Assertively Unhip tagged me a week ago in the challenge to name five things to eat before you die. I only just today found the post! Here's my list, which is just unimaginative enough to contain three things that I myself make. Well, anyway:
1. Sourdough pancakes made with your own sourdough starter. I had a sourdough starter that I started myself for a couple of years, and we had these pancakes every Saturday morning. They were so good, we used to invite people over to eat them with us. With jam.
2. Super thin garlic frites. I have not eaten these in France, but I think almost everyone's fries suck, except these that I ate in San Francisco at a restaurant called Les Joulin's. I would seriously, almost, go to SF just to eat these fries. Perfectly salty, with fresh minced garlic and finely minced parsley.
3. Chile verde burritos, smothered, with cheese and onions. I don't care if this is authentic or what. I also don't care if I'm a vegetarian when I order and demolish this dish. This dish is heaven on earth, and if you order two with rice and beans (as opposed to the order of three) at La Frontera in SLC, you have a hefty lunch the next day.
4. Your own homemade chai. Use black tea, cardamom seeds, star anise, cloves, and black peppercorns. You can also throw in a cinnamon stick if you just want more spiciness. Let it steep as long as you want, since you're going to use hot milk, too. A teensy bit of sugar, too. I like to make this by the couplea quarts and drink it in the morning all winter long.
5. Bread pudding made with your own bread, plus dried blueberries, plus superfine grated lemon rind. Let me know if you need a recipe.
Now, I tag francesca eliot, my bgf since forever (since we were fifteen, if you can believe it), and a world-class cook and eater, whose gorgeous photoblog appears to be down at the moment.
I love to make chai!! I also add a few slices of ginger. And this time I added nutmeg. I'm always trying to replicate the sublime chai from the Beehive.
ReplyDeleteWhere is La Frontera? Must try.
Also, I want some of those fries. Must go to SF I guess, as if I needed another excuse!
I'm there. "It" takes it on. My five:
ReplyDelete1. An heirloom tomato--a thick slab of heirloom tomato, its fleshy heart speaking in tongues--picked from the farms of Sonoma, placed on top of a hunk of Italian roasted garlic bread, sprinkled with Portuguese sea salt, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, garnished with basil leaves.
2. Ripe blackberries picked on a hot August afternoon and eaten in the dusk with a loved one.
3. Gumbo so dense with prawns, scallops, chicken and sausage, so hot and garlicky, that I can almost see God after three bites.
4. An apricot tart with a puff pastry base, topped with a scoop of almond and brown sugar ice cream that has been rolled in toasted almonds. Said tart is drizzled with caramel sauce and accompanied by a glass of steaming spearmint tea sweetened with honey.
Be still my heart.
5. A hunk of my grandmother's bread, just pulled from the oven, slathered with sweet butter, drizzled with my grandfather's sage honey.
By the way, Lisa's sourdough pancakes rock. No lie, sweetheart, no lie.
Francesca Eliot's photos have been moved to a different venue. I'll send you the URL.
Oh, what fabulous lists. I think we should all revisit our lists every year and see what changes and what remains constant. I agree with you about the chai and the fries. And I want Francesca to fix me her apricot tart. Does she live in Salt Lake? Can she make dessert the next time I visit Lis?
ReplyDeleteof course I need the bread pudding recipe.
ReplyDeleteI want a food challenge.
ReplyDelete