One item and one item only!

[chrose]

Responding to another thread got me to thinking. We have had similar threads but let's try this. I would like to know what you would choose if you were asked to name the one item that you have tasted in your life that to you was the ultimate in taste, for whatever reason. Then describe why . I realize that it is difficult to choose just one when many may be tied. But you are being forced to choose one.
For me the ultimate taste may well have been a Duck Leg Confit. The richness of the duck meat, the silkiness that the slow cooking produced. The underlying flavor of Thyme, my favorite of all herbs and the saltiness that the curing produced. When I had it it was warmed up and then crisped up in a saute pan. I drool when I think of it. Oh why does the best have to be so bad.......

And you....?

[KeeperOfTheGood]

Hey oh

Well, first thing first, thnx for the rsp for the Herring Cassarol MMMMmmmmmm

As to the question at hand, I know an answer, and I don't at the same time. It is a tale of being lost in a forien city on a day that was around 140 or so Ferenheit. At a time there was a general shortage of soft drinks. And what soft drinds that were findable were frozzen solid and usually popped out the bottles tops. In a 5 street intersection of a residential area of the city, right near an old well (a hudered feet deep, and 20 feet across and bricked straight down to a water worn limestone like floor. The essence of age that was paletable) there was a home. This home had a 2 element stove, a bar sink, and two tables with two chairs each. There was a door on either side of this room, opening to opposite streets. The proprieter of this little eatery spoke no english. We mimed our hunger. We mimed our thirst. He grinned the big grin of a man that just made a good sale, and out came the cast iron fry pan.

I do not to this day know what it was he made us. I can describe it thusly. It was a bar, about the length of a hot dog, flat and recrangular. The outside was a beautyful dark brown when cooked. The interior was a flouresent yellow, I believe it was saffron coloured. The meat itself was mild and salty. The texture was stringy in the way that snow crab legs are stringy. He served this on a toasted bun, with lettuce and tomatoe.

Between being lost, hungery, thirsty, and unbelievably hot, this little respit and lunch and cold water was the most spectacular moment of the day. This was when I was 8, I am 35 now and this little moment is still a shining light to my minds eye.

[deltadoc]

For me it was 30 years ago, in a restaurant called Chouette, that no longer exists; a hot appetizer made by Jean-Claude Tindillier. It consisted of an artichoke bottom medallion covered in a sort of crab meat bearnaise sauce.

The richness of the sauce coupled with the slightly earthy artichoke, the tender firmness of the artichoke, with the heady French Tarragon herbed sauce was so good, that you literally looked around this 5-star classic French restaurant to see if anybody was looking, and up came the plate, and out came the tongue, and the dishwasher's job was made just a bit easier that night!

doc

[phatch]

I'm a barbecue guy. My favorite flavor is a certain dry rubbed slow smoked spare rib with a mustard barbecue sauce. A little low brow perhaps, but soooooo good.

Phil

[shroomgirl]

Wow...one huh.....ok.
my fraise du bois jam with a warm croissant and Euro butter.....tied (i know i know) with the salmon colored raspberry jam. It is sweet/tart with a berry punch that goes on and on....the flakey crispy soft chewy croissant and drippy butter just are icing on the cake.
I've lived in the South and BBQ could have been easily up there, blue crabs, fresh shrimp, or any of the phenominal veg/fruit on the market.....I thrill to berlotti beans, wax poetry on haricot verte, go bonkers over chanterelles and fingerlings.....one huh.....cylindrical beets and Goatsbeard chevre with a sherry dressing, scones with devonshire cream and jam, boudin from Boudin King, .....one huh.....aged gouda (5 years please) or Mont D'or (the French version)......torchon with brioche and cherries....searred foie with bitter greens and fruit.....roasted chicken with mashed potatoes.....sungold tomatoes.....fresh any kind of pie.....one, just one?
Life is just too short for one.
Happy holidays.....guess I don't follow rules well

[Ma Facon]

For me it would have to be freshly smoked cisco from lake michigan still warm from the smokehouse WOW!!! It was so tender and flavorful , I could have eaten 5 pounds . That was 35 years ago and I still go to CHARLIES SMOKEHOUSE in GILLS ROCK , DOOR CO. WI. To relive the experience time and time again.

[Pete]

This is a tough one. I have often started to write something, then a million other things pop into my head, and I get disgusted with trying to pick just one and delete my post. But, now, as I have come back to this thread once again, I think of my first bite of hot smoked salmon, the summer I lived in Alaska. Me and two buddies drove up to Alaska the Summer of '89', the summer of the oil spill. I was 19 and hoping to get a job on the clean up and have the experience of a lifetime. I ended up working in a restaurant in Valdez, but that is a different story. One of my buddy's dad lived up there, and had spent a few years there going to school.When we got to Glenallen (sp?) to spend a few days before heading to Valdez we met up with one of Bill's old teachers. He invited us over. As luck had it when we arrived he was just pulling sides of hot smoked salmon out of the little smokehouse he had in back and offered us some. I had never tasted anything so luxurious!!! That King Salmon had only been out of the water minutes before it was cleaned, brined and eventually smoked. The way the flavors and textures exploded in my mouth was a revelation!!! The sweet, fatty salmon, playing against the brine and the rich smoke (I believe he said he used alderwood, but Im not sure) was heaven. As we left he gave us each a 3-4 pound hunk to take with us. Mine was gone with a day or 2. To this day, that is the standard by which I judge all smoked salmon. Unfortunately for me, as I have yet to come across another that even comes close.

