Let's Eat!

Weekend Challenge:  Let's Eat!

Hello Fellow Toads. Let's trade some tales of the best ever bugs, flies, and crickets we have eaten. Some of you may be aware that at one point in my several incarnations, I was a chef - matriculated at the CIA, worked under some good chefs and finally became a chef.  Therefore, one of the things I always ask people is, "What is the best meal or food you have ever eaten?"  It doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to have been the best thing YOU have eaten.  For example, one of my favorite meals was eaten with a coworker after a long hard night's work. The meal consisted of chicken salad from one of those plastic tubs on a hot dog roll, a couple of oreos and the crumbs from the bottom of the potato chip bag.  It was all she had at the time and it was good!  The company made it special, you see. Tony said, "You learn a lot about the person you share a meal with."

I have traveled all over and have memories of some special meals in special places - Lyon, Hong Kong, London, my hometown of Durham, NC.  One of the people I admired most in the world was Tony Bourdain.  He traveled, he ate.  He was fearless in the food he tried and I don't think he ever met a food he didn't like.  He did the Parts Unknown series on CNN and one of the best segments he did was in Manila.  Here we see Tony at his best - fun loving, sentimental, honest, eating with people who love to feed people, and children off the street.  I am including this segment which shows that the food doesn't have to fancy and gourmet, it just has to be eaten in the company of fellow food lovers.  It is the segment on Halo Halo (hollow hollow or mix mix) which is a Philippine street food.  He happily shares it with children on the street.  You can tell he is truly loving the experience.

What I would like you all to do is to write a free form poem about the best food you ever ate, the best meal you ever had. I would like you all to keep it brief please - No more than 20 lines and in a free form - meaning no form is allowed: no sonnet, no ode, no haiku, no haibun, no cherita, sonnet, etc.….I want the form to be footloose and fancy free. Travel with us and share with us your meal. Walk with us and talk with us.  Have fun with this prompt.  Tell us about the food, the ingredients, the drink, the company.  Let us in on your pleasure in a meal well eaten.  And watch this short video clip.