A while back I decided I would keep tabs on my most memorable meals over the course of a year. What makes a meal memorable is widely subjective and inconsistent… and that’s the great part.
Sometimes a meal is memorable because the food is incredible, like the hamachi I had in Phoenix. Sometimes, it’s that, plus the restaurant brings the meal to life. I still think back to the Napoleon House in New Orleans as one of those places with the perfect vibe. But other times, an amazing meal can come out of somewhere unexpected- like a drive-thru burger stand in Forks, WA.
Sometimes I love the creativity and cleverness of the eating experience itself, then again, it’s sometimes not even about the food really. A night featuring a ridiculous conversation with some friends you can totally lose yourself with also qualifies.
For me, there’s nothing quite like the stuff I get served by local communities and families while traveling. It’s impossible to not receive that much generosity and hospitality without being changed in some way. A whole community had the feast they’ve been waiting two years to throw on the day I came to visit?? That doesn’t seem right. And deep down, it’s easy to think that the sacrifices you know about will lead you to exaggerate the quality of the food a little, except then you try it and it really is objectively one of the tastiest things you’ve tried. And you know that everything from the food itself to the moment that surrounds you as you eat it can’t really be recreated.
