The meal of a lifetime.

A pizza, on the island of Capri, people watching. Fabulous

I have lots of special food memories, camping in roumania and no shops anywhere and we had had a puncture etc but there was a little farm nearby and I was able to make myself understood enough to "buy" some sweekcorn and pepeprs and some sort of sausage spicy. we boiled some water on the camping stove stuck the veg in and it was delicious. Gardemers a;waus sau upi sjpi;d jave tje water npo;omh readu tp put the sweetcorn in immedaitely and it will be lovely and sweet. Another time we were invited by the consul in Istanbul to visit and I had a marvellous time going round the souk with his wife. The moss amazing fish, some of which I didnt even recognise, and on another occasion in istanbul, went into a workmans cafe and simply looked at what people whee eating and using a few words to ask if it was good etc was able to guess roughly what thigs might be but the waiter put a hand on my arm and sort of pulled me. At first I didnt know if I had done something wrong or upset people by looking at their meal but no. He took me into the kitchen where the cooks were very busy of course but then invited me to look and smell and taste things and choose. Lovely. In Portugal I lived by the sea between Lisbon and Cascais, and the equivalent of a posh michelin starred restaurant was very close to where we lived. You would see embasy cars and elegant people dressed to kil going up the stairs to have the really wonderful seafood there. But below the smart bit was a very simple whie tiled little dive for the workmen. But my goodness you couldnt have had anything fresher. They had a great idea there, where people would come on their way home, walking or on bikes andhave their fishing rods tied to the bikes. so the would go down the beach and literally stand their and fish. You got lovely Baccahau a Braz so they caught cod and hake and other fish and then it went back to barter. so simple and so super. The fisherman would come in holding the freshly caught fish. He would bargain with the cafe owner and so then he would sit down and the cafe owner would cook the fish, Depending on the size and thei bargaining he would reaceive say 1/3 of the fish served with rice and salad and a caraf of local wine. This would ineveitably be followed by ceme caramel (which we called 365 as it was on every menu where ever y ou went) So he has fished for his supper , and has no washing up or cooking to do. The other part of the fish would be then chalked up onto their blackboard for you to choose from. as you had seen the fish arrive you couldnt askf for anything fesher. We never saw any title to this little cafe, but sometimes we called it the loo cafe. Nt being derogatory but it was gleaming white tiles and all scrubbed wooden tables etc . But we mostly said it was the crab bashers cafe! So in england you might go for a night out and buy fish and chips on the way back, well there the posh cafe had the very smart and expensive fish but the little cafe served their own fish just caught as I have explained and then they had wooden boards like brea boards and wooden hammers something like an auctioneers gavel. The portuguese were down to earth and not putting on a show, so they would buy a cooked crab and it would be brought on this little plank and they would drink their wine, talk loudly and eat the crabs using the hammers to bash the legs to get the last of the lovely fresh fish inside. My goodness i can just think of those lovely crabs and this was back in 1968/9. i have been lucky in that many places I have lived have had lovely home grown food and used to go to he algarve to get oranges and lemons and then I used to throw a pancake party . So would make up about 3lb of flour for the batter, and then there would be spicy mince and some lightly curried fish etc and then on the sweet side, oranges and lemons of coure but also cooked apple with a little cinnamon mixed in it and a popular simple filling of mashed bananas.. Many of the children loved these but the adults had a little ectra as I would make a very thin crepe and put mashed banaa over it will either some brandy or rum on it . Very popular. So many memories of food shared I could go on for ever, but this has made me very hungry and time I got some coffee and something to eat.

Queensland, Australia.
A gorgeous fairy-light pub garden in the heart of Brisbane. My 43rd birthday. We had barramundi, chips and salad. All totally amazing... but the best thing was this:
I ate with my beautiful daughter who was nursing down under. I hadn't seen her for almost a year prior to that day.
A meal I'll never forget. xx

Our first taste of real fine dining was at restaurant Gordon Ramsay when we were late 20s/early 30s. We were guests of someone my husband did business with. They also ordered the accompanying wine for the tasting menu. As they were also paying for tacos home from London to Surrey, we gladly enjoyed the wine too. My husband and I were like sponges. We soaked up the experience and ever since, we enjoy fine dining. We couldn’t go ourselves for many years, but now for our birthdays or anniversary we go. We’re lucky to have many in London, in Surrey and nearby. Very memorable was waterside inn. We stayed overnight too. Michel was there too! He came round to the tables and asked if everything was ok and of course we said yes. We gushed about the foie gras and he had them add two large portions to our main course. We had not known there was a “main” as part of the tasting menu and we were stuffed!! Fabulous breakfast in a private cabana on the riverfront the next morning.

My ideal would be going to the Fat Duck for dinner.

I have to come back as I cannot believe I didn’t say Ormers! I expect only Sarnia will understand this, but a feed of ormers is very special. Locally gathered shell fish known around the world as abalone. I have a casserole of the same in the oven right bow as it’s ormering tide and some kind soul has given us some.

Not a grand meal but sitting outside The Pilchard Inn on Burgh Island eating crab sandwiches in the sun was
pretty memorable.

Kate1949

Not a grand meal but sitting outside The Pilchard Inn on Burgh Island eating crab sandwiches in the sun was
pretty memorable.

We used to live not far from there years ago, happy memories of a sandwich and a glass of cider, but last time we went they wouldn't even serve us a drink because we weren't locals or staying at the hotel!

Oh no Callistemon. That's not good. I can't remember when we went. Possibly about 8 years ago maybe.

We were astonished - even tried to argue that we had been fairly local but to no avail!
It's on my blacklist now.

That's unbelievable.

Am I allowed to mention a very memorable meal for the wrong reasons in Portugal. The menu was totally in Portuguese so we randomly ordered a starter and a main course having no idea what we would get. We ended up with a small plate of runner beans for starters and then for main course a large plate of runner beans. they must have had a laugh in the kitchen.

Street food satay in Singapore is one I really remember. I was 2-3 months pregnant and slightly nauseous, and couldn’t fancy much at all, but really enjoyed that.

I think I can’t have much of a palate, because neither the actual food nor the ‘foams’ etc. we were given at the two ‘tasting menus’ in France did next to nothing for me. In particular I remember an ‘olive foam’ for all the wrong reasons!

My best ever meal was at a 3 Michelin star in Ghent. We got chatting to a couple who were the parents of the chef patissier and they told us to ask for the tasting plate with a small quantity of every dessert. It was amazing. Beautiful rack of lamb as well.
We have also eaten at a few 2 Michelin star restaurants in France and some fabulous ones in Switzerland, but Belgium was the best. (DH was frequently entertained on business accounts by clients across Europe - sometimes I got to go too ?.)