member
Long, long ago - Dover Sole (the REAL Dover sole, not the many ordinary-tasting faux named soles one gets now), flown in that morning to San Francisco, served with a cultured butter and lemon sauce, at the now-gone La Bourgogne, a bastion of haut cuisine before nouvelle cuisine came in and ruined everything. It's an exquisite, delicate fish, unlike any I've had before or since.
Also at La Bourgogne - langoustines from the Mediterranean, in garlic butter. This is what lobsters aspire to be in their next life. 'Chicken' lobsters are a pale shadow of fresh langoustines, which are incredibly sweet and tender.
The classic Japanese kaiseki dinner at Kansai/SF: the current rage is omakase, chef's choice in a multi-course meal. You tell the chef when you are full. Kaiseki is quite different; it is not limited to a certain type of cooking (as omakase is, strictly speaking), and it is a set menu with a pre-determined number of courses. It is the Japanese equivalent to a classic Chinese banquet.
Classic Chinese banquets. Remember when Nixon went to China? Chinese food was still in the chop suey days, even in San Francisco. That one visit upended Chinese American cuisine forever. Authentic food and crafts became the rage in our city during the 1980's, with stunning Mainland Chinese art exhibitions and revamped restaurant menus. The Imperial Palace in SF Chinatown replicated Nixon's banquet and Peking Duck appeared for the first time on a restaurant menu. Their regular food was mediocre, but their banquet food, by special order only, was amazing. We liked it better than Cecilia Chiang's more publicized Mandarin restaurant.
Even the smaller Chinese restaurants started to do regional dishes - the Golden Pavilion gave me a Sichuan Lamb dish that was better than anything I've had anywhere else. Sichuan food should show a variety of flavors: spicy, flowery, salty, sour, sweet, bitter, smoky. It was eye-opening to bite into a piece of tender lamb and taste all those different flavors separately, yet they melded into a harmonious whole.
Beluga caviar, Schramsberg champagne, and blini at the old Compass Rose in the St. Francisco hotel, Union Square, SF. We brought my aunt, and meant to just have appetizers and then go to dinner. But we ended up staying there for five hours - in fact we closed them down - and after a few hours they just left the serving cart next to us so we could serve ourselves!
I can't remember where it was, but the first time I had a Filet Rossini, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. A dry-aged Prime quality filet mignon, a generous seared slice of foie gras, and a properly made marrow-based Bordelaise sauce, with a couple of triangles of thin white toast, crusts trimmed off.
Lastly, the poached foie gras with spiced peach consomme at La Folie. Roland Passot is semi-retired now, and recently closed La Folie. But that dish was stunning, the best foie gras creation we've ever had. He also made an unusual Edam souffle for dessert that was amazing - combining a cheese course with dessert was brilliant!
There's a lot of great home cooking I've had, some of which I've done myself. But a great restaurant can buy better quality and do more complex dishes than I would ever bother making myself.
There is one dish I made that is a real pain but it CAN be made at home, albeit it dirties up every dish in the house, LOL. The Time-Life recipe for Rigo Jancsi, from the Viennese cookbook, is phenomenal. A cooked ganache is incredibly rich and simply luscious. I recall it took about 90 minutes, standing there stirring so the cream wouldn't burn! What a pain to make - I did it 3x and that was it; swore I'd never do it again. My spouse mourns it still
Well, I'm completely jealous. that sounds INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
terry123
Well-known Member
- Location
- Houston, Tx.
I am jealous too! I will never be able to try any of that!
I agee @terry123, I have never experience that type of dining. My husband often did in his work and traveling but the cost was covered I hate to say, but yes the goverment. (Does give you pause to think the crap they waste money on, I agree).
My husband did go to a very expensive dining experiences a couple of times during family (his) reunions. I refused to go because I thought it was a stupid waste of money and I was not willing to submit to peer pressure. I was and am of the thought if it you can't afford it, then don't do it.
I do splurge, but I am not silly. It has to be something I really want to attend or try or I am not going to do it. The most recent thing is going to dinner with my soon to be inlaws at a really nice Japanese restaurant a few years ago. My soon to be DIL's grandmother worked there for decades (she was from Japan). I had never tried Japanese food so I was nervous. It was the best experience food and atmospere. That is one for a lifetime! I would go again without a doubt.
My husband did go to a very expensive dining experiences a couple of times during family (his) reunions. I refused to go because I thought it was a stupid waste of money and I was not willing to submit to peer pressure. I was and am of the thought if it you can't afford it, then don't do it.
I do splurge, but I am not silly. It has to be something I really want to attend or try or I am not going to do it. The most recent thing is going to dinner with my soon to be inlaws at a really nice Japanese restaurant a few years ago. My soon to be DIL's grandmother worked there for decades (she was from Japan). I had never tried Japanese food so I was nervous. It was the best experience food and atmospere. That is one for a lifetime! I would go again without a doubt.