Second entry: my brother is a talented dessert chef. Once at a restaurant he worked at, I had this banana-chocolate-red hots ice cream he made. It was Wonkaesque. It time released flavors in my mouth. My friend tried a bite and reflexively laughed out loud from the experience. It was a magic trick.
On my 50th birthday we went on a pintxos bar crawl in Donistia-San Sebastian. I may be able to taste some of it again some day, but some I doubt I ever will, like this specially made bit of unexpected perfection: fresh anchovy and blueberry salsa on a soft baguette from the legendary Bar Txepetxa.
The Underground restaurant beneath Charlie Goodnights in Raleigh. Once took a Japanese film crew there and they ordered everything on the menu...and then wanted seconds.
There used to be this great burrito place in town that I'd go to on Fridays after work. Buildings destroyed in the earthquakes, like so many of my favorite cafes and restaurants. Most of them never reopened.
I will think about the molten chocolate cake with tarragon ice cream at this Montreal restaurant that’s been closed for ten years until I die https://yelp.to/1cP-kTx2WL
There was a glorious moment in Richmond, Virginia when we had a restaurant called Dutch & Co that… believe me when I tell you that every single time we ate there, every single thing I put in my mouth was *perfect*. From the local brick oven bread to the locally roasted coffee & everything in between
If angels make pôts de crème, they probably learned from Dutch & Co. Their signature app was called The Perfect Egg, and it really was. The things they did with fish and meat were aspirational. Every dish was a surprise- things I would never have imagined doing. I miss them desperately.
Rhode Island had a legendary amusement park called Rocky Point, with an equally famous banquet hall with the best clam cakes anyone has ever had. The combination of deep fried bread and rollercoasters was not a good idea, but it never once stopped anyone.
There was this little sandwich shop in Winslow, AZ that shared a building with a tire store. I remember it having the *best* deli sandwiches and ice cream....
1999, Queens. I ordered every week from a Mexican restaurant run by a Chinese family. #31 (steak tostada salad), #33 (side of rice) and a can of coke. When I called to order, as soon as they heard my voice, they knew who it was and what I wanted.
In DC China Sea made the most incredible egg foo yung, just threw everything in there, held together with egg, and the most delicious gravy I have ever tasted.
There was a semi-fancy restaurant near where I grew up called Steeplechase. They had a tarragon vinaigrette that was amazing. I’ve tried to replicate it over and over, never successfully.
Mainly because it never officially existed. I worked @burgerking.com.br and at the time there was a chicken sandwich “The BK Broiler” that well was cooked on the broiler. Well…one day we fried it. And it was SPECTACULAR!! Never had a fast food sandwich like that since.
Jemabatan 5 was a family owned Indonesian restaurant that was on like 10th and montrose in Philly and every single thing I’ve ever eaten there was life changing, ayam rica, nasi goreng, gado-gado, literally anything they made was life changing, they even had the best vegan mixed grill I’ve ever had
Chile relleno burritos from Casa de Tacos, Hacienda Heights Ca.
Owners retired years ago. Chile Verde, beans, jack cheese and Anaheim rellano. It was glorious.
Walmart used to sell these wraps cut into pinwheels with a little red pepper, ham, cheese, and lettuce. They were objectively disgusting and I would cross an ocean of fire to eat one again
Vegetarians close your ears, but the incredibly tender and spicy lamb lung at this tiny Tibetan restaurant in Beijing that I probably couldn’t find again even if I went back someday
I had chicken fried steak with a side of potato pancakes and fried apples at a German-American diner on the way from Houston to Nacogdoches TX in 1992. I and sure there was some kind of green vegetable - green beans or collard greens.
Also home made pie at diners and truck stops in northern Arizona on the edges of the Indian reservations in the late 1980s. The consulting firm I worked for had a contract to evaluate placer mines on public lands so they could be secured and cleaned up. Restaurants with home made pie generally had
The Hjemburger from Hjem in Fayetteville, AR— genuinely the best burger I’ve ever had, wagyu on brioche with Jarlsberg, spinach, and the thinnest beets. The restaurant closed like 15 years ago and the burger has been scattered to the winds.
A restaurant in a mall in Pasadena had the best Saturday morning breakfast; huevos rancheros with a blended margarita. Easy eggs over refried beans over a lightly fried corn tortilla smothered in rancheros sauce. Delicious and simple. Never have we had a comparable breakfast. 😋
Oumi Sasaya... A tiny udon place in Lomita with the most flavorful and fluffy oyakodon. When I heard the owner was retiring to Hawaii I wept for the end of an era... Maybe Raku in NYC comes close.
their menu was seasonal, so they were constantly rotating out proteins and salsas, so every time you went back there would be something new on the menu, something that was only for that moment in time.
The owner had a heart attack at the height of the pandemic, and his wife wound up selling the place to a ghost kitchen so she could spend all the time she could with him.
Lassie's in Belleview, FL. It had the BEST chicken noodle soup EVER. The noodles were just slightly greasy and really thick and SO easy to slurp, with lots of diced veg. It was really too much food for me but I could NEVER turn down a bowl when I went there.
Roxanne's restaurant in Marin County, a raw, vegan, gourmet restaurant had food so good it should have been obvious to me that it couldn't survive. I still dream about the few meals I enjoyed there.
That little deli in Lawrence KS with the best lemon cheesecake. That hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant in Santa Cruz CA that my husband said was worth driving across country for - the baked garlic, the lobster ravioli, everything. Not American Italian, but real Italian.
