Which Special Meals Stick In Your Mind?

Dad making us beans on toast when my sister was born.
I can’t remember having them before as mum didn’t like baked beans. Still a favourite of mine.

Had dinner in the revolving GPO telecom tower restaurant many years ago with my Mum, Dad, sister, bil and first husband we had a wonderful time very sadly they have all died now I remember that meal very fondly.

We had put up our tent in a rain storm on the banks of the Loire. We were on our way home so had little money left. We saw a restaurant up a tower in the distance, pooled our resources and had the best omelette of my life.

I have two. My grandmothers chicken casserole (she taught me about getting full flavour into food but I’ve never managed to make anything as good myself). And lunch at the Ritz in London for no particular reason, which added to the specialness.

Went to The Malvern Festival to see Pygmalion, after the play
we parked on the hills, full moon, beautiful night, we ate
lettuce and marmite sandwiches.

The first picnic OH ever prepared for us. I was expecting a “meal deal” type offering. He unwrapped the most beautiful handmade al fresco meal. (even made his own tapenade!)

First date with DH in the 50's. He took me to an Indian restaurant, new to B'ham at the time, and my first experience of Indian food. He ordered vindaloo for both of us! I was very shy and didn't like to say it was way too hot, and ate it with eyes and nose running. We often laugh about it now though he still likes his food much spicier than I do.

With no cooking facilities as a new student in 1972, I remember weekend treats of pancakes at the Golden Egg, the best omelettes ever at a little Greek greasy spoon, tiny sandwiches and a pot of tea served by a waitress with a starched pinafore at the local posh department store and, most of all, my first mushroom and veg curry at the basement curry house we still frequent today. We used to take our spare chappatis home to fashion into ashtrays.

My mum's chicken and mushroom pie (chicken left over from the roast the day before) her pastry was to die for!
In my 3rd pregnancy, steak with a peppercorn sauce, made by my MiL - the first meal in that pregnancy when I didn't want to throw up straight afterwards!!

My Grandma made a steak and kidney casserole with dumplings

She'd pick all the kidney out for me, ( I wasn't keen on the steak) and coat the mash with the delicious gravy

Absolutely gorgeous.

I can still 'smell' it now

My Dad made doughnuts in the chip pan while my mother was in hospital having given birth to my little sister. Never tasted any that were better!

On holiday in Italy with my husband several years ago, we had a pasta pie to start dinner in the hotel we were staying in. It was divine.

Coming home from Cornwall where we spent our honeymoon in 1972, we stopped at a pub and had cheese and chutney sandwiches. They were delicious!

Oh yes. I remember steak being the first proper meal I could face after months of pregnancy sickness. No trimmings just steak and chips. DH had to drain them on to kitchen roll and dab off any remaining fat.

My son and DIL`s wedding meal.
It was delicious and by far the best meal I have ever had and in the most wonderful surrounding.

First ever visit to a Chinese restaurant. It was a special treat for my 10th birthday, in Cardiff, in the early 60s. The food seemed so exotic, I'd never tasted anything like it before. I still love Chinese food, but it's never as good as how I remember that first time.

My most memorable meal was at Rousillon in Pimlico after a day at Buckingham palace.
We enjoyed a tasting menu where all of the savoury courses included truffles, DD was particularly impressed with the vegetarian tasting menu which was very imaginative. When we left the restaurant the chef gave us ladies a box of macaroons, exquisite.
Sadly this restaurant closed in 2012 but the chef patron has a restaurant in Soho and the menu there is pretty near to the one we enjoyed.

On holiday with parents and sisters when I was in my late teens. My parents had a caravan and on the way home we pulled into a site in Holland with an attached restaurant. My DF, one sister and I had steak. We were all absolutely agreed that they were the best steaks we had ever eaten. So juicy, so tasty, just perfect - and the chips. The other two members of the family had chicken.

The food poisoning for the steak eaters set in at about 2.00am. It was about a fortnight before I could eat again, meanwhile I lived on apples and weak sugarless, milkless tea I do not think I have eaten a steak since.

I remember playing out in the snow as a child with my friends. My mum called me in for dinner - it was beef casserole and so delicious that I asked for us to have it again on the next night - and we did! She was a lovely mum

The first meal I enjoyed after having 3 months of pregnancy sickness was made by my mother-in-law and so enjoyable - it was cod in parsley sauce, with mash and frozen peas

I was 11 and mum and dad had to buy my very expensive Grammar School uniform and so our usual 2 weeks in Wales wasn't possible so we went out and after purchasing my uniform we went to my first Indian Restaurant in Oxford Rd in Manchester ,I had chicken on the bone with curry sauce rice and chips it was my first proper curry before that I had only had a Vesta curry.I can still remember how it looked and tasted.

My first pizza in Rimini on holiday in the late 60s.
The first time I tasted oysters ( which we had collected ourselves)
But the one I will never forget was fresh smoked eels.
We were in a boatyard in St Osyths when a Dutch boat arrived. The crew were seriously into food for free. They caught the eels, got a 45gal drum from the shed, filled it with oak shavings and smoked the eels. Sheer heaven.

Two meals stay in my memory, a small cafe in Bruges where we had minestrone soup and the most delicious omelette fine herbe.
An al fresco meal in Gran Canaria sitting by the sea eating freshly caught sardines. Great holiday memories.

At University, in a bistro that had just opened. I'd never heard of a bistro before. .

We were too poor to eat, and on diets, so we saved ourselves for ages and queued at this tiny little place.

I had home-made quiche and salad. It was delicious - wholemeal pastry and - oh the sophistication- peanuts in the salad.

I'll never forget it. I'd never had quiche and salad was lettuce, cucumber and tomato up till then...

I've had some delicious meals, but last Saturday my son and daughter took me to lunch at the Sky Garden Restaurant in London - it was the taster menu and very special as it was with my children. Hot buttered toast, after giving birth (I was starving, it was a Sunday and I was in the middle of cooking a roast, which I didn't get to eat!) My neighbour brought in a saucepan of homemade pea & ham soup, after my Father had died. My son brought round a delicious homemade lasagne, when I'd been at the hospital when my Mother was ill. Comforting food in difficult times.