Elise (The French Exit) started it. Then Joan (Scentsate) posted her list and Sigrun (Riktig Parfym) joined the group. I thought it was a fun idea – even though not related to perfumes, so here’s my list of meals (or sometimes just food items) that I remembered throughout my life (in approximately chronological order).

1. Mashed potato after three days of fasting due to stomach problems. I was 5, I think. It was made with water in which potato boiled instead of milk or cream but it was the tastiest smashed potato I’ve ever eaten.

2. Apples at my grandparents’ garden. I don’t know the variety; I’ve never tasted it anywhere else. But those apples were unbelievably good: juicy, crunchy, with just the right balance of sweetness and tartness. And it’s not just the way I recall: many Grandma’s friends and neighbors had acknowledged at the time how exceptional those apples were.

3. Food in my kindergarten was awful. Knowing realities of the time, I think it was due to complete lack of interest in the results of their work and stealing on the part of the kitchen stuff. And we were forced to eat it. I hated every meal. One day my mom’s friend took me to see a dentist. As a reward for my sufferings she gave me several sugar cubes to take with me to the kindergarten. A cream of wheat that afternoon improved significantly (later I tried: it didn’t work with soups).

4. Traditional Thanksgiving Cranberry mold salad at my friends’ K & D place. It’s a dish made to accompany turkey instead of a regular cranberry sauce: cranberries ground with a manual grinder, sugar, chopped apples, walnuts and celery, gelatin melted in orange juice – everything mixed together and refrigerated overnight in a form. I liked it the first time I tried it and more than 10 years later still love it. As well as the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at my friends’ house.

5. Dinner at Sansei Restaurant & Sushi Bar, Maui. The chef does his take on Japanese cuisine: soy sauce is something you do not get there since each roll comes with its own sauce. My absolute favorite is Sansei’s Mango Crab Salad Roll (see below) and Panko Crusted Ahi Sashimi Sushi Roll. If you ever on Maui, visit one of their several locations (check the website I linked to) – it’s worth it!

6. Bar Crudo restaurant in San Francisco: each bite is just perfect. Love the food but on the last couple of visits was underwhelmed by the service. Still will give them another chance the next time I’m in vicinity. If you decide to try it, make sure you have a reservation and enough time.

7. My general rule is to avoid buffets: I do not eat enough to justify the price for good ones and it makes no sense to eat in bad ones. But there is an exception to this rule: buffet at Bellagio, Las Vegas. It’s not a fine dining experience and it’s not cheap but every time I’m in Vegas I try to eat there because I like both the quality of food and the variety.

8. One time vacationing on Maui with another couple for several days we discussed why we couldn’t see the moon – even though the sky was clear. It was a mystery, neither of us could think of an explanation. One evening my vSO and I decided to go for a dinner – just two of us – to a restaurant that we liked many years earlier during our first visit to Maui. That restaurant was long gone but since it was a beautiful and romantic spot we found a new restaurant there – Merryman’s. The food was even better than we remembered; the atmosphere was very romantic and, what was the most amazing: we found the moon! It turned out that it could be seen once it gets dark (see the picture) and then within an hour it goes down and hides behind the horizon.

9. Mac and cheese made by my friend and co-worker M. for an office potluck. I’m not sure if I’d ever tried this dish before – it wasn’t something I grew up with and it didn’t seem appealing to me as an adult. But since I like most things prepared by M. I decided to try it and loved it. It’s still the only M&C I eat whenever she agrees to make it. So it’s probably good that office’s potluck happens just once a year.

10. Rugelach from one of the bakeries close to my office. I’m addicted to it but do not get to eat them often since even though it’s usually gone really fast the bakery doesn’t make them too often. I have a network of spies who alert me when the new batch is spotted.

11. Beef Wellington cooked by my friend K. for the 1012 New Year celebration. It looked and tasted divine.

What was the latest great meal you can remember?

Images: Mango Crab Roll – from Sensei website; everything else – my own.