New thread, see below, Companiable and Distracting Chat

A good beef stroganoff tickles my palate nicely whereas anchovies are a decidedly no go area.

Most horrible was fermented suy beans in Japan. I joined a queue for them at a buffet style restaurant so felt obliged to have more than a taste. Yuk and yuk. They are supposedly an aphrodisiac. They were sticky and slimy at the same time and tasted like rotting manure.
Nice things: so many . Hard to choose but possibly what keeps coming to mind is on kur last ever holiday together in July, DH and I cooked very fresh herring in oatmeal with new potatoes in butter at a wonderful fisherman's cottage beside the sea in Caithness. We could watch puffins diving off the cliffs. Heaven.

My worst was gazpacho soup served at my boss’s house when she invited the team round for a meal once. I loathe cucumber with its vile taste and slimy but crunchy texture, so it was the dish of nightmares for me.

My best was zabaglione, cooked at the table in a little Italian restaurant when I was about 20, when I shut my eyes I can still taste it.

Belly pork. Yuk. TV chefs were constantly singing its praises so I tried a bit at a Chinese buffet. A cube of fat slime in my mouth (sorry if anyone's eating!) It had to be discreetly disposed of in a napkin.

Too many nice things to mention. At the moment it's my DH's lasagne. Yum.

Worst was in Albania half way up a remote mountain. A bowl of liquid containing a sheep’s head with eyes still in situ ?
Best. A tasting menu in a tiny restaurant in Swansea, Tasmania. The most delicious row of tiny puddings/sweets I have ever tasted
One can dream.
Looks like scrambled eggs on toast for lunch today

On a fruit de mer in France was a shellfish called a Violet - I saw the waitress laughing as I tried it. Horrible. Also in France I ordered a salade de gesiers - which turned out to be a plate of gizzards!

My best foodie memory was a fillet steak in a hotel in California, which was so tender it just melted in the mouth.

French onion soup in a restaurant in Montreal - memorably delicious!
A meal at the home of dear friends - memorably dreadful! I think it was meant to be curry and rice. Of course you have to eat when people slave over the stove for you, but.... it was really bad!

Best thing?.........my mums Sunday roast dinners and the amazing Monday offerings from leftovers! If I close my eyes I can see them now and sixty years on the memory is crystal clear! I do miss my mum.

And Chocolate????? Well, where do I start, delicious although the very cheap varieties from those bargain supermarkets just don't come close, sorry!

Worst thing........well there's loads of foods I simply cannot even try and most of them are white! Calamari, squid, shellfish, tripe to name but a few.

Worst was a meal in a rustic restaurant in Portugal. We knew we were in trouble when we saw the chocolate mousse cuddled up to a bloody pigs head.

Best was Hungarian goulash served in Austria. I’ve never been able to replicate it.

Can I add a smell? Just cannot bear the smell of peeled bananas!

Best for me is any white fish and the worst was trying oysters. Only managed one! Yuk!

I absolutely detest garlic, so it was the large piece of raw garlic I inadvertently had in a Greek meal. I nearly threw up.

Many favourites:
A good medium rare fillet steak.
Fish and chips in newspaper anywhere on a seafront.
Greek yogurt and honey eaten in a restaurant by the sea on a balmy night in Crete.
A proper Greek moussaka, again eaten in a taverna by the sea.
Grilled sardines again eaten in a beach restaurant in Portugal.

Another worst that I couldn't get near enough to try was durian fruit, very common on the streets of Singapore when we lived there. It smells vile from miles away.

Worst for me was also tripe. I tried it in a workplace restaurant when I was a teenager, but couldn't eat more than the first mouthful.
Best, mum's meat pie with creamy mash, strong dark greens and gravy. Her pastry was the best.

^ My most disgusting, again in France, is andouillette sausage, yeugh^

We bought those once - and once only ??! The skins burst in the pan, despite having been pricked, and the innards quite literally squirmed and writhed around the pan. It looked like live maggots! I couldn’t even serve them up, let alone eat them ??

I can’t think of a best food that I’ve eaten - I like most things!

Andouillette I can't even begin to describe the horrors of this French sausage like thing it smelt strongly of wee chopped up innards [horror] Rick Stein featured it in his last around France gastro trip, he did say it was an acquired taste! he wasn't kidding The worst meal I've ever had, conversely from a country in which I've had some of the best meals I've ever had. The French do like to hang on to some of their rustic cuisine, I'm not sure old fashioned tripe would go down a storm in Britain, but maybe it's on the menu somewhere.

Squiffy, I'm glad I'm not alone

France do have some tasty sausages. I first tasted Algerian Merguez there, really lovely and spicy, delicious!

mushroom/onion. risotto as a vegeatarian dish yuk ....so i re-ordered the roast and took the meat home.......i love jacket potatoes....

Terribull I had forgotten about andouilette. We have a house in Normandy (that we haven't visited since July). Normandy is the home of the dreaded andouilette. I have yet to try it but several members of the family have and it is clearly a 'once only' food item, that I have therfeore, wisely, avoided.

Most disgusting - A prawn cocktail with raw prawns in it. When I queried it the waiter replied “They are fresh water prawns.” Yes maybe, but they weren’t cooked! Oh and trifle with sponge and jelly. Horrible texture.

Most delicious - a seafood salad which had lots of locally caught fish in it balanced with plenty of salad.

Most delicious meal, fish and chips, bought as take away food in Appledore Devon a few years ago.
Most disgusting, tripe and udder ( when a child) ??

If I may add another? ( going to anyway)? A delicious one...
Chicken curry ( mild one) and saffron rice cooked by my Indian friend (she’s a wonderful cook)
Most disgusting, a plate of salad and tongue ( when a child)
Salad-ok
Tongue- shudder

Squiffy you’ve just reminded me of a dish I ordered in a French town when I was 20. The weather was terrible, I was cold and wet and all I wanted was a warm meal. I saw Tete de Veau on the menu and with my very limited schoolgirl French thought it was a beef casserole. A plate of a jellied head arrived and all the other diners were looking at me and grinning, and no, I couldn’t eat it!

Baking oh, that definitely trumps my ‘maggot’ sausages! ???

So many foods I really love. A proper spinach risotto comes close to the top after a well baked shepherds pie. Any of the wonderful puddings mum made, crumble, jam rolypoly, treacle tart, spotted dick, all with lashings of home made custard. I also can't resist a good caesar salad (no chicken needed). I really cant stand tomato sauce or baked beans but the only memorable meal for being disgusting was a lunch at junior school. A beef casserole with huge lumps of really soft greasy fat. I remember sitting looking at it when a teacher came and stood over me insisting I eat it. I did as I was told and promptly threw-up and cried. That memory is frozen in time.