The Best Meal You Ever Had .... The Great Meal Discussion

[CleverNickName]

Fast food certainly has its place. Portland has some of the best street food anywhere, thanks to--oddly enough--our overnight parking ordinances.

In most places in Portland, it's not illegal to leave your vehicle parked overnight (as long as you're paying for parking). This allows food trucks to move into an area and set up shop indefinitely. Others move nearby, and soon you have a "pod" of food carts with a variety of different food options. It's just such a weird and awesome part of Portland.

https://www.travelportland.com/culture/food-cart-pods/

Chances are: no matter what time of day it is and no matter where you are in town, you are within walking distance of some excellent fast food.

 

[Maxperson]

the best fry there is are the ones from Mcdonalds (as long as you eat them fresh).

With the added bonus that they are still edible, if a bit more crunchy, 10 years later.

 

[Mallus]

Fast food is pretty awesome when I'm drunk, but I don't think my tastes should be taken seriously at that point.

"I never had a meal like I did when I was drunk. Jesus, does anybody?" - Stephen King, probably.

53 year-old me still swears 21 year-old me was right about the Fat Cat -- with or without chili -- which is one of the greatest sandwiches on Earth and certainly New Jersey's most important contribution to global cuisine, outside of Taylor ham, obviously.

(a Fat Cat is 2 cheeseburgers on a sub roll topped with lettuce, tomato, and French fries)

 

[Ryujin]

I have tastes that don't go for the more expensive stuff I suppose. I've been all around the world, eaten at many places of great exhibit and taste, but the best places are almost always places you wouldn't imagine. (for me, at least. Eventually you realize, at least for many, that the places that cost a lot are many times selling an "experience" more than what the food is, and if you really want the food, go to the street and find out what is actually really popular among the people who live there. The more popular a place, no matter how cheap, is probably where you are going to find the food that is actually what they like more and tastes better...at least for me).

And interestingly enough, I've always come back to American Fast Food as what I would prefer as the best of the best in the US. At the top of it all (though, go back to when they used the real method of cooking them), the best fry there is are the ones from Mcdonalds (as long as you eat them fresh).

For fries I would say that it's a toss-up between fresh McDonalds fries and fries the way that you used to be able to get them from KFC; straight from the fryer, done in the same oil as the chicken, and not yet soggy.

 

[payn]

For fries I would say that it's a toss-up between fresh McDonalds fries and fries the way that you used to be able to get them from KFC; straight from the fryer, done in the same oil as the chicken, and not yet soggy.

This is every story about KFC. Chicken used to be good, biscuits used to be good, etc...

 

[Ryujin]

This is every story about KFC. Chicken used to be good, biscuits used to be good, etc...

You're not wrong. These days I either go to Popeye's or Mary Brown's. For those non-Canadians out there, "Mary Brown's has the best legs in town." (Their old slogan)

 

[payn]

You're not wrong. These days I either go to Popeye's or Mary Brown's. For those non-Canadians out there, "Mary Brown's has the best legs in town." (Their old slogan)

I'm not a huge fast food guy, but I do indulge from time to time. KFC has gotten so bad I'd rather go hungry.

 

[Mannahnin]

Best fries I ever had were the twice-fried steak chips at Kennedy's on Westland Row (right by Trinity College) in Dublin. I'm often not a fan of steak fries, being too thick and soft. These were big, but perfectly crisp on the outside and perfectly soft and lovely on the inside. Their burgers might also be my favorite ever. They had one called the Station Burger with a mix of minced short rib and... damn. Can't remember the rest of the blend. But spectacular. Their lamb burger was also excellent.

I've read through this thread twice now; once when it started and once today, and I still couldn't pick a single greatest meal. The first time I went to Boston Chops might be a contender. Splitting the 20oz chateaubriand with my date, as well as the heart carpaccio and finishing with a Yamazaki single malt for dessert was pretty damn divine. But I've had so many fantastic feasts with my family, including similarly excellent beef, sherry-braised duck, and some of the best roast chicken you'll find anywhere, that they all blur together now.

My perfect final meal would probably have to be one of my mother's famous holy day feasts. Fish, flesh and fowl all required. But with all my favorites. The aforementioned duck would have to feature, as well as lollipop lamb, roast Chateaubriand, and probably mussels in a perfect white wine sauce with tarragon (that sauce/broth so good you are compelled to spoon it up with the shells is what pushed this option up over other seafood). Fresh popovers hot from the oven with honey and butter. A salad with arugula, plum tomatoes, kalamata olives and artichoke hearts. Accompanied by a decent French red and a bottle or so of bubbly. I'm not picky on the labels. A slice of red velvet cake with real buttercream frosting (crisp enough to hear the sugar crunch when you cut it) to finish, with milk.

 

[payn]

My perfect final meal would probably have to be one of my mother's famous holy day feasts. Fish, flesh and fowl all required. The aforementioned duck would have to feature, as well as lollipop lamb, roast Chateaubriand, and probably mussels in a perfect white wine sauce with tarragon. Fresh popovers hot from the oven with honey and butter. A salad with arugula, plum tomatoes, kalamata olives and artichoke hearts. Accompanied with a decent French red and a bottle or so of bubbly. I'm not picky on the labels. A slice of red velvet cake with real buttercream frosting (crisp enough to hear the sugar crunch when you cut it) to finish, with milk.

OH....MY....GOD....YES

 

[Mannahnin]

OH....MY....GOD....YES

It's a miracle that I'm not fat. While not all of those items will feature, the menus for our holiday meals are usually similar to that. But with more veggies, other fresh-baked breads, and usually mushrooms, chicken livers and such on the side. Amazing roast chicken appears more often than duck, chateaubriand is more a birthday or special occasion dinner and more common cuts of roast beef and pork appear more often, and while lamb features regularly it's usually a regular leg or shoulder rather than rack. But I get to eat similar feasts 8-10 times a year.