Meals you have enjoyed but not your day to day meals

Gosh Jane43 we must have lived in a parallel universe - you describe my mum's kitchen and all the things she used to cook (except the stuffed hearts) and the way she used to cook them! All my favourites.

My Mum cooked Chinese food when I was young- I had my first Chow Mein at 6 months old. She wasn't Chinese- just loved trying different things- took me round SoHo looking for birds nests for soup when I was quite small. My Grandfather & Uncle were in British army in India & both cooked wonderful Indian dishes. So I grew up loving 'foreign' food & still do.
I love Greek food & would eat Giovetsi any day of the week- luckily I can make that very easily but I am currently pining for a really good Gyros (street food).

Not very adventurous but I love fish and chips and would never make this at home.
On French holidays we'd eat 'assiette des fruits de mer' which I again adore but wouldn't go to the trouble of preparing these days, maybe prawns with mayonnaise which is simple and delicious.

Things Mum used to make that I have tried to cook but they never tasted like hers:

Bread pudding
Jam Rolly Polly - suet pastry rolled up with jam, wrapped in a cloth and boiled and served with home made custard
Fish and parsley sauce - she baked the fish in milk with breadcrumbs sprinkled on top then used the liquor to make parsley sauce
Rabbit stew
Stuffed hearts

Things Mum's Mum used to cook:
Apple pie - her pastry was to die for, she had a tiny kitchen and rolled out the pastry with a milk bottle putting random dabs of butter
Yorkshire pudding which she used to beat for ages to get lots of air in.
I used to sit and watch her for ages and she let me help beat the Yorkshire pudding.

Chocolate fudge from a quaint sweet shop in Southampton where they used to make all their own sweets.

I really really enjoy a good old traditional Christmas dinner. Turkey and all the trimmings. Just once a year. Stretchy waistband at the max. Lovely!!

Kokorec, in Istanbul. Lavas bread, lahmacun, icli kofte, maybe you can tell I love Turkish food....

When my brother and I were in our late teens we went,for the very first time ,to a Chinese restaurant.
Eating out was not the norm then and we thought ourselves very sophisticated.
After ordering we sat waiting and were each served with with a bowl of clearish liquid with slices of lemon in it. Calling back the waiter I said "we didn't order soup" to which he replied " flinger bowl,flinger bowl !"
Waving his fingers about at the same time.
Of course,being young ,we found this hilarious and proceeded to laugh uncontrollably.
Unfortunately we were not able to contain ourselves completely and left the restaurant with our lovely meal hardly touched!!
Chinese food has been a favourite ever since.

Yes, I can remember thinking that Vesta curry or Chow Mein was very sophisticated. I'd probably hate them now.

I can remember "discovering" pizza when it wasn't really known in the UK - well, it may have been in some cities, but not elsewhere at the time. It was the summer of 1968 and I was an au pair in the south of France. I loved the food there (put on weight!) and watched how they made a pizza. When I got home I explained to my parents how tasty it was, and attempted to reconstruct it, but used pastry as the base, as yeast dough seemed too problematic. My Mum then adapted it and served little pizza tartlets in individual pastry cases as a snack when friends came round for "supper" (which was not a full meal but nibbles served with milky coffee).

One of my sister's is a good cook and her moussaka puts all others in the shade, also her spanakopita (spinach and feta pie with filo pastry).

Almost any Iranian dish - there are many but one that sticks out - Shirin Polo - has saffron rice, almonds, pistachios, strips of candied orange zest, and more. It is a special occasion dish and my son's father in law cooked it for his daughter's wedding.

It's interesting that some of the meals which were not 'day-to-day' meals years ago and seemed exotic have become part of the culinary repertoire years later, eg spaghetti bolognaise, curry, nasi goreng, even beef stroganoff occasionally.

First time I tried beef stroganoff (55 years ago) thought I had died and gone to heaven. Have had many since but never one that matched the first. Often wonder if it was actually the dish or the magical doorstep of love I was teetering on. Happy days.......

