Lilija

I love it! Any popcorn smells good, though.

The test is definitely silly. I'm a professional taster. I'm trained to pick out every nuance and flavor profile in something. Sometimes, I have to stop myself from tasting, and just eat stuff. Otherwise I find myself launching into work mode. Has nothing to do with the ambience of the resturaunt, or whether you talk to your friends while eating. In fact, when I go into "tasting mode" as my husband calls it, I smack my lips and chew loudly, to get air mixed in with the food on my palate, and start talking with my stream of conciousness. The up side to this is, I have become VERY good at recreating dishes I taste elsewhere, only having them once. I don't think I'm a "super taster", like somehow biologically or genetically more sensitive to flavors, though the test results say I am. I like most things, bitter, spicy, whatever. In fact, the more complex and bitter, the more I enjoy something. Gives me something to really taste. Maybe the test should be something like "food appreciator" as in, if you really take the time to taste everything seperately, you're really appreciating all the subtlety? I don't really know.

When I'm big cooking, like dinner or something, then I do, of course. Not so much when I make a quick omelet, or sandwich, though.

I love the bottom part, especially if it's a little dark, and crispy crunchy with cornmeal. There's a Polish bakery that make The Greatest Rye Bread In the Entire Universe, not too far from me, and I eat my way through a loaf of it, piece by piece, bottom of the crust first. As soon as I saw "bottom of the crust" I imagined this food of the gods. Despite the snow and freezing rain, I might have to trek out to Perth Amboy tomorrow. Damn you eGullet for giving me cravings.

A hot dish in my neighborhood generally involves something Italian American, and baked. Ziti, lasagna, manicotti, stuffed shells, something parm. It's not a get together, without one or more of these.

Flats, for all the aforementioned reasons!

I'm not a big fan of McD's but last year, after they changed the blends, I stopped in just to try it (I must be a sucker for good advertising, because I totally caved after passing that huge banner featuring a rich, steaming cup of coffee every day). It's damn good. More flavorful than DD, and most convenience store blends, complete with a drive-thru, and unlike DD, I'm not tempted to order anything but a huge cup of coffee, when I stop there. I'm not even going to mention Megabucks in the same breath. Overpriced garbage.

I don't have much to add, except that now I'm inspired to host an afternoon tea. It's not something I've ever considered before, but this thread caught my eye, and now I'm craving the experience. Thanks for all the great ideas, and inspiration!

Who does the cooking in your home? 'I cook about 95% of the actual sit down lunches and dinners, but when work or school runs late, hubby does a bang-up job getting something nourishing on the table. He cooks breakfasts, 7 days a week (even if it is a bagel, cream cheese, and juice for our son, on a weekday). Do you eat foods from take-out or restaurants or buy ready-made foods often? Lunches, I do, some days. My favorite lunch places are the local sushi joint, Baja Fresh, and a local deli. For dinner, not too often, maybe once a week, once every two weeks-ish. Pizza is a weekend treat once or twice a month, Chinese is an emergency meal, when the pantry is low maybe once every two months. We used to eat out 2-3 times a week, but in the interest of saving money, we cut it down to once every two weeks, about. Late shopping nights find us with a prepared salad and rotisserie chicken from Costco. Do you cook absolutely "from-scratch" using unprocessed ingredients often? I don't use many convience foods. I don't bake my own bread, make my own pasta, etc unless it's for some special meal. I stopped buying jarred sauce, but I can't give up on canned broths, I also love bagged salad, and mixed greens. I also always have an emergency supply of breaded frozen fish filets, Annie's mac & cheese, shredded cheese, canned curry paste, and canned soups on hand, for fast lunches and dinners. They're definitely the exception, not the rule. I abhor most canned veggies (except tomatoes, beans and creamed corn). I do have a few bags of frozen veggies laying around, especially in the winter, when our garden is dead. Are you single, married or living with other(s)? Married, with one 8 year old boy, and a "starving artist" housemate. Do you have children? see above What sort of work do you do? Part time student, part time "pre consumer test panelist" Meaning I'm a trained sniffer and taster for a huge flavor-fragrance company. I smell fragranced stuff, and eat flavored things (I get my processed food fix at work ), and answer batteries of questions about said things. We also own a landscaping business, and I do most of the bookwork/clerical for it. Do you feel you have enough time to cook the sorts of foods you like to eat? For the most part, yes. I make the time, in fact. Mealtimes are important to the family, and we value the food we put in our body as much as the time spent eating. Some days are hurried, but I try to plan ahead and have stuff ready to reheat in the freezer. Sometimes, I simply don't have time and we resort to soup, salad, and sandwiches. This is especially true in the summer. As a question for "extra credit" , is the form of your daily cooking/eating/dining different than it was in your family when you were growing up, and if so, how is it different? My mother dislikes food, hates cooking, and viewed it as a chore. We ate mushy spagetti, canned (not even jarred...) sauce, boiled potatoes, canned veggies, fried till dead porkchops, plain baked chicken parts, TV dinners, Hamburger Helper type meals and Domino's pizza just about every night. It was rough. I ate by myself in my bedroom most times, in front of the TV or a buried in a book. I taught myself how to cook when I was 12ish, and things got marginally better. So, yes, I would definitely say that things are different now. We eat at the table together for dinner, just about every night. We eat lunch together when we can, and weekend breakfasts are a big deal for us. I still hate eating alone.

