Screw the conventions of meme-related tagging: I was reading Burnt Lumpia this morning, and seeing the guy behind the blog help in perpetuating this meme activated my ‘Hey, me too!’ gland. That kinda sounds obscene. Anyway. If you want to do this too, hey, be my guest.
What were you cooking/baking ten years ago?
-- In college, I hardly ever cooked, let alone baked. I was so loserish that I couldn’t even do a decent sunny-side up. I only became an apostate of the ‘just add water’ culinary cult when Sandra and I started cooking together early this year.
What were you cooking/baking one year ago?
-- I sometimes brewed my own coffee. Yeeha.
Five snacks you enjoy:
-- Stinky cheese, especially Camembert.
-- Good onion rings; the ones they sell at Brother’s Burger is OK, but not great.
-- McDonald’s fries.
-- I really like Stik-O wafer sticks.
-- Fish balls, squid balls, kwek-kwek, and isaw at U.P.
Five recipes you know by heart:
-- My own version of ratatouille niçoise, a microadaptation of Sandra’s recipe.
-- Something moronically simple: cheese, tomato, and basil omelette.
-- Two variants of tomato-based pasta sauce—one bacon-intensive, the other tuna-heavy.
-- (Since I’m still trying to find my kitchen legs, I don’t really know too many recipes yet.)
Five culinary luxuries you would indulge in if you were a millionaire:
-- After reading Peter Kaminsky’s ‘Pig Perfect,’ I fantasized about having a house close to a Spanish dehesa and being sort of involved in raising pigs that will be turned into ibérico hams.
-- Less fantastic: unlimited supply of good bread, good cheese, and good butter. Rawr.
-- Twice-yearly eating trips abroad.
-- My own wine cellar!
-- A fully equipped kitchen.
Five foods you love to cook/bake:
-- (See ‘Five recipes you know by heart.’)
-- I love helping Sandra cook laksa.
Five foods you cannot/will not eat:
-- The only thing that comes to mind, or at least right now: deep-fried day-old chicks.
Five favorite culinary toys:
-- The Bodum French press Sandra gave me last Christmas.
-- I’m planning to get a good nonstick pan for my parents’ kitchen.
-- (I’m still a kitchen rookie, so I don’t have cool kitchen toys in my possession.)
Five dishes on your ‘last meal’ menu:
-- Sandra’s laksa.
-- Lamb chops, maybe vindaloo style.
-- Fresh lumpia.
-- Really good coffee; Gevalia Kaffe’s Arabica coffee from Popayán, Colombia, is wonderful.
-- Crème glacée from La Maison du Chocolat. I’m thinking of pouring hot coffee over the ice cream to make my own weird version of granita affogato. Then I could die.
Five happy food memories:
-- Cooking and eating tinapa-and-Guinness risotto with Sandra, June 2007. (Our anniversary! Yeh.)
-- Dinner at Le Pré Catelan, somewhere in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, Spring 2006. The perfectly grilled lamb chops; the pea-foam soup; the endless supply of pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and some champagne variant from Moët et Chandon. I miss eating there because it’s highly likely it won’t happen again.
-- Drinking Singha beer on the sidewalk, Rajdamri Road, Bangkok, January 2005. After ten in the evening food vendors set up chairs and tables to serve beer and whatevs to locals and tourists. I was with an ABS-CBN Bicol producer and a U.P. student, drinking and talking. We were drunk, and we were sort of bitching about not having seen an elephant up close in our weeklong stay in the city. Then a baby elephant walked by, its trunk brushing against my shoulder. We were stunned.
-- Dinner with Sandra at the long-gone Gene’s Bistro on Mother Ignacia Street, Quezon City, sometime in 2000. I had paella; she had some puttanesca-like pasta dish, with lots of capers.
-- The very first time I had Beach House pork barbecue, June 1995. I was a freshman, and I was with my block mates. Good times, those.
