Food meme ga*ked from jedusor
1. What's the last thing you ate?
A wasabi covered macadamia nut. Actually, several of them.
2. What's your favorite cheese?
Lots of it. :) Gosh, anything flavorful, strong, smelly, creamy... it'd be easier to go with my least favorite cheeses, in which category I primarily include American. (Though it's fun to peel the plastic off.)
3. What's your favorite fish?
Hmm, depends. Salmon for everyday eating, and it's definitely one of my favorites, but black cod is fabulous.
4. What's your favorite fruit?
What's with this whole "favorites" thing?? Ripe peaches... good cherries... satsuma plums, but they're impossible to get these days....
5. When, if ever, did you start liking olives?
So far as I know I've always liked them. My parents used to make me chopped olive sandwiches when I was little (using black California olives), and I used to insist on my father giving me the olive out of his martini when I was likely no more than five.... Why did this meme not ask my favorite olive? I could actually answer that, as I've recently become insanely addicted to Hondroelia olives.
6. When, if ever, did you start liking beer?
It was a gradual process. I think I tried the first beer that I actually didn't hate when I was probably about thirteen or fourteen - it was called Neptune Stout, I believe. And the first time I had a Hefeweizen, which I really liked, was when we went to a microbrewery in Portland the summer we visited Portland and Seattle and went hiking up Mount Rainier (so I was maybe fifteen or so?). By the time I was in college I liked a few beers - a couple stouts, a few Belgian beers... really, my taste isn't too different now. I like stouts (though not Guinness) and porters and Belgian beers and white beers and wheat beers, though there are exceptions to all of those (e.g., I'm not fond of Widmer Hefeweizen), and everything I've tried from New Belgium Brewing Co (they're the ones who make Fat Tire). I don't like IPAs, I don't like bitters....
7. When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish?
I always have. In fact, I've always eaten everything, although there were periods of my life where I stopped liking things for a while (eggplant and avocado, specifically). I haven't liked celery for years, but I did used to eat it.
8. What was the best thing your parent/s used to make?
My parents are both excellent cooks. But every so often when I was little my mom used to make Zabaglione, and that's amazing.
9. What's the native specialty of your home town?
Err, Los Angeles? I think the answer would be international cuisine. (And seafood. And haute cuisine.)
10. What's your comfort food?
Cream of tomato soup, maybe. Or black bean soup with sherry.
11. What's your favorite type of chocolate?
Dark. Dark like my soul. (Okay, actually a lot darker than my soul, which probably isn't very black at all.) I got lots of excellent alcohol-filled chocolates when I was in Switzerland. And truffles are gorgeous, and I think my favorite Vosges bar is the one with goji berries and salt (even though it's milk chocolate).
12. How do you like your steak?
Rare.
13. How do you like your burger?
Very rare. Preferably mooing like the cows that Odysseus' men tried to roast on Thrinakia.
14. How do you like your eggs?
Soft-boiled, sunny-side up, over-easy, poached, fried... basically, anything that has a runny yolk. Also soft-scrambled or hard-boiled.
15. How do you like your potatoes?
Fried roasted boiled mashed gratinéed etc
16. How do you take your coffee?
With milk, no sugar. Or in the form of a latte.
17. How do you take your tea?
With milk (added first), no sugar. Not as much milk as livredor uses (that would be difficult) but more milk than many people use.
18. What's your favorite mug?
The one that Manuel broke, so let me describe my several other favorites: a brown one with red berries on it that I got at one of the campus pottery sales; my two Lamplighter mugs (one of which says "I am an acquired taste" and the other of which says "Hilarity on the high Cs"... you can guess which operettas those are from!); my Babar mug... actually, most of my mugs. :)
19. What's your cookie of choice?
Honestly I have no idea, but something warm and gooey and chocolatey.
20. What's your ideal breakfast?
I'm rather fond of English fry-ups, especially ones that include black pudding and eggs. But eggs benedict are a definite favorite, as are my dad's pancakes (nice small thin ones, I'm not a fan of the huge fluffy pancakes) with butter and real maple syrup; also, those lovely little greasy sausage links, good bacon... savory more than sweet, by and large. But honestly, I even really enjoy a bowl of cereal.
