Childhood food memories, part 1: bowl licking
May 5, 2010
This is a tale of two eaties???one depravation and one satisfaction. We are American. In the big scheme of things, my family and I didn???t (and don???t) want for things. My 10-year-old self would both beg to differ and look forward to next week.
In the context of this conversation, one of the best times I had as a kid was helping my friend Denise make a cake. She was a year older than I, and I???m going to guess we were about nine and ten. I come up with this estimation because at the time, Denise???s next door neighbor was Tracy and a strong memory I have about Tracy is that Melanie???s song ???Brand New Key??? was popular. Maybe we we were more like ten and eleven and by that time Denise had become my flute mentor in band.
But there are two things that I most remember about Denise. Her dog Tippy, a yappy Pomeranian, chewed up the pink car in my Game of Life that I???d take over to her house because we loved playing. Denise was the one who first told me that fuck meant ???to get married in a not nice way.??? Denise???s chemist dad brought home for me the substances needed to make my own super-bounce ball for a science project. I accidentally wiped out on Denise???s brand new banana seat bike while she was inside eating supper and I never fessed up. And when Denise made that cake in my presence, I got to lick out the bowl.
That was an incredibly big deal to me because not only was I not given autonomy in making a cake in the first place???though I often got to hold the hand mixer and lick off the beaters???but my mom was a firm believer in every drop of batter going into the pan. When Denise made the cake from beginning to end, I was aghast when she seemed to leave half of the mix in the bowl, certain that she???d get in trouble, and then overjoyed when she asked if I wanted to lick out the bowl. I was absolutely gobsmacked that she didn???t want to herself, but I guess that???s the blas?? attitude you develop when you get to do something all the time.
As an adult, I leave a satisfactory amount of batter in the bowl every time. And you know what, Mom? It turns out just fine.
Favorite dessert
April 11, 2010
You should answer this not taking calories into consideration, though it is true that last night instead of making brownies, I ate two grapefruit for dessert. This wasn’t because of any hippy skippy 5-A-Day thing. No, it was much simpler than that. I was out of white flour and wasn’t confident enough that brownies made with whole wheat flour wouldn’t taste, well, you know, like chocolate cardboard.
I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of dessert. Unlike my dad, I don’t feel like I need a little sweet something to finish off a meal. If something comes my way, I might eat it, but I don’t feel incomplete without it by any stretch of the imagination.
Once again, I am influenced by my mom on what my gut instinct answer is to the question of my favorite dessert—pecan pie. I prefer it without a dollop of ice cream, though I might like it just warm enough to take the chill off. And if I were being completely truthful, I would also say that really, to me the pecan nuts are at least 50% incidental to my enjoyment of this delight. I like the sugary sweet custard, plain and simple.
I like regular yellow egg custard, too. My Grandma H often made it when we’d go visit in the summer. She had brown ceramic custard cups. Not ramekins, just cauldron-shaped dishes. I suppose they could have been considered ramekins, but they weren’t the white ones you mostly see today.
I also like cheesecake—just plain cheesecake with no “fruit” toppings. My favorite non-plain cheesecake was the Butterfinger cheesecake at Pizza Lucé in the Warehouse District in about 2003, I’ll say. I never saw it other than that one day. Pizza Lucé’s pizza is amazing; the Butterfinger cheesecake was out of this world.
Ice cream is sometimes good. By ice cream I mean plain chocolate in a sugar cone, or a chocolate malt extra malt, such as the kind I get at Potbelly Sandwich Works.
By now you may be wondering why I picture brownies. The answer is simple. They are the easiest to make at home with the ingredients I have on hand anyway. Okay, I suppose technically it’s easier to scoop ice cream out of a cardboard carton, but you can’t just whip up a batch of ice cream with ingredients that are just lying around. Brownies you can.
And I like making them myself because then I know what’s in them. So this is the recipe I use. I don’t bother with the cream cheese filling because that would require forethought. I just make the brownie part, and I have adapted it as it is typed in. The original recipe is pictured below.
Today I ate my grapefruit in conjunction with my brunch (this is the best time of year for delicious grapefruit in the Northern Hemisphere and they’re my favorite fruit, so I’m eating them frequently right now). In honor of the question of my favorite dessert I went ahead and made the brownies using whole wheat flour, pictured above. I’m pleased to report that they don’t taste at all like cardboard.
