contest BEGIN! The Best Meal I Ever Ate Was... - TD

The Best Meal I Ever Ate Was... BEGIN!

What was the best meal you ever ate? Where was it? Why was it so special? Tell us the story. This is November's TD.

You will have to try to replicate this meal the best you can. Was it something your mom cooked? Will she share the recipe? Was it at a restaurant? Was it on vacation?

Everyone has one. It may have been the food. It may have been the experience. Whatever it was, tell us...

The 5 basic rules are above in the forum in the Rules section above this post (now they are permanent).
The additional or altered specific rules for this challenge are:

• The name of your entry will be "The best meal I ever ate was (enter the name/location/description of the original dish)" and then tell us why it was so special to you.
• If the original meal was not spicy, please note this fact, and then:
  a. Tell us how you made it spicy, or:
  b. Place a complementary hot pepper element as simple as a bottle of hot sauce or peppers on the side to heat to taste and make sure it is in one final picture.
• TBMIEA is not a previous meal cooked by yourself.
• PoL = .25
• ENDS Sunday at 10 pm EST.

I guess I'll kick this thing off!
"The best meal I ever ate was Andy's Sage Fried Chicken at Hash House A-Go-Go in Las Vegas."
I had this meal in February of 2010. At the time I had been in Vegas for about 2 weeks prepping for the Nevada bar exam (by prepping I mean studying 1/3 of the time that I should have been and spending WAY too much time in the sportsbooks at MGM and Caesars). So the time for the exam came around and I spent 15 hours over 3 days trying to regurgitate as much as I could. By the end of the exam I was exhausted and famished. Hash house a-go-go was my reprieve! The style of the place is breakfast diner on steroids. The meals are all huge, look delicious, and taste even better. My server recommended that I get Andy's Sage Fried Chicken which consists of "Andy's sage fried chicken w/ fresh spinach, hardwood smoked bacon, market tomato, griddled mozzarella, chipotle cream and scrambled eggs." It was enormous, I was starving and despite being on my 3nd double jack and coke by the time I got my meal and despite feeling the onset of drunken binge eating coming on, I could only down half of the meal. It was by no means quantity over quality either. Everything was cooked and flavored to perfection.

The bottom layer of this bad boy was garlic mashed red potatoes. I took 5 or 6 small red potatoes, boiled them until they were soft, then mashed them with 2 cloves of garlic, some milk, some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a splash of sherry. Next up was a small bed of raw baby spinach. The next layer is thick cut applewood smoked bacon that I cooked on the griddle. After that is sliced tomatoes. Following that is an extra large biscuit consisting of flour, milk, buttermilk powder, baking powder, shortening, salt, and sugar. I baked it in the over for 18 minutes at 425. Last up is an extra large chicken breast tossed in flour, then egg, then crushed corn flakes with a couple teaspoons of fresh minced sage mixed in. The chicken breast got deep fried in canola oil for 5 minutes a side. Finally it was topped off with a chocolate habanero cream sauce. The sauce was whipping cream, and homemade blueberry-chocolate habanero sauce I made last week. I added about 1/2 tsp arrowroot to get it to thicken up nicely, then I garnished the dish with shaved chocolate bhut jolokia (thanks Patrick!), fresh chives, and a sprig of rosemary.

I'm not a big fan of eggs, so in recreating it, I left out the scrambled eggs. I also didn't have any fresh mozzarella on hand, so I left that out also. I really don't remember the one I had coming with mozz anyways.

Thanks for coming up with this throwdown idea, it was a great way to recreate a truly memorable meal! Now I'm off to enjoy it, sans jack daniels unfortunately! I hope you enjoy the pics, I really enjoyed making it! And this time I don't have to deal with getting a bar exam failure notice in the mail 5 weeks later.

Wow, great recreation there. First post is an actual entry, can't beat that. Way to kick it off!

Wow MJ! Way to start things off!

Im also gonna be throwing my hat in the ring for this one. Here's a taste

I think I just lost, mj... thanks for that! That is a perfect entry. Great story and awesome vittles, especially whilst alky consumptioning.

I don't even know what/if I'm going to do! :sweaty panic:

Good luck mj, and to all entries!

Thanks guys! I downed about half of it; I'm about to lapse into a food coma. Mgold: There's that fresh mozz that I needed Looking forward to see what you whip up!

Beautiful little meat patties!

Perfect Pepperoni. 1/8" deli cut and a shot glass.

I want to see AJ in this one... recreating the Love Shack burger.

Building the final product

holy crap this is off to a good start!!!!!!!!!

Not gonna be able to play until sunday, but I'm in!!!!!

Great start.

Love the Vegas story, and the deep dish looks incredible!!!

Damn. I'm gonna have to bring it to keep up with the new guys!

this stuff looks great... i'll give it a shot too once market season ends...