21. What's your ideal sandwich?
I have a weakness for tuna sandwiches. But grinders with lots of different kinds of meat (mmm, mortadella) are also excellent. So are exciting gourmet sandwiches, but then I can never choose between things on the menu. :)
22. What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)?
Depends. I really love barbeque chicken pizza, but I used to have a great passion for Hawaiian pizza (pineapple and Canadian bacon [not ham!!!]). I'd rather not have black olives on, since they're kind of boring. And sometimes I think mushrooms taste a little funny on pizza, but other times I like them. The British mania for sweet-corn on pizza is one I've never quite understood; similarly with potatoes on pizza.
23. What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)?
Apart from Linn's ollalieberry pie, their apricot pies are also fabulous; and I love cherry pies (if they're nice and tart) and yummy blueberry pies and double-crust apple pies and sweet potato or pumpkin pies and also chicken pies are good, especially chicken pot pies, and of course lemon meringue, and just once I had an absolutely fabulous banana cream pie.... umm, to state more concisely, I really like pie.
24. What's your ideal salad?
Proper Caesar salad. By which I mean the dressing must include anchovies and coddled egg. My dad makes an excellent Caesar.
25. What food do you always like to have in the fridge?
Chocolate pudding. Cheese.
26. What food do you always like to have in the freezer?
Diet dinners - I confess that I really like having Lean Cuisines for lunch.
27. What food do you always like to have in the cupboard?
All kinds of baking supplies. Pretty much anything that would be needed to make a batch of cookies or brownies or a loaf of bread or something. Jams.
28. What spices can you not live without?
All of them. Have you seen my spice cupboard?! Even if it's one I never use I have a compulsion to own it just in case I ever need it for a recipe. (Yes, I have juniper berries. And asafoetida. And multiple colors of mustard seed. And they're alphabetized.)
29. What sauces can you not live without?
Tomato sauce. Oh wait, you probably mean condiments. Chili sauce (a good one, not just tabasco)... good balsamic and good olive oil.
30. Where do you buy most of your food?
Shopping-wise, Safeway and Berkeley Bowl. Other than that, probably Mokka, these days, since I'm always there working!
31. How often do you go food shopping?
Rarely, to my shame. Though I made a point of going to a Farmer's Market on Sunday, and I picked up stuff at Berkeley Bowl for the Halloween Party on Saturday. Also, I tend to take a spin through Whole Foods to look for tasty free samples, and I'll often buy a few olives while I'm there (see above regarding Hondroelia olives).
32. What's the most you've spent on a single food item?
I've spent over twenty dollars on olive oils and balsamic vinegars; and once I accidentally bought a $50 crab at a restaurant.
33. What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own?
Likely none of it, since it's mostly second-hand. Maybe my 12" chef's knife. The cuisinart probably would be if it weren't used.
34. What's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen?
Do teapots and glasses and things count? I got a teapot with violets on it at Lovejoy's, and also a beautiful little green goblet. I don't think I've gotten any utensils recently... oh wait, I got a melon baller a month or so ago.
35. What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without?
Microwave. Ahem. (And lots of other things, to be fair, but I can't deny the use of those little zappy rays.)
36. How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients?
Twice so far this week, and we've just started! :) Though I'm off to an unusually good start, I confess.
37. What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients?
I stuck a yam in the microwave today, does that count? Otherwise, yesterday I made salad and sliced tomatoes.
38. What's your favorite thing to make for yourself?
Depends on the season, depends what mood I'm in... I do like making tuna noodle casserole, though. And it's just starting maybe to be cold enough to justify running the oven!
39. What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig, chicken and turkey?
Oh tons, and twelve of them were just in Chris' chili on Saturday!!! No but really, I've eaten countless kinds of meat. I mean, I could count them, but it would be highly tedious.
40. What's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor?
Yesterday? The day before? I have no idea, but quite recently, no doubt.
41. What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild?
I picked a passion fruit about a week ago... also a "strawberry" from a strawberry (arbutus) tree about a week ago....
