Restaurant Memories Past

Restaurant critics and even authors have the best jobs - and the best memories. Although these reminiscences don't have to be from their careers. Many have great ones from their childhood that have stayed with them for decades. It just makes us go back and enjoy our own memories.

This was the lead article in today's New York Times Food section. For a few select parts of the country there are eateries open however for most of us, eating at any place still a dream. Yet everyone has memories- mostly very good about restaurants. The critics reminisced about places around the world. One of the sweetest takes place in Paris. Reviewer Ruth Reichl was in Paris with her son and husband, both not showing the same joy she had. The eatery was L'Ami Louis, a famed Parisian spot since 1924. Upon arrival her son was treated to a large dish of pomme frites, French fries, and freshly squeezed orange juice. He and another boy,possibly the child of French actress Carole Bouquet were enlisted to play games along with sharing a giant chocolate cake, His mother swooned over escargots with a garlicky sauce. There is Bill Buford's memory of a night out alone in the gastronome's capital, Lyons. It was a night out for several of the townspeople where they dined on plat principal, a meat dish, featuring chicken, fish and sweetbreads along with first fresh cheese from the nearby alps. The desserts were phenomenal from apple tart to baba rhum to fondant au chocolat.

Adam Platt, brother of actor Oliver Platt, and famed critic, wrote lovingly of meals at Taiching, a small city in Taiwan where his parents were studying Mandarin. They enjoyed Mongolian barbecue on this island of exiles who didn't agree with Maoism. It was the first time he ate scallions and tried sprigs of coriander.It was a heady mix of aromas and tastes, reminiscent of the barbecue joints of the American south. Of course, everyone has great memories of seafood restaurants. Author Carmen Maria Machado writes about  enjoying a bowl of steamed mussels and oysters during her college years in Georgetown along with a recent meal at a Red Lobster. Another Sloane Crosley wrote about everyone's favorite tiramisu and sending it to a woman she thought was Amy Poehler at the famed Soho eatery Morandi. It was a humorous and luckily salvaged  situation. Her friend knew the Amy look alike's dining partner and they sent over the dessert as a nice gesture of recognition. Aleander  Chee writes not of eating but of serving a famed star in the Eighties. Then there is writer Samantha Irby's reminiscence about eating at the Cheesecake Factory on its' opening day.It's chaos, but the place does have rock star status on the American scene along with its' famed warmed bread/

Restaurants evoke all sorts of memories and those are important right now. They make all us happy , even though they're someone else's. It what makes it fun to reminisce.