I was catching up on Michael Walsh's blog A View From The Kitchen when I came across a list of questions that he got from Cory at Trial's Of A Young Cook. I was fascinated by the list of questions and decided to co-opt it, add to it and post it here on my blog. I can very rarely narrow anything down to a single favorite (as those of you who know me know and those of you who don't know me will see) but fortunately we can have all the favorites we want in my world!
I would love it if you, my readers, would copy and paste the questions and replace my answers with your own and post them as comments or email them to me if you prefer. Feel free to change any questions or add some as I did. I love these sorts of internet question and answer lists (are they called memes?) as they give us a chance to learn things about each other that otherwise even the closest of family and friends might not know. I find that fun and often touching.
Here goes-
Favorite Domestic Beer: Holy Moses- Great Lakes Brewery
Favorite Import Beer: Pilsner Urquell
Favorite Red Wine American: Etude Pinot Noir. Cain 5. Forman Cabernet.
Favorite Red Wine Import: French- Chateauneuf du Pape. Pretty much any Burgundy
Favorite White Wine: I rarely drink American whites but I do like Robert Hall Viognier
Favorite White Wine Import: Fondant- Swiss. Poligny Montrachet- French. Gruner Veltliner- Austrian. CHAMPAGNE!
Favorite Liquor: I don’t drink much liquor so I’m going with CHAMPAGNE!
Favorite Non-Alcoholic Beverage: Water
Favorite Candy: I can do without candy but I love salted caramels and dark chocolate.
Favorite Movie Theater Snack: Popcorn- real butter please.
Favorite Carnival Food: Those crisp pinwheel waffles and fresh potato chips
Favorite Chip: Cape Cod- Robust Russet
Favorite Vegetable: Fresh Artichokes. Silver Queen Corn. Japanese Yam. Heirloom Tomatoes.
Escarole. Frisse Lettuce. Lima Beans. Frozen Mixed Veggies
Favorite Fruit: Lychees. Mangosteens. Nefles
Favorite Protein: French and Swiss Beef. Beef from Millgate Farms- no website but you can buy from them at the North Union Shaker Market. Pastrami- Mr. Brisket, Cleveland, Ohio
Favorite Fish: Halibut. Lake Erie Perch
Favorite Shellfish: MD Blue Crabs. Oysters (especially Kumomotos). Alaskan King Crab Legs (without preservatives only). Bulots (sea snails). Sea Urchin
Favorite Cheese: Vacherin Mont D’Or. Epoisse (only in France, what we get in the US is too old) St. Point. Comte
Favorite Nut: Walnut
Favorite Dessert: Iles Flotant. Pie. My Mom’s Sungold Cake. My Step-mom’s nutroll
Favorite Cookbook: The Victory Garden
Favorite Knife: 10” Mac
Favorite Cooking Style: Hard to say except to say farm to table and Thai cooking.
Favorite Food Show: Bourdaine’s No Reservations. Two Fat Ladies. Julia Child
Favorite Mexican Restaurant: Momocho- Cleveland and Frontera Grill- Chicago (I couldn't possibly pick one between the two)
Favorite Asian Restaurant: Little Pepper- Flushing Queens, NYC (God help us with the cockroaches), Matsugen- Midtown Manhattan, NYC. Lotus of Siam- Las Vegas, Nevada
Favorite Bar: Velvet Tango Room, Cleveland, Ohio (there is no other bar in my book)
Favorite Fast Food: Subway- Veggie Sandwich
Favorite Cheap Eats: Wonton Gourmet- Cleveland, Ohio. Hot Doug’s- Chicago. Street Food (especially when traveling and at markets).
Favorite Fancy Shcmancy Restaurant: Alinea- Chicago
Favorite Local Restaurant: Even though I haven’t been yet I think I can already say Greenhouse Tavern.
