Food, glorious food...

[fajrdrako]

It's lunchtime now so I'm going to do this food meme I got from luthien. What's the last thing you ate? 4 oz sliced roast beef. (Unless you count the last thing I consumed: a cup of tea with milk.)

What's your favorite cheese? Gjetost.

What's your favorite fish? Salmon

What's your favorite fruit? Raspberries

When, if ever, did you start liking olives? Adolescence.

When, if ever, did you start liking beer? Insofar as I like it now, in my twenties. Or... no. In my early thirties, when someone persuaded me to try a kind of beer I actually liked.

When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish? I can't recall ever disliking it, but I'm not sure I ever tasted it as a kid.

What was the best thing your parent/s used to make? Maple cream, a candy rather like tablet that my mother used to make. My father only ever made pancakes, but they were delicious.

What's the native specialty of your home town? Beavertails. When the Rideau Canal skating is open, they have booths on the ice. Mmm.

What's your comfort food? Macaroni and cheese.

What's your favorite type of chocolate? Pale milk chocolate.

How do you like your steak? Medium rare.

How do you like your burger? Medium rare, with lettuce and tomato. Preferably from Sharkey's (at World Exchange Plaza) or Harvey's.

How do you like your eggs? Fried, sunny side up, with runny yolks. Alternately, Eggs Florentine.

How do you like your potatoes? Baked with soft insides and crispy skin. Or really good French fries - no, chips. The really lovely traditional British chips.

How do you take your coffee? Decaff, with milk or cream. I like latte but haven't had it in years.

How do you take your tea? With milk. Preferably Earl Grey.

What's your favorite mug? My new Torchwood mug that has a picture of Captain Jack Harkness and his Webley.

What's your cookie of choice? Butterscotch chip. Or white chocolate and macadimai nut chip. Or Dad's oatmeal cookies. Or Ginger Snaps.

What's your ideal breakfast? Something I have been searching for all my life but have yet to find.

What's your ideal sandwich? The ones they serve with Sunday tea at the Chateau Laurier. Actually, there are many sandwiches I love, but I can't currently eat sandwiches on my rotation diet. If I could, my favourites would be on fresh white bread and would be:

1. thinly cut cucumber sandwiches with a little butter and salt and nothing else
   
2. liver pate
   
3. egg salad
   
4. salmon salad (while wheat bread is fine for this), with or without a layer of lettuce
   
5. chicken salad (the kind they sell at the Loeb on Rideau Street)
   
6. Nate's smoked meat sandwiches
   
7. grilled cheese with bacon

I also like club sandwiches.

What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)? Thin crust, preferably from The Colonnade, which makes the best pizzas in Ottawa. I like their vegetarian with pepperoni - evne though it has onions, which I usually hate on pizza. I also like Hawaiian pizza (beef and pineapple). Needless to say, pizza is now off my diet too, unless I eat it over a few hours, in stages.

What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)? Pumpkin pie with whipped cream. I usually prefer the ones I make myself from a recipe given to me by my late friend Phyllis, but I recently had a slice of pumpkin pie at the Elgin Street Diner that tasted even better.

What's your ideal salad? Anything that doesn't involve iceberg lettuce. I love the caesar salad ready-made from Loeb, with raspberry dressing.

What food do you always like to have in the fridge? Butter, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt.

What food do you always like to have in the freezer? Ice cubes. There's a lot in there, but there's nothing special... No, wait, I should say "bacon". When I buy bacon I cut it in packages of six half-slices per packet, and then thaw it a needed.

What food do you always like to have in the cupboard? Rice, tea, tapioca. Things for baking like flour, sugar and baking powder. Spices. Vanilla flavouring. Cinnamon sticks. (For making spice tea.)

What spices can you not live without? I can live without anything specific. My favourite spice is cinnamon. I also love nutmeg and cloves.

What sauces can you not live without? Again, I can live without anything, but I always keep soy sauce and tamari sauce on hand. I'm really not a person for sauces. I do like bechemal, but it's not something you can keep on hand, you have to make it when you need it. I also love a sauce made of ground cashew nuts, from one of my vegtarian cookbooks. But I can't be said to be unable to live without it, since I haven't made it in years.

Where do you buy most of your food? Near my house or near where I work. Also at Costco, where I go with maaseru sometimes, where they have delicious meats.

How often do you go food shopping? I do at least four or five grocery shoppings per week, because I can only buy what I can carry on foot. Once in a while I shop with maaseru in her car, when I can buy more things at once. But I still like to eat food fresh and without perservatives, which means more trips to the store, smaller loads each time.

What's the most you've spent on a single food item? No doubt some restaurant meal at some time. No idea.

What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own? ...My dishwasher, perhaps? I don't really go for kitchen gadgets. The oven and fridge aren't mine; they come with the apartment.

