<p>Bicolor sweetcorn, picked while the water starts to boil.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>1988 Guatemala City --fig parfait down from the American Embassy</p>
<p>Ellebud, are you sure it wasn’t Entemann’s blackout cake? That was my childhood favorite growing up in NY.</p>
<p>After that I’m with the foie gras folks. Pate de foie at Ardois in Paris. </p>
<p>Then Coconut shrimp at The Office in Cabo. Seafood on the beach in Phuket that I watched them bring in from their little boat minutes before. Steak almost anywhere in Buenos Aires, and I don’t really like steak. Shrimp and pea shoot dumplings at Yank Sing in SF. A great slice of NY pizza, plain, from an authentic place in the boroughs (pretty much gone in Manhattan). Homemade papardelle with fresh porcini mushrooms in a light cream sauce a good friend makes.</p>
<p>2college: I am not sure of the bakery name. What I remember is going into a bakery that wrapped up the cake in a pink box and tied it. (Hey, I was two!!) Was Enteman’s ever a separate bakery? I believe that it was called Ebbingers (spelling?)…but now I have to google search this. They sell Entemann’s here at the market.</p>
<p>Oh, and I remember going to Nathan’s in New York city! So gourmet…not! And yes, New York pizza, authentic and not.</p>
<p>Off to google!</p>
<p>That google took a second! It was Ebinger’s bakery (founded in 1898) and it went bankrupt in 1972. Evidentally, the Blackout Cake was famous (who knew?) along with a few other desserts. They made a chocolate pudding filling for the cake. I’m printing out the recipe (despite my dual resolutions of not eating to much cake and NEVER making cake because bakeries do it better.) and will try it one day soon. </p>
<p>Oh, and I’m not saying WHEN I went to Ebinger’s…just that it was between the founding date and its closing.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap, life is pretty good. It was Toronto on Thursday and Boston on Friday. But, it was also Boston on Saturday. The NY thing was our routine when we lived in NY. We lived in a loft in Soho and every weekend, we would walk up to Union Square for tomatoes (and other produce) from the farmers’ market. Not sure where we got the bread (a good bakery but can’t recall it), but one day we were walking through some part of the Village and saw smoke coming out of the cellar of a building and were concerned about fire. So, we investigated and they said, “Hey, come back at 1. The mozzarella will be ready.” The combo was perfection. We did it almost every week. I never get bored with perfection.</p>
<p>My wife tried to reproduce the cavatelli dish on Saturday. It was good, but quite different from the restaurant. She’ll often keep doing a dish until she gets it perfectly. Then she never makes it again.</p>
<p>I do get the opportunity to eat well reasonably regularly. About a month ago, I was in Sao Paolo and my hosts wanted to take me to the best restaurants in Sao Paolo. We went to several, but one called Figueira Rubaiyat was highly memorable because in part because it was under this absolutely enormous fig (Figuiera) and in part because they served wonderful feijoada. Highly recommended. They say the beef there is superb as well.</p>
<p>It was nice to see a few fairly healthy dishes amongst the favorites. My favorites learn toward the less healthy fare.</p>
<p>68 hours labor - that wins the prize for longest I’ve ever heard! (I though 19 hours was plenty… Second baby came in 3 hours but was 9 lbs - I’ve forgiven him too).</p>
<p>^My second was induced with pitocin, in under three hours. Only five pounds, but felt like 68 hours worth compressed into three. I have often thought a pitocin drip to be the ultimate cruel and unusual punishment, but 68 hours of labor certainly has that beat!. But that’s for a different thread.</p>
<p>Shawbridge…soooo jealous! I MUST make a plan to achieve a life like that! I DO have a fig tree…( and looking up a recipe for a fig parfait)</p>
<p>
I’ve never had a bakery cake that was as good as one I can make, except in Germany. And even there, they didn’t make a good American style devil’s food cake.</p>
<p>These are my bests. “Jersey” is a channel island off the coast of France. </p>
<p>Best Dish:
My grandmother’s Jersey potatoes cooked in Jersey butter. </p>
<p>Best Vegetable (okay, it’s technically a fruit):
My grandfather’s Jersey “Sunshine” tomatoes" (his own hybrid) fresh from the garden with salt.</p>
<p>Best soup:
Lentil soup made by our sherpa’s Himalaya’s, Nepal.</p>
<p>Best Desserts:
Jersey Ice Cream
Any dark chocolate mousse in France.
Rice Cream with raspberry sauce in Norway.
