I want to talk about my favorite meal of all time. I want to support the best restaurants and the small restaurants right now more than ever. Send me your favorite food stories foodtravelsusa@gmail.com
My favorite meal comes from a small restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. FIG, stands for food is good. And, let me tell you food couldn’t be better. Since 2003, Mike Lata and Jason Stanhope have been at the helm this restaurant. This story starts out as a unique one with being a single guy in Charleston back in 2017 who works 14 hours a day 6-7 days a week with no social life. Sometimes I got a chance to go out and eat, FIG was always on my list but there was a problem, you can only make a reservation for two. Most everyone I knew at the time was from work and no one you work with wants to go have an intimate romantic dinner. So, the only way to get around that is to make up a good story. What I did is walk into the restaurant really sad looking even though I couldn’t have been more excited to finally eat here. I waited at the bar for my “date” to arrive. (I definetly didn’t have a date) I had 3 cocktails and couldn’t have been happier, they asked me what I did for a living. I’m a cook. Then the fun starts. They seat me at a table by myself in a dining room where you can see every table. I sat down around 9:30 the day before their weekend. They should’ve hated me. I don’t think I’ve ever been treated better in a restaurant. They don’t do a tasting menu at Fig but when they found out that my date canceled and I worked in the food industry I can’t describe it other than extraordinarily, perfect, attentive, service. Every item they brought me they did a pairing by the glass for me which was very cool and my first experience in how great fine dining can be.
There were two courses in particular that I talk about to all the chefs and cooks I meet when someone asks me what my favorite restaurant or meal is. The first thing couldn’t be simpler. Roasted Burnt eggplant, fresh house made cottage cheese, pumpernickel bread. Why the hell is this your favorite thing you’ve ever eaten you ask? Everything was executed and seasoned pristinely. No flaws. Burnt eggplant, gave you that caramelized succulence but no burnt bitterness. Fresh cottage cheese, something I guarantee most people have never had because I used to scowl when my mom used to even open the cottage cheese container because of how bad it smelled. This cottage cheese, priceless. Warm, texturally crazy, salty, and melt in your mouth deliciousness. Pumpernickel toast? Something my dad used to dunk in his burnt coffee. Something I couldn’t have less appetite for. This toast, perrrrrrrfectly toasted, the whole piece of bread covered millimeter by millimeter in butter that was the way crispiness should always be. A buttery crunch with the essence of spices in the baked daily pumpernickel bread providing sweet, aromatic touches with every bite. You put those three things together, three things that have no place in my previous life as being any sort of appetizing, your expectations are completely blow away and you’re left mind blown. The ability to take things that people don’t think much of and blow there mind. Probably the hardest thing to do in the restaurant industry.
The second dish was delicious because of nostalgia. My Aunt Rose makes the best meatballs on the planet. Slow cooked, falling apart, tomatoey, crock pot, meatballs. Brought to every family picnic, every gathering, always the thing that got eaten. No matter what. She could’ve put the wrong ingredient or different flavor and no one would’ve noticed. Aunt Rose made them, they will be mouth wateringly scrumptious. Back to Fig. This is a dish of ricotta gnocchi served with bolognaise. Pillows of cheese, amazing cheese, fresh ricotta and goat cheese. Served in a sauce that came right from my family picnic crockpot. I kid you not I saw my Aunt’s face when I took the first bite of these gnocchi. It was like I was 4 years old and thought to myself this tastes like I should eat all of this. In this dish I think Fig accomplishes the second hardest thing to do in the industry. Make people remember the good times which in turn creates more good times in a new time and place. That’s why Nostalgia is invigorating to me. The ability to create new memories based off of old ones is ridiculously exciting. Being able to transfer your memories into the memories of strangers you’ve never met before. This is what gets me out of bed in the morning and I hope you all have stories that make your food memory run wild. Like I said at the beginning send me those stories and I can’t wait to share them with the world.
Special thanks to Chef Mike Lata, Chef Jason Stanhope, Miles and Janelle who was my server that lonely night. You are an example of excellence in this crazy industry.
Tim Buell
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