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The Food Meme
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violetisblue, the food meme.
What's the last thing you ate? Two lychee gummies. (And in the middle of writing this entry: a Pepperidge Farm chocolate-chocolate chip cookie.)
What's your favorite cheese? Anything in the blue cheese family: the stinkier, the better.
What's your favorite fish? Bluefish if it's cooked; salmon if it's raw; mackerel if it's pickled for sushi. Plus any smoked fish.
What's your favorite fruit? Peaches.
When, if ever, did you start liking olives? I love olives. Hell, I've even cured my own olives. (I should really do that again.)
When, if ever, did you start liking beer? Not until after college. The prevalence of crappy college beer at frat parties probably had something to do with that.
When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish? I've always loved it, partially because it wasn't something I could get at home; my father is deathly allergic to all seafood, so it was hardly ever in the house.
What was the best thing your parent/s used to make? Julia Child's boeuf bourgignon recipe.
What's the native specialty of your home town? Maryland is for crabs, baby!
What's your comfort food? Cheese or chocolate. Also, Fritos and Cheetos, but those are not allowed in the house, because they come in the convenient one-bag serving size, no matter what size the bag is.
What's your favorite type of chocolate? Anything from Jacques Torres. Right now, though, I'm still working my way through the mint Aero balls I picked up in England. I love mint Aeros.
How do you like your steak? Medium rare.
How do you like your burger? Medium.
How do you like your eggs? Sunny-side up or poached.
How do you like your potatoes? How do I not like my potatoes? If I have to choose, I'll go with mashed with roasted garlic or truffle oil. DO NOT SKIMP ON THE BUTTER, PEOPLE.
How do you take your coffee? Decaf only (the amount of caffeine in a single cup will give me the shakes), with milk and sugar.
How do you take your tea? Herb and green tea is usually plain or with honey; black tea is either plain or with a little sugar. Earl Grey is almost always milk and sugar.
What's your favorite mug? Either my giant Get Fuzzy mug or my disappearing TARDIS mug.
What's your cookie of choice? Chocolate-chocolate chip.
What's your ideal breakfast? Two sunny-side up eggs on wheat toast; two English bangers (not available in this country, sadly); fruit salad with melon and strawberries; orange juice.
What's your ideal sandwich? The local co-op makes an incredible sandwich out of pressed five-spice tofu, caramelized onions, and tahini-poppyseed dressing. I don't work anywhere near there anymore, or I'd eat this all the time.
What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)? The eggplant parmesan pizza Bertucci's used to make -- thin, fried slices of eggplant on top of a standard red-sauce cheese pizza. Best eaten with fresh garlic added as an extra topping.
What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)? Peanut butter pie. The late, lamented Dixie Kitchen made the best one ever, but Emeril's recipe comes very close.
What's your ideal salad? Spinach or watercress with broiled goat cheese rounds and roasted beets, topped with mustard vinaigrette.
What food do you always like to have in the fridge? Really sharp cheese, mustard of all sorts, pickles, lettuce, eggs, fish sauce.
What food do you always like to have in the freezer? Ice cream, several kinds of nuts, spare sticks of butter, blocks of pre-pressed five-spice tofu, lop cheong.
What food do you always like to have in the cupboard? Soup, broth, canned black beans, canned chickpeas, Barilla's green and black olive pasta sauce, Barilla dried tortellini.
What spices can you not live without? Kosher salt, Penzey's Tellicherry black peppercorns, thyme, cumin. Smoked paprika is rapidly becoming one of the spices I can't live without, too.
What sauces can you not live without? Chili-garlic sauce (sriracha), tamari, fish sauce.
Where do you buy most of your food? We alternate between the Shaw's and the Stop & Shop. Shaw's has the cookiescolumbina can't live without; Stop & Shop has cheaper yogurt and cottage cheese.
How often do you go food shopping? Two to three times a week, depending on how proactive I am about meal planning.
What's the most you've spent on a single food item? Outside of a restaurant? Probably close to $100 on a whole beef tenderloin or last year's giant heritage turkey from Whole Foods.
What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own? The Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. It was a birthday present fromcolumbina years ago, and I can't live without it.
What's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen? An Oxo vegetable scrub brush. Total waste of money; now I just use a standard scouring pad to quickly clean dirt off the root veggies we get from the CSA.
What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without? Besides the Kitchen-Aid, my Cuisinart food processor.
How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? If I'm cooking anything, it's almost always from raw ingredients, so maybe five times a week? This is especially true during CSA season (we're in a brief interlude between summer and winter shares right now), because I need to use up what they give me before the next pickup.
What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients? Shanghai noodles with eggplant, peppers, mushrooms, and onions. The Shanghai noodles came from the Asian grocery store, but everything else was fresh.
What's your favorite thing to make for yourself? Macaroni and cheese with tuna and peas. I hardly ever make this, though, because it is in no way good for me.
What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig, chicken and turkey? Duck, pheasant, quail, pigeon, goose, venison, lamb, snake, alligator, ostrich, buffalo.
