Notably: The Black Pig here in Bridgeland was above excellent this weekend. Chicken Liver Parfait, Charcuterie, The Tube Steaks plus the make great cocktails. Really surprised me how good it was. A+++
Sometimes, the best meal is one you have been deprived of for a long time (like when a pregnant woman can't have sushi). When I was trekking around South America we spent a lot of time dreaming about what we would order as soon as we got back to a town. Days of trail food makes you crave so much. After a few days of doing the Inca Trail, getting sick and being dehydrated, a can of Pringles in the Machu Pichu gift shop seemed like the best thing ever.
Food somehow seems to taste better outside - eat al fresco whenever possible. Sitting outside on a warm evening in Greece is wonderful.
San Francisco is a great destination for foodies. I had the pleasure of eating at the Chez Panisse Cafe - this is the birthplace of California cuisine (fresh local ingredients). Alice Waters became famous.
Tuesday, September 30 $85 Seared albacore tuna with aïoli and Cannard Farm summer bean salad
Chino Ranch sweet corn and roasted pepper soups with coriander butter
Cattail Creek lamb: grilled leg, chops and stuffed saddle in tomato braise;
with fried herbs, zucchini gratin à la niçoise, and garden salad
Raspberry ice cream with buckwheat crêpes and Black Mission figs
The best food experiences were in France. Get out of Paris, and stay in any random small town. Your hotel will usually have a great restaurant attached to it, where you can sit outside. Your meal will be 5 or 6 courses, and it will not be rushed. Local wine or champagne is a great value. Unless your French is very good, you may not always know what you are ordering, but you really can't go wrong. The most civilized aspect is ending with a cheese platter (cheeses that would be illegal in North America).
I was at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans and started chatting with the pianist after one of their sets, because he was just incredible, and I wanted to meet him and say how impressed I was. He was this old white guy with bushy eyebrows, and turned out to be a really interesting dude.
Anyways, he told me that he was going to be playing at the Windsor Court Hotel, on the Wednesday, so I decided to check it out, not knowing what was going on there. Turned out to be this super swanky restaurant called the Grill Room. He was playing background music for the dining guests. Anyways, the meal was the greatest meal I've ever had in my life, bar none. And then after every half hour of playing this guy would take a half hour break, and he would come to my table and just shoot the sh*t until he had to play again. I got to talk to him all about the local music scene, what it was like to be a jazz musician in New Orleans, everything he had to give up to do it, etc. It was the most amazing conversation I've ever had in my life, with the best food I'd ever eaten in my life. What a surreal experience. I'll never forget that.
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Shwarma Boxes in Wiesbaden. If you don't know what they are, they are pretty much poutines, so fries covered in sweet and donair sauce with shwarma/donair meet added.
I remember this one meal I had decades ago, it was after they shaved a bald spot into my head. They gave me chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, black eyed peas and a old Milwaukee beer. Then I got some peach cobbler with ice cream for dessert.
After years of eating things like toast and baked beans, or oatmeal every day it was delicious.
then I died.
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From Chickie's and Pete's in Philly - Lobster philly cheesesteak and crabfries (their delicious signature fries, with oddly no crab whatsoever).
Honorable mention to a meal I ate at Bolero brazillian steakhouse here in Calgary. An all you can eat special, and I did exactly that. My wife had to practically carry me out.
I was at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans and started chatting with the pianist after one of their sets, because he was just incredible, and I wanted to meet him and say how impressed I was. He was this old white guy with bushy eyebrows, and turned out to be a really interesting dude.
Anyways, he told me that he was going to be playing at the Windsor Court Hotel, on the Wednesday, so I decided to check it out, not knowing what was going on there. Turned out to be this super swanky restaurant called the Grill Room. He was playing background music for the dining guests. Anyways, the meal was the greatest meal I've ever had in my life, bar none. And then after every half hour of playing this guy would take a half hour break, and he would come to my table and just shoot the sh*t until he had to play again. I got to talk to him all about the local music scene, what it was like to be a jazz musician in New Orleans, everything he had to give up to do it, etc. It was the most amazing conversation I've ever had in my life, with the best food I'd ever eaten in my life. What a surreal experience. I'll never forget that.
Cool story. My wife and I had been talking about some of our best meals ever recently and we started to notice that our best meals were almost always during some awesome experiences, or really good company. I'm beginning to think that food/wine etc. is really heightened by how you're feeling and maybe that food was only average. Like, you could go to a Michelin 3 star restaurant but if you're in a bummy mood, the food is going to suck.
