![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceI picked this up from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rushthatspeaks; it's a listy thing, but not too onerous.
What's the last thing you ate?
Oxtail stew with parsnip fritters.
What's your favourite cheese?
Truly ripe Brie, fine Stilton, cheddar so sharp it makes my gums bleed... Need I go on? I love good cheese, right across the range. Soft, hard or blue, I am Ben Gunn to them all.
What's your favourite fish?
Oof. Tricky. I love the sewin, or sea trout; I love Dover sole. I love sprats and sardines in a different context, anchovies in a totally different context. Monkfish is good if I want robust. For sushi I want other fish entirely. You get the picture? My favourite fish is the one that's right for the dish. And I haven't even mentioned smoked fish yet: the breakfast kipper, the smoked haddock in the kedgeree, the smoked trout mousseline...
What's your favorite fruit?
That's hard for the other reason, that I don't eat much fruit. Every year a few apples pass this way - Egremont russet if I can find them, Cox's in their season but that's short (the apple should be a juicy fruit, damn it!). The fruit I buy most is lemon, but that's mostly for cooking or gin and so presumably doesn't count. Is an olive a fruit...?
When, if ever, did you start liking olives?
I have always loved the olive. See above, under fruitliness. Stuffed or stoned or stony, bring them to me and leave us alone. Thank you.
When, if ever, did you start liking beer?
In my teens, when any fine upstanding British boy learns to drink his ale. At first it was bitter and nasty; then it was bitter and I drank it; then it was bitter and what more need be said? Mine's a pint of bitter...
When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish?
When we were first introduced, I guess. My first memory is going shrimping with my grandfather, from their beach-house: dragging nets in the surf behind us as we waded, and carrying gallons of shrimps home for my poor mother and grandmother to boil and peel for us. It's been a love affair ever since. My favourite meal ever was really just a great big plate full of cold boiled shellfish - lobsters, crabs and many kinds of prawn - with bread and mayonnaise. Heaven. (I also love mussels, oysters, abalone... There isn't a shellfish I don't adore.)
What was the best thing your parent/s used to make?
My father never cooked in his life (until the last years of his life, when he was chief carer for my stepmother; after being looked after by women for eighty years, he suddenly had to look after her. And loved it. But "cooked" from Marks and Spencer, viz heated prepared dishes in the microwave). My mother cooked religiously until the last of her children left home, whereupon she flung all her pans out of the window (metaphorically) and has never cooked again. But I have happy memories of many of our childhood standards; "chocolate pudding with a crunchy top" (chocolate custard under an oat crumble) was a special favourite. And brains.
What's the native specialty of your home town?
I was born and raised in Oxford; the immediate foodie response is Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade. Which will do me nicely.
I've lived all my adult life in Newcastle. Um, the stottie cake? Or Newcastle Brown Ale (which they now make in Scotland, curse them with many curses)?
What's your comfort food?
Chilli. The way I make it.
What's your favorite type of chocolate?
Very, very dark. I'm only eating 100% until they invent something darker.
How do you like your steak?
Blue, thanks. Pan in one hand, steak in the other, introduce them. Quickly.
How do you like your burger?
I rarely eat burgers, but when I do I would tend to cook them rare. And then add as many other interesting things as I could think of.
How do you like your eggs?
However they come, as long as they're soft: softly boiled, lightly poached, oozily scrambled, rapidly fried one way up only. A stiff egg is a disgrace.
How do you like your potatoes?
Any way they come - but rice is my staple, my carbohydrate of choice.
How do you take your coffee?
Black and strong. No, stronger than that, thanks. More coffee, not so much water.
How do you take your tea?
Green. I love Chinese tea. I've been exploring it with a passion, ever since I met my tea-elf.
What's your favorite mug?
It's a plain white cup, broad enough for a cat to get his whole head inside. It's very popular in this household.
What's your cookie of choice?
Don't think I have one of those.
What's your ideal breakfast?