Everything I ever ate at Dutch & Company, tiny place in Richmond, didn't survive COVID. They were so creative, menu always changed, & I never would have thought of combining what they did & it was all perfect. I just wanted to live on each plate forever. Savored every bite!
I am not the only one for sure! It was mourned as a COVID loss in the Richmond magazines, papers, social media, etc. People still mention it in conversation as a "in the Before Times" thing we miss. Richmond is a Foodie town, & this really was a treasure.
We moved here from Austin in 2022, and the food is just as good if not better. Only thing we can't find is good gumbo/Cajun. The Latin food here is killer. (I'm allergic to bell peppers so getting away from 50 Shades of Tex-Mex is a godsend.)
I found a Chinese place with the best sesame chicken in the San Francisco area. I went there one day and the waitress I had a crush on said, "Oh, you're here early." ( I have extreme social anxiety and borderline agoraphobia and I never went back. It physically hurt to be perceived. 😭 )
Oh no this is horrible why do you make me remember Patsy's in west Denver with its bad wall art and hard core mob vibes and handmade pasta that was to die for and the best putanesca and best just meat-sauce-with-onions-and-bell-peppers I've ever had and they couldnt find a buyer when they retired😭😭😭
There was a Mexican restaurant in Harvey, IL, owned and run by immigrants whom my Mom taught English in the local ESL program that had the absolute best steak burrito ever. I practically cried when they sold it and the new owners changed the recipe.
Once or twice I got to eat at a food cart called poh-tay-toe poh-tah-toe and it was just a baked russet potato smashed into a takeout container with whatever your filling was loaded on top. They had like your typical loaded situation but also bratwurst and grilled onions or BBQ pork.
In York UK in the late 1970s there was a street food vendor called the Baked Potato Wagon. Same idea. He just had a pike of warm baked potatoes in the wagon, & you would pick your topping. Melted cheese sauce. Curried chicken. There must have been 6-12 options. So good.
I know it was a chain and ours got shut down for getting people sick but a place called ChiChi’s was my first experience with “Mexican”. They had fried ice cream I still can taste. So good.
Chi chis is coming back to Minneapolis. No idea if it’s just a brand thing or if we get the original recipes but I can’t wait to find out. And just another reason to love living in Tim Walz’s Minnesota ❤️
I heard it was coming back there! I grew up in the the Twin Cities, and that place was IT when I was a kid. I’m not there anymore, but will def be checking around during my visits! I can overindulge in both nostalgia and fried ice cream. 😆
Reopening in MN soon. I hope the tag line, “when you want to feel a little Mexican” is resurrected. Roommate used to ask, “Where’s the little Mexican.”
I worked there and once got to help pre make the ice cream balls and it was easy. My regret is I can’t remember the specific mix of cereal and cinnamon sugar they used. 😭
I went to junior high/high school in Brooklyn Park MN and there was a Chi-Chi’s a block from the school and we would skip class to eat that fried ice cream.
Our teachers would come back from lunch buzzed on margaritas. The 80s were amazing.
My sister worked at a chi-chi’s, 1984. She had muddled her way thru her frosh college year, but after a summer singing the bday song at Chi-Chi’s, she got stone serious about college. She unearthed these promo buttons recently.
I loved it when we got to go to Chi-Chi's! It felt like a truly sophisticated experience! Plus, in high school, their bar was rumored to accidentally serve alcohol to minors on occasion, so it was pretty popular.
i have some news for you: ChiChi's still exists in Belgium. Pretty sure the one in the Grote Markt in Antwerp is still open. i saw a shuttered one in Brussels, though.
and it was a worldwine chain. ate the fried ice cream in Winnipeg in the 80s
It was in China in the 90s during the Chinese New Year. We were travelling and had forgotten that most shops are closed during the Chinese New Year in rural China. As a results, we were starving.
Our friends found some dumplings. It was the best I ever ate. I never again found quite the same.
A food truck (Jae's? Jaelynn's?) intermittently across from Garage at Frankford and Girard had what we called Magic Nachos. An entire styrofoam container of tortilla chips, sour cream, and marinated chicken magic. Dunno what was in the shredded chicken. Never will. They were perfect.
Bluebird Brasserie, Sherman Oaks, CA. Both a micro-brewer (we helped make a batch), AND they had the best vegan merguez sandwich (with fries in) - and we ain't vegan. Closed during Covid.
Ethiopian place in a basement in Seattle’s University District. Owned by a woman from Addis Ababa and her white husband. They met when he was working in Africa in the oil industry. They both cooked and it was delicious.
Sadly, they divorced and closed the restaurant. This was 30 years ago. That’s why I will never taste it again 😢. It then became a Thai restaurant, also good. I don’t even know what is in that space now. There are still good Ethiopian places in Seattle…
Garlic breadsticks and marinara at Noble Roman’s (3rd & Union) in Bloomington IN. That was my Sunday eve dinner for Freshman year (seriously dirt-poor). I’ve finally found decent replacements, some 45 years later…
Burrito-style shawarma wraps like I used to get in Doha. Never have been able to duplicate the taste I got from my favorite Turks at this little hole-in-the-wall place.
My friends parents owned a popular deli in our town and their specialty was called The Steakbomb (basically a cheesesteak with salami) which I still try to make to this day. Also the best macaroni salad of my life. Miss that place
there's a burger place near me that was GODLY up until they changed management a few years ago and it's never been the same since. 😭 and back when I lived in southern CA I visited a cupcake bakery called Missy's iirc, I miss them so much they were sooooo good.
