I was excited when Jennifer told me about her new blog. I feel as if I’m constantly thinking about food and I love to talk about food with people. I have so many food memories and associations that stand out, I don’t think I can pick just one to share.
The most impressive meal I’ve had? Without question it would have to be my first meal at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills. I agreed to accompany a family friend to dinner at a sushi restaurant he had wanted to try. As we were looking at the menu our sushi chef, Yoshi, asked if we had been there before. As we hadn’t, Yoshi suggested that he pick several dishes for us to try (omakase). How lovely. I was totally unprepared for the dining experience I was about to have. I thought we’d be getting the usual sushi and sashimi. Instead we were presented with small plate after small plate of beautiful, fresh, and absolutely divine tasting food. Some dishes were hot, some warm, and some cold. We had a salad with warm squid, ceviche, rock shrimp, yellowtail jalapeno, miso marinated black cod. We never knew what were going to get next but it didn’t take long for us to realize that we would not be disappointed with whatever it was that Yoshi proudly placed in front of us. Yoshi explained each dish to us and appeared to derive great satisfaction from our positive response to the food he presented to us. I called my husband after the meal and excitedly told him about it. The next night I went back to the non-descript, almost sleepy, restaurant by myself so I could experience more of the great food they had to offer. Yoshi encouraged me to try even more new dishes rather than repeat dishes that I loved the most from the previous night. The whole experience was so unexpected and so unlike any I had had before. Truly the most impressive meal I’ve ever had. See the menu at http://www.nobumatsuhisa.com
Other food memories:
Strongest food/memory association from my childhood: The barbeque made David and Dit Zager, the late parents of my closest friend since childhood. David would put some pork ribs (short legged-beef, as he used to say), leg of lamb, and pork out on his Weber and smoke the meat for hours and hours. During this time Dit would have a pot of her home made Memphis style barbeque sauce simmering away on the stove. The pungent smell of vinegar greeted guests as they walked in the front door. I’d stand by the stove sniffing the air, salivating in anticipation of the meal to come. I’ve always preferred barbeque sandwiches to ribs simply because it is less work to eat! After the leg of lamb and pork was done, David would shred it, pulled-pork style, and I’d heap the pork or lamb on a bun, slather it in sauce, top it with cole slaw and dig in. When I was in college, Dit included some of the pulled lamb in a care package she sent down with a friend. When I moved away after college, the Zagers would always make some barbeque for me when I returned home for a visit. I always used to joke (okay, I wasn’t joking) with Dit, telling her that I wanted her to leave her secret recipe for the barbeque sauce to me in her will. Although she didn’t leave the recipe for me in her will, I have to say with much regret that I am now in possession of that recipe which Jill and Dana, Dit’s daughters, shared with me after Dit passed away. I make the sauce myself now, the smell of vinegar now filling the air of my home, but it isn’t quite the same.
Best food on the fly: After spending a semester in the Netherlands while I was in college, my older sister met me in Europe and we traveled around for about 3 weeks. We got some great chocolate in Belgium at Leonida’s (http://www.leonidas-chocolate.com) which we enjoyed on the train on the way to Italy. When we arrived in Florence we came upon a vendor selling amazing fruit right outside of the train station. We bought a bunch of fresh strawberries and sat on a bench in the sun eating the warm, ripe berries with chocolate we still had left from the trip. During the same trip, we spent some time in France. In Dijon we bought some mustard, baguettes, pate, cheese, olives, cured meats, wine, and a “Coke Diet” for me and had a picnic dinner on our hotel bed. So good!
So this is what Lent is like: I gave up sushi made with raw fish during my pregnancies. A nice raw piece of fish is one of my favorite things to eat, so this was not an easy thing for me to do. Before I had our first child I told my husband, Sam, that I fully expected him to be standing there ready to hand me my favorite roll from my favorite sushi place in town (spicy tuna roll wrapped in avocado and topped with masago) the minute I pushed that baby out and the cord was cut. Alas, the circumstances of the delivery made it virtually impossible for Sam to go across town to get the sushi for me. When I was expecting our twins, I told my friends that I did NOT want visitors in the hospital after I delivered them. However I was more than happy to make and exception for my friend Helene and her husband when they called at 9:30 pm two or three days after I had the babies to say they were out for sushi and had a ton of leftovers and would I be interested in having them come by the hospital with the leftovers.
Who knew Diet Coke could be so good: The first summer that I was dating Sam we went on a camping trip together in Algonquin Park, a provincial park in Ontario way north of Toronto. The trip was four days and three nights of canoeing, portaging, sleeping in a teeny-tiny tent, going potty in the woods, and bathing in the same lakes we used as our source for drinking water. The trip was challenging, not a whole lot of fun, a lot of work, incredibly peaceful, beautiful and, at the end, totally rewarding. After 4 long days of drinking warmish lake water and eating freeze- dried food, we completed the trip and went to the park’s café for a bite to eat and a cold drink. It was there that I had THE BEST Diet Coke of my life. It was cold, made even more so by the ice it cascaded over as it was poured. It fizzed and popped and tickled my nose. (Diet) Coke is it! Aaah.
