Mooshmouse

Uh... No. No. Please, god, no. ← Not steak from my Mom's kitchen unless your idea of perfectly cooked meat is something resembling either a charcoal briquette or shoe leather, whichever suits you better. Ack.

Ummmm Moosh? Doesn't the "side" of the hotdog depend on which way you're looking at it? And KETCHUP??? *sigh* I had such high hopes. Garlic must always be smashed and diced fine ... never pressed. [snip] Fries with malt-vinegar, never ketchup. (okay, so I have a ketchup thing) A. ← Now, now. Note that "usually the left" is bracketed... only applies if the hot dog is in front of me vertically. I'm with you on the garlic. Either diced finely or sliced into 'chips'. I love the whole taste sensation of a piece of garlic instead of having the squished garlic essence just mixed right in. And you know that you can get therapy for your ketchup thing. Guess you haven't heard about my husband's ketchup habits. When he was a kid, he slathered all his food in ketchup, right down to salad and white rice.

Whenever I garnish a hot dog, the mustard goes on one side (usually the left), the relish goes on the other side (usually the right), and the ketchup goes down the centre along the weiner. Onions go down either side and sauerkraut (piles of it) is heaped in the middle. And God forbid that I ever try to make a sandwich in my house. My husband is very exacting about the order in which his spreads and fillings are administered. Mayo on one bread slice, dijon mustard on the other. Lettuce on top of the mayo so the bread doesn't get soggy. Meat on top of the mustard because savouries taste great together. Tomato next to the lettuce since veg begets veg. Cheese on top of the meat. Onions on top of the tomatoes, then pickles (either bread and butter or sliced kosher dills) on top of the cheese. Or am I getting the cheese and pickles mixed up? At any rate, put it all together and you have a perfect sandwich in my husband's universe. Needless to say, he's an architect. And he thinks I'm picky about the dishwasher. What are some of your quirky food habits?

Dear God. Those are one of the best muffins in town. I just had one this morning... well, half to be exact as they are enormous. And they're also purveyors of the best gelato in town: Mondo Gelato. Double yummy.

Three Christmases ago we did "Soup in a Jar" and "Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Jar". We used some fairly fancy storage canisters that we found as a great deal on a quantity buy, printed up the instructions together with our holiday wishes on some textured paper, tied the tag on with raffia and voila. Both received rave reviews. And I recently received "Brownies in a Jar" as a hostess gift... soon to be used, no doubt.

The white gelato is ginger, and the tan gelato is pumpkin... my favourite. Take a deep breath and repeat after me. My name is ________ and I am a gingerbread addict...

Foodie, you and Neil hit the nail right on the head. Oh, what a night! A room full of “strangers” who parted as friends… well-fed and well-watered friends at that. Stealing a snog from Bourdain… well, two on a dare, but who’s counting. Watching everyone melt at their first taste of warm gingerbread bliss and knowing that you're all just as hooked as I am now. Pouring white wine on another woman’s breast… but, hey, I did manage to get those red-wine stains out of peppyre’s shirt. And copious quantities of water went a long way on the morning after the night before. As far as my kiss from Bourdain, it was phoodfan's SO who put me up to that. Foodie, Mrs. Daddy-A, butter and her SO quickly jumped on the "I dare you to do it" bandwagon. And Ian, well, he just wouldn't have expected anything less. It'll make a great story for the grandkids... mind you, only if they end up being foodies too. Now, if I could only get a picture of that. Surely someone was snapping away... Neil, Brian, Arne and Jamie: outstanding. Truly outstanding. Thank you from the bottom of my food-and-wine-loving heart. You’ve certainly set quite a high standard for future Vancouver e-Gullet events to come. (I was going to say "raised the bar" but that would just imply even more drinking... not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.) My fellow e-Gulleters: what a treat it was to put faces to nicknames at last. You all made my night (Ian's too), and I can't wait until our next get-together to chat with those of you that I missed on Friday. See you at the cookie exchange! Joie

Kalamansi is, to me, more delicately flavoured than a lime. Almost a cross between a lime and a lemon IMHO. Reading this thread makes my mouth water for fruits from my childhood in the Philippines, especially santol. Santol photo Nothing compares to it's taste: first sour, then sweet. Even after scouring our numerous Asian supermarkets and green grocers, I haven't come across it yet here in Vancouver. Sigh... there's no taste like home!

Late to jump on the bookwagon, I know, but I've been fairly cowed by the prospect of adding my meager 42-book total to a list that includes 1,000+ book collections. Mind you, that's 42 and counting...

Arne, you're getting your Asians mixed up again...

Horrendously bad idea Keith. As Neil said, there is no small food or nothing even remotely approximating small food at HSG. And to hell with fighting over that last short rib. Pity the person who stands in the way of my last morsel of warm gingerbread pudding... it'd get ugly awfully fast. Chef Wyles is well aware of where I'm coming from.