Food truck in Austin had the most amazing Monte Cristo we ever had. Ever since every time my husband and I try one our scale has always been "how close to that Austin one is it"
Also my husband wanted me to answer that when we were in New Orleans he got fish with a pistachio sauce and he thinks it's the greatest thing he's ever had and I tried it and would be hard pressed to disagree.
It was Jacques Imo's and it's on one menu from their site and not another >_< LOL. It's more at this point, if and when we'll get back to NOLA. I hope we do it is by far the place I have visited that I loved the most
The vegetarian potstickers at Liu's Kitchen on Solano Ave. in Berkeley. Tofu stuffed and so flavorful. The place was always full of students and young families. I miss the kid-doodled placemats hung on the walls and the seasoned bean sprouts that started every meal.
They went out of business because it was a family business & he had a day job - which it turned out supported the restaurant. His kids had no sense of portion control 📉💲
His wife shared husband was out mowing the lawn, came in and announced they were moving to Italy.
Pasta Freska in Seattle near Lake Union, closed in 2021.
The chef/owner Mike Horri would sit down & ask what flavors you liked & did not like
He would be back in a few minutes with a starter, then a second course, etc, - some times different dishes for each of us. I didn't know they had a menu.
I asked how they made their mole sauce.
Guy went in the back and ... brought out his mother.
She hand grinds the chilis, hand chops Mexican chocolate, cooks it for at least 6 hours - pops it in the fridge to marinate, then they use it the next day.
Damn. fine. food.
Chilean bread. There’s nothing like it. I suppose some day I will get back to have some. But I would have to go there to get it. There used to be a Chilean restaurant in NYC that approximated it. But it wasn’t the same. (This is a great question btw. I would add—recipes lost when loved one dies 💔).
i spent years searching for my grandmother's chocolate cookie recipe. they were like brownies only flat. finally gave up. recently found an old stained index card in my recipe folder with the recipe, in her handwriting! no idea how it got there.
My mom made me a cook book of all of my childhood family favorites when I got my first apartment. I treasure this, cuz everything in that book tastes like home
Oh that just evoked the Ethiopian honey bread at the bakery where I worked in my early twenties. On Thursdays only. Sweet & spiced. I sometimes ate a whole loaf, warm, plain, as my main meal for the day. Not only has the bakery changed hands since but the gluten would make me very, very sorry now.
That was the idyllic (in many ways) 3 years when I basically lived on free bread, croissants, cookies — & the occasional green salad. Come to think of it, that’s also when my gastro issues started… 😔
I know some things are truly irreplaceable, but since the internet came into existence I have been so grateful to be able to come close to various remembered foods using others' recipes.
While serving overseas in Japan on a two year tour the last three months I stumbled upon a curry house. It was the most delicious curry I’ve ever had. It saddens me to this day that I did not discover and enjoy it for the entire tour. I have been chasing that curry flavor ever since.
The Bluebird cafe in Athens when it was in the Morton Bldg. They had the best biscuits, hot, flaky, as big as your fist. In high school I would order two and eat one with butter, the other with honey. They also had wonderful omelette, but I never wound up dreaming about them like I did the biscuits.
A little hole in the wall Greek restaurant in Athens, GA used to serve a potato and egg wrap covered in provolone. I had one every time, every few weeks, for years. One day I came in and it was off the menu! The owner shrugged and said that I was the only one who ever ordered it.
The hand cut noodles from Jack’s Mostly Tapas in Seattle made me fall in love with Chinese food. The guy that ran it had spent time in Spain and liked tapas and thought it made sense for Chinese food. Everything was delicious but I miss those noodles so much I taught myself how to make noodles.
2) my aunt Gilda’s ethereal stuffed artichokes, a longtime Christmas Eve tradition. She’s 95 now and over a decade retired from cooking but I miss those incredible artichokes.
1) The divine cheese-stuffed chicken seekh kebabs, and a green salad dressed only with dry spices, at a long-closed fancy NYC restaurant called Bukhara that I frequented in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
too many to even list but I'll do a few bangers:
1) 1999, the house special rolls at West Side Sushi on 47th? 49th? and 9th in NYC, stuffed with real crabmeat. I made When Harry Met Sally sounds and made my bf go back the very next night;
I was obsessed & when I found out the chef/owner had previously founded Sandobe (East Village) & Jeollado (Alphabet City) i made a point of going to each of them, but imho West Side Sushi was the best. they all eventually closed. his nephew opened another place in Bushwick but it wasn't as good 😭😭😭
2) 2021-ish? the miso-glazed cod at an extremely fancy Chinese restaurant in Times Square of all places. we were doing some kind of tasting menu and I got hooked on the cod and had to order more. I don't even like cooked fish for the most part but it was out of this world! restaurant is closed now 😫
oh shit I just remembered 3) 1995, San Francisco. a Cali Mexican joint near my office had THE BEST GRILLED CHICKEN BURRITO I have ever had before or since!!! It was perfect, not spicy (I can't tolerate heat) and they put huge pieces of fresh avocado on top, omg omg omg
okay 4) 2016, a fish/Italian restaurant called Fish Bar in the East Village (not to be confused with the great and still extant alcohol bar of the same name on 4th st) had an incredible dish called Shrimp Riggies which had chicken sausage & a vaguely vodka sauce that I've tried to recreate but can't
D.f.g noodles food truck in Austin. They used to pop up at various locations and had bomb food. They did chicken a few ways, had curry veggies and hand made roti bread.
I was 20. England, in some unknown pub, I ate THE chocolate cake. The perfect fluffy one served with some fabulous chocolate sauce… I still remember the sensation of the fork in this cake.