42. Place the following cuisines in order of preference (greatest to least):
Do I have to? I'll put Indian first since I really can't get enough of it, but... they're all fabulous.
Indian, Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Thai
43. Place the following boozes in order of preference (greatest to least):
If they're good liquors (Sasha called me a liquor snob the other day), then rum and brandy and whiskey and tequila are all pretty much equal. Vodka I don't care about, so it's last. If gin were listed (why the hell did they omit it?) it would be last, since I actively dislike it, usually.
Rum, brandy, whiskey, tequila, vodka
44. Place the following flavors in order of preference (greatest to least):
Again with the do I have to??? Fake lime is nasty, but I assume it's talking about real lime. Aniseed is last because I'm not wild about it, but I also don't hate it.
Garlic, basil, ginger, lime, aniseed.
45. Place the following fruits in order of preference (greatest to least):
Oh come on. They're all excellent.
Cherries, watermelon, oranges, bananas.
46. Bread and spread:
Sourdough. And then it depends on what time of day, etc etc. - almost anything that you can spread on bread is excellent (from butter and jam to marmite to balsamic vinegar and olive oil to cinnamon-sugar).
47. What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order?
Subway, probably. The order depends on lunch versus dinner; probably the Subway club or Italian BMT, with provolone.
48. What are three of the best dining-out experiences you've had?
You joking? I'll go with random things abroad - fish-head curry in Singapore, the Puerto Rico night at the hotel we were staying at in Puerto Rico, and... uh... cheese fondue in Geneva.
49. What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day?
Manhattan. Also the only cocktail I can reliably make well. :) Or really nice alcohols straight, like my Puerto Rican rum or Patron Añejo tequila.
50. Favorite cookbook/s?
Why do you do this to me? I mean, really. Did you want me just to name the cookbooks in my kitchen? There are a lot of them....
51. Got any favorite food blogs?
Yes! I can answer this!!! ideasinfood. It's the only one I follow, so by default, it's my favorite.
52. What's the next thing you'll eat?
If I get my act together and get out of the house in time tomorrow, a poached egg and piece of toast at Mokka. (They stop doing eggs at 11am. I missed it by a hair this morning.)
A wasabi covered macadamia nut. Actually, several of them.
2. What's your favorite cheese?
Lots of it. :) Gosh, anything flavorful, strong, smelly, creamy... it'd be easier to go with my least favorite cheeses, in which category I primarily include American. (Though it's fun to peel the plastic off.)
3. What's your favorite fish?
Hmm, depends. Salmon for everyday eating, and it's definitely one of my favorites, but black cod is fabulous.
4. What's your favorite fruit?
What's with this whole "favorites" thing?? Ripe peaches... good cherries... satsuma plums, but they're impossible to get these days....
5. When, if ever, did you start liking olives?
So far as I know I've always liked them. My parents used to make me chopped olive sandwiches when I was little (using black California olives), and I used to insist on my father giving me the olive out of his martini when I was likely no more than five.... Why did this meme not ask my favorite olive? I could actually answer that, as I've recently become insanely addicted to Hondroelia olives.
6. When, if ever, did you start liking beer?
It was a gradual process. I think I tried the first beer that I actually didn't hate when I was probably about thirteen or fourteen - it was called Neptune Stout, I believe. And the first time I had a Hefeweizen, which I really liked, was when we went to a microbrewery in Portland the summer we visited Portland and Seattle and went hiking up Mount Rainier (so I was maybe fifteen or so?). By the time I was in college I liked a few beers - a couple stouts, a few Belgian beers... really, my taste isn't too different now. I like stouts (though not Guinness) and porters and Belgian beers and white beers and wheat beers, though there are exceptions to all of those (e.g., I'm not fond of Widmer Hefeweizen), and everything I've tried from New Belgium Brewing Co (they're the ones who make Fat Tire). I don't like IPAs, I don't like bitters....
7. When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish?
I always have. In fact, I've always eaten everything, although there were periods of my life where I stopped liking things for a while (eggplant and avocado, specifically). I haven't liked celery for years, but I did used to eat it.
8. What was the best thing your parent/s used to make?
My parents are both excellent cooks. But every so often when I was little my mom used to make Zabaglione, and that's amazing.