The most impressive meal I’ve had? Without question it would have to be my first meal at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills. I agreed to accompany a family friend to dinner at a sushi restaurant he had wanted to try. As we were looking at the menu our sushi chef, Yoshi, asked if we had been there before. As we hadn’t, Yoshi suggested that he pick several dishes for us to try (omakase). How lovely. I was totally unprepared for the dining experience I was about to have. I thought we’d be getting the usual sushi and sashimi. Instead we were presented with small plate after small plate of beautiful, fresh, and absolutely divine tasting food. Some dishes were hot, some warm, and some cold. We had a salad with warm squid, ceviche, rock shrimp, yellowtail jalapeno, miso marinated black cod. We never knew what were going to get next but it didn’t take long for us to realize that we would not be disappointed with whatever it was that Yoshi proudly placed in front of us. Yoshi explained each dish to us and appeared to derive great satisfaction from our positive response to the food he presented to us. I called my husband after the meal and excitedly told him about it. The next night I went back to the non-descript, almost sleepy, restaurant by myself so I could experience more of the great food they had to offer. Yoshi encouraged me to try even more new dishes rather than repeat dishes that I loved the most from the previous night. The whole experience was so unexpected and so unlike any I had had before. Truly the most impressive meal I’ve ever had. See the menu at http://www.nobumatsuhisa.com
Other food memories:
Strongest food/memory association from my childhood: The barbeque made David and Dit Zager, the late parents of my closest friend since childhood. David would put some pork ribs (short legged-beef, as he used to say), leg of lamb, and pork out on his Weber and smoke the meat for hours and hours. During this time Dit would have a pot of her home made Memphis style barbeque sauce simmering away on the stove. The pungent smell of vinegar greeted guests as they walked in the front door. I’d stand by the stove sniffing the air, salivating in anticipation of the meal to come. I’ve always preferred barbeque sandwiches to ribs simply because it is less work to eat! After the leg of lamb and pork was done, David would shred it, pulled-pork style, and I’d heap the pork or lamb on a bun, slather it in sauce, top it with cole slaw and dig in. When I was in college, Dit included some of the pulled lamb in a care package she sent down with a friend. When I moved away after college, the Zagers would always make some barbeque for me when I returned home for a visit. I always used to joke (okay, I wasn’t joking) with Dit, telling her that I wanted her to leave her secret recipe for the barbeque sauce to me in her will. Although she didn’t leave the recipe for me in her will, I have to say with much regret that I am now in possession of that recipe which Jill and Dana, Dit’s daughters, shared with me after Dit passed away. I make the sauce myself now, the smell of vinegar now filling the air of my home, but it isn’t quite the same.
Best food on the fly: After spending a semester in the Netherlands while I was in college, my older sister met me in Europe and we traveled around for about 3 weeks. We got some great chocolate in Belgium at Leonida’s (http://www.leonidas-chocolate.com) which we enjoyed on the train on the way to Italy. When we arrived in Florence we came upon a vendor selling amazing fruit right outside of the train station. We bought a bunch of fresh strawberries and sat on a bench in the sun eating the warm, ripe berries with chocolate we still had left from the trip. During the same trip, we spent some time in France. In Dijon we bought some mustard, baguettes, pate, cheese, olives, cured meats, wine, and a “Coke Diet” for me and had a picnic dinner on our hotel bed. So good!
So this is what Lent is like: I gave up sushi made with raw fish during my pregnancies. A nice raw piece of fish is one of my favorite things to eat, so this was not an easy thing for me to do. Before I had our first child I told my husband, Sam, that I fully expected him to be standing there ready to hand me my favorite roll from my favorite sushi place in town (spicy tuna roll wrapped in avocado and topped with masago) the minute I pushed that baby out and the cord was cut. Alas, the circumstances of the delivery made it virtually impossible for Sam to go across town to get the sushi for me. When I was expecting our twins, I told my friends that I did NOT want visitors in the hospital after I delivered them. However I was more than happy to make and exception for my friend Helene and her husband when they called at 9:30 pm two or three days after I had the babies to say they were out for sushi and had a ton of leftovers and would I be interested in having them come by the hospital with the leftovers.
Who knew Diet Coke could be so good: The first summer that I was dating Sam we went on a camping trip together in Algonquin Park, a provincial park in Ontario way north of Toronto. The trip was four days and three nights of canoeing, portaging, sleeping in a teeny-tiny tent, going potty in the woods, and bathing in the same lakes we used as our source for drinking water. The trip was challenging, not a whole lot of fun, a lot of work, incredibly peaceful, beautiful and, at the end, totally rewarding. After 4 long days of drinking warmish lake water and eating freeze- dried food, we completed the trip and went to the park’s café for a bite to eat and a cold drink. It was there that I had THE BEST Diet Coke of my life. It was cold, made even more so by the ice it cascaded over as it was poured. It fizzed and popped and tickled my nose. (Diet) Coke is it! Aaah.
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