Cartridge Brewery in Cincinnati had the best gluten-free pizza I ever had, and I left my leftovers in my sister-in-law’s fridge when we went home. Craved it for a year, and the restaurant was closed by the time we returned. 🥺
Oh wow we used to hang out there in the late 80s (we only went to the bar tho so I don't remember any of the food). Haven't thought of that place in years!
Sorry to post again but...Little King sandwich shops in Portland, Oregon back in the 1970's. Sub sandwiches, tuna with finely shredded lettuce spritzed w/ vinegar & generously sprinkled w/ powdered Greek oregano on top. Tomatoes, onions if you wanted. Mother/son ran it & she'd bark at ya. 😂
Yes, indeed. I hung out (often, very often) at the one on Alder Street, downtown. They always kept a little Reuters daily news sheet on each table tucked in near the napkin holder.
There was something nice with the super fine shredded lettuce, vinegar & oregano powder on top.
They taste the same as the Dewey's thin cookies, I need to try making an icebox cake with the Meyer lemon ones. The chocolate ones (Dewey's and TJ's) don't have the coconut that was in the Nabisco Famous Wafers but they're thin and chocolatey enough to make a good icebox cake.
At Christmas time I could black market them to all the people who like to make chocolate rolls. 😂 That's so kind....but I bet the postage is prohibitive. It's a good excuse for a trip to Vancouver...
I checked ChatGPT, just to see if there might be any additional information on them. ChatGPT said that these are being manufactured in other countries now, such as Germany but people report that they taste different from the Norwegian made ones. Five different stores were listed for them. All 5: 🚫
Paris 1982. I was a poor college student eating baguettes and cheese to get by. Decided to splurge for one nice meal. Don’t remember much except for the banana flambe dessert. OMG. Best dessert I ever had.
This is terribly cliche, but our wedding cake. It was from a local queer/woman-owned bakery; exquisite vanilla cake with champagne frosting and strawberry filling. Maybe the best gluten free cake I've ever had. We wanted to buy a mini version for our first anniversary but they closed the next year.
We got gluten free cupcakes from this place downtown that didn't make it through the pandemic for ours. (We had a gluten vegan one but that bakery still sells slices in the grocery store!)
I still dream of their basil blackberry mini cupcakes with a big blackberry in the center and top of each.
It was a falafel breakfast pita in Cairo circa 2000. Probably from a street vendor... It was the perfect blend of crunchy yet fluffy, herby falafel with a perfectly fried, yolky egg, a bit of lettuce and bright, unctuous tomato slices. Warm pita, freshly grilled. Perfection.
At my first job, we used to go for lunch most days at one of two places nearby. At Da Nino, the owner made amazing panini out of basic ingredients elevated by subtle touches (a little squeeze of lemon here, some carefully-chosen herbs there, etc). An artist without equal, now long dead or retired.
After a night of drinking a friend and I walked to a local sub shop. We ordered a bacon blue cheese burger sub and just said yes to every option they offered. It was the best sub ever and I've tried to recreate it without success
Stopped in at a great old hotel in Niagara Falls (NY) for breakfast. Tables with high-back chairs. Ordered a salmon BLT with garlic aioli on toasted wheat berry bread. Finest sandwich I have ever eaten.
Bay & Surf in Laurel, MD. Burned down ages ago, possibly for the insurance. Their "stuffed crabcake" which was a crabcake on a butterflied giant prawn, fried in peanut oil. I have never met its equal.
Also the fried mozzarella from some American Grill franchise we ate at a lot as a kid. Not for the mozz, it was bog standard except for being cut into stars. But it was served on a nest of crisp-fried angel hair that i devoured every chance I got despite being scolded for filling up on garnish.
Oh! And honorable mention to Lucky Seven Chinese next to my dorm in Norfolk, whose fried rice was so salty-umami it felt like a delicious heart attack, and the hole in the wall place in Dun Loring whose tiny puffy-battered sweet & sour chicken was the platonic ideal paired with bland af fried rice.
Did you ever go to Plato's diner in College Park? This thread is making me think of their Hellenic burger - w oregano, feta, & not sure what else. Also burnt down.
Alas, no. I love a good diner, especially late night. But once i escaped I tended to avoid going inside the beltway and DC's dome of smog when I could.
There was a little hole in the wall pizza place near my apartment in Montreal that had my favorite poutine of anywhere, ever. Haven't had it in a decade, no idea if that place even still exists.
The chopped chicken fingers melted wrap at my college’s snack bar was the perfect combination of crunchy and soft. I’ve eaten objectively better food but nothing else has ever hit quite like that $4 wrap.
Besides my gram's potato salad, some incredible French toast at a cafe outside the Atlanta Marriott 40 years ago and a bowl of rice at a Shanghai restaurant.
How could I forget! A cucumber jelly sold by an old guy at a roadside market in Vermont. Never found him again and my mom spent YEARS trying to replicate that jelly.
PJs Oysterbed in the Inner Sunset in San Francisco. !the tuna on mash potatoes with black bean sauce was so good it was difficult to order anything else. Plus it was really loud so we could bring our loud kids.
Steak & Shake used to serve club sandwiches and footlong hotdogs, and something about their exact ingredients made them the PERFECT companions for a single meal.
I'm still sore about them taking them off the menu.
I feel a similar betrayal by Chick-Fil-A removing the Chicken Salad Sandwich. The only upside is that I'm no longer adding to the profit of that bigoted company.
