I guess it’s the time of year for reflection, when all the old ghosts come back to haunt us with both good memories and bad, but I blame this particular reverie on date night last week. My husband and I went to Bellamy’s Restaurant in Escondido, one of the new hotspots popping up in North County San Diego, and I tasted the best fish of my life.
Let me explain this significance of this. My family photo album has several pictures like these:
Suffice it to say, my Dad really loves seafood. I grew up on fresh caught everything. Halibut, lobster, abalone, even, one time, a giant shark that made dinner for us for weeks. I’ve grown up around seafood all my life, so for me to say I’ve had the best fish of my life is really a mark of high regard.
My husband and I, singing the praises of this melt-in-your-mouth fillet, naturally found ourselves remembering the best things we’ve ever eaten. We came up with quite a list. Mine included a tower of cold soba in Tokyo, my Sfiha tacos, Kahlua pork chops in Kauai, and mulled wine at Borough Market. His included a truly amazing potted brownie at a now defunct San Diego restaurant that was so rich, two people couldn’t finish it (we’ve tried many times).
But my all-time favorite food experience, the one that changed the way I look at food forever, came out of Wembley Stadium’s cafeteria during an American football game in London.
Once a year, two American football teams travel to London for a single game – ostensibly to drum up interest in American football, but what ends up happening is that Americans suddenly have an excuse to visit London. And things like this happen.
The stands that day were hilarious – the Brits were clearly there for the spectacle, and the Americans didn’t disappoint. While I am usually bored to the point of napping during football games (I tried staying awake for years, but have given in – I am not a sports fan), this one was a pleasure to watch. Granted, I was watching the British reactions off the field more than anything happening on the field. But at some point during the game, I was hungry and in desperate need of something hot and filling on a cold, rainy, classically British day. I walked up to the concession stand and discovered a curry meat pie.
I had never had a meat pie before, even though I had been to England a number of times. This was new. Meat in a pie? Curry in a pie? This sounded too good to be true. So I brought it back to my seat and took a picture.
Then I tasted it. Flaky savory crust with a butter-chicken curry filling remains one of the best flavors I’ve experienced in my life. It’s changed the way I look at sweet and savory, and later I had the epiphany that every culture has its own version of a meat pie (and they are all delicious).
Sitting in a stadium on a cold, rainy day, watching a sport I don’t particularly like – and that’s when I get the best food memory of my life. Goes to show that sometimes things just turn out far better than you could possibly expect.
Here’s how we’re playing WanderFood Wednesday this week folks: You leave a comment and link to your post, then I take that link, post it up on the WanderFood Facebook Wall for all my fans and friends to see, and you get some serious social media link-love! So – spill: What’s your favorite food memory?