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riverrat1

What would you want to eat for your 'Last Meal'?

18 years ago

I made stuffed poached pears for a friend of mine a few weeks ago. She said that this dish would be on her last meal list of foods she would want to eat if she knew she was going to die later that day. Strange? Maybe but it got me to thinking. What meal would I want to eat on my last day?

Baby Arugula Salad with an Orange Champagne Dressing, Julia's French Baguettes with lots of butter, Valaskas (sp?) and Blue cheese on the side, Roasted Veal Shanks with every kind of roasted vegetables available and real homemade vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and praline sauce. I would also want a small bowl of fresh lump crab meat at some point in this dinner ;-)

If you knew that you would be gone tomorrow what would you want to eat on your last day? I'm really just curious about your most favorite food delights.

Comments (49)

  • 18 years ago

    Salt Water Taffy.

    No, I don't like salt water taffy, but I figured chewing it, would give me enough time to talk the devil out of it.

    But, if I were ready to bid adieu to the world, I'd be happy with a pile of really good egg rolls; for dessert, Chocolate Fondant Cake.
    Let's face it, anything chocolate-covered would do. There. This oughta keep EJ busy for a little while.

    Sol

  • 18 years ago

    Good question! I seen the question asked in a magazine....asking chefs what their last meal would be if they had a choice...I was standing in the supermarket check out and didn't read the whole article, but the concensus was 'comfort food'.

    For me...simple: A couple of slices of pepperoni and mushroom pizza...a couple of tacos (crunchy fresh fried corn tortillas please!) and this might sound weird, but shrimp scampi. I fed my mom that as her last meal in the hospital, and since I would be going to see her after my last meal ..we could compare our last selections!

    Duane

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  • 18 years ago

    Yup Sol anything chewy and covered with Chocolate oughta do it for me. Ah I miss Isaac Hayes singing about his South Park 'Chef' bake sale confection....

  • 18 years ago

    Braised lamb shank Osso Bucco with creamy risotto and sauteed spinach. And for dessert pumpkin cheesecake. And a bottle of Clos Du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon.

  • 18 years ago

    Jessica, are you referring to the chef's Salty, Chocolate Balls ballad?
    That's one of the songs that makes Jim explode into unrelenting laughter. Oh, the humanity.

    Sol

  • 18 years ago

    Sauteed soft shell crabs,at the height of season. Not deep fried, and not covered in cornmeal.
    Ahhhhh.... I could kill for these, thus enjoying them twice!
    Jo

  • 18 years ago

    Apple pie and ice cream :)

  • 18 years ago

    Am I the only one that wants a full course meal? Hummmmm, if I had to pick one thing it would be bread butter and cheese.

  • 18 years ago

    Champagne

    A dozen "Russian" oysters (cold and raw, on the half shell with a bit of Stoli, a dab of sour cream and a bit of caviar on each one)

    A 3 lb. steamed lobster with butter - all mine.

    Fresh dug soft-shell clams steamed in beer.

    More champagne.

    Tender sweet corn on-the-cob, dripping with butter.

    Sliced juicy homegrown ripe-from-the-vine tomatoes, salt and pepper on them.

    Homemade pasta with homemade fresh basil pesto.

    More champagne.

    Ripe cheeses from France.

    Lucious melon, figs and pears.

    Port.

    Dark chewy chocolates.

    And since I wouldn't have to be worried about getting enough sleep, a cup of dark French roast with cream :0)

    Oh, and in the background? Van Morrison....


    seagrass

  • 18 years ago

    Simple comfort foods:

    Smoked-Chicken and Andouille Gumbo

    Chicken Macquechoux

    Really good French bread and butter

    Bananas Foster over Blue Bell ice cream

    Newcastle Brown Ale (draught only, please)

    Afterwards: Remy Martin cognac, Community Coffee dark roast with fresh cream

    Background music: Gershwin: Stairway to Paradise would (hopefully) be appropriate

  • 18 years ago

    All I would need would be unlimited lobster w/butter and lemon, and to go with it a nice big ribeye steak.
    Kim

  • 18 years ago

    Oreos and cold milk with Aleksi helping me. Okay, so I am still a bit melancholic, so how 'bout a nice bottle of Opus One, Alaskan King Crab Legs and no one would bother me because I was drinking a cab with fish, since it was my last day!

    Music...Elvis, My Way.

  • 18 years ago

    Well if it's my last meal it can be big right!