Some of our fast-dinner quickies: Tuna, or leftover chicken salad, as open faced melts, or on a mixed greens salad depending on what's available. This is especially good with a chicken-corn chowder that I whip up from canned ingredients (canned creamed corn, cream of chick soup, coconut milk, frozen corn, ginger, chile paste, and either a handful of rice, a nuked cubed potato, or sweet potato...cream soups have their application sometimes...This isn't the exact recipe, but I can elaborate). I can get these on the table in under 20 minutes. Sub in a BLT, or scrambled egg sandwiches, with the soup, too. Also any of the above sandwiches with leftover portioned out soup from the freezer, I always have a stash of my stuffed cabbage soup (which is really a meal itself), tom yum, or cream of leek soup in the freezer. Sushi rice, from the rice cooker, some thawed frozen shrimp, seared or raw tuna, or a thin sliced raw, or smoked salmon filet, and some miso soup. Seasoning flakes, gari ginger, soy and wasabi. Sorta a ghetto quicky chirashi dinner. I freeze pints of homemade chili for this one; chili dogs, with bagged shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped onion, and really hot taco sauce, served with a fast bagged salad. Quesadillas: a can of fat free refried beans, heated in one pan with a bit of olive oil, cumin, garlic, and siriacha stirred in. Sauteed diced onions and peppers, with a double handful of frozen corn, a can of rinsed black beans, and if we have it laying around, some shredded leftover chicken. I sometimes stir more super hot taco sauce into this. Tortilla on a hot pan, spread half of it with a layer of refried beans, a handful of bagged shredded cheese, the veggie-chicken mix spread on top, a bit more cheese, fold, and brown both sides. A meal in itself, even better with a salad. Many many pasta dishes. The one we had tonight was some frozen gnocchi cooked then combined with a panful of sauteed broccoli rabe, with loads of garlic, black pepper, nutmeg, a splash of white wine, a LOT of parmesan, and a dose of chili flakes. This is good with some cooked Italian sausage sliced up in it, too. Whole wheat pasta, frozen meatballs, and that great 20 minute canned San Marzano tomato sauce that lots of people have recipes for. Garlic bread, salad mix.

I am a bread person! It's bread, so it's all good.

We live not too far from you We've patronized the Matawan Sultan's Wok, and I wish I could give it the same glowing review. The food from the one closer to us, is a gamble, unfortunately. But the service is AMAZING! We once pondered the idea that they might have woks in their hatchbacks. We live a little more than 10 minutes from the center of Matawan, where Sultan's is, and the food would arrive in 20 minutes, piping hot. (Unrelated, but we also eat at Jesse and David's sometimes...fantastic sandwiches, great food, but we're too far for delivery.) There are a lot of standard Chinese-American places, to pick from around here, though, and we found one that had more consistant food quality. Outside of that, there's pizza delivery places on every corner, and that's about it. Once, we had a local Indian place that promised free delivery...after eating there a buncha times, we called up and tried to get them to deliver, and the guy actually argued with us, over the directoions that we gave him to our house. We wound up going to pick up the 'delivery'. This area is REALLY devoid of any variety, for delivery. I would kill for some delivered Mexican, Vietnamese, or Thai.

Oh man, I can't even keep those little Babybels in the house, I eat them like potato chips. Last time, in a fit of PMS cravings, I bought a huge bag of them at Costco...they were gone in 2 days. I found myself standing in front of the fridge, peeling, eating, peeling, eating, till I felt ill, and had a huge handful of balled up red wax.