What's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor? The five-second rule totally applies, unless said fallen object is viewed by someone else or covered in cat hair. That said, I'm not sure when the last time I ate something from the floor was, mostly because I've been away from my kitchen floor for the past week.
What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild? Earlier this month, when I pulled ripe tomatoes out of the garden.
Place the following cuisines in order of preference (greatest to least): French, sushi, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Thai. I like them all, though, so the fact that Thai is last on the list means very little.
Place the following boozes in order of preference (greatest to least): Gin, vodka, rum, brandy, tequila, whiskey. Things fall off rapidly for me after brandy; tequila is only drinkable in margaritas, and anything that tastes of malt (like whiskey and bourbon) is disgusting and suitable only as a minor flavoring agent in food.
Place the following flavors in order of preference (greatest to least): Garlic, basil, lime, ginger, aniseed. Let me be clear: life without garlic is not worth living.
Place the following fruits in order of preference (greatest to least): Cherry, watermelon, pineapple, banana, apple, orange.
Bread and spread: White bread, nice layer of butter, De Ruijter dark chocolate flakes. Because I am almost always too lazy to go to the gourmet store to find these, the preferred bread/spread is usually wheat with Nutella, or wheat with chunky peanut butter and apricot jam.
What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? KFC, three-piece crispy meal. I eat fast food very, very rarely, though – once every couple months at most – and KFC I get maybe once a year. There are very few in our area, which may be for the best.
What are three of the best dining-out experiences you've had? L'Espalier in Boston – worth every goddamned penny, and there were a lot of pennies involved, let me tell you. Babbo in New York City – incredible Italian food. And virtually every meal we had at Biba in Boston before they closed.
What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day? Dry martini with olives, straight up. (Gin, naturally; any other liquor does not a martini make.)
Favorite cookbook/s? Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I am the cook I am today because of Julia Child's books and television shows; everything she did was about making food taste good, not look pretty. (I have no patience whatsoever for Martha Stewart.) Other books: Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites and the Cook's Illustrated Perfect Vegetables book. But mostly, even though I have a ton of cookbooks I like, I rely on Cook's Illustrated or Gourmet.
Got any favorite food blogs? I don't read food blogs on a regular basis, but Smitten Kitchen is very good.
What's the next thing you'll eat? If I get hungry before dinner, a couple of roasted garlic Triscuits. Otherwise, it's pork and posole stew made with the sour and tart apple/green-tomato relishcolumbina made while I was away. It tastes surprisingly like green salsa, and used up apples we picked as well as green tomatoes from the garden.
violetisblue, the food meme.What's the last thing you ate? Two lychee gummies. (And in the middle of writing this entry: a Pepperidge Farm chocolate-chocolate chip cookie.)
What's your favorite cheese? Anything in the blue cheese family: the stinkier, the better.
What's your favorite fish? Bluefish if it's cooked; salmon if it's raw; mackerel if it's pickled for sushi. Plus any smoked fish.
What's your favorite fruit? Peaches.
When, if ever, did you start liking olives? I love olives. Hell, I've even cured my own olives. (I should really do that again.)
When, if ever, did you start liking beer? Not until after college. The prevalence of crappy college beer at frat parties probably had something to do with that.
When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish? I've always loved it, partially because it wasn't something I could get at home; my father is deathly allergic to all seafood, so it was hardly ever in the house.
What was the best thing your parent/s used to make? Julia Child's boeuf bourgignon recipe.
What's the native specialty of your home town? Maryland is for crabs, baby!
What's your comfort food? Cheese or chocolate. Also, Fritos and Cheetos, but those are not allowed in the house, because they come in the convenient one-bag serving size, no matter what size the bag is.
What's your favorite type of chocolate? Anything from Jacques Torres. Right now, though, I'm still working my way through the mint Aero balls I picked up in England. I love mint Aeros.
How do you like your steak? Medium rare.
How do you like your burger? Medium.
How do you like your eggs? Sunny-side up or poached.
How do you like your potatoes? How do I not like my potatoes? If I have to choose, I'll go with mashed with roasted garlic or truffle oil. DO NOT SKIMP ON THE BUTTER, PEOPLE.
How do you take your coffee? Decaf only (the amount of caffeine in a single cup will give me the shakes), with milk and sugar.
How do you take your tea? Herb and green tea is usually plain or with honey; black tea is either plain or with a little sugar. Earl Grey is almost always milk and sugar.
What's your favorite mug? Either my giant Get Fuzzy mug or my disappearing TARDIS mug.
What's your cookie of choice? Chocolate-chocolate chip.
What's your ideal breakfast? Two sunny-side up eggs on wheat toast; two English bangers (not available in this country, sadly); fruit salad with melon and strawberries; orange juice.
What's your ideal sandwich? The local co-op makes an incredible sandwich out of pressed five-spice tofu, caramelized onions, and tahini-poppyseed dressing. I don't work anywhere near there anymore, or I'd eat this all the time.
