Hot Dog!
Monday, April 19, 2010 at 10:41PM 
I found this delightful piece of art in a small gallery in Carmel while road tripping with my Southern mama. We thought it was both full of humor and thought-provoking...
I immediatley began thinking about the great meals of my life, and how much I'd paid for an evening, an afternoon, a late morning of indulgence. The majority of my most memorable suppers, I realized, don't have a price tag attached to them. Sure, I'll never forget my nine courses at The French Laundry, but in terms of ranking, it still comes in behind a New Year's supper of heavily doctored frozen pizza and NV Canard Duchene, shared with my sweetheart and two dear friends. It also ranks far below the Saturday afternoon a friend of ours brought a dozen live lobsters, which his mother had air-mailed him from New England. We served them on buns with cole slaw, fried green tomatoes and vintage Salon, also a gift.
And it can never compare to all those SEC football weekends that started with biscuits and andouille sausage gravy and ended with collard greens and something fried, pulled or both.
I'm curious. What ranks high on the list of your most memorable meals? And, were they expensive or were they priceless?
PS...Isn't that glass relish fabulous?
PSS...I'm watching Anthony Bourdain eat glistening mounds of Petrossian caviar while I write this and am seriously wondering if eating my weight in caviar would be worth the dollar cost. At what price, fish eggs...
Brooke
A couple more calorie-laden memories...
- Watching the Super Bowl with friends at a borrowed Lake Tahoe condo while eating Chik-fil-A and sipping on Kiwi-made Gewurztraminer.
- An impromptu blue cheese tasting on a French highway just outside of Bordeaux with new, equally cheese-y friends. We stopped at Jean D'Alos' famous shop in the city, picked up three types of Roquefort and left sticky-salty finger stains on maps and steering wheel as we sped back to St. Emilion.
- Wednesday night suppers at my Nanny's before church, even if she did make us hand wash the dishes. Her lemon bread pudding was worth the dishpan hands.
The handful of shrimp-tastic Fourth of July parties and the more than a few Easter Sunday buffets at my Papa's Arkansas farm rank high on the list, too.
Reader Comments (4)
There have been many memorable meals. Etched in my mind by the loved ones
With whom I munched. There is however one standout. You may not remember the tough few years when your Daddy and I were quite broke. Quite! It was anniversary time you kiddos were scattered off to any number of pressing school engagements. I was prepared to be home for the evening and your Daddy said to me. "No you deserve a night out" I did not know where he was taking me with that tightlipped smile of his until I saw the glow of the yellow flourescent tubing overhead. We had arrived. World Burger in all it's glory and grease!
I'm afraid nothing I could come up with trumps such a memory as that...
Yes, love that relish. It looks ... so crisp! And I suppose it is. :)
I, too, had a memorable (and expensive) meal at The French Laundry. I'll never forget it because I treated myself to the experience for my 30th birthday (since I'd just started a new job and couldn't take vacation days). The meal was, to me, a true celebration of independence.
But there are other memorable meals ... my first hamburger (at age 31--crazy, I know), my first turkey for Thanksgiving (similarly aged, though not quite as) and the careful meals my grandmother used to prepare. I am a sucker for the new and the simple.
I think that to receive the business loans from banks you should have a firm reason. But, once I have got a collateral loan, because I was willing to buy a bike.