9. What's the native specialty of your home town?
Err, Los Angeles? I think the answer would be international cuisine. (And seafood. And haute cuisine.)
10. What's your comfort food?
Cream of tomato soup, maybe. Or black bean soup with sherry.
11. What's your favorite type of chocolate?
Dark. Dark like my soul. (Okay, actually a lot darker than my soul, which probably isn't very black at all.) I got lots of excellent alcohol-filled chocolates when I was in Switzerland. And truffles are gorgeous, and I think my favorite Vosges bar is the one with goji berries and salt (even though it's milk chocolate).
12. How do you like your steak?
Rare.
13. How do you like your burger?
Very rare. Preferably mooing like the cows that Odysseus' men tried to roast on Thrinakia.
14. How do you like your eggs?
Soft-boiled, sunny-side up, over-easy, poached, fried... basically, anything that has a runny yolk. Also soft-scrambled or hard-boiled.
15. How do you like your potatoes?
Fried roasted boiled mashed gratinéed etc
16. How do you take your coffee?
With milk, no sugar. Or in the form of a latte.
17. How do you take your tea?
With milk (added first), no sugar. Not as much milk as livredor uses (that would be difficult) but more milk than many people use.
18. What's your favorite mug?
The one that Manuel broke, so let me describe my several other favorites: a brown one with red berries on it that I got at one of the campus pottery sales; my two Lamplighter mugs (one of which says "I am an acquired taste" and the other of which says "Hilarity on the high Cs"... you can guess which operettas those are from!); my Babar mug... actually, most of my mugs. :)
19. What's your cookie of choice?
Honestly I have no idea, but something warm and gooey and chocolatey.
20. What's your ideal breakfast?
I'm rather fond of English fry-ups, especially ones that include black pudding and eggs. But eggs benedict are a definite favorite, as are my dad's pancakes (nice small thin ones, I'm not a fan of the huge fluffy pancakes) with butter and real maple syrup; also, those lovely little greasy sausage links, good bacon... savory more than sweet, by and large. But honestly, I even really enjoy a bowl of cereal.
21. What's your ideal sandwich?
I have a weakness for tuna sandwiches. But grinders with lots of different kinds of meat (mmm, mortadella) are also excellent. So are exciting gourmet sandwiches, but then I can never choose between things on the menu. :)
22. What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)?
Depends. I really love barbeque chicken pizza, but I used to have a great passion for Hawaiian pizza (pineapple and Canadian bacon [not ham!!!]). I'd rather not have black olives on, since they're kind of boring. And sometimes I think mushrooms taste a little funny on pizza, but other times I like them. The British mania for sweet-corn on pizza is one I've never quite understood; similarly with potatoes on pizza.
23. What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)?
Apart from Linn's ollalieberry pie, their apricot pies are also fabulous; and I love cherry pies (if they're nice and tart) and yummy blueberry pies and double-crust apple pies and sweet potato or pumpkin pies and also chicken pies are good, especially chicken pot pies, and of course lemon meringue, and just once I had an absolutely fabulous banana cream pie.... umm, to state more concisely, I really like pie.
24. What's your ideal salad?
Proper Caesar salad. By which I mean the dressing must include anchovies and coddled egg. My dad makes an excellent Caesar.
25. What food do you always like to have in the fridge?
Chocolate pudding. Cheese.
26. What food do you always like to have in the freezer?
Diet dinners - I confess that I really like having Lean Cuisines for lunch.
27. What food do you always like to have in the cupboard?
All kinds of baking supplies. Pretty much anything that would be needed to make a batch of cookies or brownies or a loaf of bread or something. Jams.
28. What spices can you not live without?
All of them. Have you seen my spice cupboard?! Even if it's one I never use I have a compulsion to own it just in case I ever need it for a recipe. (Yes, I have juniper berries. And asafoetida. And multiple colors of mustard seed. And they're alphabetized.)
29. What sauces can you not live without?
Tomato sauce. Oh wait, you probably mean condiments. Chili sauce (a good one, not just tabasco)... good balsamic and good olive oil.
