Memorable Meals

Over at This Time It's Personal, I prompted anyone who is doing their personal history with me to write about memorable meals.

I was thinking about the meals I've had in my life that stand out the most, and there are just little snippets from a lot of different meals that jump out at me. So I decided to just share a few quick blurbs about those instead of going into detail on all of them.


-Eating dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house and realizing that we were eating their "pet" rabbits (this is how I remember it, anyway. I swear it happened, but I could totally be making it up in my mind).
-In my first area of my mission every dinner appointment we had involved pizza and Buffalo wings, because we "couldn't come to Buffalo and not have pizza and wings."
-When I was staying with a family outside of Marseille, France, I had my first meal involving an animal I had met earlier that day. A poor little crab. I don't enjoy meeting my food.
-The first time I had Indian food. It was like a revelation. Too bad it was on a date with a guy I didn't like.
-Ha! Also, when I went to the Bombay House and made the mistake of giving my phone number to the attractive waiter. (He asked for it... don't worry, I'm not that forward.)
-Eating at Sam Hawk with my coworkers. Love me some Korean food.
-One time when mom was working and the kids and Dad were making spaghetti. I didn't realize that food thermometers were different from normal thermometers, so I put a Vick's under-the-tongue thermometer in the boiling spaghetti water. It melted and all the mercury escaped into the boiling pot of noodles. I wasn't going to say anything, but "something" kept urging me to tell my dad. I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't done anything about it.
-The first time I tried to eat shrimp was my junior prom, and I didn't know you had to take them out of the little exoskeleton shell they have. I was seriously having trouble, so I just gave up and put it back on the plate. It was at The Roof, overlooking the Salt Lake Temple. I am sooooo classy, I know.
-My company paid for a dinner for me and someone else "and if you go to the Olive Garden, I'll be so mad. And you had better order dessert." So I took a friend to the Melting Pot. It was delicious. But it took forever. When I go back, I'll skip the "main course" and just do salad, cheese fondue, and chocolate fondue.
-For "Senior Prom, Part Two" my prom date from earlier that year (who is also one of the smartest and most genuine of men) and his best friend took me and my best friend to the Tree Room. That was the first time I ever ate duck. Loved it. The company. The food. The ambiance.
-Growing up, the aforementioned best friend would frequently cook while I sat in her kitchen and chatted with her. Then we would share whatever she had made. Or we would go to the Olive Garden.
-I used to eat chips and salsa. As an entire meal. Really frequently.
-The first time I ate at my best friend Hap's house, I knew her mother and I were cooking kindred spirits. I love everything that comes out of that woman's recipe box.
-Breakfast at our hotel in Berlin in 2007. It felt like the first time any of us had seen food in days. It was sooo good. Soft boiled eggs... mmmmmm.
-Every get together with my extended family (both sides). Always really good food to be had.
-Rebelling once I knew I was allergic to tomatoes and mushrooms and eating things like veggie pizza and stir fry.
-Trying out Pizzeria 712 and falling in love with it. Everything about it.

Wow. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I can think of so many. Of course, considering that I've had tens of thousands of meals in my lifetime, I guess writing about a dozen or so of them isn't too over the top. (Don't worry, I totally pulled out a calculator and did the math. 3 meals a day for 28 years is over 30,600 meals.)