The foodie craze has become almost nauseating these days with so many forgotten celebrities now popping up with cooking shows and Guy Fieri personally dedicated to making the cooking channel impossible to watch with one stupid show after another. But the saying that I hear most often is the mantra of all people who enjoy food embracing, and that's "one thing in this life that brings people together is great food" which is so true.
So I ask, what was your greatest meal? Where was it? What did you have? Who were you with? Sometimes the experience is actually better than the food itself, which was simply a catalyst to make the situation possible.
I'll start.
My best meal ever was at a restaurant in Montreal called Joe Beef. It's been featured on nearly every culinary show that's actually about great food. The owners are personal friends of Anthony Bourdain and David Chang and Eric Rippert, and they have recently made the top 50 restaurants in the world list. It's not fancy by any means. It started out as an oyster bar with a few other items on the menu, fresh every day and the menu depended on what was available at the market. Its traditional French cuisine and they only serve natural french wines. Their menu is on a chalkboard, again it changes daily.
I had seen the 2 owners David MacMillan and Fred Morin on Bourdain's CNN show and then on David Chang's brilliant Mind of A Chef and followed them on Twitter. We had a few back and forth comments and David said he liked what I was doing with my Youtube videos and that he'd love to cook for me and that I should come to Montreal, so I did. They made me one of everything on the menu. Now they don't have a lot of items on their menu, probably 15 or so but still! I was seated in the coveted window booth and David sat with me and my friend all night drinking and introducing us to the most incredible dishes imaginable. Roasted duck, foie gras, poutine, sweetbreads sausage, horse tenderloin with butter noodles, rabbit stew, and on and on it went. There were 2 girls from Vancouver at the bar eating oysters that we brought over to help us with the food and the Brazilian TV host Alexandra Forbes joined us.
Our servers Patrick and Samia (she s fucking BEAUTIFUL!) brought around shots of gin with a gherkin pickle in it every 15 minutes and the night was literally perfect. We ended up walking down the street to some other places for more drinks and ended up back at Joe Beef for homemade ice cream made from fresh snow (it was February) that was so fucking good it was ridiculous. Then they took a bowl of snow and turned it upside down on the table and poured fresh warm maple syrup over the top and handed everyone a Popsicle stick. As the syrup cooled and ran down the mound of snow you rolled the syrup around the stick. Imagine 5 drunk girls, not an ugly one in the bunch, sucking on these lollipops. I tell ya it was a spectacle.
I can say without hesitation it was the best meal of my life. The food and company were equally as awesome. Without that great food it would have just been a drunken night like many others, but it became so much more.
I didn't go there to film or anything else. I went to meet my new friend (who is married to a beautiful woman so it wasn't about anything other than friendship) and ended up making many friends.
Here are some photos and a couple of videos.
I'm looking forward to all of your replies!
So I ask, what was your greatest meal? Where was it? What did you have? Who were you with? Sometimes the experience is actually better than the food itself, which was simply a catalyst to make the situation possible.
I'll start.
My best meal ever was at a restaurant in Montreal called Joe Beef. It's been featured on nearly every culinary show that's actually about great food. The owners are personal friends of Anthony Bourdain and David Chang and Eric Rippert, and they have recently made the top 50 restaurants in the world list. It's not fancy by any means. It started out as an oyster bar with a few other items on the menu, fresh every day and the menu depended on what was available at the market. Its traditional French cuisine and they only serve natural french wines. Their menu is on a chalkboard, again it changes daily.
I had seen the 2 owners David MacMillan and Fred Morin on Bourdain's CNN show and then on David Chang's brilliant Mind of A Chef and followed them on Twitter. We had a few back and forth comments and David said he liked what I was doing with my Youtube videos and that he'd love to cook for me and that I should come to Montreal, so I did. They made me one of everything on the menu. Now they don't have a lot of items on their menu, probably 15 or so but still! I was seated in the coveted window booth and David sat with me and my friend all night drinking and introducing us to the most incredible dishes imaginable. Roasted duck, foie gras, poutine, sweetbreads sausage, horse tenderloin with butter noodles, rabbit stew, and on and on it went. There were 2 girls from Vancouver at the bar eating oysters that we brought over to help us with the food and the Brazilian TV host Alexandra Forbes joined us.
Our servers Patrick and Samia (she s fucking BEAUTIFUL!) brought around shots of gin with a gherkin pickle in it every 15 minutes and the night was literally perfect. We ended up walking down the street to some other places for more drinks and ended up back at Joe Beef for homemade ice cream made from fresh snow (it was February) that was so fucking good it was ridiculous. Then they took a bowl of snow and turned it upside down on the table and poured fresh warm maple syrup over the top and handed everyone a Popsicle stick. As the syrup cooled and ran down the mound of snow you rolled the syrup around the stick. Imagine 5 drunk girls, not an ugly one in the bunch, sucking on these lollipops. I tell ya it was a spectacle.
I can say without hesitation it was the best meal of my life. The food and company were equally as awesome. Without that great food it would have just been a drunken night like many others, but it became so much more.
I didn't go there to film or anything else. I went to meet my new friend (who is married to a beautiful woman so it wasn't about anything other than friendship) and ended up making many friends.
Here are some photos and a couple of videos.
I'm looking forward to all of your replies!
But again, southern Indian is my favorite and that restaurant in Shepperton was my favorite ever. I hope it's still there. Do you ever get down that way?
