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FlyingJ

Food you'll never forget?

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For me, it's the "Mama Rosa's Special" from Mama Rosa's in Ridgewood, NJ. My dad and his brothers frequented the restaurant growing up in Ridgewood and one of the biggest treats growing up was to eat at Mama Rosa's while visiting Grandma in Ridgewood. The same family ran it the whole time and used to recognize my dad and later me and my siblings as if we were there every day rather than just once or twice a year.

Edit to add: DEVASTATED!!! Just did a quick search on the net and found out they closed! Hadn't been since I moved from NYC in 2004. It's a sad sad day!
Killing threads since 2004.

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Cheese filled gnocci in a creamy alfredo style sauce from a small Italian place in my old neighborhood. Great little restaurant that was open for less than a year before they went out of business. Everything was good, reasonably priced but for some reason, the place was always empty!

The gnocci was especially good- to die for as they say........ Probably literally too. Between the cheese and the carbs, it was practically a heart attack in a bowl! :D

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several years ago I got a kfc wrap. that must have had some BAD ranch dressing on it. it didn't taste bad but the several days of repercussions were very memorable. for all the wrong reasons.
i have on occasion been accused of pulling low . My response. Naw I wasn't low I'm just such a big guy I look closer than I really am .


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I was in Moscow for my 30th birthday. I had the best birthday cake of my life. Don't know where the folks that hosted my birthday dinner got it, but it was amazing. The closest flavor that I would associate was orange creamsicle.

Had a rose water lassi at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Dearborn Michigan that I've never found an equal to. Perfect balance of sweet and tangy with the unexpected rose water. Luv mango lassis but that rose water one was the best.

Ted Drewes frozen custard in St Louis is pretty awesome. (Much, much, much better than Imo's pizza, imo.)

/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

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Years ago, when I was hauling grain, I stopped at a little cafe in Oklahoma. It was on aSunday and the buffet offered fried chicken. That was un-doubtedly, the best fried chicken I ever ate. After my meal, I went to pay my bill and the elderly lady who owned that cafe had a 'to go box' for me. I hadn't asked for it but she insisted I take it 'for later'. I paid my tab and left... with the 'to go box'... at no extra charge. Later that evening, I had a fine supper of fried chicken. I was back through that part of Oklahoma a couple years later. The little road-side cafe was closed. I had been looking forward to stopping there again but I was too late. I'll never forget it.


Chuck

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For magnificent food?

Just last weekend I was in NYC. The gracious and lovely dfwajg took me to dine at Pure Food & Wine - vegan raw food. Now, I am a meat and potatoes guy who would find it exceedingly difficult to subsist on nuts and twigs and salad greens.

First, she buttered me up (no vegan pun intended) with an order of mint chip ice cream and a selection of sorbets. The best ice cream I have ever tasted. The best sorbets I ever tasted. Period.

Then she ordered me a zucchini and tomato lasagna. Note - it was cold. It was vegan. It was visually appealing and possibly the tastiest main course I had ever eaten.

THAT is a meal to remember. Now, she had previously introduced me to some delicious items that she had prepared herself and I thus expected to be similarly changed in my opinions. Not only was every preconceived notion I had about "raw food" and vegan eating demolished, Pure Food & Wine was more of a Castle Bravo to my Bikini Atoll of food experience and expectation.

The most memorable food defies one's expectations. It was awesome - I finished that meal on an airplane the next day (as well as a chocolate confection).


My wife is hotter than your wife.

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the good memorable foods always have some kind of emotional meaning, as well.

For me, the tastes of home: Graeter's ice cream and Skyline chili, will always hold a special, memorable place in my heart. As will the amazing green chile of New Mexico, my other home.

More specifically, after I graduated from college, i had 60 days of paid leave. Most people found their friends and went on drinking binges around Europe, but I had seen most of it, except for the one place I truly cared about. I minored in Spanish in college, so I made a beeline for Spain and spent 3 and a half of the most memorable weeks of my life there, ESPECIALLY the Basque Country up north.

