More fond food memories from your fellow readers:

So many food memories... so little space! One that stands out is my first deep dish Chicago pizza at Uno's Italian Restaurant years ago in Chicago. I had just moved from Florida as a young woman venturing out on my own and although I experienced many other outstanding culinary treats, this pizza was pure heaven. I don't know if the restaurant is still there, as I left over 25 years ago, but the taste stays in my mind! Oh one more... standing in line in the freezing weather waiting to get into a popular Greek restaurant while they filled us up with shots of ouzo. It didn't really warm us up, it just made us less conscious of the hour or more wait that we generally encountered when going to this restaurant! The flaming cheese appetizer was well worth the wait as was the lamb in egg lemon sauce. - Lynda Skinner
 

I remember vividly as if it was yesterday. My husband and I were in Wells, Maine at a small seaside restaurant and I ordered a two-lobster dinner because I like lobster. I had only eaten our Canadian lobster but when I took my first bite of a Maine lobster I thought I had died and gone to lobster eating heaven. I had never eaten a Canadian lobster like the Maine lobster. The Maine lobster just was so sweet and so tender it melted in my mouth. I have not been back to Maine but can taste that taste now. I have had only one Canadian lobster that was tender. They all seem so tough even when I cook them for a shorter time. I cannot afford to have the Maine lobster shipped up as they cost about 200% more per lobster but every time I have a Canadian lobster I try to visualize I am in Maine again with a nice and tender lobster. - Judy Moore
 

In the '60s we had a huge urban renewal in our city that added very little to the downtown area. The Arlington Hotel was still there when I was 16. My family went to their buffet in the large dining room. They had a large plastic salad bowl filled with chipped ice and rock lobster tails. I had one and then I kept going back for more. This was my first taste of lobster but not the first time I was able to taste it. When I was about 11, mid '50s, my parents and I went on our last vacation together, to the coast of Maine. We saw all the sites and went to Eastport, the northernmost port on the US coast. My father was not one to go to restaurants or motels, he had rented an old trailer behind a restaurant somewhere on the coast. He came home with three steamed lobsters and due to being a typical preteen I refused to touch it. Well, that night at the Arlington Hotel I kept apologizing to Mom about being such a brat. - Amy Griffis
 

My grandmother was an amazing cook; I just never realized that until I was older and able to appreciate it. She made everything from scratch, and we loved her even more for it. Being half Mexican, I was definitely the black sheep with my aversion to anything spicy, but I'd always try the food. Among other things, my grandmother used to make her own spicy sausage, which the whole family loved. I remember the first time she served me the family favorite- it smelled great, but I thought my mouth was going to explode when it touched my mouth. I took her special cheesy rice and used it to surround the sausage, making a little rice and sausage ball. I proceeded to chew quickly and swallow without really tasting anything. Everyone at the table was laughing, watching me shove as much rice as I could around each little piece of sausage and still fit it in my 8-year-old mouth. Thankfully, I grew to appreciate spicy food.

About two weeks ago, I decided to surprise my boyfriend by making the same meal for him for the first time. It was one of the few recipes she ever wrote down for us. I invited my parents over as well, to show off my cooking skills and give them a walk down memory lane. He apparently thought it was a little too spicy, and after the second or third bite, without knowing the story, my boyfriend started making the same rice and sausage balls! I thought my mom would never stop laughing! And I'm sure my grandmother, looking down on us from wherever she is, was laughing as well. - Malena Farrell, NJ

Share a fond food memory with us by sending it to TheChef@wwrecipes.com with "Memorable Meal" as the subject.

 

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