My mother’s English pancakes (crepes) with fresh lemon and sugar.</p>
<p>Best seafood:
Fruits de mer platter at the Jersey Pottery.
Fresh shrimp off the boat in Bergen, Norway.
Blue King Crab at Simon and Seaforts in Anchorage, Alaska.</p>
<p>Best meat dish:
Moose at the Holmenkollen restaurant, Oslo, Norway.</p>
<p>Best Afternoon Teas:
Any Fairmont Hotel in Canada.
Waldorf Astoria, NYC</p>
<p>Best Cups of Coffee:
Amari Hotel at the (old) Bangkok Airport.
Cafe du Monde, New Orleans
Cafe au lait anywhere in France.</p>
<p>Best drinks:
A watermelon concoction the bartender made for me at the W Hotel, Union Square, NYC.
Red Dubonnet</p>
<p>Every Spring my high school Vocal Ensemble (the top choir at my high school, by audition only, which meets at 7 AM every morning during “zero period”) makes a trip up to San Francisco State for a vocal competition. We fly up Friday, stay all day Saturday (the competition is Saturday) and come home Sunday. Saturday night, our director takes all of us out for a VERY nice dinner at Rue Lepic in the city. We get all dressed up and go have a 6-course meal, complete with the best filet mignon I have ever had (I was raised on good steak…filet is not my favorite cut, but that was the best one I’ve ever tasted).</p>
<p>My mother’s ghirardelli chocolate cake, chicken enchiladas, lasagne, and Oven-baked Beef Stew.</p>
<p>My grandmother’s candied carrots (I was not a big carrot fan growing up and LOVED these).</p>
<p>My aunt and uncle’s corned beef hash.</p>
<p>Chicken Fried Steak and fried okra from Johnny Reb’s restaurant.</p>
<p>In-N-Out Burger which we have every year for Christmas Eve dinner (that was the only time we got milkshakes growing up…from In-N-Out, at least). Daddy always says we can never move to a state that doesn’t have In-N-Out, because what would we have on Christmas Eve?</p>
<p>My mother’s chopped steak on mashed potatoes, which I have every year on my birthday (now that I’m in college I make it for myself) with Grands biscuits.</p>
<p>Blueberry pie from a restaurant whose name I can’t remember in Santa Barbara (or somewhere near it)…with the best, flakiest crust and homemade whipped cream right on top. Still warm from the oven.</p>
<p>Cherry pie made by one of my suitemates last year, made with cherries she picked herself earlier that day or possibly the day before. </p>
<p>New York Steak from Chumash Resort & Casino. I don’t know what kind of butter they put on top, but it was heavenly and cooked perfectly.</p>
<p>I could go on for days and days.</p>
<p>My Mom’s sukiyaki!!!</p>
<p>
I will have to remember that. I will be there first week of Dec for business.</p>
<p>This is a great thread. I am writing down all great places for food.</p>
<p>D2 would say mom’s Italian meatballs and spaghetti sauce, and that’s what we are having tonight. I had to run all over our new town to find my regular ingredients.</p>
<p>Hgfm. I will need you to remember that pie place in Santa Barbara so I can drive their immediately!</p>
<p>iPad…sorry for spelling error.</p>
<p>Believe me, I’ve tried! I have asked my parents several times, and we just can’t seem to recall!</p>
<p>okay, so apparently I’ve never tried googling before. The place is actually in Carpinteria, but I kid you not, it got me HOOKED on blueberry pie. (Not blueberry cream cheese, mind you—straight-up blueberry pie.)</p>
<p>I think about it to this day, and this trip was my sophomore year of high school (I’m now a junior in college). Maybe I’ll take a road trip over Christmas Break. :D</p>
<p><a href=“Santa Barbara Restaurants - SantaBarbara.com”>Clementine's Steak House - SantaBarbara.com;
<p>I once ate dinner at the same restaurant three nights in a row…with different friends each night. The food was that good. Run by someone named Heidi (in Lexington, KY) but it is gone now.</p>
<p>Three cheese polenta, Broccolini’s in madison, NJ</p>
<p>I scored chanterelle mushrooms, Sat. at $5/lb. Last week I got a pound for $7. A week before we went mushrooming and found only half pound but gas cost $18.</p>
<p>Best thing: Peaches, from our farm. Every peach has a different flavor depending on leaf, position of branch, health of tree. Flavor even changes within the peach.</p>
<p>HisGrace - thanks for the pie tip! We’re passing through Carpinteria on the way home tomorrow and I just may try to get some pie. Sounds yummy!</p>