Conventional wisdom says it’s the ride, not the destination that matters in life. For me, it’s the food. I go to Europe not looking forward to the five hour knees-up crunch in coach, or the crying babies, or the bad movie … but the stinky cheese and real bread on the other end. I go to China thinking about the bowl of noodles I had at a restaurant next to the Worker’s Stadium and the Rice Congee for breakfast with peanuts and scallions …. San Francisco is about the smoked ham and chicken salad at Brandy Ho’s and a Negroni at the Tosca afterwards.
You said a mouthful. But even short trips are improved if there is fabulous local food at the end. Maryland Blue Crabs at the Tap Room in Chesapeake City where they roll out the newsprint and upend a steaming basketful for your dining pleasure. Or Barbeque at Redbones in Somerville, southern food at its finest despite being in the heart of Yankeedom. And for me, true ambrosia is a tray of baked stuffed quahogs, fresh from the bay and purged of their grit in cold seawater laced with cornmeal. But you, lucky man, have clams for the digging when conditions are right, while I must journey to the feast.
Brandy Ho’s & Tosca. Great memories… You taught me well!
David – truer words were never spoken. Thanks to a smart concierge I wandered into a restaurant called The Bayside in Newport Beach. A year later I still sit around trying to scam up another trip to California, just for the venison medallions and gnocchi.
Derek, the commenter above you — DeWayne — we both ate at the Bayside a few years ago. Agreed.
1. Street food in Singapore. It’s the only place i’ve ever had a bbqed tiger prawn that was so big, you could eat them like a watermelon slice– cost was $(Sing)2 each and they weighed just under .75 kilos. great seasoning with just the right bite of “I’m gonna be sorry when this chili passes through my intestines and exits tomorrrow morning.” and food that made me want a frosty Tiger beer– and I don’t drink.
2. Fresh baked bagette, purchased on the local economy in VietNam when we were patrolling outside of Khe Sanh in APril of 1968. I had been on C-rations for about three months and that loaf was the best tasting bread I’ve ever tasted. I used two C-rat cans of apricit jam on the puppy and washed it down with about a pint of freshly ground Khe Sanh coffee beans I bought and roasted myself. this may have been one of the best meals i’ve ever had.
3. the breakfast hash at the Delancy Street restaurant in San Francisco. Excellent use of ‘tovers (leftovers).
4. fresh croisssants, french cherry jam and a coffee filtre in the 2nd ardssmnt in Paris, consumer under a chestnut tree on a damp spring morning followed by a couple of unfiltered galloise and the front section of the IHT.
5. Any meal at Cafe Sobieski in San Francisco but now in San Mateo on Alhambra drive. The chef invites you into the kitchen, gives you a plate, a sharp knife for carving, a fork and an edible tortilla napkin.
6. Beans and tortillas traded in exchange for a 12-pound albacore by myself with the crew of a Mexican Armada gun boat patrolling south of the Coronado Islands. they threw in an ice cold 13-ounce Mexican Coca Cola made with cane sugar and bottled in glass. EXcellent boat chow.
Jim Forbes