You're right Mick. The Great Central Main Line, from Sheffield Victoria to London Marylebone. A beautiful Gresley A3 Pacific engine, with a restaurant car. It didn't have a Pullman until the sixties. Sorry. Digression!

Spinach Roulade and Rosemary Potatoes from the Austrian place at the top of the hill where we lived in North Wales.........mmmmm

Greyduster interesting when you said about the "Master Cutler" think then it was on the former Great central and ran through Brackley.
Mick

Michael I have only ever eaten properly on a train twice; once in 1957, when my dad took me to London on the 'Master Cutler' express when it was still a steam train. We had a lovely breakfast (and coffee!) in the restaurant car. It was a real treat for both of us. Dad was very proud of the train, because it was Sheffield's own express. A year later it the name would be taken by a diesel engine and he said it never had the same romance.
In 1965 I was travelling home from London, where I worked, and treated myself to a Pullman seat, sharing a compartment with a young architect who kindly bought me lunch! I had mushroom soup, and chicken in a white wine sauce. I can't remember what he had. He was telling me about the new crematorium he was involved designing in Grantham, where he got off. I almost never travel on trains these days.

You get around don't you Mick

I haven't done many train journeys in recent years, only the commute sometimes to London or France. We go to London for days out of course, but lately not so much as the trains are so unreliable -strikes etc. So no meals I'm afraid.

Plymouth to Paddington when I was a child and trains into Cornwall of course but that's all except once to Southport to visit my Aunt whose officer husband was posted somewhere up there. Not very interesting is it

Changing it slightly , dining car meals on trains.
The most scenic dining I have done on a train.
1: Going down the Rhine Gorge between Cologne and Main.
2: The Highlander Sleeper train when it was BR in the 70`s between Inverness- Perth.
I had a good three course on the train in Germany ,and on the BR highlander a Steak & Kidney pie.
Other rail dines have been between Brum and Bristol , Royal Scot Euston to Preston , Plymouth to Paddington.
Non exist today due new trains etc
Mick

Croatian food is amazing ,we've visited friends a few times and they innsist on feeding us every night( we always take fab gifts for when we leave because we feel bad about it) succulent beef stews ,wonderful potato dishes layered with swiss chard ,fantastic home cured meats ,I can honestly say I've never had a bad meal with them...we also go south from their home outside Zagreb to Istria and the food there is to die for,mixed grills of tender meat ,beautiful fresh whole fish deboned at the table fantastic pizza and orzo style homemade pasta and lovely wines..anyone remember when it was Yugoslavia and the wine was fantastic..well it still is and you can take a container to the local shop and fill it for the .equivalent of around a £ .I'd recommend it to anyone

Fresh fish with some type of potatoes done in garlic and oil on a boat in Croatia, washed down with local wine.
Grilled sardines with similar potatoes and a carafe of local wine in Portugal.
Sardines and potatoes never seem the same when done at home.

The first time I ate in a Chinese restaurant I had some kind of clear soup - it looked like water but was absolutely delicious.

Many years ago I worked with some Armenian colleagues who were having a family celebration and they very kindly invited us. The food I tasted there was like nothing I'd had before, or since. I can remember something called piroshki (sp?) which was served warm and dolma, which I think was vine leaves and also Byorek, which was another type of pastry, filed with cheese. And then warm and sticky baklava. None of it "health conscious but all of it delicious.

I know I will probably be shot down in flames for this, but long before Colonel Sanders invaded the UK, we were stationed on a large NATO base with a substantial American presence, that had the first KFC concession I ever saw, and I thought it was one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten! Quite unlike anything you could get elsewhere at the time. I haven't eaten it for years except that my Grandson had some once and I purloined a bit of his. It was not the same as I remember, but then, is anything?

50s and possibly 60s just loved Chicken Maryland.

L loved vesta chow mein.

I remember those Vesta meals too, loved the crispy noodles with the chow mein.
I had an omelette fine herbes in Belgium, delicious and fresh sardines by the sea in Gran Canaria must be the ambience and being relaxed on holiday as they were such simple dishes.