    Fried Lake perch with homemade fries as an appetizer
    Chicken and Sliders as a salad
    Full blown Turkey dinner, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, squash as an entree
    Turkey and stuffing sandwich with a side of dills for dessert.

    A huge Barolo or Chianti to slosh it all back

    Rod Stewart in the background....

  • 18 years ago

    Shrimp and crab cocktail, served in fresh avocados.
    Prime rib topped with sauteed mushrooms and carmelized onions.
    Roasted aparagus.
    Hot sourdough bread and gobs of real butter.
    Warm oatmeal raisin cookies.

    Gosh, I think I just planned dinner.........hope I'm OK tomorrow......

    Deanna

  • 18 years ago

    Hmmm, maybe the endless salad bar at Pizza Hut?

  • 18 years ago

    Nope, if I knew I had one day to live, eating would not be the one carnal pleasure I'd choose...;)

  • 18 years ago

    seagrass, yes...Van Morrison.

    arley, Reading your last meal made me think of my best friend that used to live next door to me ;-)

    Diana, LOL!

  • 18 years ago

    Well, first of all I'd like to dine with Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen, but the food might be the same as Chase's except for that perch, she can have my share of that. But I'd like the chicken and sliders for my salad and the full blown turkey dinner and don't hold back on the gravy, yum.

    Oh, and can I throw in a Jack-In-The-Box taco please and a chocolate malt to wash it down with.

    I'd like the old Barolo in the sack (can't get it any more) and cheesecake with caramel sauce for dessert.

    At the moment I'd like to listen to the soundtrack from Jersey Boys in the background, but that could change (along with the entire menu) as time goes on for as long as it takes to get to my last meal :)

  • 18 years ago

    OHMYGOD

    I am totally channeling Seagrass... with a couple of changes....

    I want great vodka along with my champagne at every course AND though I love Van Morrison.. I want a medley of the top hits of the late 60's and 70's along with some lounge stye classics (Frank, Tony, Tom, Etc) and just a bit of Vivaldi/Mozart/ Beethoven/Wagner/Orff mixed in.,, yep I'm a bit eclectic. I need great music!

    Champagne
    A dozen "Russian" oysters (cold and raw, on the half shell with a bit of Stoli, a dab of sour cream and a bit of caviar on each one)

    A 3 lb. steamed lobster with butter - all mine.

    Fresh dug soft-shell clams steamed in beer.

    More champagne.

    Tender sweet corn on-the-cob, dripping with butter.

    Sliced juicy homegrown ripe-from-the-vine tomatoes, salt and pepper on them.

    Homemade pasta with homemade fresh basil pesto.

    More champagne.

    Ripe cheeses from France.

    Lucious melon, figs and pears.

    Port.

    Dark chewy chocolates.

    And since I wouldn't have to be worried about getting enough sleep, a cup of dark French roast with cream :0)

    Oh, and in the background? Van Morrison....

    Alexa

  • 18 years ago

    A large Pizza Hut pizza, half pepperoni and half barbecue. An Oreo Cheesecake from Cheesecake factory. 2 RUTH'S CHRIS STEAKS. A homemade crab cake. A rack of barbecued ribs. An order of crab rangoon and sesame chicken from that place across the street. Maybe throw in some pot laden brownies just for the heck of it, what would I have to lose at that point!?

  • 18 years ago

    Riveraltl:

    If someone has chosen you poached pears as their last meal, they must be pretty good. How about sharing your recipe.

    RB

  • 18 years ago

    A really crisp, crisp iceberg lettuce salad with small pieces of seeded tomato, small chunks of peeled seedless cucumber and thin slices of red onion and a little homemade ranch dressing...

    Some hot, shelled, crab legs with lotsa clarified butter, maybe a lobster tail too...

    Stuffed breast of veal with roasted potatoes and carrots with those tiny onions... ( The way my Mom made it, with they kind of veal from way back when. )

    I'm not sure what they call it but it's chunks of sweet pickles, cauliflower, pearl onions and some red stuff...

    Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, French bread with really thin slices of ice cold butter...

    Saunders hot fudge cream puff with their real butter pecan ice cream, not the slop the sell now...

    A small slice of Sacher cake with a good dollop of frozen whipped cream...

    Rita

  • 18 years ago

    CORN ON THE COB
    ANYTHING CHOCOLATE
    LOBSTER
    CRAB LEGS
    FILLET MIGON
    ANN T'S SCONES

  • 18 years ago

    Starter: Beluga caviar on hot blini with sour cream and chopped hard-boiled egg, washed down with Cristal champagne.