I was at a restaurant in Louisville where I was served an appetizer which was homemade blackberry Poptart but instead of frosting on top they used chicken liver pate. It was AMAZING
not quite a restaurant: a cafeteria at one of the worker cooperative summer retreats in the early post Soviet Union, where most things were unavailable, but we got a plate of gorgeous tomatoes with fresh dill and sunflower oil (the Eastern European way, where you can taste the sunflower seeds).
I visited Lake Balaton in Hungary as a kid in 1990(?). I swear that one of the most memorable parts of the trip was going into a canteen...there was no menu...the waiter would just (eventually) bring the one plate of food that they were serving that day.
In 1993 if you went into a restaurant, and I mean a NICE restaurant, in Kiev or Moscow, you got a menu; anything with an actual written price next to it meant that they had it that day. Cucumbers? yes. Tomatoes? no, not today. Okay, bring me white bread, cucumbers, butter and ...caviar.
A pasta dish from a family restaurant that closed. It had gorgonzola, crushed black pepper, rosemary, shallots, and this amazing spiral pasta that they made themselves. Also this spinach artichoke dip with jalapeños and spices i couldn't place, from a restaurant called Ozona in south Texas.
Eidelweiss restaurant in Waimea, on the big island of hawaii. OMFG the Swiss desserts. “A layer of chocolate, a layer of creme de marzipan, another layer of chocolate…”
ONG, yes ! In the corner of the liquor store, she & her daughter would have long lines every lunchtime. Her chile relleno burrito was the best I’ve ever tasted!
Ceviche in a shack in Costa Rica.
I've searched high and low for a comparable version in restaurants, I've tried making my own, but it's never ever that good.
Lobster avocado gazpacho at a tapas place in Montreal where I drank too much wine and don't remember now the name of the place, or where in the city it was...
Since we're on the topic of Monreal, I would nominate "Le Vert," a dessert that Patrice Demers served at Les 400 Coups (now closed), and later at his patisserie (also now closed)--a melange of olive oil, cilantro, white chocolate yogurt, pistachios, and a granita of Granny Smith apples.
There are tons of articles written about it so I'm not the only one who puts it in the Top Five of everything they've eaten. It seemed interesting (the waitress said, "We're quite well-known for that"), but I wasn't sure about the decision. One bite and I couldn't believe the magic he had created.
Idk what that dish is but I think about Bam Bou every time I walk round that corner. A colleague of mine had a choking fit in there and another diner saved her.
Suan la chow show from Mary Chung’s, Central Square, Cambridge, a go-to hangout for the MIT crowd. Pork-filled wontons resting on a bed of fresh beansprouts, drenched in a spicy garlic-infused broth.
There was a little burger shop tucked into a bunch of tourist shops in Honolulu that ground the beef for their burgers to order. I spent a week in Hawaii in 2007 and ate there three times.
A dish of buttermilk poached oyster that pinged into a summer memory of a pebbled beach - and a later serving (in the same meal) of roasted duck breast with a slice of pear and a single deepfried birchleaf, reminding me of an autumnal viking deathwish I didn’t know I had
When I was in university it was possible to buy Chick-Fil-A on my scholarship food card, and it was the early 90s before it especially mattered how anti-gay they were. I loved those nuggets and waffle fries, but never again. 🍗
That would have been lit, tho in the day we would have used a different expression. I could get Whataburger also, but AFAIK they aren't evil... Are they evil? I don't live in TX anymore so it probably doesn't matter.
When I was in studies for priesthood in Boston, there was a place in our neighborhood called Zon's. Kind of hipsterish. I had a lamb and couscous thing there that I have never forgotten.
There was a Burmese restaurant in the East Village that served an amazing fermented tea leaf salad. The flavors would practically dance on your tongue. I think the place is gone now.
Fried scallops from Helen’s Restaurant in Machias, ME. By far the best fried scallops ever: good and fresh, neither overcooked nor undercooked, crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, not greasy and of course not gritty/sandy.
Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get to taste them again one day.
The Sa Cha Shrimp and crispy fried tofu with mushrooms from Yen’s Chinese restaurant in Charlotte, NC, owned and run by the parents of a high school friend and long closed now.
It was more of a Pizza parlor but Roma Pizzeria on Long Island was a source of joy and happiness. They made a special type of White Pizza for me during a period where my esophagus was brutalized by tomato sauce. (Pizza is my kryptonite)
Our local specializes in pizza, and they do the standard red sauces, but they also have a hummus base with a tzatziki drizzle ( the Mediterranean) and their veggie has a white sauce with basalmic vinegar drizzle.
Papa G’s deli in Portland Oregon. They closed down “temporarily” during the pandemic and never came back. I miss their food everyday, it was always changing so it’s not even a specific dish.
Though the orange chocolate mouse cake was the last thing I remember eating there and it was amazing.
Small Indian restaurant in Rocky Point Road, Sydney Australia. The most amazing lamb biriani I've ever tasted and I live in a world renowned area for Indian food, Brick Lane in London.
Came back home and now my local biriani place i used to like seems 3rd rate.
When I was a kid, this one place, I forget the name but it was a chicken-based chain... the specific chef at the one near me had the best chicken noodle soup ever made.
There was a hotdog place near where my dad used to work in my hometown. Closed during the pandemic but it seems to also be a family dispute over who would take it over since it was mostly takeout anyway. No other hot dog place has ever nailed the perfect ratio of toppings like them.
A local restaurant served something they called Chicken Marsala, but it was not Marsala wine (it was definitely a red). In my head, the chicken was also breaded and fried beforehand, but don't quote me on that. The restaurant's closed now and I've yet to find anyone that serves anything like it.