Basque food is....spectacular doesn't do it. Creative. Delicious. Intense. I found this little family place in San Sebastian that offered (like most places in Spain) a Prix Fixe menu of a bottle of txacoli (a dry basque semi-sparkling white wine...awesome), a pintxo (thats what they call tapas in basque), a main course, and dessert for about 800 pesetas (this was pre-Euro, and Spain was a STEAL). The main course choices were a basque paella and something called "Chipirones en su tinta".

I decided to be adventurous, and when the time came, they brought me a bowl of black ink. Not kidding, this was PITCH BLACK soup. Uhh....ok. Turns out it was baby squid in a sauce made from it's own ink. Sounds gross, but let me tell you, that squid was so tender it literally fell off my fork and melted in my mouth, and the sauce was just this perfect amalgamation of flavors...

A perfect culinary illustration of the old adage: never judge a book by its cover!

some links about parts of this meal, since most people don't know about Basque awesomeness unless you've been there or happen to live in Boise, ID:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-08-16/food/17175995_1_wine-basque-bottle
http://gospain.about.com/od/basquecountrypaisvasco/qt/pintxos.htm
http://recipespicbypic.blogspot.com/2008/09/chipirones-en-su-tinta-squid-in-its-ink.html
Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

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Graeter's ice cream



I will never forget my first cup of Graeter's, and the feeling that went through my body when I found my first domino size chunk of chocolate in my peanut butter chocolate "chip."

I didn't try Skyline for the first time until about 6 weeks before graduating from UC and moving. I regret not having gone sooner because I loved it, but at the same time it was probably best for my digestive system.
Killing threads since 2004.

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Recently, in a restaurant of a culinary institute, I had the wild pacific salmon with a fruit couscous. The salmon was great--my favorite fish. But, the fruit couscous (they gave it a more fancy name) was incredible. I cannot remember eating anything so surprisingly delicious. SO good. :)

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

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For me, the tastes of home: Graeter's ice cream and Skyline chili, will always hold a special, memorable place in my heart.



Your post reminded me of a favorite from when/where I grew up: Stroh's Blue Moon ice cream. :)
/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

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Ft Meyers Beach, Fl: Best blue crab. We'd catch fish, eat them, throw the heads in the crab pot, and empty the contents of it the next day for lunch.

Boulder, Co: Very good sushi at Sushi Tora. Unagi Shirayaki (fresh freshwater eel) and Sawagani (small river crabs that get fried) in Boulder flown in live from the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.

Boulder, Co: The Porter Milkshake. It's beer. It's desert. It's tasty.

Twin Falls, Id: Best aged steak ever. After eating my share of $50 steak-house cuts elsewhere and even strips of Wagyu seared with a blow torch I was shocked to find Rock Creek offering something better for less money.

On a coffee farm with no running water or windows outside Aquismon in Mexico: Best chicken mole. We brought the chicken up from Aquismon and had the mother cook it up.

San Francisco, CA: Best oysters from Cafe Zuni, and I actually ate my fill (dozens). I especially like Kumamatos that are both sweet and savory.

San Francisco, CA: Best sushi overall (omakase) from Ryoko's.

Madrid, Spain: Baby Squid in their Ink. First time I had squid ink. Yum!

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria: Best desert ever. Some sort of orange flan which was surprisingly the best desert ever.

Puerto de Mogan, Gran Canaria: The tastiest little pan fish and mishapen potatoes with garlic aioli. Yum!

Seattle, WA: Best salmon. One of the sushi chefs fed us a couple species from several locations each and it made a surprising difference.

Seattle, WA: Uni Ika Soma at Shiro's. Quail egg and sea urchin gonads on top strips of raw squid with a nice ponzu sauce. Yum!

San Francisco, CA: first good bowel of Ramen at Tanpopo noodle shop. Yum! In the past I've been a Pho guy, but this was good.

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First time I had blackened fish. We made the spice mixture way too hot, but it was so good, we ate about three meals worth in one meal.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

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