1. Where: Emeril's Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana, January 2003. Anthony and I took our first vacation together to New Orleans (we consider ourselves so lucky that we got to experience it pre-Hurricane Katrina, and we would love to go back someday.)
What: Filet mignon, mashed potatoes, buffalo-sauced calamari, flourless chocolate cake, and wine. Hands down, the best meal I've had to date. My first experience with very rare meat--I ordered steak medium-well back then, and when I tried to do so, our awesome waiter gently informed me that the flavor and quality of the meat would be severely compromised if cooked that long, and that they recommended it rare. So that's what I got...it came out red and bloody and probably one step removed from mooing...and it was freakin' delicious, melt-in-your-mouth-like-butter good. Everything we had was fantastic, but the steak is the memory that really stayed with me. It's the meal to which I compare all other fine dining experiences.
2. Where: McDonald's in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, October 2005. I know, you're saying "What the hell?" Let me explain...on our ill-fated honeymoon in Cancun, my husband and I ended up being stuck in the middle (literally) of the strongest hurricane in recorded history (Wilma). We were evacuated from our beautiful resort on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula to a cinder-block high school compound in downtown Cancun, where each classroom held 30 beach chairs as beds, the windows were boarded up, and the cuisine ranged from rice with hotdog chunks and shrimp in it to a sort of tuna salad gravy on bread. mmm. (Not that I am complaining, the staff took great care of everyone in a crazy scary situation, but I'm just trying to set the scene here.) We were there for 4 days while weathering the storm and then, until we were able to get an emergency flight out of the (closed) Cancun airport, a resort in Riviera Maya for a few more days (with roommates, since it was full of evacuees...how romantic) where the food was actually really good (for example, I ate croissants slathered with Nutella for breakfast every day), but we just wanted to go home and know it was over and we were safe, and we couldn't. When we finally did get out, we flew from Cancun to Dallas, and while waiting for our flight to KC, we went to the food court.
What: A quarter-pounder with cheese, fries & ketchup, and a huge Diet Coke. Disgusting at any other time, as I generally dislike fast food intensely, however, at this moment, it was so familiar, so American, so safe...it tasted SO GOOD. I ate every last bite, and it was amazing.
3. Where: Labor & Delivery Unit of Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, September 2008. I know, another "What the hell?" I had just delivered our baby at 2 o'clock in the morning, and my last meal had been at noon. Fourteen hours of labor, with nothing but ice chips and water for sustenance, made for one exhausted and ravenous new mom. My nurse, bless her heart, brought me a snack box prepared by the hospital cafeteria once all the hubbub had quieted down.
What: Sandwich made with processed turkey and American cheese on white bread, a single serving package of Fig Newtons, a carton of milk which smelled just like the ones in elementary school (i.e., vaguely sour and paper-y), and a mini box of Sun-Maid raisins (which I did not eat, as I despise raisins with the passion of a thousand suns. I was starving, but not crazy). I hate white bread and processed cheese/meats, but much like the McDonald's hurricane experience, the stress and excitement made it seem absolutely delicious! I devoured both the sandwich and the Fig Newtons, which were heavenly, in record time, and then happily spent the rest of the night in post-delivery insomnia watching U.S. Open tennis matches and writing in Aisling's baby book.
Emeril's Photo Credit.
McDonald's Photo Credit.
Oh my gosh, I'm cracking up.
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