Union Cafe in Union Station had a tuna melt with white cheddar that I ordered once a week. Nothing I've created in the past 20 years can compare. Mmmmm now I want a tuna melt.
Oh that reminds me of the sublime tuna melt at a local cafe. It changed owners at least 3 times before it closed, but they kept the recipe. It included fennel and dried cranberries (maybe craisins?) I have been unable to replicate it
fennel in tuna salad sounds bananas delicious. curious- do you think it’s the tuna salad itself you can’t seem to compare? or is there some bread action need to work on? gotta get good bread, good ratio, toast it just right beforehand
Bill's soup from the Friday Luncheon Club at my parents church. Served weekly until Navy veteran Bill died in the early 1990s. It was a mix of veg including carrots and onion with yellow split peas and ham. Tried but I've never been able to reproduce it.
You may well have already tried this, but if not, have you tried sauteing the veg (and ham) in butter (real, actual)? and/or lard? It's the difference between my (average) soup and my mother's (sublime soup
I think Chinese cooks sometimes use the trick with the lard that makes a huge taste difference and mouth feel with some of their soups and other dishes.
I can't easily pin a restaurant food, but I'd love to taste a few school lunches from when I was a kid.
We still had lunch ladies, not contractors, and they actually prepared some stuff fresh, not just frozen prepared foodservice items. I'd love to have French bread pizza or dinner rolls again.
I have a pretty reliable recipe for lunch lady rolls kicking around somewhere. Tastes like my memories of an always slightly damp elementary school cafeteria slash auditorium in the midwest. Let me know if you'd like me to dig it out when I'm not at work.
Similar in small county Virginia. With huge blocks of butter on a table where you could put as much as you want on the hot roll. Also the vanilla sheet cake. Heavy, dense, with a thin icing. I would make it today if I had a recipe.
I use the totino's party pizzas as a pretty okay halfass substitute, but pizza just doesn't taste the same when it's not cut into a rectangle to fit the indent on the lunch tray.
I agree, its the government cheese and I do believe in the case of the pizza the lunch ladies added some pizzazz. They were all Italian American homemakers side hustling as lunch ladies.
Chick-fil-A has broken my heart so many times....
Lemon Meringue pie slice
Carrot-Raisin salad
Chicken salad sandwich on toast
Cole Slaw (it was sheer perfection when spread on their signature Chicken sandwichl
I have so many; lamb kebabs from a place in Bishkek, bulgogi from a hotel in Valleyview, palmeini from a place in Pattaya. I could go on, food is my language.
The "breakfast burger" at a cafe that used to be in my neighborhood. Served on toast with a fried egg and corned beef hash, side of roasted potatoes. It was so damn good and I'd always get it with avocado instead of cheese. Place closed several years ago and I still get cravings.
Oh also my favorite Chinese takeout used to offer "sugar donuts" and they were always baked fresh to order, easily the best donuts I've ever eaten. The restaurant is still around and I still go regularly, but they stopped offering the donuts some time ago.
Bitterman's Deli! A Korean deli that was Seinfeld themed and played episodes, that was my intro to the show as a kid. They had these great fried bagel chips I've never seen anywhere else. Now whenever I watch Seinfeld I want a sandwich lol
C. C. Ole's on Clayton Road in Concord, CA. I used to go there as often as I could, which, since I was a kid, was mostly on my birthday. They were so good! Sadly they closed down while I was living in TX. I'll never get to taste their food again.
About 45 years ago in Stockton, California was a restaurant called Mexican Joe’s City Cafe. Absolutely the greatest picadillo tacos I have ever had and I have never been able to replicate them. It makes me sad.
My grandparents and great grandparents and aunts and uncles lived there. I was Bay Area but we were there all the time. Left California long ago but still remember driving up there in the Tulle fog.
Not sure if this counts, but for a brief time, a gelato cafe set up shop in an upscale shopping center in my area. Their gelato was, hands down, the best I'd ever eaten.
For a reason that will forever remain unknown to me, it closed after seemingly no time at all.
There used to be a food cart in Portland OR, PBJ Grilled. Yes, fancy grilled peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. I dream of their almond butter, applewood smoked bacon, goat cheese, apricot jam sandwich on Kalamata olive bread. Best sandwich of my life!!!!! I think it was called the Smokin’ Goat.
Egg cakes from the egg cake lady on Mosco St. in Chinatown NYC! OMFG, standing in line, learning to GET OUT OF HER WAY when she needed to move from one end of the stall to the other, struggling with eating them all at once while they were still warm or saving some for the train ride home.
'80s Manhattan - fancy candy shop that made candy apples and the shell was not lurid candy apple red but a warm reddish brown, thin, hard, and tasted of cinnamon & Autumn.
NOLA 1988 - breakfast at the Tally-Ho. Sign outside said 'Try us once, you'll be back.' TRUTH.
As a kid, I was traveling with my family overseas. We had rented a car and it broke down and it was Christmas Eve etc. We ended up at this middle of nowhere cafe/restaurant. The. Best. Grilled. Cheese. Sandwich. Ever. (Monterey jack on sourdough comes close in excellence? But it ain't the same.)
Cy's Restaurant on PEI, which I want to say closed around 2014 or 2015. Just a small and simple shop on a street corner that mostly offered burgers, fries, wraps and milkshakes, but every spring without fail I miss being able to grab a meal from there.
There was a chain called The Italian Oven. It was the first place that I ever had fettuccine alfredo, and I’ve been chasing their fried zucchini ever since.
The night me and the boss got engaged, we had dinner in Chinatown in San Francisco in a restaurant that had the most incredible salt and pepper mushrooms. Maybe doesn't sound amazing but honestly, I would still be sat there eating them 15 years later if I could.