[Mezzaluna]

Wow, this is a tough one! However, I gravitate in Chrose's direction: rillettes du porc. It has the richness and meatiness I always prefer, but also echoes of my culinary heritage (schmaltz). Give me a good schmear of rillettes on a good piece of authentic baguette and I'm a happy woman. (The rillettes served at a cafe in Paris in springtime with my husband next to me and I'm REALLY happy.)

[lamington]

Only one... life is so cruel Well, i'd like to talk about my penchant for pastry and custard combinations, but instead I cast my mind back to some of my earliest food memories:

Kebabs of lamb dressed with lemon, thyme and salt, eaten by a 7yo on a beach in Greece. One of those flavour combinations that really seems perfect -- lemon and salt, salt and thyme, lemon and thyme, salt and lamb, thyme and lamb, (lemon and lamb... the odd one out?). A range of earthy notes, plus the greasiness of the lamb cut by the zing of the lemon and salt.

[Athenaeus]

Since the day I joined this forum I remember chrose composing odes to the duck leg confit.

Only one?

Summer in Santorini, I swim in a remote beach , some fishermen are fixing their nets and I approach them for some chat. They cut an urchin, dip it in the sea to clean it from dirt and ask me to taste the eggs.

What a shock! So far, this has been the most exquisite experience for my taste bulbs.

[lifer]

demi glaze,lamb shanks and roasted garlic
need i say more

[kuan]

Fois Gras. But that was too easy for me. Everyone knows I'm easy. All you gotta do to please me is add duck fat!

I remember fresh Mangos the size of small cantaloupes plucked from a dwarf tree. That's pretty ultimate.

[hipjoint]

i have had a number of exotic dishes (noooo, not sauteed bugs or
whatever) and the one i end up drooling over is claypot pork belly.

pork belly, as many of you know, is where bacon comes from. take
a block of raw, uncured pork belly, place in clay pot. add some chinese
black vinegar, dark soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and five spice powder.
braise over low heat for a couple of hours until cooked through.

here is what you get: slightly sour background from the vinegar, saltiness
from the dark soy, and sweetness from the brown sugar in balanced
proportions ... three different textures from the pork belly: the soft
chewiness of the pork skin, the stringy but tender pork meat (like pulled
pork from a carolina bbq), and exquisitely smooth, melt in your mouth
feel of the bacon fat.

oooooooooooh, baby ... it's a pork fat kinda thing!!

[chrose]

Originally Posted by hipjoint

claypot pork belly.

oooooooooooh, baby ... it's a pork fat kinda thing!!

Interesting timing for this answer. I have had a recipe for "red cooked pork" for umpteen years now, and last weekend seemed like the perfect time for it. The posted recipe is similar to what I did. I took a 2.75# pork belly, cut it in 2" cubes and braised it in a number of steps with soy sauce, Sherry and sugar all put it at different stages. Total cooking time was around 3 hours or so. It was a HJ described it, minus the tartness since I used no vinegar. It was everything I expected. It was rich, deep in flavor and textures. One thing though that took me by surprise (well, sort of) is that I started to get sick later on in the evening! I never really got on well with excess fat and grease, and though it was delicious it was a one time thing. Never again shall I eat chunks of fat like that, 'ceptin what I git in mah Pork n' beans can!

[hipjoint]

Originally Posted by chrose

Interesting timing for this answer. I have had a recipe for "red cooked pork" for umpteen years now, and last weekend seemed like the perfect time for it. The posted recipe is similar to what I did. I took a 2.75# pork belly, cut it in 2" cubes and braised it in a number of steps with soy sauce, Sherry and sugar all put it at different stages. Total cooking time was around 3 hours or so. It was a HJ described it, minus the tartness since I used no vinegar. It was everything I expected. It was rich, deep in flavor and textures. One thing though that took me by surprise (well, sort of) is that I started to get sick later on in the evening! I never really got on well with excess fat and grease, and though it was delicious it was a one time thing. Never again shall I eat chunks of fat like that, 'ceptin what I git in mah Pork n' beans can!

+++++ although i am not much of a tea drinker, i find drinking some strong
oolong tea while eating the pork fat thing the antidote for getting sick from eating excess grease and fat. interestingly enough i find the body reacts differently to different kinds of fat. take some bacon and fry it until crisp (don't burn it!). eat the bacon and you feel OK. if you were to eat the grease that rendered into the pan, your body won't feel all that good. it is as if the fat that runs off is different than the fat remaining with the meat. don't ask for an explanation. just try it and see for yourself!.