I have to participate, I couldn't stop reading this thread! Since my husband, unfortunately, suffers from random drug testing at his job, I am limited to partaking only when I vacation in Jamaica. We try to do that, at least twice a year, with a buncha friends. Always back to the same resort in Negril, our second home. I swear, they have bottles of sake, and bags of good Jamaican sticky ready when we hop off the plane. I must add to the pot brownies theme, and mention pot chocolate chip cookies. Somehow, they're even better than brownies. Something about melty chocolate, with that greenish herbal bitter edge...you really want to eat the whole batch. It's amazing. You eat one cookie, and feel fine and functional for two hours, so you eat another one. Then it creeps up slowly...and keeps creeping and creeping, till the whole world is tilted, and brighter than it should be. Till the waiters are all Jamaican FBI agents, and they're out to get you. Till all you can do is sit on the beach swing with your head buried in a pillow, praying the trees stop staring. Man, that was the best cookie, ever. Whoever said you keep getting more and more messed up, was so right, just when you think you're as far gone as you can be...you go a little further. As far as munchies? Since we're always in Jamaica, at a resort, we belly up to the "greasy shack" and literally order "one of everything" Omar or Fitzroy, whoever was working, would put down a line of red plastic baskets in front of us, and fill them first with slices of pizza, then a small pile of jerk chicken, then he would check to see if we were still upright, and dole out cheeseburgers, then quesadillas...some of us are gone, laying in the sand, or back to the room by then...some of us are waiting patiently for the second course (by waiting patiently, I mean talking animatedly about leprechauns, cats, the tile pattern on the counter, jellyfish, things, grapefruits, stuff, singing TV theme songs, starting sentences, losing stuff, maybe finishing sentences...you understand, I'm sure). Patties, nachos, hot dogs, and then pastries. There is always a huge pastry tray somewhere on the resort, and the few of our crew left standing, always hits that thing like locusts. Always with drinks in hand. Double Absolut and cranberry for me. Very soothing on a smoky throat. Those are our nightime forays, a longstanding tradition. We often get up in the morning, and start over again fresh. The best daytime munchies, in the tropical heat are anything icy and sweet, ice cream, slushies, daquiris, cold fruit.

I used to work at various deli counters, and out of boredom and an adventerous spirit, I've sampled at least a slice or two of every cheese available. I'm fond of Land O Lakes American. It's comforting, and for that genuine cheese feel, with a hint of sharpness and no plastic quality. I also like a nice soft provolone, Cabot slicing cheddar, and the cheddar with pepperoni, just to eat out of hand. The Alpine Lace swiss blows the socks off of any fancy ass gourmet swiss, to me. Probably because I'm not a big fan of swiss. So, yeah, I love me some grocery store cheese. My favorite way to eat it is plain, on a split grocery store hard roll, or torpedo roll. Just cheese on roll. Maybe with a glass of milk. Comfort food, at its simplest, for me.

Hm. Onion rings, mozzarella sticks, French fries, and chicken nuggets. I'm not big on deep frying, and frozen makes life way easier, and tastes ok. I've tried all these things from scratch, and frozen does it fine. Oh, and meatballs. Sometimes, I like storebought frozen meatballs.

We once had several cases of those creamers left from a catering event. Chef asked me how to best make use of the product. I suggested "Puree and strain" as opposed to using the labor to open the several thousand... ← THAT is clever! Gross...but clever!

I've done the baseball thing, myself, though with the little individual serving creamers...those things explode like nothing I've ever seen...

Homemade pumpkin ice cream. Hell, homemade pumpkin anything.

Never fear, you can still buy duty free in Jamaica. I was just there a couple of weeks ago. BTW on that same trip we "accidentally" managed to import some fantastic roasted chicken from Boston Bay. OOPS. Thank God, and thank you for the info. I figured you still could, somehow..some way. You buy the duty free in the airport, after your stuff is checked and they give you the anal probing at the security gate, so it's all legit. My condolences about the sammich...

I've seen the things using rice paper wrappers, on some menus, labeled as "fresh spring rolls" which took me by suprise... So, maybe it's a regional thing? I've seen the thing in the picture up there labeled as both a "fresh spring roll" and a "salad roll".

I'm not a snob, I swear... I've never eaten foie gras, and I don't really aspire to it...but when I was growing up, my mom would dump this stuff on everything even remotely tomatoey, without asking if I wanted any. This means, every pizza that ever sat on our table got covered with Kraft Parmesan, wholesale. I grew up thinking I *hated* parmesan, romano, and any of the aged cheeses. Only in my mid 20s did I give the real block stuff a chance, because my husband liked it and begged me to try it...and it wasn't foul. It acted like cheese. It melted, and enhanced certain flavors. I can now eat parmesan, asagio, romano, etc, shredded, and gently applied to certain foods. I really, genuinely, couldn't stand the canned stuff, hated the flavor, saltiness, granularity. If that's what parmesan cheese is, then I still hate parmesan cheese.

No duty free alchohol? Oh dear, I'm going to Jamaica in a few months... This makes me very unhappy. Generally I pack popcorn, nuts, cheese, grapes, and maybe some cured meats to snack on. I also always have a protein bar or two. But then, this is my standard bag of food, for any trip.

I'll trade you the silicone for a garlic press and cornish hen roasting racks ← Throw in a springform pan, and a sausage stuffer, and you got a deal.

Weston's...my husband waxes poetic about this place...I've never been there, but he gets all misty eyed about the fried veggie platter.