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[aslant]

what's the last thing you ate? a toasted peanut butter (crunchy) and jelly (seedless raspberry) sandwich on oat bread.

what's your favorite cheese? fresh buffala mozzarella! oh swoon.

what's your favorite fish? salmon or trout. baked at 350 for approximately 25 minutes, slathered in a mix consisting of: spicy dijon mustard, e.v. olive oil, capers, dried dill, salt, chopped garlic & ground pepper. i have converted non-fish-eaters with this dish before.

what's your favorite fruit? a good plum, the kind that drips on your hand on a hot day.

when, if ever, did you start liking olives? as long as i can remember, my cousin and i would wear plain black american olives on the tip of every finger, on thanksgiving, and eat them one by one. kalamatas i started to love only in italy.

when, if ever, did you start liking beer? oh harumph. let's settle for: rolling rock, maybe by my junior year in college? i drink a lot of wine.

when, if ever, did you start liking shellfish? we had lots of shellfish when i was growing up, although i didn't care for the raw stuff my grandfather pulled out of long island sound. are crabs and lobsters shellfish, or crustaceans? both? we caught dungeoness crabs in puget sound when i went to science camp at age 13 or so, those were delicious.

what was the best thing your mum/dad/guardian used to make? my dad made fabulous breakfast crepes & my mom made fabulous everythings...i especially liked her slow-cook marinara sauce.

what's the native specialty of your home town? i was born in connecticut, so, um, nutmeg? the aforementioned shellfish from long island sound and the niantic river? in oregon it is salmon, grilled on a cedar plank. mmm.

what's your comfort food? risotto ai funghi porcini, anyday.

what's your favorite type of chocolate? no milk, anything with more than 70% cocoa. i love buying big chunks of valrhona guanaja chocolate at whole foods. i love that it is displayed right by the cheeses.

how do you like your steak? fire-grilled on mesquite, tiny bit of red. although the bistecca in florence at la guelfa bianca was so thick and rare and melty...but that is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.

how do you like your burger? medium well, with cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, ketchup.

how do you like your eggs? over easy if i'm cooking them; poached at my grandmother's house; benedict with hollandaise on the side at the ryles club brunch.

how do you like your potatoes? my mother makes a white sauce and we eat the potato smushed open with broccoli and the sauce poured over the top. she also invented this strange red potatoes with brie cheese dish that i haven't had in years...

how do you take your coffee? milk, one sugar. never cream unless it's a decadent-brunch kind of cream.

how do you take your tea? never if it's made with water poured at a full boil, it scalds the leaves and my throat. i like it with one spoonful of honey.

what's your favorite mug? i have a big mug the law library gave me when i left, which i use on the weekends only. i don't drink coffee on weekdays until i get to work, and we have a rotating clutch of mugs that are all hideous, with banks and loan corporations splashed on the side. my grandmother has dainty after-dinner coffee cups, like tall teacups, which i would always use, if they were available.

what's your biscuit or cookie of choice? fresh soft chocolate chip cookies, or the chocolate haystack cookies my old roommate debby made for passover.

what's your ideal breakfast? lots of dark coffee with the perfect kind of cream, cold so it cools the coffee, with two eggs over easy and a slice of buttered rye toast cut in half to sop up the yolks. cold red grapes afterwards is nice, too.

what's your ideal sandwich? caprese! sliced mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, drizzled with olive oil on schiacciata bread. or, failing that, toasted pb&j.

what's your ideal pizza? greasy plain-cheese domino's is the platonic form of domestic pizza to which i compare all other pizzas. but an authentic, plain, thin-crust italian pizza is the godhead i worship, from whence the domino's breed was spawned.

what's your ideal pie? summer peach with a handful of blueberries, no top crust.

what's your ideal salad? caesar, from a tiny italian restaurant in west linn, i can't recall the name of. kate, do you remember it? i can't believe this. right next to thai orchid? (eureka!) bugatti's.

what food do you always like to have in the fridge? i always keep dijon mustard and a jar of garlicky pesto sauce to cook with. and mushrooms. i cook with mushrooms a lot.

what food do you always like to have in the freezer? a salmon fillet or some chicken breasts to defrost, if needed. the freezer is like the bank, i feel responsible when things are squirrelled away in there.

what food do you always like to have in the cupboard? noodles of some kind.

what spices can you not live without? oregano and basil, dill and cumin.

what sauces can you not live without? none, really. i like to make sauces but that's more for dishes, not a thing in a jar. i do love cardini's caesar dressing, though.

where do you buy most of your food? star market, baby, stahhh mahhkit.

how often do you go food shopping? once a week or less.

what's the most you've spent on a single food item? i can't think of anything that qualifies for this. if i was to buy a single expensive thing, though, it would be an entire black truffle, dried.

what's the most expensive piece of kitchen equipment you own? the crock pot looks the most expensive, but it's not. probably the thick-bottomed sauce pan, although maybe that was more emotional expense than anything else...

what's the last piece of equipment you bought for your kitchen? probably the tongs?

what piece of kitchen equipment could you not live without? the antique jar-opener maybe, or a good sharp knife.

how many times a week/month do you cook from raw ingredients? pretty much every night, i think. we only occasionally have those freezer-bag type meals or take-out.

what's the last thing you cooked from raw ingredients? risotto last night, with purple onions + mincey eggplant + one chopped strip of bacon. before that, pancakes from scratch, from the "sweet hotcakes" recipe in the old boston school cookbook. i like that phrase, sweet hotcakes. as in, sweet jesus, sweet mother of god, except sexy. sweeeet hotcakes, you make me dizzy.

what meats have you eaten besides cow, pig and poultry? sheep! i have eaten every part of a sheep you can think of, except reproductive parts. brains, blood, intestines, stomach, plus the regular bits of sheep that everyone eats. i had venison once (bambi sausages at a christmas tree lot!), and i've had rabbit twice and loved it.

what's the last time you ate something that had fallen on the floor? i used to not care, as long as it was washed or cooked after, but now with the cats around it's different. but last week we made a stirfry and one of us ate a bit of eggplant that was dropped and then washed and cooked.

what's the last time you ate something you'd picked in the wild? several summers ago i was at my parents' house when the wild blackberries were ripe. they were huge, the size of a thumb, and so very sweet.

place in order of preference (greatest to least): italian, thai, chinese, french, indian, sushi.

place in order of preference: gin, vodka, tequila, brandy, whiskey, rum.

place in order of preference: basil, garlic, lime, mint, ginger. (caramel and anise were on this list: caramel does not belong here and anise is beneath my mention. i despise it.)

place in order of preference: banana, watermelon, apple, cherry, strawberry, pineapple, orange.

place in order of preference: sex, movies, food, the internet (the line, as i prefer to call it), fashion, sports.

bread and spread: for plain bread with meals, i like a crusty french or italian, dipped maybe in the sauce of the meal or some e.v. olive oil, but usually plain.

what's your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? burgerville, when on the west coast. i order a burger with tillamook cheese, sweet potato fries if they're in season, and a real chocolate ice cream milkshake. ah decadence. burgerville, why are you so far away from me? *sniff

pick a city. what are the three best dining experiences you've had in that city? florence! one: the bistecca alla fiorentina at la guelfa bianca. two: penne alla cacciata (wild boar) at the little osteria near our house in san gervasio. three: my first taste of tiramisu as made by katie's signora, no liquor, only caffe, real ladyfingers, and chilled overnight.

what's your choice of tipple at the end of a long day? red wine, or gin & tonic.

what's the next thing you'll eat? afternoon snack, a raspberry dannon yogurt at 4:30.