As the decade wrapped up, I chose my top 5 most memorable meals of the last five years (2015-2019). Mostly because I can no longer think far enough back to remember the first half of the decade.
1. (tied) Home cooked meal by my aunt, Taiwan, February, 2015
(I wish I had a picture of this, but I was young and using Snapchat liberally in 2015) I’ve never lived close to my extended family, so having a meal cooked by my aunt was a rare treat. My aunt was an amazing cook. Moreover, the meal came with stories of my parents, aunt, and uncle from their childhoods. Of running around barefoot, of the different types of art my uncle has experimented with, and of stories I wish I remembered better.
Du Hsiao Yueh noodles
Later on the same trip, my dad noticed that I was increasingly bored and miserable at my grandfather's, and insisted the two of us step out for a small bowl of noodles. It was a rainy day. We were about to have dinner. And everyone was protesting that Du Hsiao Yueh was a nostalgia trap (but a trap I'd never been to!). But the two of us got to have a moment alone and eat a few of my favorite things, before stepping back into the din. (And don't you worry, it absolutely didn't ruin our appetites for dinner)
2. Willie Mae’s in NOLA. Fried chicken and lima beans, July, 2015
In a city of limitless food options, Willie Mae’s was so good that we ate two consecutive meals there. On the first visit, I was skeptical how a piece of chicken could ever be “the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.” But it truly was. On the second, I worried that we’d hyped it too much for our friends who weren’t with us the night before. But they assured us that the chicken not only met, but far exceeded, the hype.
3. Pablo cheesecake tart/Ichiran ramen/sashimi set at restaurant name forgotten in Japan, March 2018
I was simultaneously angry and happy with much of what I ate in Japan. And these three things captured those conflicting feelings more so than any other. They were all mid priced, relatively common items that I’d had countless times before. And each was casually available, without lines or much fuss. And yet, so much better than almost every other version I’d had before. It was that consistency and availability that killed me the most. I basically spent my days in Japan shouting, “this is how it can taste? This?!”
4. Cochinita pibil panucho in Mexico City, August, 2018
Maybe it was because this was our first meal in Mexico. I was hungry, tired, and learning the limits of just ten lessons on Duo Lingo. Or maybe it was just that the pork was tender, the tortilla fresh, the entirety of the small storefront smelled of meat, and the impossible delight of tasting something I’d never had before made of ingredients I thought I knew.
5. Kamayan feast in Montreal, July, 2019
A Kamayan feast is a communal, Filipino meal eaten by hand. It was a comically abundant undertaking for four people. Especially four people who were still snacking on kielbasa and cookies just an hour before. As the meal started, we ate ribs, fish, chicken, noodles (extra order, because hubris), with gusto and much laughter. As the meal progressed, as the mugginess of the restaurant became increasingly stifling, and as our stomachs (already strained after days of poutine) reached capacity, our laughter turned into wincing. We left the restaurant chastened and spent the rest of the evening lying down on a beach. Still, it was marvelous, memorable, and I’m not sure we’d learned our lesson.
Honorable mentions (pictured): raspados in Tuscon, poutine in Montreal, (not pictured) most meals in Baltimore.
