food food and more food

Since I am tired of trying to figure out the budget, and I can’t think of anything work-related that’s not even worse, and I’m pretty much here by myself so am having to answer phones and talk to everyone who comes in, rendering me unable to concentrate on anything anyhow – why, here’s a food survey! I swiped this from someone, somewhere. As it appears to be seven pages long I’ll probably be editing the questions a tad.

1. What’s the last thing you ate?
A pack of Fig Newtons. Then I ate another pack. Now I’m eyeing the rest of the box. I should REALLY not buy those prepackaged ones and keep them in my desk drawer. But I’m hungry and I didn’t really bring anything much for lunch, which was really stupid considering I planned to work through lunch and leave early so I can get on the road.

2. What’s your favourite cheese?
I like just about any cheese imaginable. I especially like provolone and havarti and brie.

3. What’s your favourite fish?
I like fish that’s not real fishy. I used to think I hated fish, but have discovered that I do like things like salmon. And non-fishy fish. I don’t like it fried, either. I like broiled, non-fishy fish.

4. What’s your favourite fruit?
Oh, I love pretty much all fruits – except honeydew and cantaloupe, which weirdly enough just disgust me. I especially like mangos and blueberries, if I have to pick favorites.

5. When, if ever, did you start liking olives?
I don’t really remember when, but I don’t really recall ever eating olives until I was at least in college. I don’t think that’s something we kept around the house, or if it was, Picky Eater Child didn’t think she liked them. Now I LOVE olives. Black or green.

6. When, if ever, did you start liking beer?
I don’t ever remember not liking beer, although of course I was 16 or 17 before I really did more than taste my parents. In college I thought all beer tasted pretty much the same. That’s probably because we just bought cheap American beer that DOES all taste the same. Now my beer taste has matured and I think cheap American beer is the height of nasty. Now I like Guinness and Siera Porter and pretty much anything dark and, of course, expensive. My latest favorite is Shakespeare Ale, which Rogue makes. It appears to only come in the great big bottles and nobody around here has it, which is probably just as well. I can get it in Asheville, though, and intend to tonight or tomorrow.

7. When, if ever, did you start liking shellfish?
WELL, when I was growing up and my mother was involved in the Weird Religion, shellfish was forbidden. But, I was four when she started going and I could remember eating shrimp. I missed shrimp for years, and when I started eating it again in college it tasted exactly the way I remembered it tasting. Joy! That’s still one of my favorite foods of all time.

8. What was the best thing your mum/dad/guardian used to make?
My mother was a very good cook, although a lot of what she cooked she made the way my father liked it, so we always had mushy overcooked veggies and a lot of meat. I think my favorite thing she made was spaghetti with homemade sauce. It was WONDERFUL.

9. What’s the native specialty of your hometown?
Well, I grew up in the Land of Southern Cooking, so it would probably be that whole classification of food. Overcooked veggies, collard greens, fried everything. Lots of grease. ICK. I didn’t like it then, and can’t stand it now.

10. What’s your comfort food?
Anything chocolate. And ice cream.

11. What’s your favourite type of chocolate?
I especially like dark chocolate.

12. How do you take your coffee?
Black, black, black. When I first started drinking coffee, in college, I drank it with about a pound of Coffeemate in each cup. Then I discovered the delights of half and half, and drank it with that for years and years. Then for some reason I started drinking it black – I’ve always actually liked it black, then realized one day that it’s a whole lot less trouble to drink black, calories aside. Now I rarely put anything in it. My parents always have half and half so I sometimes use it when I’m there, but by now I actually prefer it black.

Well, unless we’re talking Starbucks. Then it’s a mocha latte with skim milk. And sometimes a shot of peppermint.

13. How do you take your tea?
I’m assuming hot tea? I don’t put anything in it. I rarely have hot tea, though. Iced tea (known here in The South as “ICE tea”) I usually drink unsweetened. Which, in the South, is pretty much sheer blasphemy.

18. What’s your favourite mug?
I think it must be one I got from Harris Teeter years ago, during one of their promotion things where you can get a certain piece of dinnerwear or whatever every week for really cheap. It has that stoneware look, and is green, and I like the shape which I am not finding the words to describe. Kind of a V shape, instead of the traditional mug shape. I actually have two. Those are the ones I usually use. I also have several old Far Side mugs I’m really attached to, but seldom use – one is a bunch of people in Hell, and one is saying, “I hate this place!” The other one has a guy standing there with a gun in his hand and a couple of visitors sprawled in the floor, and his wife is saying, “From now on, it’s decaf for you, Carl!”

19. What’s your ideal breakfast?
Oddly enough, I think it’s oatmeal. I LOVE oatmeal. I eat it nearly every day – I have one good eating habit, at least!! Oatmeal with a few dried cranberries or apricots or raisins. My favorite breakfast used to be cold pizza, and I still like that but rarely find myself having it.

