Conference turris::cooks

3804.0. "favorites-of-a-lifetime" by TNPUBS::STEINHART (Back in the high life again) Sat Jun 05 1993 00:22

    I'm currently reading M.F.K. Fisher's With_Bold_Knife_and_Fork.
    In the essay, "Once a Tramp, Always...", she describes "the sensual and
    voluptuous gastronomical favorites-of-a-lifetime, the nostalgic
    yearnings for flavors once met in early days."
    
    Her memory conjures up potato chips made fresh in a hotel kitchen, and
    her first taste of caviar.
    
    I remember my first meal of Indian food.  I had journeyed to a wild and
    remote corner of Hoboken (near Stevens) with a group of college
    students in a VW.  It was a very plain storefront place with formica
    tables and the menu specials on a blackboard.  The special was
    goat curry.  I wasn't that brave.  But I can still recall the fabulous
    Bombay Bhel, the likes of which I never had again.  A crunchy bowl of
    many textured exploded grains with chopped onion, raisins, and other
    savories in a sweet-hot mystery sauce.  Folowed by various other
    mysterious and delicious vegetarian dishes.  I wondered at the many
    varieties of fried chick pea batter.  I was amazed at the exotic
    flavors.  I had a persistent sense I had landed on Mars.
    
    I've had many Indian meals since, and none compare to this first
    exquisite experience.
    
    From ancient and sophisticated complexity to the most utter simplicity,
    I recall my first taste of Monterey Jack cheese.  I was journeying on
    one of those obligatory and tortuous 60's road trips to California with
    a small group of friends.  We camped in a woods in the wilds of
    Colorado and lit a fire.  Someone took out the gentle cheese and we all
    ate pieces while sitting around the fire.  The night was so dark we
    could barely see each other.  The cheese was divine.  
    
    There is one meal that never fails to taste as good as I remember. In
    high summer, I love to go to a New England farm stand (the smaller,
    more rustic type operated by Ma and Pa) to buy picked-within-hours
    sweet corn and huge, dusty, dark red tomatoes.  Boil or steam corn,
    slice tomatoes, serve with a garnish of fresh sliced scallions and a
    sprinkle of Balsamic vinegar.  A touch of butter for the corn, but not
    enough to drown it please.  
    
    Similarly, summer's ripe peaches and strawberries, autumn's ripe pears
    and fresh cider.  These fresh products remind me that it is good to be
    alive, and gets better year by year.
    
    Laura

    Laura, you should've gone for the goat curry.  I had something similar in
    Aruba (Goat Island??!) and it was fantastic!

    Cara

I was struck by this topic because my favourite of a lifetime was goat as well.

Before I went to college, I spent some time in Greece, including a few weeks at
the British School of Archeology outpost at Knossos. One Sunday, two of the
archeologists went looking for a mountain shrine on Mount Ida and took me along.
We had directions to the nearest village, where we knew someone could take us to
the site, now a chapel.

We found the village, but everyone there was waiting for lunch at the
restaurant. We decided to wait for lunch too, and it was amazing: aniseed
flavoured spinach and cheese pastries, followed by kid stewed in really light
olive oil.

I'm sure it was so good because it was the village's Sunday lunch, and we were
guests. I don't know if they always ate it at the restaurant, or whether it was
a feast day. Twenty years ago, when this was, you didn't expect anything good to
eat in the Greek islands in summer. But this meal was made up with enormous care
from a very limited range of ingredients, and the care showed.

Helen