Bloody hell, yes! I think it must have been. We picked it on the fly and I could never remember the name but I did remember the letters being in different colours - just googled and presto!
The Dill Pickle--a sandwich shop on 4th Street in downtown Winston-Salem. My grandparents had a garden shop on the same street, and when I was sick, my mom would bring me to work and bundle me up in the office. She'd pick up lunch from The Dill Pickle, and nothing has comforted me like that since.
for my 40th we went to a VERY expensive, once in a lifetime (for me) omakase where the owner of the restaurant hand made us like 18 different pieces of sushi, one at a time, and finished with this salty salmon roll and this rich miso broth. I cried
60 or so years ago my granny asked my dad to drive her to get some shopping. It eventuated that this meant driving her for several hours, into Scotland, because she wanted to get kippers from a particular place. It turned into an overnight trip, and I suspect whiskey became involved as well as fish.
A restaurant from my alcoholism years, quiet, small, backwoods in south dakota. They prepared me the single finest experience I've ever had with bison. Glorious, local flavors that took my breath away, possibly the finest pan sauce. It shut down a week later due to covid. I still chase that dragon.
Do you think it could be possible to contact the owner, explain how you have been working on the recipe, and ask about their personal touch that made it so good?
I tried, old place called "Cottonwood" and I can't find a single contact or piece of info about it. I live on the west coast now so it's hard to ask around the area.
Closest I've ever gotten was a bison tenderloin (IT WAS EXPENSIVE ;0; ) that I seared on each side with thyme, rosemary and butter before baking to medium rare, with a wine pan sauce of bone stock, wine, shallot, garlic, butter, heavy cream and parsley. It wasn't half as good, but I'm still trying.
When I was in high school, there was a tiny pizza place about two blocks from my parents' house. I don't think they had tables, just a few chairs for people to sit while waiting for their takeout.
I think it was called Carlo's, but I'm not sure...
He'd start a little neighborhood place and call it (as in this case) Carlo's. He knew what he was doing, and I assume he had the right recipes and so on.
So he'd build up a loyal, steady following. Then he'd sell...
Chou's Buffet in Columbia MO in the 1990's. Best Chinese buffet ever - lots of options, all of them delicious. I'm pretty sure the entire town mourned when the owner retired and his son converted it to a mediocre brew pub.
A restaurant in Wales in the early 1990’s. My friends and I got lost, and nothing was open except this one restaurant. It was the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life. The salad was magical.
Was once in Boston for a weekend. Ordered dinner at random from some Thai place, got an appetizer that was so transcendently delicious that despite the limited time, we ordered from them a second time.
Also, in Seattle with a friend, we were haunted by some delicious smell while we were waiting on something. Couldn't figure out what it was, picked a restaurant for lunch, ordered, and shortly after another table got onion rings and we realized that's what we were smelling and immediately ordered.
The waiter was worried because they'd come out after our meals, and we said that was fine, please, we needed them. They were the best onion rings either of us have ever eaten.
In New Orleans, had a chicken andouille gumbo that I dream about. I bought the restaurant's cookbook, which included a recipe for it, but it's not the same.
Also, there was a Brazilian place in my town that had the most amazing sandwich. I dreamed of that sandwich. The chef/owner retired last year, and I'm so happy for her and heartbroken I'll never have one of those sandwiches again.
A flourless chocolate torte layered with coffee buttercream at Gundel's in Budapest, . Oh, my, oh, my. And, not restaurant food, but haunting because it is unattainable: a chocolate bar named, "Crunchy Dark," made by Nestle's in Hungary. Sadly, they no longer make it. It was divine.
The Cubano panini from the café I worked in before grad school. People would call to ask if it was a special that day and cheer so loud you’d have to hold the phone at arm’s length. Boss gave us the crispy spiced roast pork ends, never shared the spice rub recipe. Café closed several years ago.
That was the owner’s secret recipe, but we also had an excellent head cook. He took another job at a seasonal place and made life-changing sweet potato pancakes with cinnamon butter. He was super tall, so his idea of normal size pancakes was huge (and perfect).
I’ve tried making them myself, and it’s so hard. I haven’t figured out how to get the right flavor without them also getting too dense and gummy from the potato. The compound butter is the easy part.
IIRC Alton Brown tackled this with sweet potato waffles, his trick was separating egg whites and yolks and then beating the whites to stiff peaks and then * carefully * folding in the whites to lighten up the batter.
Ah yes! Never been but it's close by. Totally gonna check it out tomorrow! (I'm developing a mild gluten problem myself, but I'm still in denial so I'll risk it.)
Picture it: Mooresville, NC, 2021. Amaravati Grill, a little Indian restaurant tucked into a strip mall, serves you the best goddamn dal makhani & goat vindaloo you've ever had in your life, in massive quantities.
They close a few months later. You mourn the loss to this day.
There was a local dive near me that occasionally had a burger with a fried Mac and cheese patty on top of it with bacon and a bbq sauce. Delicious. Closed cause the owners were racist and everyone found out.
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Haven't ever gotten it quite right trying to replicate it.
I had it several times when we were there on vacation, and then the third year, they changed the recipe and it wasn't near as good.
I haven't been in a few years so maybe they've brought it back but I'm not super hopeful 😭
Owners retired years ago. Chile Verde, beans, jack cheese and Anaheim rellano. It was glorious.
Ruined all steaks since. Never repeated.
I keep saying that is my favorite food, but every place I go to they never make it anywhere close as good as that.
It literally is the best food I have ever had.