20. What’s your ideal sandwich?
Hmmmm. I’m not a big sandwich person. I think more because they’re too much trouble to make than anything else. I like peanut butter, honey and dried cranberries. I also like turkey and cheese. And grilled cheese. Oh, Baker B and I had a fantastic sandwich from Starbucks a few weeks ago – it was turkey, cheese, and some sort of cranberry sauce on thick bread, and it was grilled. It was WONDERFUL.

You’re probably getting the idea that I like cranberries. You’d be right.

21. What’s your ideal pizza?
I think my all-time favorite pizza ever is one that comes from The Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company. The one with sundried tomatoes, feta cheese, and mushrooms on it. Oddly everyone in my family likes this strange exotic pizza, and if we order pizza in Asheville, that’s the one everyone wants. I also like artichokes on my pizzas, and black olives. Not a big fan of meats.

22. What food do you always like to have in the fridge?
Beer. And peanut butter. And seltzer water to mix with..cranberry juice. I don’t even mean the sweet kind – I mean the unsweetened kind that’s JUST cranberry juice. It’s a lot like drinking lemon juice. Or Pom, which is pretty sweet and needs to be cut with seltzer water.

Okay, I do realize beer and seltzer water and cranberry juice and Pom aren’t technically food. That’s what’s ALWAYS there, though. And peanut butter. The kind that’s just peanuts, not the icky sugary kind.

23. What food do you always like to have in the freezer?
Ice. Okay, okay, not a food. I like having frozen vegetables in there, in case I get the wild and unlikely urge to actually cook a meal.

24. What food do you always like to have in the cupboard?
Oatmeal, noodles for pouring Classico sauce on, and 10 minute brown rice. Which Baker B mostly eats but I like it too on occasion.

25. Where do you buy most of your food?
Harris Teeter, which despite sounding like it ought to be a hardware store is actually a grocery chain. Or Earth Fare, the expensive and fun “health food” place. That’s got lots of exotic and pricy fare.

26. What meats have you eaten besides cow, pig and poultry?
Venison, when I was a child and someone brought my parents some. I can’t remember what it tasted like, just that I was too horrified at eating Bambi to do more than taste it. Lamb, which my mother used to cook once in a great while. I don’t think I cared for it either – I remember it having a weird strong taste. I think that’s it. Someone was passing around alligator at a Cajun restaurant I was at during a trade show years ago, but I couldn’t bring myself to try it. I’ll try any veggie or fruit, but am real squeamish about weird meats.

27. What’s the thing you ate that you picked in the wild?
That’s worded strangely. We used to have raspberry bushes growing in the pasture behind my parents house, back in the good old days before it was developed. They were wonderful. And years ago we’d go to Craggy Gardens, a spot on the Parkway, where there are wild blueberries in the summer, and pick them. Also wonderful.

28. Arrange the following in order of preference: Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Sushi:
Thai
Chinese
Indian
Sushi
Italian
Mexican

I like them all, though. I NEVER have Thai or Indian unless I try to cook it myself. Them’s too foreign for these parts. We do have Chinese and Mexican restaurants on every corner, though.

29. Arrange the following in order of preference: Vodka, Whiskey, Brandy, Rum:

That’s probably it right there, although it kind of depends on what sort of drink you’re talking about.

30. What’s your fast food restaurant of choice, and what do you usually order? I’m not crazy about fast food, but I guess I’d have to say Wendys. Because I don’t really like anyone else’s fries, and what is the point of fast food without fries?? I very rarely go there, though.

31. What’s the next thing you’ll eat?
Probably another Fig Newton, the way things are looking. Oh, I have carrots in my lunchbag too. Maybe I’ll eat those first.

32. What’s your favourite drink?
Beer. And coffee. And seltzer with either cranberry juice or Pom. I also had a WONDERFUL seltzer with grapefruit juice from my friend Starbucks, but have been unable to recreate the right proportions.

52. What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?
Hmm. Chocolate. I love Starbucks Mudpie (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know- I might as well make a commercial for them) and they used to have a Carmel de Lehce that was one of the best things I ever had in my life, but I haven’t seen it in ages. I also love Ben and Jerry’s Mint Chocolate Chip, and Cherry Garcia.

34. What’s your favourite potato chip flavour?
Salt and Vinegar. Yeah, it’s weird, I know.

35. What food do you hate?
Liver, fried okra, any mushy over-cooked vegetable, canaloupe, honeydew, strange meats, over-ripe things.

Oh, that’s it – well, that’s it of what I didn’t cut out, anyhow. And what a great idea THAT was, doing a food survey on an empty stomach!

**Edited*** to say – pay no mind to that BIZARRO numbering system. I’d changed them all to be correct, then several things happened and somehow I lost the right numbers and I HAVE TO LEAVE NOW. And if there’s other weird things going on, that’s my excuse.