Eating in Context

Eric Asimov raises an interesting point in his column today, something that I'd been pondering quite a bit lately.  It began about a month ago when I was hanging out with some friends and someone asked the question, "What's the best meal you've ever had?"  Simple enough question, but, like trying to conjure your favorite movie or book, a tricky one.  The answers came in two forms.  The first, not surprisingly, was the uber-fancy meal: French Laundry was mentioned, Daniel, a few European entries.  The second--and there were far more of these--were all about context: ravenously digging into a can of baked beans after a long hike, eating a just-caught and killed fish, sashimi-style, on a Mediterranean sailboat.  I, being who I am, totally wimped out and couldn't just name one, but thinking about it over the last month there's no question my mind gravitated to the latter type of experience.  Here are a few that stuck in my memory:

- Spending a day at the beach near the tiny town of Assos, Turkey and walking past a just caught, 400lb swordfish hanging from a tree.  Returning to the beach at night and going to the only restaurant in town; watching as they cut steaks off the fish, threw them on the grill, and served them with a lemon wedge.
- Sharing a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup with Lauren at Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park, while a snow storm raged outside.
- Picking up my usual--a soppressata, fontina, and broccoli rabe pesto panini--from Tartine in SF and then heading to Dolores Park with a couple of Tecates on my last weekend before I moved back to NY
- Most recently, grilling local oysters with a bit of butter and lemon with the boys at midnight on our last day of camping during the Mancation.

I mean, not that I'd turn down a return trip to Alinea or The French Laundry.