The FastDay Forum

They say that, for something to be memorable, it has to appeal to all your senses.
Now, whilst I have eaten some good food, the great food has been highlighted by something else to make it outstanding.


One such meal was dinner at the top of the CN tower, Toronto. Great food with an ever changing view. We caught a rickshaw back to the apartment after, which was fab!
I've also eaten at Galvin at Windows at the top of the Hilton in London. What a view! I felt like I was on top of the world!
Another time was when I had a masterclass in another Michelin starred restaurant, then we ate the meal we'd watched prepared.

But, at the other end of the scale, a simple bbq in a field during the first days of spring, with hubs, listening to a cuckoo. Or sitting on straw bales at the top of Whistler mountain, listening to the orchestra, sipping champers and scoffing smoked salmon.
So, it doesn't have to be grand food, but how it makes you feel.

What have be your most memorable meals and why?

[Tracieknits]

For our fifteenth wedding anniversary, we ate at Le Jules Verne on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. Our son was with us, which was actually really nice. We had a view of Sacre Coeur and Paris was at our feet. The sun set while we were dining, and the tower lit up with it's sparkling lights twice during our meal. After dinner, we walked around the 2nd level of the tower, and then we walked down the Champ du Mars so we could get a great view of the tower when it lit up again at 10pm. It was pretty amazing, and the food was definitely deserving of their Michelin star. That was the only time I've had an experience that amazing.

Our (then) 11 year old son blew our minds by ordering and eating pigeon! It was fantastic, but not something your average American would do, much less your average 11 year old American. I only got the steak and frites, because I thought for sure our son was going to at some point regret his decision, but he didn't!

The next closest was dining on top of the Space Needle in Seattle. The food was very good and the view was great.

Ooh - how funny you started this thread - I was going to post in one of the others that I had the most amazing meal last night! It was at a new, very classy hotel in Ely, near where we live - Poets House. I had salt-baked beetroot and goat's cheese, sea bass with gnocchi then chocolate ganache, which came in little pot with some coffee mousse, sour cherries and some dried cherries sprinkled over. It was heaven. We went with 2 of our best friends, it was just perfect. Had a little red wine but not much as I was driving but didn't feel deprived.

[carieoates]

@madcatlady wow you've been to Poets House, bit different to Arbuckles, you lucky thing. I've heard it's absolutely gorgeous, but costs a bomb, so special occasions, without the kids!!!!

The first that sprang to mind was lunch at the Parliamentary Restaurant in Quebec City http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/visiteurs/re ... ementaire/
The room is Beaux Arts, the entryway has knock-your-eye-out stained glass windows in the entry hall.

It was during an unprecedented heat wave in September, 2012--high 80's and high humidity every day we were there.

The restaurant was gorgeous and cool. We went for the chilled vegetable soup followed by a chilled seafood-mango salad served over a slice of cantaloupe that was somehow quite vertical on the plate! Maybe it was held up by the very curvy radicchio leaf. The sauce was full of tender scallops and lobster, the taste was rich and sprightly at the same time, sweet and lively and oh so cool! The coffee served throughout was to die for. Perhaps the dessert wasn't so memorable, because I don't remember if we even had one.

Then we had to go rescue my pocket knife that I had had to surrender from my purse when entering the building. "Sure has a long blade" mused the security guy.

It was a lovely break in that very unexpectedly hot vacation that was a bit tough on people of our age.

Fancy restaurants aside, the most memorable meal I've ever had was my first fast day 600 calorie dinner. It was a Slimfast chocolate shake with an ounce of orange juice, a 1/4 cup of raw unsalted almonds and a few dried plums on the side. Every bite was savored. Every sip was an explosion of flavor. And I almost couldn't eat it all.

Possibly my most memorable meal was eating at the top of the World Trade Centre when my uncle and aunt took me there for an early 21st birthday present. I can't remember the food, only that it must have been good or they wouldn't have taken me! @carieoates and @Madcatlady I went to Poets House in Ely for an after funeral do last October. My parents and sister stayed there as they live in north Wales, it was a marvellous place. Some of my favourite meals have been Sunday night throw together picnics at my friend's house by their swimming pool. We would eat whatever our two families could rustle up; the adults would drink wine and the children would swim until they were exhausted and it was too dark to see them. Fabulous memories.

For me the nicest and most tasty meal that I have eaten is my own roast turkey dinner. Yes, the Thanksgiving/Christmas meal is superior to anything that any restaurant can turn out. Of course everyone has their personal taste but I have my secrets in the turkey dinner department that makes all my quests swoon for more. Everything is fresh and homemade with simple ingredients. The aroma lingers for hours. Compliments abound. And I think back to my grandparents and how I was their sous chef for day. Thank you to my dear grandparents that taught me that cooking simple food with extra love makes the nicest meal you have ever eaten.

Poets House is certainly not cheap but having said that they had 2 menus available and my choices all came from the one which was £25 for 3 courses plus coffee, which I thought was incredibly reasonable. The other 3 all had more expensive meals but the total for all of it, including pre-dinner drinks, puds and port for 2 was £220, which I didn't think was too bad. Walking into the bar with all the people who just oozed money was a bit of an experience though!

Salmon 3 ways with salad at the Kishorn Seafood Bar, on Lochcarron, last summer - during the meal looking across the fields down to the loch, a herd of deer complete with stag strolled across the grass... And the salmon was fantastic, couldn't make up my mind which of the three I liked the best.

Also a very simple pasta made with tomato and fresh herbs in the local trattoria in Monterchi after seeing Piero's madonna del parto. And same trip pork with fennel in Sansepolchro.

Poached salmon at the waters edge at Isle of Skye. A pork medallions with bay leaves and a spectacular sauce had in Winchester (my version of that recipe Is still a family favourite 25 years later). Steamed pork buns from a street vendor in Malaysia. Some fabulous vegetarian curries in Jaipur. Greek salad on the Island of Santorini while watching the sunset. Many tasty meals around Tasmania. So agree PennyForthem the atmosphere also food for thought

I also recall very early 5:2 breakfast of a perfectly poached egg with one thin soldier of Braidwood Bakery spectacular sour dough rye with a proper cup of home brewed coffee. I savouring every morsel knowing my next meal was my salad for dinner

Prawns cooked 5 ways on a girls weekend away on the central coast 17 years ago ( I know exactly how many years as I was pregnant with my son who turns 18 this year.) Also coming back from a holiday in Hawaii with my best friend 25 years ago craving my mums chicken broth with rice and a sprinkle of parsley. Simple but sublime.

[Debs]

Two simple meals spring to mind, the most amazing fish and chips at sunset on the beach on Lord Howe with friends and a beautiful bottle of reisling.
The second, on the slopes of Vesuvius last year in a simple trattoria in a vineyard. View of the sea and the volcano and served the simplest food, bruschetta with their tomatoes and basil, a simple pasta and meats and cheeses, all cured and made by the vieyard owners along with their wine. The food tasted of the earth it came from and the tomatoes tasted, tomatoey!! So rare these days unless you grow them yourself!
There are a few others, but I am fasting, so don't get me started!!