They were amazing and I still haven't been able to duplicate them
their menu was seasonal, so they were constantly rotating out proteins and salsas, so every time you went back there would be something new on the menu, something that was only for that moment in time.
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I miss the beef 'El grande burro', and the fried ice cream with honey and strawberry. Yum!
https://wgntv.com/news/nexstar-media-wire/why-chi-chis-restaurants-are-returning-2-decades-after-their-closure/
Our teachers would come back from lunch buzzed on margaritas. The 80s were amazing.
and it was a worldwine chain. ate the fried ice cream in Winnipeg in the 80s
ps. Three-fish chimichangas!
I was a seafood enchilada girlie, though.
They were enormous, one was a lunch all by itself. The size of a small cabbage. They were also delicious. Other bao merely awaken the memory of those.
Our friends found some dumplings. It was the best I ever ate. I never again found quite the same.
Once a lady came in an ordered a pound of hard aged 4 year provolone. He broke off a hunk and began wrapping it.
She said no, she wanted it sliced.
He put it back in the case & told her no.
I liked him immediately
His wife shared husband was out mowing the lawn, came in and announced they were moving to Italy.
They were gone in a month
The chef/owner Mike Horri would sit down & ask what flavors you liked & did not like
He would be back in a few minutes with a starter, then a second course, etc, - some times different dishes for each of us. I didn't know they had a menu.
I asked how they made their mole sauce.
Guy went in the back and ... brought out his mother.
She hand grinds the chilis, hand chops Mexican chocolate, cooks it for at least 6 hours - pops it in the fridge to marinate, then they use it the next day.
Damn. fine. food.
Their mother's hands were getting sore from arthritis.
They talked about having one of them do this - but use a food processor to save time.
They never did it as they were all afraid to tell their mother they would use a food processor instead of grinding by hand
So bad!
1) 1999, the house special rolls at West Side Sushi on 47th? 49th? and 9th in NYC, stuffed with real crabmeat. I made When Harry Met Sally sounds and made my bf go back the very next night;
https://nypost.com/2000/05/17/sushi-joints-got-the-raw-materials/
On topic - Bread pudding and daily specials at the Bon Ton Cafe.
There was something nice with the super fine shredded lettuce, vinegar & oregano powder on top.
https://deweys.com/products/brownie-crisp-moravian-cookie-thins
I still dream of their basil blackberry mini cupcakes with a big blackberry in the center and top of each.
Also bonus feature (not restaurant, but...): the Bolthouse Farms Prickly Pear Lemonade.
I'm still sore about them taking them off the menu.
Hot Doug's for the sausages and weekend duck fat fries.
Blue 13 for the amazing vibe and staff
Heaven on Seven on Wabash for everything
Ray's Pizza in Blue Island - my favorite pizzas ever
Crawdaddy Bayou for its great New Orleans cuisine, especially the seafood fondue.
Not worth going back to the US for, and I can fake a lot, but I do miss some regional cuisine sometimes.
It closed in 2008.
Made fresh dough, their Italian sausage, and an 8” pizza would stuff 2 people. It was the best Pizza I’ve ever had, and they moved on in the 80’s. 😭
I've searched high and low for a comparable version in restaurants, I've tried making my own, but it's never ever that good.
at Restaurant Noma.
I mean I guess I could go back there one day, but it’s a bit of a hike from LA
Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get to taste them again one day.
Which means I can eat pizza once again, and do!
Gotta love a place that ❤️ customers.
Though the orange chocolate mouse cake was the last thing I remember eating there and it was amazing.
Came back home and now my local biriani place i used to like seems 3rd rate.
for real
A fish dish at a small retaurant in Czesky Krumlov, soon after Czech Republic opened.
I went back last year and it was nowhere to be found.
We still had lunch ladies, not contractors, and they actually prepared some stuff fresh, not just frozen prepared foodservice items. I'd love to have French bread pizza or dinner rolls again.
The key has definitely got to be that government cheese.
Lemon Meringue pie slice
Carrot-Raisin salad
Chicken salad sandwich on toast
Cole Slaw (it was sheer perfection when spread on their signature Chicken sandwichl
https://willerby.substack.com/p/the-take-you-away
For a reason that will forever remain unknown to me, it closed after seemingly no time at all.
I can't even remember its name.
In my restless dreams, I can still taste it
NOLA 1988 - breakfast at the Tally-Ho. Sign outside said 'Try us once, you'll be back.' TRUTH.
It’s a beloved gem of a restaurant. :)
Now you know!
The Mac and cheese pizza from Tomato Pie Pizza Joint in LA (restaurant still there, the Mac pie gone).
The others I would mention in other cities might still be there but I am no longer in said cities so they are gone for me.
🙃
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I think it was called Carlo's, but I'm not sure...
Eventually Carlo sold the place, including the name. It was never the same.
Also eventually, we learned Carlo was not in the pizza business...
He'd start a little neighborhood place and call it (as in this case) Carlo's. He knew what he was doing, and I assume he had the right recipes and so on.
So he'd build up a loyal, steady following. Then he'd sell...
Build, thrive, sell, and then... PAOLO'S PIZZA.
It really was good, while it lasted.
I got to go a second time, too, and had easily the best restaurant experience of my life.
Please go eat one for me — I have celiac disease now and can’t eat the bread
https://www.cambridgeday.com/2021/03/04/hot-pressed-sandwiches-from-montrose-spa/
They close a few months later. You mourn the loss to this day.
Bibimbap from this little Korean place a few miles away.
Las Camellias enchiladas in San Rafael 1980s.