What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)? The eggplant parmesan pizza Bertucci's used to make -- thin, fried slices of eggplant on top of a standard red-sauce cheese pizza. Best eaten with fresh garlic added as an extra topping.
What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)? Peanut butter pie. The late, lamented Dixie Kitchen made the best one ever, but Emeril's recipe comes very close.
What's your ideal salad? Spinach or watercress with broiled goat cheese rounds and roasted beets, topped with mustard vinaigrette.
What food do you always like to have in the fridge? Really sharp cheese, mustard of all sorts, pickles, lettuce, eggs, fish sauce.
What food do you always like to have in the freezer? Ice cream, several kinds of nuts, spare sticks of butter, blocks of pre-pressed five-spice tofu, lop cheong.
What food do you always like to have in the cupboard? Soup, broth, canned black beans, canned chickpeas, Barilla's green and black olive pasta sauce, Barilla dried tortellini.
What spices can you not live without? Kosher salt, Penzey's Tellicherry black peppercorns, thyme, cumin. Smoked paprika is rapidly becoming one of the spices I can't live without, too.
What sauces can you not live without? Chili-garlic sauce (sriracha), tamari, fish sauce.
Where do you buy most of your food? We alternate between the Shaw's and the Stop & Shop. Shaw's has the cookies
columbina can't live without; Stop & Shop has cheaper yogurt and cottage cheese.How often do you go food shopping? Two to three times a week, depending on how proactive I am about meal planning.
What's the most you've spent on a single food item? Outside of a restaurant? Probably close to $100 on a whole beef tenderloin or last year's giant heritage turkey from Whole Foods.
What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own? The Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. It was a birthday present from
columbina years ago, and I can't live without it.What's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen? An Oxo vegetable scrub brush. Total waste of money; now I just use a standard scouring pad to quickly clean dirt off the root veggies we get from the CSA.
What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without? Besides the Kitchen-Aid, my Cuisinart food processor.
How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? If I'm cooking anything, it's almost always from raw ingredients, so maybe five times a week? This is especially true during CSA season (we're in a brief interlude between summer and winter shares right now), because I need to use up what they give me before the next pickup.
What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients? Shanghai noodles with eggplant, peppers, mushrooms, and onions. The Shanghai noodles came from the Asian grocery store, but everything else was fresh.
What's your favorite thing to make for yourself? Macaroni and cheese with tuna and peas. I hardly ever make this, though, because it is in no way good for me.
What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig, chicken and turkey? Duck, pheasant, quail, pigeon, goose, venison, lamb, snake, alligator, ostrich, buffalo.
What's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor? The five-second rule totally applies, unless said fallen object is viewed by someone else or covered in cat hair. That said, I'm not sure when the last time I ate something from the floor was, mostly because I've been away from my kitchen floor for the past week.
What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild? Earlier this month, when I pulled ripe tomatoes out of the garden.
Place the following cuisines in order of preference (greatest to least): French, sushi, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Thai. I like them all, though, so the fact that Thai is last on the list means very little.
Place the following boozes in order of preference (greatest to least): Gin, vodka, rum, brandy, tequila, whiskey. Things fall off rapidly for me after brandy; tequila is only drinkable in margaritas, and anything that tastes of malt (like whiskey and bourbon) is disgusting and suitable only as a minor flavoring agent in food.
Place the following flavors in order of preference (greatest to least): Garlic, basil, lime, ginger, aniseed. Let me be clear: life without garlic is not worth living.
Place the following fruits in order of preference (greatest to least): Cherry, watermelon, pineapple, banana, apple, orange.
Bread and spread: White bread, nice layer of butter, De Ruijter dark chocolate flakes. Because I am almost always too lazy to go to the gourmet store to find these, the preferred bread/spread is usually wheat with Nutella, or wheat with chunky peanut butter and apricot jam.
What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? KFC, three-piece crispy meal. I eat fast food very, very rarely, though – once every couple months at most – and KFC I get maybe once a year. There are very few in our area, which may be for the best.
What are three of the best dining-out experiences you've had? L'Espalier in Boston – worth every goddamned penny, and there were a lot of pennies involved, let me tell you. Babbo in New York City – incredible Italian food. And virtually every meal we had at Biba in Boston before they closed.
What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day? Dry martini with olives, straight up. (Gin, naturally; any other liquor does not a martini make.)
Favorite cookbook/s? Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I am the cook I am today because of Julia Child's books and television shows; everything she did was about making food taste good, not look pretty. (I have no patience whatsoever for Martha Stewart.) Other books: Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites and the Cook's Illustrated Perfect Vegetables book. But mostly, even though I have a ton of cookbooks I like, I rely on Cook's Illustrated or Gourmet.
Got any favorite food blogs? I don't read food blogs on a regular basis, but Smitten Kitchen is very good.
What's the next thing you'll eat? If I get hungry before dinner, a couple of roasted garlic Triscuits. Otherwise, it's pork and posole stew made with the sour and tart apple/green-tomato relish
columbina made while I was away. It tastes surprisingly like green salsa, and used up apples we picked as well as green tomatoes from the garden.
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