Seven Memorable Meals

I have been a foodie for a long time. It's not a major miracle, but a minor one that I'm not morbidly obese, even according to the fake BMI meme going around diet sites in America that's actually designed for Japanese school girls. There have to be about seven particularly fabulous meals that I think I'll always remember, each for their own reason.

Nukmom
Although I've had chicken feet, I still have to say that the most unusual thing I've ever eaten is Nukmom. I can't spell it and Google can't find it, so that's how odd it is. But I still remember the day that my colleguges, Tre and David took me to a Vietnamese restaurant to test my ability to handle real Asian food. I ate everything there and then they left the nukmom until the end. They told me that I should eat it and not know what it is, that way when they tell me later, I wouldn't puke. It wasn't delicious, and it reminded me of exactly the kind of nose-turning stuff I would expect it to be. What is it? Fermented salt fish. I never ate it again.

Thermidor
I still remember the first time I had lobster thermidor. I was 13 or so and had just been accepted to an exclusive prep school scoring something ridiculously high on the entrance exam. It cost fifty bucks way back in 1974 so it was a big deal. It was the most extravagantly delicious meal I had in my life and is probably why I will always associate great meals with success.

Thai
When I was still a working stiff trying to make the transition from Bartleby's life back into college, I got an internship of sorts with the Health Department. It was my first serious white-collar-ish job. I was 21. The office gang decided to eat Thai. I had never had Thai food.

Del Frisco
One evening I had a meal that changed the way I think about steak. Steak to me had always meant New York Strip, medium rare. That night in Fort Worth I became a ribeye man.

Viceroy
By far the most fabulously luxurious meal I ever had was at at a restaurant in Santa Monica a few years ago. It was at the Viceroy hotel, a very shabbily overpriced dive. You know. The kind of hotel your dad gives you to allow you to lose a million or so on your own just to keep you away from the real money. The first year is a blast and you invite all your MTV pals and you chill in the lounge and try to get people to do absinthe again. Well, while this garden of rich fools was in full bloom, I dropped in with the Spousal Unit compliments of a friend of a friend who knew the chef. Nothing is to die for, but it was pretty damned outstanding.

The full scoop is here. Excepted:

The Sous Chef, Kelly came out with the next course which was a special from the kitchen, and it was an absolute marvel. Tasting this next dish has me thinking that there's something I am just learning that chefs can do, that I couldn't imagine. But here you have these monstrously meaty prawns atop a bed of frisee and they are grilled to perfection. But let me describe this sort of perfection. The edges of the prawns are crisp and in the insides squish with all the flavor plus what tastes like a splash of the ocean. What I am tasting is perfected ocean in the middle of a giant jumbo shrimp. Still, it took me a couple minutes to get to that because on the right of the very same plate is a tiny cup of butternut squash bisque with a square of brie floating on the surface. It was, by far, the greatest soup, chowder or bisque I have ever tasted, which is saying a whole lot considering the corn bisque at Bambara in Salt Lake and the lobster bisque at the Plaza Hotel in Boston. One spoonful transports you instantly into the warmth of a ski lodge fireplace. The texture on your tongue is just fabulous and you know within seconds that you are eating in a way that you imagine you would like to every day if you were incredibly rich. This is just not food you can get anywhere. It is completely other, and magnificent.

Big Sur - Rocky Creek
It was a camping trip with my dad. I was 14 or 15. About the last time I'd like to do such a thing. It was all about the first time I ever had pickled herring. Pickled herring, sardines and Ritz crackers on a Sunday sunrise in Big Sur. Magic.