    Soup: Russian borscht, made from the classic Time-Life recipe (starting with "roast your beef bones, make your stock, clarify it twice, etc. etc.)

    Fish course: Scampi in garlic butter sauce - REAL scampi, not the big shrimp everybody uses to imitate it. True scampi makes lobster taste pallid in comparison.

    Meat course: Red deer filet mignon with a Bordelaise sauce - what great beef wants to be when it grows up.

    Vegetables: Who needs them any more? Okay, maybe roasted asparagus spears.

    Forget the rice or potatoes, Acme Bakery artisan bread - white bread as it always should be (gotta have something to soak up the yummy sauces!)

    Dessert: a real Rigo Janci - the finest chocolate whipped cream cake in the world. Forget all the hideous layer cake imitations people create as wanna-be's. The authentic, takes-all-day, dirties-up-every-pan-in-the-house version is (yet again) in Time-Life's Vienna cookbook. About 3" tall and 8" square; a truly rich, exquisite chocolate torte that will make you forget all about those leaden flourless chocolate tortes and overdone molten lava cakelets.

    Assuming I haven't keeled over from heart failure after all this, I want a full snifter of the 200-yr-old L'Esprit de Courvoisier cognac to finish off, since I'll never have the chance to try it otherwise!

  • 18 years ago

    ...a loaded Costco hotdog

  • 18 years ago

    bob b,

    Really easy...It's one of those thing I wing now. The original recipe comes out of the Joy of Cooking but of course I've changed the ingredients...some.

    1 bottle of a full bodied Cabernet Sauvignon minus one glass ;-)

    1/2 bottle of a robust port

    zest of one lemon

    juice of 2 lemons

    1 cup of sugar

    4 cracked green cardamom pods wrapped in a cheesecloth

    Trim the bottom of the pears to make a stable base. Purchase as many pears as you can fit into your pot in a single layer. I did twelve in a 12 quart dutch oven.

    Peel ans core pears. Put in wine/port mixture with all other ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn burner to medium low/high and cook pears until very soft. Refrigerate the pears in the liquid overnight, turning the pears on occasion. *I usually do the recipe up to this point and turn the pears during an afternoon and let the pears stay in fridge overnight.

    Remove the pears from the liquid and turn the burner to medium high on the boiling liquid and reduce, reduce, reduce the wine/port sauce. Stir on occasion. Your reduction should be almost thick. It will thinken a little upon standing. You can always reduce more at any time. Serve the sauce over the pears.

    I've also stuffed the pears with a toated pecan/candied apricot mixture.

  • 18 years ago

    My last meal would be a wedge of iceberg with Roquefort dressing. A bucket of steamers with butter, crab cakes, a broiled lobster and by then it would definitely be my last meal, and I wouldn't be around for dessert. I'm allergic to the shellfish and the steamers would probably do me in anyway! but I'd be going with a smile on my face, haven't had shellfish in about 5 years and I miss it.

  • 18 years ago

    Appetizer: Half a dozen oysters on the half shell, with freshly grated horseradish and a squirt of lemon.
    Soup: Chilled cream of cucumber soup, per Julia Childs
    Fish course: One lobster tail, steamed, with drawn butter.
    Meat course: An 8-oz boneless ribeye, medium rare, with garlic butter, OR 3 loin lamb chops, medium rare, with garlic/raspberry jelly
    Vegetables: Potatoes Anna, per Julia.
    Steamed purple cauliflower drizzled with melted
    butter and a dash of grated Asiago.
    Baby brussels sprouts, halved lengthwise and
    steamed until just tender, topped with sour
    cream or creme fraiche.
    Salad: A Caesar salad heavy on lemon juice but without
    Worcestershire sauce.
    Dessert: A slice of very dark chocolate pound cake with
    a sauce made of fresh raspberries and a shot of
    Grand Marnier.
    Savory: A small slice of pate de foie gras.
    Breads: Garlic bread made with San Francisco sourdough.
    Buttermilk biscuits.
    French baguette with EVOO for dipping.
    Wines: A good Chateauneuf du Pape for most of the meal and
    a fine sauternes to go with the dessert. Assorted
    liqueurs for after dinner.

    With this as a last meal it's a toss-up as to whether a stroke or execution will be the cause of death!