That would be lunch, largely. Unless I'm away from home and in an establishment, at which point I will eat whatever I can get. Smoked haddock with a poached egg is very good, but so is toast and marmalade. And eggs and bacon. And, and, and. I do thoroughly approve of breakfasts, I just don't tend to eat them.
What's your ideal sandwich?
Softly boiled eggs, crisply fried bacon, granary bread with mayo. It's very messy; you get to lick your fingers afterwards.
What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)?
I have an appalling pizza, that I'm very fond of ordering in my favourite pizza place: it starts as a marinara, then I start adding: other seafoods, garlic, chilli. Mario hates it, but he cooks it for me anyway. We're like that.
What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)?
Rabbit. Or shepherd's. No, fish. The classic English raised pork pie. Um... I like pies? (British pies, apparently: they're all savoury.)
What's your ideal salad?
Not sure I have one of those.
What food do you always like to have in the fridge?
Cheese, eggs, butter. Salami-type sossidges. Numerous pickles and curious pastes. Chocolate biscuits. Mayonnaise (usually my own).
What food do you always like to have in the freezer?
Stock. Pork rinds (for scratchings). Chilli (from previous batches). Lamb's kidneys (for emergency lunches). Some kind of meat (for emergency dinners). Dumpling wrappers. Pork mince (for emergency dumplings).
What food do you always like to have in the cupboard?
The bottom shelf is entirely spices-out-of-which-I-dare-not-run, because I'll be in mid-curry and the Asian foodstore will just have shut when I discover I've got no amchoor, or whatever. I always need pasta: spaghetti, orecchiette (q sp?), rigatoni. Noodles too: must have noodles (rice, cellophane, wheat). And the occasional tin of sardines.
What spices can you not live without?
See above. All of 'em.
What sauces can you not live without?
Soy, yellow bean, chilli bean. Fish. Oyster.
Where do you buy most of your food?
Asian foodstore, Chinese supermarket, delicatessen. Farmer's market. Butcher, baker.
How often do you go food shopping?
Um, every day. More or (very occasionally) less.
What's the most you've spent on a single food item?
Honey, in this house we do not count. Food is an investment, not a cost.
What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own?
Eww. That's hard. One of the knives? One of the pans? It ought to be the Kenwood Chef, but I was given that and I have actually given it away, so I'm not sure it counts in either direction: I didn't pay for it and I don't technically own it any more, it's just still in the house.
What's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen?
A burr coffee-grinder. To terms with which I am still coming.
What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without?
Knives.
How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients?
Every day. Twice, as a rule.
What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients?
Oxtail stew with parsnip fritters.
What's your favorite thing to make for yourself?
Chilli.
What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig, chicken and turkey?
Duck, deer, pheasant, partridge, guineafowl, quail, sheep, goat, rabbit, frog, reindeer, buffalo, ostrich... Um, more. (Does anyone else think it's odd that sheep/lamb is not in the original list?)
What's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor?
*blushes, and declines to answer*
What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild?
Last time I was out walking with Simon. He'll pick anything: wild sorrel, mushrooms, blackberries. Nasturtiums from someone's garden - or do I mean geraniums? The edible ones, anyway...
Place the following cuisines in order of preference (greatest to least):
Indian, Chinese, sushi, Thai, Mexican, French, Italian.
Place the following boozes in order of preference (greatest to least):
whisky, brandy, tequila, gin, vodka, rum.
Place the following flavors in order of preference (greatest to least):
garlic, basil, lime, ginger, aniseed. You could add all the other flavours in the world, and aniseed would still come last.
Bread and spread:
Fresh and genuinely French baguette with crunchy-salty French butter.
What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order?
I know I don't have one of those. Do not want, thanks.
What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day?
After everything else? Armagnac or single malt.
Favorite cookbook/s?
Nigel Slater('s).
Got any favorite food blogs?
The Old Foodie.
What's the next thing you'll eat?
A chocolate-coated coffee bean, probably. Or two.
rushthatspeaks; it's a listy thing, but not too onerous. What's the last thing you ate?
Oxtail stew with parsnip fritters.
What's your favourite cheese?
