Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Top Ten Foods (ascending)

10. Fresh baked bread with butter and honey. Come on. Who doesn't?

9. Chilis/Soups/Stews/Chowders. I know it's a broad category, but I can't choose Texas chili over a seafood chowder over my Irish stew recipe. Our last trip to Italy I concentrated on soups. Had a couple different versions of Tuscan bean soup that were out of this world. If anyone has a great recipe for one I'd love to try it.

8. Pancakes. I like waffles and crepes too, but pancakes are king. Lots of butter and no syrup. I remember when I was young, restaurants would have "Silver Dollar (sized) Pancakes" on the kid's menu, heck, maybe they still do. I could eat a hundred of them that size. Still can.

7. Legumes. (Except lima beans and English peas) I'm from the South so we distinguish between limas and butterbeans. I LOVE butterbeans. Limas? Not at all. Give me some snap beans, snow peas, green beans, pole beans, black-eyed peas, black beans, lentils, garbanzos and I'm in heaven! Don't like English peas. Probably because I went through a phase quite young in life where I wouldn't eat any of my veggies and due to their frequency on the table, English peas must have been my parent's favorite. Still to this day will pick them out of fried rice when I see them, although I'll leave them in a pot pie or soup.

6. Oysters. My earliest memories of oysters are at MeMaw and PaPaw's house in Panama City on Thanksgiving with all the men sitting outside around a bushel of oysters cracking them open and putting them on a saltine. I love them raw, steamed, fried or grilled. Partial to eating them with a saltine, cocktail sauce and extra horseradish. Nothing like Sunday afternoon oysters with my sweetie!

5. Roasted Red Peppers in Olive Oil with Garlic. I got addicted to this through Bob K., the owner of Scafidi's in Crawfordville, Florida. (miss that place). My wife has perfected roasting peppers and we've learned to eat them on just about anything, but you can't beat fresh bread and a bowl of peppers & garlic in oil for an appetizer.

4. Fried Fish. Bass or bream or trout or catfish or mullet or grouper or snapper and on and on. It's so easy to mess this one up. That's why when you find it just right it's to die for. My Uncle Dewey makes the best fried fish. Don't try telling me no lies otherwise.

3. Dal Makhani. Arguably this could be under #9 or #7 and it's also the only real "recipe" on the list. That's how much of a favorite dish it is. Googlit if you don't know what it is. I've tried to make it, but never to my satisfaction. Luckily, there are a couple Indian restaurants in Tallahassee that do a pretty good job. Best I've ever had is in New Delhi at a place within walking distance of the Claridges Hotel. Wish I could remember the name of it. This is a great introduction to Indian food if you think you might like to start trying it!

Edit 10/28/2012--  I've since made multiple trips to Khyber Restaurant in Bombay (the location opposite Jehangir Art Gallery). Their Dal Makhani wins the Best Award.

2. Pizza. Italian style. The crust shouldn't weigh as much as your head. The cheese should accentuate, not smother. Any other ingredients should be chosen to blend with the crust, sauce and cheese rather than play the dominant flavor. Fresh garlic, fresh basil and some thin strips of #5...Yum!

1. Hamburger. A perfect hamburger is truly sublime. The beef. The grilled beef. The grilled, juicy beef. And the bun. Lightly buttered and toasted. Mayo to brown spicy mustard 2:1. Crisp lettuce, a homegrown slice of tomato and chopped red onion. Then a slice of cheddar cheese melted over two strips of bacon* and married to the beef. There are all sorts of spices that can be added to the beef or maybe you're a Worcestershire sauce kind of patty maker. Tip: Knowing what I know about the industry, don't ever order a burger any less cooked than medium unless the cook knows who ground the beef. I prefer mine medium rare, but the risks are too much with industrial ground beef and a chain restaurant line cook being in charge. So, get your meat guy to do it or grind it yourself. (let that sentence settle....) Tip: When forming your patties make a dimple in the middle of each side. This way when the burger expands it doesn't bulge in the middle, rather, comes out an even thickness. This tip also prevents you from having to push down on the burger to maintain uniform size. Pushing down=No-No.

Missing from the list?

*Bacon. American smoked bacon. No other kind. It IS one of my favorite foods and I can eat it by itself, but it goes so well with so many other foods, (See #1. #7 fried in bacon grease with bacon pieces. With #8, duh. Crumbled on cream/milk based #9s), that I couldn't bring myself to have it stand alone on the list.

BBQ, "Mexican Food" and "Sushi/Sashimi". Maybe I should have taken the easy road like I did with soups, etc. and included these but it wouldn't feel right. With BBQ there are so many types, styles, methods, rubs, sauces, cuts, regions....and I can't pick one over the other. Again, Tex-Mex, border Mex, "authentic" Mexican. I lived on the border of Mexico for nearly three years. I've had lots of types and love them all but they're all very different and I hate to pick a crispy taco with ground beef and lettuce over a soft tortilla taco with carnitas and white cheese, so I won't. Same with sushi & sashimi. You have nigiri, maki, aburi and seafood, shellfish and roe, and raw and cooked and...you get the picture. I think I'm just more passionate about these three genres than I am soups, etc. so I can't allow them to go on the list as catch-alls, but the sum of all soups, etc. outweighs any single item from these three. (Or do they? I guess I can edit this any time...)



I've been fortunate to travel all around the world and dine with many wonderful people as they share their cuisine. And I still do. It's funny to look at this list and see the comfort foods in my life yet think about the amazingly intense dinners I've had and whether there can be ten things that top a list. Khati rolls at the Khan Market in Delhi. Carbonara at the restaurant of the same name in Roma. So many places in New Orleans so many times. But I'd throw all of them away if you told me I could never cook for myself again. That's the most important thing when it comes to food. Enjoy, learn and pass it on in your kitchen. --pd

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