  • 18 years ago

    Are you totally serious?!? How could you ask such an evil question? Because I'd have an easier choice of what I'd like to do rather than what I'd like to eat on my last day.

    There are millions and billions of food out there that I still haven't even tasted yet!

    Well? Ok, so you've asked...

    I'd like the best 100 chefs in the world, (or even more depends on my appetite at the time), to cook for me their specialties. No duplicate dishes and deserts are definetely welcome.

    The dishes would be spoon or bite size so I could taste them all. I'm not much of a wine person so I'd like to have a teapot filled with the best tea. Tea would help to wash out the previous taste dish so I'd be able to fully enjoy the next one =o)

    I'd die with a happy belly and a satisfied tongue. Couldn't ask for more =o)

    A special Thanks to all the Chefs in advance!

  • 18 years ago

    So... Could I have this feast now even if I'm not dying yet?? Pleeeease???

  • 18 years ago

    RR, I'm with those who say eating isn't what I want to be doing on my last day here, LOL.

    OK, last meal would have to be the day before the last day I'm here. Ahem.

    Let's see, I want mushrooms stuffed with crab and lobster, and some good cheese with homemade dark bread and real butter, followed by a healthy serving of steak tartare. I want some brusels sprouts sauteed with bits of real bacon and some freshly roasted beets and sweet potatoes drizzled with that habanero infused maple syrup that jayne (Kent) sent me, some really good whipped potatoes with lots more of that real butter. For my main course I want some of Chase's fried lake perch, some lobster with butter and just a little bit of extremely rare prime rib. Oh, and a piece of Ann T's chicken pot pie. For dessert I'll have Sol's molten lava cake with homemade vanilla bean ice cream, RR's pears, pumpkin pie and Pixiestix's hot milk cake frosted with that brown sugar frosting that (I think) Lori's daughter makes. I'll also need some of craftyrn's garlic jelly to go with the prime rib and some of Chase's dill pickles on the side and a bit of Woodie's 7 layer salad just because.

    Oh never mind. Diana, I'll join you at that endless salad bar.....

    Annie

  • 18 years ago

    Annie, if you eat ALL THAT the night before, how will you make it to the next night? LOL!

  • 18 years ago

    A very dry Gin gibson, Crabmeat Norfolk, rare prime rib with horseradish, asparagus with lemon butter, roasted baby potatoes ... New York style cheesecake. Another very dry Gin gibson....

  • 18 years ago

    Well, it definitely wouldn't include any vegetables except what's in an eggroll or minced in the crabcakes. And it would include large quantites of chewy garlic bread. I would just eat until I passed out.

  • 18 years ago

    There's definitely some guilty pleasures to be had-
    However for me-- all my forbidden foods--
    Beginning with CHEESES- baked brie, sharp cheddars,creamy garlic cheese, manchego with quince paste, wonderful Dutch cheeses and some sliced comice pears, a delicious fuji apple and fabulous champagne
    Moving on to Stuffed artichokes with a smokey, garlic butter and breadcrumbs and a crisp Riesling
    The main dish--something that has lots of dairy products--a delicious Italian feast perhaps... with a perfect cab or petite syrah or primitivo
    A huge bowl of a rich coffee ice cream drenched in hot fudge sauce with a side of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream, double espresso chocolate brownies all dense and chewy with a cappuccino and some dessert port.
    There'd be no use in trying to live longer, with this food my stomach would self-destruct!

    BTW Karen- what type of pears do you use to make that dessert?

  • 18 years ago

    Wild strawberries sunshine warm. A couple wintergreens berries. Wash it down with a cocktail of scotch and hydromorphone... no point in wondering what I die from.

    After I'm dead I hope to grill some lamb chops after finding Tuna on the other side of that rainbow bridge. We have some catching up to do. Then we would go looking for the cf section of the afterworld.... probably somewhere south of the saints area.

    : )
    michael

  • 18 years ago

    Caesar salad, with real just cooked bacon bits and pecans added.

    One piece of calves liver, sauteed until just done with bacon, onions and mushrooms.

    One lobster tail, with drawn butter.

    TWO pounds peeled for me crab legs, with drawn butter. (Of course, this is weighed AFTER they are peeled.)

    Whats left of Rule24's "pate de foie gras"...and I hope there is a LOT of it.

    My hot crab dip with toasted baguette slices.