Truly ripe Brie, fine Stilton, cheddar so sharp it makes my gums bleed... Need I go on? I love good cheese, right across the range. Soft, hard or blue, I am Ben Gunn to them all.
What's your favourite fish?
Oof. Tricky. I love the sewin, or sea trout; I love Dover sole. I love sprats and sardines in a different context, anchovies in a totally different context. Monkfish is good if I want robust. For sushi I want other fish entirely. You get the picture? My favourite fish is the one that's right for the dish. And I haven't even mentioned smoked fish yet: the breakfast kipper, the smoked haddock in the kedgeree, the smoked trout mousseline...
What's your favorite fruit?
That's hard for the other reason, that I don't eat much fruit. Every year a few apples pass this way - Egremont russet if I can find them, Cox's in their season but that's short (the apple should be a juicy fruit, damn it!). The fruit I buy most is lemon, but that's mostly for cooking or gin and so presumably doesn't count. Is an olive a fruit...?
When, if ever, did you start liking olives?
I have always loved the olive. See above, under fruitliness. Stuffed or stoned or stony, bring them to me and leave us alone. Thank you.
When, if ever, did you start liking beer?
In my teens, when any fine upstanding British boy learns to drink his ale. At first it was bitter and nasty; then it was bitter and I drank it; then it was bitter and what more need be said? Mine's a pint of bitter...
When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish?
When we were first introduced, I guess. My first memory is going shrimping with my grandfather, from their beach-house: dragging nets in the surf behind us as we waded, and carrying gallons of shrimps home for my poor mother and grandmother to boil and peel for us. It's been a love affair ever since. My favourite meal ever was really just a great big plate full of cold boiled shellfish - lobsters, crabs and many kinds of prawn - with bread and mayonnaise. Heaven. (I also love mussels, oysters, abalone... There isn't a shellfish I don't adore.)
What was the best thing your parent/s used to make?
My father never cooked in his life (until the last years of his life, when he was chief carer for my stepmother; after being looked after by women for eighty years, he suddenly had to look after her. And loved it. But "cooked" from Marks and Spencer, viz heated prepared dishes in the microwave). My mother cooked religiously until the last of her children left home, whereupon she flung all her pans out of the window (metaphorically) and has never cooked again. But I have happy memories of many of our childhood standards; "chocolate pudding with a crunchy top" (chocolate custard under an oat crumble) was a special favourite. And brains.
What's the native specialty of your home town?
I was born and raised in Oxford; the immediate foodie response is Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade. Which will do me nicely.
I've lived all my adult life in Newcastle. Um, the stottie cake? Or Newcastle Brown Ale (which they now make in Scotland, curse them with many curses)?
What's your comfort food?
Chilli. The way I make it.
What's your favorite type of chocolate?
Very, very dark. I'm only eating 100% until they invent something darker.
How do you like your steak?
Blue, thanks. Pan in one hand, steak in the other, introduce them. Quickly.
How do you like your burger?
I rarely eat burgers, but when I do I would tend to cook them rare. And then add as many other interesting things as I could think of.
How do you like your eggs?
However they come, as long as they're soft: softly boiled, lightly poached, oozily scrambled, rapidly fried one way up only. A stiff egg is a disgrace.
How do you like your potatoes?
Any way they come - but rice is my staple, my carbohydrate of choice.
How do you take your coffee?
Black and strong. No, stronger than that, thanks. More coffee, not so much water.
How do you take your tea?
Green. I love Chinese tea. I've been exploring it with a passion, ever since I met my tea-elf.
What's your favorite mug?
It's a plain white cup, broad enough for a cat to get his whole head inside. It's very popular in this household.
What's your cookie of choice?
Don't think I have one of those.
What's your ideal breakfast?
That would be lunch, largely. Unless I'm away from home and in an establishment, at which point I will eat whatever I can get. Smoked haddock with a poached egg is very good, but so is toast and marmalade. And eggs and bacon. And, and, and. I do thoroughly approve of breakfasts, I just don't tend to eat them.
What's your ideal sandwich?
