Food Meme
What's the last thing you ate? Fresh artichokes rubbed with garlic and olive oil and grilled, then eaten with garlic mayonnaise; chicken breasts marinated in garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice, and grilled; fresh tiny red potatoes boiled, then tossed with a little butter, chopped fresh Italian parsley, salt, and pepper. D. unfortunately charred the artichokes a bit too much, but they were still fairly good.
What's your favorite cheese? Manchego or something like it: a semi-hard sheepsmilk cheese with a salty, nutty flavor; Gruyere; and Fromage D'Affinois, which is much nicer than brie. I can't pick just one.
What's your favorite fish? Salmon. You can do so much with it.
What's your favorite fruit? Mango, or pears.
When, if ever, did you start liking olives? Practically from birth.
When, if ever, did you start liking beer? My first year of college.
When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish? Again, practically from birth, since I lived the first years of my life on the Chesapeake Bay.
What was the best thing your mum/dad/guardian used to make? My mother was an extremely pedestrian cook of the Joy of Cooking school, but I always liked her chicken and dumplings.
What's the native specialty of your home town? I live in San Francisco. I guess the easy answer is Cioppino, but what's known as California Cuisine has lots of roots here as well.
What's your comfort food? Matzoh ball soup--though I have nary a Jewish bone in my body.
What's your favorite type of chocolate? Dark, with high cocoa content.
How do you like your steak? Grass-fed and free range? I haven't eaten beef in well over half my life due to an early attack of vegetarianism, followed by a protracted period of only-chicken-and-fish-eating, coinciding with a general disgust with factory farming, followed by an acceptance of my lack of coherence in my current dietary restrictions but also an inexplicable inability to myself actually consume big pieces of red meat. Subject to change at any time.
How do you like your burger? Turkey with provolone, mayonnaise, tomato, lettuce, and onion if I can get away with it.
How do you like your eggs? Soft-boiled, in an egg cup.
How do you like your potatoes? Yes please. If I had to choose, though, roasted with olive oil or mashed.
How do you take your coffee? High-quality, dark, strong, with just a dash of sugar and plenty of half and half.
How do you take your tea? Herbal, decaf, or Moroccan Mint, maybe with a little honey.
What's your favorite mug? An elegant cobalt-blue ceramic mug, taller than most without being disproportional, that I inherited from my last workplace.
What's your biscuit or cookie of choice? The soft chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking I own, made with white chocolate chips and the luscious pecans my Mom sends me every year that are grown on a farm in BFE, Alabama and are seriously the size of my mouse.
What's your ideal breakfast? For weekdays, McCann's Irish oatmeal with a dash of milk and sugar, or yogurt; on fancy occasions soft-boiled eggs, turkey maple breakfast sausages, and homefries.
What's your ideal sandwich? Tuna melt on toasted sourdough.
What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)? Zachary's Mediterranean stuffed pizza: red peppers, artichoke hearts, green olives, and chunks of feta, swathed in a chunky, fresh tomato-basil sauce and Monterey Jack; I add anchovies. I cross bridges for that pizza.
What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)? The Mustard-Leek tart from the Greens cookbook--unusual and delicious. I'm not a huge dessert person.
What's your ideal salad? Either Caesar or Nicoise.
What food do you always like to have in the fridge? Mustard butter (butter, coarse-grained mustard, Italian parsley, shallot, garlic, salt, and pepper). Throw a spoonful on any cruciferous vegetable (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, bok choy) and some that probably aren't (mustard or collard greens) and you've got a fabulous vegetable without too much fat. Plus, it keeps for a long time.
What food do you always like to have in the freezer? Prepackaged raviolis from Trader Joe's and some flavor of Ben & Jerry's.
What food do you always like to have in the cupboard? The basics (hey, I lived in a commune for a while!): dried pasta, rice, lentils, crackers, canned beans.
What spices can you not live without? Uh, all of them? I assume this means spices and herbs. Garlic, onions, ginger, sage, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, parsley, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, paprika (both sweet and hot), cayenne, white pepper, black pepper, salt, cloves, allspice, curry powder, and much, much more. I have six stacking wire bins of spices sitting on my shelves, and I use them all regularly.