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(my adapted version)
Three items for your last meal
March 6, 2010
How many ways can you answer this question? I will share my favorites.
Meal: three things you’d like to eat in association with each other:
Three things I really like to eat together as a meal are grilled salmon with lemon juice, asparagus steamed al dente, and white rice with just a little butter. All with a little salt.
Three things I often eat together and which would be acceptably pleasing:
One of my favorite lunch places is Asian Max (pictured). There are two three-item combos that I usually ask for: sesame chicken, spicy green beans, and cucumber salad; or sesame chicken, shrimp spring roll with sweet brown sauce, and either spicy green beans or cucumber salad, depending on my mood.
My comfort lunch is D’Amico caprese panini, Tuscan chicken soup, and small bag of potato chips. It’s a fancy grilled cheese and tomato soup. They have a punch card for buy five and get one free. That’s not very many.
Three things you like to eat that wouldn’t necessarily comprise a menued “meal”:
Grilled steak (rare) with onion salt, grilled salmon, giant salad.
Grilled steak (rare) with onion salt, giant salad, zinfandel (doesn’t have to be fancy).
Steak, sauteed mushrooms, Bell’s Oberon Ale. The first time I ever tried Oberon was at a wine tasting. Bell’s had a table off in the side room, and I went there after I had tried some steak bites with butter sauteed mushrooms from Murray’s Grill. Oberon was the first beer I sampled. It was divine.
Pizza. Well, there are at least three ingredients there, aren’t there?
Salad. The same would apply to a giant salad. I am quite happy with one of those.
Where I like to eat downtown
December 19, 2009
In the workaday world, sometimes you really just look forward to getting away from your desk to go get some food. Sometimes that food is breakfast grabbed on the way in. I have my favorite places in the skyway for meal procurement.
Overall, the place I most often frequent is The Brothers Deli, usually for breakfast, though sometimes I get lunch there. Their breakfasts are hardy and inexpensive. For $3.20, I get either the veggie wrap (two eggs scrambled and wrapped in a tortilla with cheese, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, and salsa; I liberate it from the tortilla), or scrambled eggs with bacon and toast. A small cup of the most delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice is included with either. For lunch, I like their house salad which is sort of like a chicken chef salad. The sandwiches are also pretty tasty. They fly the pastrami in from New York City. I used to go to Potbelly a lot until I paid attention to what sodium bombs the sandwiches are. Their salads are also good. My other most-frequented lunch spot is Asian Max. It’s another one of those heap-of-vaguely-Asian-food-for-a-decent-price places, but I feel like they use nicer, fresher ingredients. My usual fare is sesame chicken with two of three spicy green beans, cucumber salad or spring roll. It’s always service with a smile. Coming in third is sushi. I like it best from Kikugawa but they’re also the most expensive, so sometimes I go to either of a couple of other fast sushi counters. Of course none of it is as good as if you were sitting in an actual restaurant, but it will do. I have discovered that I really like using chopsticks.Hill of beans
November 29, 2009
If my mom didn???t like it, she didn???t make it to eat, and vice versa. And we had an eat-everything-on-your-plate policy, in which I had no say. Consequently, I wasted hours of my young life at the dinner table choking down the last few bites of chicken liver or the last two canned green beans.
That???s also the reason why I never experienced the euphoria of tasting steamed asparagus with a little bit of butter until I was 30. I asked my mom why she never made it and she said because she didn???t like the texture. One stringy piece and it was all ruined for her. She has a thing about food textures. We didn???t have peas either, except the ones that came in the frozen pot pies. I was allowed to pick those out and leave them. Beans were another thing my mom just didn???t like so we never had. Even in chili, there wasn???t a kidney bean to be found. Again, I was 30 before I embraced beans as a food group. I???m very glad I did. I could easily subsist on beans, cheese, and sauce. The mind boggles at all the variations. Another thing I???m glad I did was give myself permission not to eat everything if I don???t want to. That was very liberating. I also haven???t eaten a chicken liver for 30 years.Comfort food
November 13, 2009
What’s your comfort food? Mine’s pizza, any time, any how. In fact, I’m going to eat this piece right now. That makes me happy.
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