    A veal burger with sweet yellow pepper, onion and garlic diced up inside...grilled just slightly, then wrapped in puff pastry and baked until light and puffy and golden.

    Some creamy, buttery mashed potatoes...with some really savory gravy.

    Jkom51's "Dessert: a real Rigo Janci - the finest chocolate whipped cream cake in the world. Forget all the hideous layer cake imitations people create as wanna-be's. The authentic, takes-all-day, dirties-up-every-pan-in-the-house version is (yet again) in Time-Life's Vienna cookbook. About 3" tall and 8" square; a truly rich, exquisite chocolate torte that will make you forget all about those leaden flourless chocolate tortes and overdone molten lava cakelets." (Again...I hope there's a LOT of it!)

    I would like a really good cup of coffee or two with that please. None of that too strong stuff.

    (That was a nice dream!)

  • 18 years ago

    All I would want is

    Brie En Croute with honey over the top
    Batter fried mushrooms with cream cheese horseradish dip
    Chicken Soup with Gnocchi made by Chef Linebeck
    Filet Mignon Diane
    Fresh summer garden tomato with lots of salt
    Bobby Flay's Gratin Dauphinois
    Fried Green Tomatoes with Dipping Sauce
    A loaf of crusty herbed Italian bread with dipping oil
    All of the Napoleons I could eat
    Lemon Cheesecake

  • 18 years ago

    Oh, good question!! I don't find this kind of thinking morbid, but that comes after years of hospice and death and dying studies ;)

    The thing that is weird about this question is that my boyfriend just mentioned yesterday how he had read (on one of the blog things he reads) that someone did a study or released a list of the last meal requests from...death row!! I found what I could read of it to be very touching but also sad. There were many, many fast food choices. Maybe it is just me, but I find that rather telling....in some way...maybe in a fairly inexplicable way.

    Well, mine would include a side dish of Kraf* macaroni and cheese!! The other foods would probably be watermelon, toast with butter, chocolate mousse, stuffing, a giant bowl of assorted fresh fruit, liverworst and cream cheese sandwich, vegetarian meatloaf with gravy and mashed potatoes with butter, peeled grapefruit with the membranes entirely removed!! Liver and onions! sushi...poached salmon...fresh cream and berries...oh, I could go on forever! Get it?

    Fun post, thanks!!

  • 18 years ago

    I'd ask my mom to make her macaroni and cheese w/hot dogs :)

  • 18 years ago

    Oh don't worry, Carol, I'd just eat a little bit of all of that and spend the next day wearing it off so I'm in good shape when I get to that CF portion of heaven, just a little south of the Saint's section. (grin) And, of course, a bit of that prime rib has to go into my pocket for the WonderWeiner, he'll be waiting for me.

    Annie

  • 18 years ago

    Tarte Tatin with Chantilly cream, while sitting in the gardens at Giverny.

  • 18 years ago

    That is an easy one....a tossed salad, fried whole belly clams and dessert would be a custard pie, if I had room after the clams.

  • 18 years ago

    It took me awhile to think of what would I want and then it hit me tonight - barbecue ribs! With crispy onion rings and my favorite cole slaw and fresh corn on the cob. A pitcher of Margaritas to drink. For dessert, something chocolate that was really decadent or Crème Brûlée or what-the-He!! - both! It is my last meal afterall.
    Clare

  • 18 years ago

    I don't know on the main course or courses but the ending would be a bowl of fresh wild huckleberries with cream not half and half or milk cream!!! maybe as an appitizer also
    sheila

  • 18 years ago

    Fried shrimp, scallops, and oysters, very rare prime rib, some cheese tortellini with pesto cream sauce, some corn on the cob dripping with real butter, Red Lobster's cheddar bay biscuits, homemade yeasty rolls with a half stick of butter, a slice of custard pie and a slice of cherry pie. Then when I was done, somebody to roll me into a hole in the ground.

  • 18 years ago

    A stick of sopressata, a lump of scarmoza, some fresh buffalo mozzarella, white grapes and a loaf of warm, crusty Italian bread. Red wine, nothing fancy, and a bottle of cold, st. For dessert some ripe figs, just picked & still warm from the sun.

  • 18 years ago

    dried fruits to start (maybe trail mix)
    Some kind of baked goat cheese with caramelized onions
    biscuits
    I can skip the main course although I wouldn't say no to lobster
    molten lava cakes (although I am still a MLC virgin here!)

    Free bird in the background

  • 18 years ago

    PIZZA.

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