I damn near fell outta my chair when I read this!! It's comforting to know that there are anal-retentive dishwasher Nazis that are just as vigilant as I am!! ...and I'm still busting a gut laughing! Edited because excessive laughter gets in the way of proper spelling.

Aye to that Sam. I thought I was the only one in the eGullet universe who knew about Panne from Heaven. As an added bonus, they use Salt Spring Roasting as their in-house coffee and espresso. And their desserts are to die for.

I second that motion. All those in favour...

Now here's the saddest of sad. To satisfy my starch, grease and salt cravings all at once, here's what I had for dinner last night: fried Spam with ketchup and cold white rice. At 10:00 p.m. to boot. *ducks and hides her head in shame* Of course, to even out the equation as I'm typing, I'm eating some horrid storebought cookies that my son got for Halloween and washing them down with San Pellegrino Aranciata to fulfill the sugar deficit. God help me... Edited because I forgot the sugary tomatoey goodness that is Heinz!

I was just thinking the same thing myself. They look an awful lot like kalamansi (or calamansi, if you prefer), the taste of which is a bit of a delicate cross between lime and lemon. If they are, then juicing them is definitely worth the effort.

Chalk up my vote for day-old rice. Fresh rice has too much moisture in it, whereas day-old helps give fried rice a crispy, more granular texture. Carlovski, you hit the nail right on the head. You don't need to use too much sesame oil, just a few drops or the taste will be too overpowering, but it sure helps replicate that restaurant taste. I've tried using Maggi, but definitely prefer the taste of my fried rice with dark soy sauce instead.

Chalk it up to my demented Asian tastebuds, but I actually think that chocolate covered potato chips taste great! On a romantic getaway weekend a few years ago, we stumbled across a hand-dipped version of these in a small-town sweet shop. They were half white chocolate, half dark. Rippled chips, of course, with a much thicker chocolate coating than the ones shown in your attached link. I guess we decided to try them because of our morbid fascination with weird taste combinations; surprisingly enough, they were delicious! It probably has to do with that whole Asian desire for the sweet/salty taste dichotomy... mind you, my husband is caucasian and he liked them too. On the other hand, I think chocolate covered pretzels are revolting. The chunks of salt are too big and overpower the chocolate taste. At a local health food store, they've also been selling pretzels coated in either strawberry yogurt or peanut butter. Blecch to the nth degree.

Hope you remember to shave your legs. ← ...and back! ← ...and, if you're not going all out and shaving your armpits, at least braid them.

Now here's a question. I've noticed that most of the posts on this thread, mine included, talk about sandwiches on cheap white bread (of the Wonder Bread ilk) as one of our guilty pleasures. Is that due to the shame associated with eating it... never, ever letting anyone else know that the alter ego to our multigrain/whole wheat/rye/pumpernickel eating self has indulged in so lowly a loaf? Hmmm...

Yeah! Fluorescent Jello, cut up in squares and topped with that dollop of "whipped cream" that you could remove in one piece with your fingers. Ah, those were the days. Now, if there were only a "vomit" emoticon... Edited for crimes of grammatical impropriety

The Dragon Inn, The Rickshaw ... kinda like "Bigh Night" for Chinese. I feel somehow cheated ← Now, imagine my shame as an Asian to know that I dined at both of these establishments. I'm somewhat consoled by the fact that this was long in my past when, as a child, I had no say in the outrageously bad food choices of others. Remember how special smorgasbord night was?!

Umm, fried Bologna! I was just reminiscing with a friend about fried bologna the other day. I used to love how it puffed up in the middle and the flat part got browned bits...of course, I'm talking oscar mayer here. And taking that little red ring of plastic off was like a treat. ← That makes me think of the good ole' fried Spam sandwich on toast. With ketchup, of course. Now there's a taste from my own childhood. Except I was too impatient to make a full-fledged sandwich. I just dipped pieces of buttered white bread straight into a pool of condensed milk. Yummers.

A rice cracker store? I'd be in heaven as would my husband and 3-year-old son, both of whom I've managed to turn into senbei junkies. Having been raised on fairly standard North American snack food, my husband had never tasted Asian snacks until he met me... and now he's making up for lost time! The name of our current favourite escapes me just now, and I can't run to the cupboard and check since we made short work of the two bags I bought recently. Time for another rice cracker run!

Ooooh, sugar bread! Nostalgia... takes me right back to the Wonder Bread days before I converted my Mom to the joys of whole wheat, multigrain and light rye. We used to do the same thing except open faced in order to get a direct hit of sugar. Can also be served on white toast, except that the thick schmear of butter melts and it doesn't taste quite as good. Great. Now I wanna go and make me some. Does this mean I have to hit an all-night grocery store for some white bread? My other secret sammich? Buttered bread, plain cream cheese and jam. Any kind of jam will do, but strawberry and blackcurrant are the faves. Oh yeah. And mayonnaise sandwiches on white bread when I was a kid.