Once I asked a friend of mine, “What was the best meal you ever had?”
He thought about it a moment and then replied, “A stick of pepperoni dipped in peanut butter… after a day hiking the AT.” (He’d actually hiked the whole Appalachian Trail, as I recall.)
Years before that, a different friend asked me the same question. The one item that came to mind above all others was the dessert course at a resort my family visited when I was a child, on a snorkeling trip to the Caribbean. I don’t think I’ve had a sopapilla that good since. And sure, childhood taste buds and all, but that’s kind of the point: the best subjective impression is the best subjective impression.
One of the best things I’ve ever made myself was early in the first COVID season. I was throwing together a soup of whatnot, and I made a broth of soy sauce, mirin, gochujang, garlic and probably a few other things. When I had a taste, it was knee-bucklingly good. I haven’t hit the proportions just right again, or something; everything I’ve tried in that genre has been nice, but not that nice.
Dad was the sort who’d try a new thing at a restaurant and then try and figure out how to make it at home. He was good at it, too. I picked up that habit, a bit. My white whale is the suanla chaoshou/suan la chow show/swans from Mary Chung’s in Cambridge, MA. For that, I have to go by memory, since the restaurant closed years ago, and I have to adapt it to my current diet, since I went mostly-vegan vegetarian. There’s a dumpling-sauce recipe from 1993 that is perfectly serviceable, but I tried it with three different chili pastes and it just wasn’t the same. I think it was adapted for home cooks of the early '90s and left out doubanjiang, which a Sichuan restaurant would have had on hand. A couple heaping teaspoons of that brought the flavor a lot closer…
Anywhoo. Do you folks have food memories that stand out? Best ever pizza? Cookies that you’d like to find again?
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I have many cooking memories, one of my favorite is when I was in grade 10,11, and 12. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking for the students as part of the chef training program.
I was the sous chef as I had the class three out of four of my periods in one semester and two of four in the other semester. I was in charge of delegation for the three stations(cold, hot, deserts) and the main course.
Our school had a clam chowder that was kind of a signature dish named after the school team. I don’t eat seafood much but since I was heading mains and hot foods I would always finish the chowder. Last three steps were to add the cream, add the bacon, then add the clams. I would always pour myself two bowls of bacon chowder then add the clams for service.
That was always a satisfying few bowls of chowder and I’m the only one that ever got them.
Haven’t been cooking for myself in a while, so these are all paid experiences:
- The mexican food in my city has been historically been lacking, but recently I tried some birria tacos that I liked. Well, really what I liked was the “consomme” that they serve the tacos with, but hey, the tacos were good too.
- I had a really good tiger prawn a few days ago. Perfectly grilled over open wood flame, so it was a little smoky, and finished with what I’m guessing was a prawn-based bisque.
- I’ve been going to a wonderful little cocktail bar where all their cocktails are well-designed and tasty as fuck.
