Food meme- fun!

Ooooh... a fun food meme! It's about time... :)

What were you cooking/baking 10 years ago?
Not very much. Maybe weekly spaghetti marinara for Sam on those days when I didn't have classes in college. I don't think I really started cooking or experimenting with food until we came here.

What were you cooking/baking one year ago?
Buttermilk biscuits with goat cheese and chives

Five snacks you enjoy:
1) Rice crispy treats (for some reason, I really like the ones at Starbuck's)
2) Graham crackers with raspberry cream cheese
3) Anything with dark chocolate or Nutella
4) "Love letters" during Chinese New Year
5) Does coffee count as a snack?

Five recipes you know by heart:
1) Roast chicken
2) Spicy mac & cheese
3) Roasted sweet potato soup
4) Beef noodle soup
5) Char siew (Chinese roast pork)

Five culinary luxuries you would indulge in if you were a millionaire:
1) Organic foods only
2) A large kitchen with ample storage and counter space
3) The full range of Le Creuset cookware
4) To be able to fly to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo whenever I want uber-fresh sashimi
5) Someone to do the dishes and clean the kitchen so Jude and I won't have to

Five dishes you love to cook/bake:
1) Any pasta dish
2) Slow-roasted pork shoulder
3) Chocolate lava cakes
4) Anything that reminds us of home
5) Chocolate truffles (this doesn't involve cooking- does it count?)

Five dishes you cannot/will not eat:
1) Celery
2) Bugs
3) Uni (sea-urchin)
[You can tell how much I love food when I can't think of more than 3 things I won't eat...]

Five favorite culinary toys:
1) Immersion blender (I use this to make all those pureed soups for winter)
2) Microplane grater/zester (for grating everything from cheese to nutmeg)
3) The Bialetti stove-top cappuccino machine Jude got me for Christmas
4) My set of 6-oz. ramekins
5) My oven-safe Calphalon pan

Five dishes for your "last meal" menu:
1) Any soup my mom makes
2) My mom's curry chicken
3) My late grandma's salt-baked chicken
4) Sashimi from Tsukiji Fish Market
5) A plate of ultra creamy handmade buffalo mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes, generous slices of Ibérico ham, shavings of good Parmesan Reggiano, and gulgs of extremely good cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil from some obscure little village in Italy. Served with warm, crusty freshly homemade bread.

Five happy food memories:
1) The first "meal" Jude and I had together- a very proper and civilized English "tea" of scones and cakes. We talked about Good Friday, chocolate bunnies and repentance. You know, fun stuff... :)
2) Every time I'm home and my sister and I cook together
3) The first time I bit into a freshly baked bagel from St-Viateur in Montreal. No bagel experience has come close since. Because no bagel has sesame seeds still barely popping as I put it in my mouth.
4) Buying the yummiest fish & chips from the Colourpatch Cafe in Augusta, Western Australia- the last eating establishment before the South Pole. We then drove to Cape Leeuwin, the exact point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean, and ate the fish & chips in the car because it was pouring outside. That always makes me smile :)
5) The potluck housewarming party we had here in 2004 when almost every single one of our friends here in Ann Arbor turned up at various points of the night. Everyone had a great time, even if cramming 35- 40 people into our tiny apartment was a potential fire hazard.

On a related note, Jude and I are off to Chicago for winter break tomorrow, and of all the fortuitous things that could happen to us, it's Chicago Restaurant Week! A whole slew of great Chicago restaurants are offering a special 3-course prixe fixe meals for both lunch and dinner and we've already made reservations at two :) Dinner tomorrow's at one sixtyblue, apparently a really nice little place to go to for modern French food just outside of Chicago's downtown, and lunch on Thursday is Brazilian churrascaria at Fogo de Chão. Apart from the great reviews I've heard about the restaurant, this meal is going to be particularly special coz we're meeting up with an old friend of mine from secondary school, Diane, who moved to Canada when we graduated. The last time I saw her was at the airport in 1992 when I saw her off, so it's been 15 years and I really can't wait to see her again! :)