ALRIGHT! 2 entries right off the bat! No jaw-jacking, just gettin' down to biznis.

Diamond, thanks for kicking it off in high speed. Great story and your entry looks delish. If you have some prep pics, feel free to add another post, (but not in your firest/entry post). Your first TD post is perfect.


Goldie, deep-dish PIZZA!




Uh-oh! Just noticed we have Gold and Diamond in this TD. Where's SilverSurfer?

Or is that M- G- OLD- 86?



I'm in for Sunday. Gotta wait for hubby to get home Saturday night since what I'm cooking is for him. You'll understand when you hear the story~~~

Still grappling with weather or not I wanna enter this.....

My idea of good, let alone "the best", rarely coincides with the rest of the known universe.

Good start, y'all!!

The Best Meal I ever Ate was Genos Deep Dish Pizza.

I remember a place. This place was dark, covered in graffiti, and smelled of what I believed was Italy. I was fascinated and a bit scared that someone okayed allowing any passerby to "tag" their name on the wall. I waited for what seemed to be an eternity for my meal. The waiter told me that the chef "charred: the crust and that it was going to be a few minutes before they could get another one out of the kitchen. I told him that I could care less and after that first bite I realized that this was and will be the best meal I ever ate. I guess I should back up a bit.

I was probably 11 or 12 when I was living in South Florida. My dad was a huge fisherman, and by default, I inherited the bug. One summer my dad and some of his friends across the country heard about a place that men can go (and I'm sure it is ok for ladies Salsalady) to be at one with the wilderness, Red Lake Ontario. The only problem was it was literally a country away. So we started the trek to meet up with friends in Indiana, and from there consolidate vehicles and gear to make the final trek to our fishing hole.

On the way my father and I used that time to "bond" over food. Shakes at the Varsity in Georgia, early mornings at Waffle House in just about every stop, and late nights eating truck stop grub along the way. We managed to hit every short cut, that is, until we made it to Illinois. My dad said that he had "the place". The way he described it, we would be greeted by angles and served by St Peter himself. I quickly agreed to the detour through the city and found myself begging for food as we sat through traffic. What seemed like an eternity later, we were finally at this little hole in the wall with bright lights that flashed GENOS Pizza.




Ingredients:
Couple (2-2.5 cups) Flour
1/4 Cup Cornmeal
1 Pkg yeast
1 Cup Warm Water
1t salt
2T corn Oil
Few drops yellow food coloring (Their secret to yellow crust)

Sauce:
1 can SM tomatoes
pinch salt and sugar
few turns of the pepper shaker

Toppings
Whatever your heart desires

1. Make the dough:
Throw the yeast in the warm water and ad a pinch of sugar. Wait until it bubbles/foams to make sure it is alive.

Add the rest of the ingredients and knead for 2 minutes.

Allow to rise for a few hours.


When the dough is good ad to a well buttered pizza pan or cast iron. Add the cheese and toppings. I used Fresh Mozz and shredded mozz, sausage, pepperoni, and black olives.

Bake at 400 until done. (Just until the cheese is melted and the sacue bubbling, about 20-30 minutes).

Garlic Knots:
Any basic dough recipe. Spread over a 5"x16" ish area and cut into 1 inch strips. Tie in knot and allow to rise. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes. Then add melted butter and garlic with parsley flakes.

The original had no heat, but guess what, ThePepperGrowing man's flakes and fresh Datils from Romy6's garden can fix that!

I hope you all enjoy, I know I did!

Wow, great story! Why are your prep pics so amazing and clear, but your final pics blurry? Was drinking a factor?

MGOLD, THat is a GREAT story, and especially since our son is 12 and I can "hear" the -arewethereyet-s.

And the Pizza.........OOOOOooooozzzzzzyyyyyyy!

thehotpepper.com said:

Wow, great story! Why are your prep pics so amazing and clear, but your final pics blurry? Was drinking a factor?

Click to expand...

I grown-up-afied it....Had trouble keeping the camera still in aperture mode without flash. The flash would have killed the pics so I tried to get the best pics I could. The wife wouldnt let me spend 30 minutes taking pics. I was cooking since 330...

Thanks though, and sorry for the fuzzy pics.

MGold, your story has the -can-we-eat-yet?-(new-to-TD's)-family-whine. That's OK, bro..........(they'll get used to it)......

salsalady said:

MGold, your story has the -can-we-eat-yet?-(new-to-TD's)-family-whine. That's OK, bro..........(they'll get used to it)......

Click to expand...

Thanks! I hope they do, cuz this isnt gonna be my last TD! BTW, dont worry about waiting till Sunday for your post. If you want, just go ahead and take another day and post on Monday....I wont mind.....