Favorite Not So Local Restaurant: Lotus of Siam- Las Vegas, Nevada. Sanford’s- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Restaurants You Miss: Tapawingo- Ellsworth, Michigan. El Jacal- Cleveland, Ohio. Battuto- Cleveland, Ohio. Kathmandu Chullo- Royal Oak, Michigan
Sweet or Savory: Savory
Pie or Cake (and type): Pie- rhubarb
Foods You Strongly Dislike: Anything with goat’s milk. Snails.
Best Food Memories:
My Mom’s Thanksgiving dinners.
My Mom’s (and Grandma’s) sungold cake and chile rellanos.
Eating food from all ethnicities when growing up.
Thanksgiving dinners at Grandma Black’s- always with lima beans.
Sunday suppers at Grandma Holley’s- always with homemade sauce, pasta, veal or chicken, stuffed artichokes and Italian salad.
My Grandma Holley’s homemade pizza and fried dough with salt.
Perch and pierogees at Grandma Black’s.
Cooking for my brother Brad when he came to visit me in Annapolis.
Cooking for my sister Jenny and her husband Nico.
Trips to D.C. in the fall with my husband for Maryland blue crabs.
My Dad’s ribs, sauce and bacon wrapped hotdogs on the grill.
My Step-dad Ralph’s pla rad prik, goulash, chicken paprikash
and pasta puttanesca.
Oysters with family on Christmas Eve.
Fasting on Good Friday.
My Step-mom Danielle’s nut roll.
My Mother-in-law Nelly’s ratatouille and eggplant parmesan.
My husband’s Aunt’s cous-cous and North African potato salad.
My first tastes of lychees and mangosteens.
My good friend Karen’s pot of sauce.
Picking vegetables at the CSA farm with my Mom.
My Grandma Holley’s soupy broccoli and junk-food chop-suey.
The first time I had Thai food with my husband.
My second date with my husband when we grilled steaks on the little Weber grill he had to put together.
Eating two whole bags of lima beans as a child with my cousin Craig.
Bellota ham and champagne in Paris with my husband.
Easter dinners at our house.
Mastering the art of making a pie crust.
Dinner at Alinea.
Making cannoli shells with my Mom.
Circus Peanuts at Grandma Black's.
Special one-on-one visits to Malley's with Grandma Holley for sundaes.
Getting hamburgers from Burger King with Grandma Holley but only when she had a coupon and having to add out own cheese at home as well as having Coke and fries from home.
Hot summer nights with late night snacks of ice cold cantaloupe and ice water with Grandpa Holley and his southern green beans with bacon and potatoes.
What Would Your Last Meal Be:
If this can be fantasy, I would like my last meal to be with family, even those departed, and friends, the food would not matter.
If fantasy does not happen I would like oysters, caviar with fresh made blinis and crème fraiche, Belotta ham, Champagne and a BLT with Black Krim tomato and Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Bacon and homemade mayo on Zingerman’s bread shared with my husband, parents and siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins and Grandmother.
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Very cool, thanks for sharing, there is alot of info to digest there. Have you ever heard of "pagach" My great grandmother made it, and she left a recipie and i've recreated it, but no one I know is familiar with it. She was from Prague, but came to the US after my grandmother was born. Anyhow, my mom says they made pagache when they where sick of rolling up perogies, and pagache is in fact a huge, flat perogie the size of a pizza, that is basted with brown butter and sugar. The pagache dough recipie is different from the perogie dough though. I thought of this readying your list that is why I bring it up, and you are far more well traveled than I. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHey there Michael. I know, the list took on a life of its own but I enjoyed thinking about all of the Q&A's and going through the memories and recording them so I can look back at them down the road.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of pagach but guess what? Steve and I are going to Prague in two weeks! I will be on the look out for it and will take pictures if I find it. Do you actually remember your Great Grandmother or Grandmother making it? My Grandmother is Slovak. I will ask her if she is familiar with it.
Yes, I remember her fondly. All of my early food memories are of her cooking. Luckily my mother has alot of her hand written recipies. In fact i was gifted her personal imported springle rolling pin. The one with all the pictures carved into it. Pretty cool.
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