30. Where do you buy most of your food?
Shopping-wise, Safeway and Berkeley Bowl. Other than that, probably Mokka, these days, since I'm always there working!
31. How often do you go food shopping?
Rarely, to my shame. Though I made a point of going to a Farmer's Market on Sunday, and I picked up stuff at Berkeley Bowl for the Halloween Party on Saturday. Also, I tend to take a spin through Whole Foods to look for tasty free samples, and I'll often buy a few olives while I'm there (see above regarding Hondroelia olives).
32. What's the most you've spent on a single food item?
I've spent over twenty dollars on olive oils and balsamic vinegars; and once I accidentally bought a $50 crab at a restaurant.
33. What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own?
Likely none of it, since it's mostly second-hand. Maybe my 12" chef's knife. The cuisinart probably would be if it weren't used.
34. What's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen?
Do teapots and glasses and things count? I got a teapot with violets on it at Lovejoy's, and also a beautiful little green goblet. I don't think I've gotten any utensils recently... oh wait, I got a melon baller a month or so ago.
35. What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without?
Microwave. Ahem. (And lots of other things, to be fair, but I can't deny the use of those little zappy rays.)
36. How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients?
Twice so far this week, and we've just started! :) Though I'm off to an unusually good start, I confess.
37. What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients?
I stuck a yam in the microwave today, does that count? Otherwise, yesterday I made salad and sliced tomatoes.
38. What's your favorite thing to make for yourself?
Depends on the season, depends what mood I'm in... I do like making tuna noodle casserole, though. And it's just starting maybe to be cold enough to justify running the oven!
39. What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig, chicken and turkey?
Oh tons, and twelve of them were just in Chris' chili on Saturday!!! No but really, I've eaten countless kinds of meat. I mean, I could count them, but it would be highly tedious.
40. What's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor?
Yesterday? The day before? I have no idea, but quite recently, no doubt.
41. What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild?
I picked a passion fruit about a week ago... also a "strawberry" from a strawberry (arbutus) tree about a week ago....
42. Place the following cuisines in order of preference (greatest to least):
Do I have to? I'll put Indian first since I really can't get enough of it, but... they're all fabulous.
Indian, Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Thai
43. Place the following boozes in order of preference (greatest to least):
If they're good liquors (Sasha called me a liquor snob the other day), then rum and brandy and whiskey and tequila are all pretty much equal. Vodka I don't care about, so it's last. If gin were listed (why the hell did they omit it?) it would be last, since I actively dislike it, usually.
Rum, brandy, whiskey, tequila, vodka
44. Place the following flavors in order of preference (greatest to least):
Again with the do I have to??? Fake lime is nasty, but I assume it's talking about real lime. Aniseed is last because I'm not wild about it, but I also don't hate it.
Garlic, basil, ginger, lime, aniseed.
45. Place the following fruits in order of preference (greatest to least):
Oh come on. They're all excellent.
Cherries, watermelon, oranges, bananas.
46. Bread and spread:
Sourdough. And then it depends on what time of day, etc etc. - almost anything that you can spread on bread is excellent (from butter and jam to marmite to balsamic vinegar and olive oil to cinnamon-sugar).
47. What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order?
Subway, probably. The order depends on lunch versus dinner; probably the Subway club or Italian BMT, with provolone.
48. What are three of the best dining-out experiences you've had?
You joking? I'll go with random things abroad - fish-head curry in Singapore, the Puerto Rico night at the hotel we were staying at in Puerto Rico, and... uh... cheese fondue in Geneva.
49. What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day?
Manhattan. Also the only cocktail I can reliably make well. :) Or really nice alcohols straight, like my Puerto Rican rum or Patron Añejo tequila.
50. Favorite cookbook/s?
Why do you do this to me? I mean, really. Did you want me just to name the cookbooks in my kitchen? There are a lot of them....
51. Got any favorite food blogs?
Yes! I can answer this!!! ideasinfood. It's the only one I follow, so by default, it's my favorite.
52. What's the next thing you'll eat?
If I get my act together and get out of the house in time tomorrow, a poached egg and piece of toast at Mokka. (They stop doing eggs at 11am. I missed it by a hair this morning.)