My fave is when I was a toddler (3-6) and my dad would set us down for a nap and when we woke up there was a big serving of pork roast with carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, and aju gravy waiting for us. The smell of roast cooking in a slow cooker always makes me super happy because it just floods my mind with matchbox20 (the music he would listen too while he cooked) and the best thing to wake up to for dinner/lunch :3

When I was younger there was a Greek diner in town, it was open all night, and my grandma would take me a lot of late nights and they had reaaaally great gyros and poor boys. I really miss the place!

This isn't really about food I ate but about food that I made.
A couple of years ago I baked some cookies for the christmas party of the LGBT union at the university. I made cinnamon stars and vanilla crescents.
The thing is, another guy there brought the same cookies. He is very proud of his kitchen and has a TON of very expensive cooking gear.
No one liked his cookies! X3 They all loved mine! He was no match for my three secret weapons: A shitload of butter, real vanilla... and booze! X3
Anyway, that was probably the first time I felt really proud about my cooking.

Aw, that's a wonderful memory! I feel bad for the guy, but nothing beats improv cookies. (except using imitation vanilla...egh.)

Combining my story with this reply, I would say my favourite food memory is the smell of anything my mom cooks. Just my mom cooking is my favourite food memory. When my siblings and I were little my mom would bake apples and make pies and cakes and cookies and all sorts of yummy "real foods" (other than sweets) like chilli, soups, roasts, etc. My mom is the reason I eat veggies first, because she always made them taste so good, she never had to tell us to! (seriously!)
On Christmas our tradition is making appetisers throughout the day so we can "Graze" on lots of different yummy foods, and my mom makes her own Rumaki recipe (hers is a chicken liver patte wrapped in bacon, one of my favourite things ever) and she also makes her own sauce we love ("wakumuki" we call it.)
>w<

making kolaczki cookies every Christmas with my mother, who passed away back in 2006 so now I try to carry on the tradition.
making lefse with my mate for the first time. :)

The first time I made barbecue chicken. I improvised on the cayenne seasoning, and it had such a cozy heat

Hm.. Braised beef with bay leaf, onion and tomato. Just one of those childhood dishes. It's not even THAT amazing a dish, but it just takes you back.

Anything from http://www.thedutchtable.com does the trick too. I've lived in the US 10+ years and end up missing childhood foods sometimes.

Probably the first time I had amazing Chinese food. I was pretty young, about 12, when the restaurant opened. The first dish I remember was yeh yang shrimp and brown rice. From that day forward I've loved Chinese food.

It's either that or my graduation from x-ray school when my parents took me to The Four Seasons.

I guess Thanksgiving growing up. My extended family would have a large potluck dinner.
And I recall the smell of sweet potatoes mingled with dressing and turkey.

I think for me one of the simple things in life that I enjoyed as a child was my mum sitting by the wood stove in winter with the door open, the stove had been on most of the day and it was late at night not long before bed so she would be banking the stove for the morning and the coals were just right to make toast. We would sit on the floor with our plates, dad used to sit with up with a big plate and some butter. Mum would get out the bread and slip it onto the giant home-made fork that dad had made and we would watch, smelling and waiting for the bread to toast, she would hand it to dad and he would butter it then pass the toast to out one at a time. Nicest toast, not much needed to add to it and it made a wonderful supper. It was also a time when we bonded too because sometimes mum would let me hold the giant fork and I got to toast my own piece. I believe I would have been between the ages of 5 and 7 for the earliest of these memories. *hugs*

I once made cookies with a friend and we forgot something so we ended up with playdough. We threw it at each other instead.

Assorted Toffees, my gramma always brought them when she would still visit ( she's getting on in years)

oh and home made applesauce.

My favorite memory of food is a simple dish my father would cook all the time for the family:
Mashed Potatoes (Red mashed) topped with roast beef (Any) cooked in beef gravy (McCormick)

A dish does not have to be complex or expensive or fancy to make people happy. In culinary school i won various awards for this dish.

Now that my father is 82 (i am 26) and has Lymphatic cancer and refuses anymore treatment, every time I make this dish for him, it brings a smile to his face.

Back when I lived in Itally, there was a little family owned restaurant in Martina Franca that served what is to this day the best mushroom sauteed steak either I, or my father have ever had.

Its actually the first dish with mushrooms that I ever consumed and liked. Now I love them! That was back in 2001 or so however.

Growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey, I loved a particular breakfast item we called "Taylor's ham." Most of the other states now know it as pork roll. Mom always fried it up just right. Tender meat on the inside and a crisp outer coating, almost like bacon. Not too great for the body, but combined with eggs and toast, it was heaven for the soul!

So MANY good memories revolve around food - major picnics, holidays, special occasions....

Guess there's really 3 main ones for this wuff, and they all rank top of the list for different reasons.

1st is the Family Thanksgiving/Christmas feasts at Grandma Maier's. We'd pack up the car and drive to their place. Stay over night, and the "women-folk" would all set up their fortress in the kitchens (Grandma had 2, a big country kitchen, and a smaller stove/oven area neat the back porch). Wonderful smells would soon begin wafting through the house, accompanied by the chatter and laughter from the kitchens. Men would lounge around the big common living/dining room, watching TV and chatting about this and that, and running with remarkable alacrity to the Kitchen if their name was called to assist with something. *grin* Then we'd all settle around the multiple tables (yes, we did have a "Kid's Table"!), grace would be said, and the whole crew would settle in to eat for the next couple hours. The warmth and "family" of that time was so special!

2nd is Dad's New Year's Feast. Those who've read wuff's Pork and Sauerkraut recipes are already familiar with this one; wuff has mentioned it there. This was "Dad's Day" in the kitchen. He was the king of the pork. He mashed the taters, whipped out the dumplings, and roasted the pork. When he trusted this wuffy with helping him create those dishes, it was a sort of "right of passage" to manhood - Vrghr was finally ready to be trusted with this awesome responsibility! *grins*

And Finally, there's one of wuff's own personal moments: Vrghr had picked up a new chest-type smoker. Had been bringing samples into work. And we arranged to transport it to the bosses house, where Vrghr would put together a smoked picnic extravaganza for the entire shop and their families. Nearly 30 folks, and wuff had pork, brisket, shrimp, fish, 2 chilled fruit soups, grilled salads, 3 types of sauce/toppings (like fresh mango salsa for the smoked salmon), appetizers - the works! Wuff started at just after dawn, and we ate around 5 PM. Vrghr was exhausted, but SO happy! Everything turned out wonderfully! And sitting there, panting, watching folks passing around platters and bowls of wuff's foods, laughing and smiling and loving the food - -

It was such a sudden, profound emotion, wuff almost wept in happiness. THIS! THIS is what cooking was supposed to be! Not just fuel, but love and friendship! A gift from the heart!

It was a moment Vrghr will remember and cherish for as long as he lives.