What sauces can you not live without? Tamari, mustard and mayonnaise (those are sauces, right?).
Where do you buy most of your food? Tower Market, a local market in San Francisco. I often buy milk and other more frequently used items at the corner store down the street, or the small cheese shop.
How often do you go food shopping? Once a week or so, plus occasional other trips if I'm planning on making a big meal.
What's the most you've spent on a single food item? I once spent $22/lb. on crabmeat (1/2 lb. of it) but although I like good (and often expensive gourmet) food I can't often justify that kind of extravagance. I once spent about $50 on seafood for a pot of seafood gumbo--but it made 2 gallons of gumbo, which froze beautifully, so it wasn't some kind of Marie Antoinette scenario.
What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own (excluding 'white goods') My KitchenAid mixer, which was a gift from a fondly remembered ex-boyfriend.
What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without? My Wusthof-Trident knife set (gift from a less fondly-remembered ex-boyfriend). Without good knives, there is no joy in cooking.
How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? On average I'd say 10 times a week if you count preparing sandwiches and breakfasts. The elaborate meals and big pots of stuff--more like 2 times a week.
What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients? See above "What's the last thing you ate?"
What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig and poultry? Elk, venison, and duck.
What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild? Wow, almost 10 years ago. Plums: very small, hard, sour plums that I picked with some friends on a hike. Since they weren't good for eating on their own, I made them into plum upside down cakes.
Place in order of preference (greatest to least): Italian, Thai, French, Sushi, Indian. If "Japanese" had been a choice, rather than "Sushi," I would have ranked it #1.
Place in order of preference: garlic, mint, lime, ginger, basil, caramel, aniseed.
Place in order of preference: apple, cherry, pineapple, orange, banana, watermelon.
Bread and spread: A rustic Italian loaf (not sourdough) with a good fruity olive oil.
What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? I don't really eat fast food, but if pressed I would admit a certain fondness for McDonald's french fries.
Pick a city. What are the three best dining experiences you've had in that city? San Francisco (duh!). I've had more than a few, but here are three that leap to mind. Delfina: sharp greens with roasted beets and Humbolt blue cheese; seared sea bass with herb crust, spring bean ragout, and roasted potatoes; fruit sorbets with thin, crisp ginger cookies. Yank Sing dim sum brunch: many little wonderful foods that included sweet, delicate sui mai; crisp, soft stuffed eggplant; chewy potstickers; quivery, almondy mango gelatins. Moki's Pacific Grill: warm pottery bowls of rich miso with shiitakes, scallions, and tofu; otashi (steamed, drained, and wrung spinach dressed with soy, sesame oil, mirin, and a sprinkling of dried bonito flakes) of unbelievable freshness; spicy tuna rolls with luscious chopped maguro tossed with Sriracha, rolled with rice that has been mixed with green onions; salmon, tempura asparagus, green onion, and shiso rolls; tempura shrimp, daikon sprouts, avocado, and shiso rolls.
What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day? Water. Yeah, that's exciting. I drink a lot of water, I occasionally drink juice, and I generally avoid beverages that contain high fructose corn syrup except when I get the odd craving for a Coke. I occasionally have wine with meals out, or cocktails with friends, but not habitually after work.
What's the next thing you'll eat? Oatmeal tomorrow morning for breakfast.
I'm beta-ing some slash right now, which is kind of interesting. The writer (the one mentioned below, who contacted me at the wrong email address) has an AU story in the works with a few interesting turns. I'm not generally that interested in AU unless it's done well, but I really love the way this writer is handling Angel/Spike (and possible future Spike/Buffy). Anyway, the whole trouble with pronouns is massively maximized by the slash dynamic. I'm not generally a big slash reader (I don't have anything against it, but don't generally seek it out, though I occasionally read a story or two written by an author I like), but I think I may have to look into how some authors handle the pronoun situation in order to better edit this story. As if copyediting smut is not wierd enough (and I don't find it wierd, but think I should), I am now researching smut in order to beta it better.