What's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen? No idea. I got pots and pans at Ikea some time last year.

What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without? I won't quibble about the wording again, honest, but the thought remains. I suppose the fridge; I'd rather not have milk go sour and vegetables go rotten, and there's nothing like an ice cube in a drink on a hot summer day.

How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? Three times daily. Every day.

What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients? Dinner last night, which I shared with maaseru. Poach sole with dill seasoning. Steamed broccoli, spinach and beets.

What's your favorite thing to make for yourself? Cinnamon toast. Guilty pleasure.

What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig, chicken and turkey? My favourite meat is lamb. I've also had elk, bison, alligator, quail, pheasant, buffalo, emu, caribou... not sure what else. I love unusual meats and eat them whenever I get the chance. (With my current rotation diet, I'm looking for variety, and so do it all the more.)

What's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor? Um... Can't remember. A piece of broccoli, I think, two days ago.

What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild? Can't recall. It would be a few years ago, finding berries while hiking in the Gatineau Hills.

Place the following cuisines in order of preference (greatest to least): French, Italian (and I mean real Italian, not Canadian-Italian, though that's good too), sushi (if from Bento Sushi on Rideau St.), Chinese, Thai, Indian, Mexican. Thought that's misleading. I totally love Japanese food, it's just that sushi isn't usually my favourite bit of it. If I can, I order sashimi or tempura instead.

Place the following boozes in order of preference (greatest to least): Oh dear. I'm clueless when it comes to liquor because I hardly ever drink it. I've liked rum ever since I saw "Pirates of the Caribbean" and there's a drink called Rum Yum I'm fond of. I've come to like Single Malt because of Dunnett fandom but I don't remember whether it's whisky or whiskey. Otherwise... no preference.

Place the following flavors in order of preference (greatest to least): basil, ginger, aniseed, lime, garlic.

Place the following fruits in order of preference (greatest to least): Banana, apple. orange, watermelon, cherry (but only if they are ripe and fresh), pineapple. I often get allergic reactions to pineapple.

Bread and spread: A French baguette with unsalted butter.

What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? Sharkey's, which has great burgers and fries. Otherwise Harvey's. I really don't like any others but maaseru has taught me to respect and sometimes like Mcdonald's. Other friends like Wendy's and it's okay too.

What are three of the best dining-out experiences you've had?

Chez Pierre, on Malta, with roseiespark for my birthday a couple of years ago.

1. The Keg Manor on Richmond Road with maaboroshi and maaseru for my brithday this year
   
2. The banquet in an old Edinburgh library with the Dunnett conference in 1990

What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day? I've never tippled in the whole of my life. Not once. Not even tempted.

Favorite cookbook/s? The Joy of Cooking, The Vegetarian Gourmet, Harrowsmith Vol. 1. Though these days I often look for recipes online.

Got any favorite food blogs? No, but I plan to be looking for some. Suggestions welcome.

What's the next thing you'll eat? Lunch. Probably egg noodles with vegetables.

Comments

[idiotgrrl.livejournal.com]

The last thing I ate? A packet of Weight Watchers garlic pretzel thins, free sample from last week. You can tell I must have ben really, really hungry! Washed it down with Diet Coke.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Diet pretzels and diet coke - I can tell you have the diet thing down pat!

I've had my lunch now - not really want I wanted, but I had no time to pack lunch before work today, and it turned out to be really good. Noodles, cauliflower and green pepper, with a bit of carrot and a bit of butter. And a cup of tea. I feel fed and happy.

I didn't even look at the chocolate cookies someone left on the counter. No, not me.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that you call a Hawaiian pizza one with beef and pineapple. In the States a Hawaiian pizza is Canadian bacon and pineapple [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

In the States a Hawaiian pizza is Canadian bacon and pineapple [g].

I've had it with either beef or ham. Not bacon. Interesting!

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I've NEVER seen it made with beef. Most places I've gone to make it with ham. Pizza Pizza makes it with bacon. Personally, I prefer ham.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can't remember where I saw it with beef... I thought it odd at the time, too, but then I went and said it. I prefer ham, too.

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

Additional vote for Hawaiian pizza as ham & pineapple. Definitely not beef if called Hawaiian, at least when I was there.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're making me hungry now.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? Three times daily. Every day.
Can I kidnap you? I hate cooking...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to cook for you. I love cooking for people. I keep taking meals up to maaseru whether she wants them or not. (Not without warning, and giving her the veto, though.)

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

My mum and my sister are great cooks I just- I'm not actually that interested in food to be honest. I can cook and there's times when I even like doing it especially baking but it's not really my thing...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I find it a great pleasure. In fact I find myself having to restrict myself, because it takes time, and if I do too much cooking and baking I have less time for reading, writing, walking, and other things I like to do.