Softly boiled eggs, crisply fried bacon, granary bread with mayo. It's very messy; you get to lick your fingers afterwards.
What's your ideal pizza (topping and base)?
I have an appalling pizza, that I'm very fond of ordering in my favourite pizza place: it starts as a marinara, then I start adding: other seafoods, garlic, chilli. Mario hates it, but he cooks it for me anyway. We're like that.
What's your ideal pie (sweet or savory)?
Rabbit. Or shepherd's. No, fish. The classic English raised pork pie. Um... I like pies? (British pies, apparently: they're all savoury.)
What's your ideal salad?
Not sure I have one of those.
What food do you always like to have in the fridge?
Cheese, eggs, butter. Salami-type sossidges. Numerous pickles and curious pastes. Chocolate biscuits. Mayonnaise (usually my own).
What food do you always like to have in the freezer?
Stock. Pork rinds (for scratchings). Chilli (from previous batches). Lamb's kidneys (for emergency lunches). Some kind of meat (for emergency dinners). Dumpling wrappers. Pork mince (for emergency dumplings).
What food do you always like to have in the cupboard?
The bottom shelf is entirely spices-out-of-which-I-dare-not-run, because I'll be in mid-curry and the Asian foodstore will just have shut when I discover I've got no amchoor, or whatever. I always need pasta: spaghetti, orecchiette (q sp?), rigatoni. Noodles too: must have noodles (rice, cellophane, wheat). And the occasional tin of sardines.
What spices can you not live without?
See above. All of 'em.
What sauces can you not live without?
Soy, yellow bean, chilli bean. Fish. Oyster.
Where do you buy most of your food?
Asian foodstore, Chinese supermarket, delicatessen. Farmer's market. Butcher, baker.
How often do you go food shopping?
Um, every day. More or (very occasionally) less.
What's the most you've spent on a single food item?
Honey, in this house we do not count. Food is an investment, not a cost.
What's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own?
Eww. That's hard. One of the knives? One of the pans? It ought to be the Kenwood Chef, but I was given that and I have actually given it away, so I'm not sure it counts in either direction: I didn't pay for it and I don't technically own it any more, it's just still in the house.
What's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen?
A burr coffee-grinder. To terms with which I am still coming.
What piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without?
Knives.
How many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients?
Every day. Twice, as a rule.
What's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients?
Oxtail stew with parsnip fritters.
What's your favorite thing to make for yourself?
Chilli.
What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig, chicken and turkey?
Duck, deer, pheasant, partridge, guineafowl, quail, sheep, goat, rabbit, frog, reindeer, buffalo, ostrich... Um, more. (Does anyone else think it's odd that sheep/lamb is not in the original list?)
What's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor?
*blushes, and declines to answer*
What's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild?
Last time I was out walking with Simon. He'll pick anything: wild sorrel, mushrooms, blackberries. Nasturtiums from someone's garden - or do I mean geraniums? The edible ones, anyway...
Place the following cuisines in order of preference (greatest to least):
Indian, Chinese, sushi, Thai, Mexican, French, Italian.
Place the following boozes in order of preference (greatest to least):
whisky, brandy, tequila, gin, vodka, rum.
Place the following flavors in order of preference (greatest to least):
garlic, basil, lime, ginger, aniseed. You could add all the other flavours in the world, and aniseed would still come last.
Bread and spread:
Fresh and genuinely French baguette with crunchy-salty French butter.
What's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order?
I know I don't have one of those. Do not want, thanks.
What's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day?
After everything else? Armagnac or single malt.
Favorite cookbook/s?
Nigel Slater('s).
Got any favorite food blogs?
The Old Foodie.
What's the next thing you'll eat?
A chocolate-coated coffee bean, probably. Or two.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-30 04:14 am (UTC)I've given up most fast food in the last year. But once in a while, man, I'm weak. I have a burger from the drive-through.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-30 04:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-30 11:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-01 08:28 am (UTC)termlifeinsurance
Date: 2008-12-11 06:03 am (UTC)Deborah
Term Life Insurance (http://termlifeinsurance2.com)